My Buick, My Love and I

My pal Ernie and I share a love for old promo records, so I was intrigued when he sent me a link to this specimen - "My Buick, My Love and I" by the illustrious team of Gisele MacKenzie and Gordon MacRae, dating from 1951.

It turns out that this song has a bit of a back history - and some more recent history as well.

I  also discovered in the course of doing this post that I actually had uploaded this song several years ago as a bonus to a MacKenzie album. But this post is far more complete and the transfer is much better.

Olds, Buick and Pontiac in Song

Songs promoting specific automobiles go back almost as far as the contraptions themselves. And they were contraptions in 1905 when Gus Edwards and Vincent P. Bryan came out with "In My Merry Oldsmobile." The song became popular and was used by the Olds people for many years as a theme song.

The 1905 Oldsmobile

Other songwriters recognized a good thing, so in 1909 Victor Smalley and Bernie Sidler decided to extol the virtues of the 10-year-old Buick marque with their song "I Love My Horse and Wagon, but Oh! You Buick Car." Then in 1922, there was a more romantic item called "Take Me on a Buick Honeymoon" by Art Hickman and Ben Black.

Neither of these Buick songs had the enduring appeal of "In My Merry Oldsmobile." It probably was the most famous automotive promotional song until Ronny and the Daytonas came out with "GTO" (usually called "Little GTO") in 1964. It was written in honor of the then new Pontiac GTO, the first of the so-called "muscle cars" of the 60s. Accounts differ about whether the song was the idea of the Pontiac promotional people or the musicians, but there is no doubt that Pontiac used it to hype the new GTO into a bit of a craze.

I am sure there have been many more auto-related songs - not to mention jingles - but let's turn to "My Buick, My Love and I."

'My Buick, My Love and I'

It's not clear where the idea of "My Buick, My Love and I" originated, although I suspect it was commissioned by Buick in 1951 from movie composer Frank Skinner and lyricist Jack Brooks. It first came out on both sides of an SRS-Capitol promotional release with one side by MacRae and MacKenzie, and the other by the Mellomen, a well-known studio quartet that featured Thurl Ravenscroft and Bill Lee. I haven't been able to discover what Buick did to promote the song at the time, save for a fellow recollecting that his college marching band had to play it at all their games because they had received a donation from Buick. That in itself does not seem like much of a marketing plan, so there must have been more to it.

Regardless, Skinner was fond of the piece and wanted to get it more exposure. He paid to have the promo record sent out to deejays, scaring up enough interest that Capitol decided to issue a commercial version of the MacRae-MacKenzie rendition, backing it with their duet on "A Lover's Waltz.

That's the story as related in a late 1951 Billboard article. And while it may be true, it is almost exactly the same tale that Capitol had put out a year earlier with regard to "Hoppy, Topper and Me," a Margaret Whiting record about cowboy star Hopalong Cassidy. It too was first issued as a promo and then a commercial disc. (The Hoppy song also has appeared on this blog.) In both cases, I suspect Capitol was just trying to attract some attention and press coverage.

What they were promoting - the toothy 1952 Buick

"Hoppy, Topper and My Buick" - err, "My Buick, My Love and I" was not a commercial success, as far as I can discern, and the critic at Billboard sneeringly advised deejays that "spins should be paid for at the regular commercial rate." But the song did later find some use as the theme of Milton Berle's Buick-Berle Show that appeared on American TV from 1953-56.

It's not a bad tune in the old-timey style popular in the early 50s, although it was clearly inspired by "In My Merry Oldsmobile." In recent years the song has had a surprising revival. I was amazed to find that it has been recorded by comic-turned-crooner Seth MacFarland and Nashville legend Reba McIntyre. I do not know what sparked their interest.

The download includes the versions by the MacKenzie-MacRae duo and the Mellomen, along with the Macs' recording of "A Lover's Waltz," which Capitol had previously issued backed by the unpromisingly titled "On Rosary Hill" (not included). As far as I can tell, these are the only records Mac and Mac made together.

By the way, if you want to check some automotive promo items on my other site, there is a post devoted to a 1970 album by The Going Thing, a Ford-sponsored group, and one to the dealer introduction show for the ill-fated Edsel, not one of Ford's better ideas.

More from Ray McKinley

My other blog recently posted an extensive selection of the recordings that drummer-singer-bandleader Ray McKinley made for RCA Victor from 1947-50. Now frequent contributor Bryan Cooper has come up with four more McKinley sides to add to the pile, along with some repeats that come from cleaner copies of the 78s.

All four of the new songs are vocals, split between McKinley and Artie Malvin. Ray does the singing on "What Did I Do?" and his own "Bahama Mama." Artie - identified as "Arthur" on one label - handles "All the Way from San Jose" and "The Morning Glory Road."

Artie Malvin

Malvin had been in Glenn Miller's Army Air Force band with McKinley. He later sang with other orchestras, made a large number of budget-label cover records, and worked as a composer and arranger, winning Emmys and a Tony nomination. He does well by the "San Jose" and "Morning Glory" songs, which were new at the time.

"What Did I Do?" was  taken up by many artists after being introduced by Betty Grable in When My Baby Smiles at Me. I posted Margaret Whiting's version on my other blog some years ago.

The best piece here may be McKinley's "Bahama Mama," which he sells effectively while backed by a Kenton-tinged arrangement of uncertain parentage.

The four repeats of my earlier post are "Put 'Em in a Box, Tie 'Em with a Ribbon," "You Can't Run Away from Love," "The Third Man Theme" and "I Don't Want to Be Kissed."

Thanks again to Bryan for his ongoing, very welcome contributions!

1948 Billboard ad

Mary Healy Sings "Star Dust"

Mary Healy

My friend Bryan Cooper has come up with another rare gem for us - the soundtrack recording of Mary Healy singing "Star Dust," from the 1940 film of the same name. This makes a wonderful addendum to his previous contribution of the commercial recordings that Healy made from 1938-40 together with soundtrack recordings from Second Fiddle. You can find those records on my other blog.

Healy played a singer in Star Dust, which starred John Payne and Linda Darnell. The title song is her big number in the film, and Bryan has transferred it from a studio disc. The sound is excellent.

The song "Star Dust" dates from 1927. Composer Hoagy Carmichael wrote it and recorded it as an instrumental. Mitchell Parish added words in 1929, but Wikipedia tells us the song didn't really become popular until a few years later via a ballad instrumental from bandleader Isham Jones. I've included both the original Carmichael record and the Isham Jones version as bonuses in the download.

For those who worry about such things, the song was originally called "Star Dust" but Carmichael's Gennett record labelled it "Stardust" and over time the compound name has become the more frequently used. I am calling it "Star Dust" here because the film's name is Star Dust, and because the sheet music, Carmichael and Jones spelled it that way.

The Carmichael record comes from YouTube and the 78prof. The sound is OK, but the combination of a low-bit rate and noise reduction has led to some digital hash in the sonic background. The Jones disc was remastered from a lossless needle drop on Internal Archive.

Thanks again to Bryan for his continuing contributions!

A Rare Jeri Sullivan Single

Last year I devoted two long posts on my main blog to Jeri Sullivan, a talented singer who never achieved the fame her skills may have deserved.

At that time, I wrote that among her recorded output were four songs on the Signature label. Two were included in my post - "Dream House" and "Cowboy Jamboree." I didn't have the other two - "You've Been So Good To Me, Daddy" and "Baby Won't You Please Come Home."

Now my friend Bryan Cooper, a vocal savant and fellow Sullivan enthusiast, has unearthed a transfer of that coupling, which I am happy to present today. These new songs are just as good as the others I presented earlier, with Sullivan in excellent voice.

Backing her on these numbers are the Les Baxter Quartet and Johnny White's Orchestra. I speculated in the earlier article that the quartet was actually Mel Torme's Meltones, who included Baxter and were appearing with the White orchestra at about the same time.

Although the Signature records came out in 1948, that company purchased the masters from a defunct company called United Artists. I suspect that the recordings date from about 1944, when Sullivan had a radio program called "Jeri Sullivan's Dream House." The program's theme song was among the Signature items I posted last year. (The August 1944 Radio Mirror cover above publicizes the "Dream House" radio show.)

By the way, I was wrong in stating that Signature only released four songs by Sullivan. Bryan has come up with evidence of four more sides that don't appear in the online Signature discography. They are "Love Ain't No Good" and "Regular Man" on Signature 15246, and "I Wish I Had a Penny" and "I Hadn't Anyone Till You" on Signature 15251. If anyone has a line on these records, Bryan and I would be grateful for any information you might send along!

Two Warlock Carols, Plus More from the English Singers

Several years ago I presented a few carols as performed by the pioneering English Singers, including "Corpus Christi" by the remarkable English composer Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine).

Today we have another version of "Corpus Christi," performed by the BBC Chorus, along with a second Warlock song, "A Cornish Christmas Carol."

At the same time, I've done a new transfer of the English Singers' 78. The coupling for "Corpus Christi" is a setting of "The Holly and the Ivy" by Rutland Boughton. Also there are three new seasonal songs from the English Singers, also dating from the late 1920s:

• "In Dulci Jubilo" in a setting by R.L. Pearsall
• William Byrd's "O Christ Who Art the Light"
• "The Wassail Song" in the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement

Leslie Woodgate

See my 2013 English Singers post for more on this important group.

The BBC Chorus recordings, which come from 1936, are conducted by BBC choral director Leslie Woodgate. The soloists in "Corpus Christi" are contralto Ann Wood and the young tenor Peter Pears, making what may be his first recording.

"A Cornish Christmas Carol" is a setting of a text is by Henry Jenner in a translation by Trelawny Dayrell Reed. Warlock makes use of "Nowell, Nowell" in his setting.

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More Vaughan Williams Vocal Works in Historic Performances

This is a companion post to the recent item on my other blog presenting songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams in historic performances - "On Wenlock Edge" with Steuart Wilson and "Linden Lea" and "Silent Noon" with John McCormack.

Today we have three more leading English singers in notable Vaughan Williams performances - Astra Desmond, Roy Henderson and Heddle Nash. Also included is the first recording of the composer's "Serenade to Music," as led by its dedicatee, Sir Henry Wood, and sung by 16 famous artists of the era, including Desmond, Henderson and Nash.

The earliest solo work on the program is Desmond's performance of "Linden Lea," dating from 1941 and accompanied by the ubiquitous and always welcome Gerald Moore. As with all these singers, Desmond (1893-1973) was identified with the composer's music. Vaughan Williams had dedicated his Magnificat to the contralto in 1932.

Next are two 1944 recordings from one of the leading baritones of the era, Roy Henderson (1899-2000), who has appeared on my other site in George Butterworth's "Shropshire Lad" settings. Henderson performs "Silent Noon" and "Orpheus with His Lute," a setting of a passage from Shakespeare's Henry VIII. As with the "Serenade to Music," we have one of the author's remarkable odes to the power of music. Henderson's accompanist is Eric Gritton.

Finally we come to perhaps the leading English tenor of the time, Heddle Nash (1894-1961). His 1952 recordings include "Silent Noon" and "The Vagabond." The latter is best-known piece in Vaughan Williams's settings of Robert Lewis Stevenson, Songs of Travel. Here, as with many of the composer's works, he has chosen poems with a solitary protagonist who is seeking to become one with the natural world: "Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, / Nor a friend to know me; / All I seek, the heaven above, / And the road below me." Again, Gerald Moore is the accompanist.

The "Serenade to Music," with a text adapted from a passage in The Merchant of Venice, is one of Vaughan Williams' most beautiful and best loved compositions. He wrote the work for Henry Wood on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his first conducting engagement. In the score, Vaughan Williams indicated solo passages for 16 leading vocalists of the day: sopranos Isobel Baillie, Lilian Stiles-Allen, Elsie Suddaby and Eva Turner, contraltos Muriel Brunskill, Astra Desmond, Mary Jarred and Margaret Balfour, tenors Heddle Nash, Frank Titterton, Walter Widdop and Parry Jones, baritones Roy Henderson and Harold Williams, and basses Robert Easton and Norman Allin.

Sir Henry led the first performance on October 5, 1938, and recorded the work with the 16 soloists and the BBC Symphony 10 days later.

In addition to song texts, the download includes a table detailing the solo passages in the "Serenade to Music." The songs were remastered from files on the site of the AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music. The source of the "Serenade to Music" was a circa 1980s reissue as reworked by me. The resulting sound is very good.

Ralph Vaughan Williams and Sir Henry Wood

Gogi Grant and Songs from 'The Big Beat'

The year 1958 was a busy one for vocalist Gogi Grant. With a new contract from RCA Victor, the talented singer was soon at work on three solo LPs, three musicals in studio versions, various singles, and one film, which resulted in this EP.

The Big Beat was a teen exploitation flick that somehow shoehorned 16 musical acts into its 82-minute running time. I haven't seen the film - copies are apparently scarce - but the plot had something to do with a young fellow trying to convince his record-mogul father to sign new acts that would appeal to the teen market. Despite this premise, the musical acts in view are almost entirely old-school standbys, many of whom would not have been considered hip 20 years before. Hey, kids, want to hear some Russ Morgan and Freddy Martin?

The only quasi-rock acts on hand were Fats Domino, the Del-Vikings and the Diamonds (who were actually a cover group, but let's not quibble). Grant turned up as a well-known vocalist and apparently sang the four tunes on this EP, which may be the only vinyl souvenir of the film.

Gogi Grant in The Big Beat with that old rock-n-roller, Harry James

Grant does well by the songs. While not memorable, all are presentable. The anonymous big-band backing on "Lazy Love" has faux-R&B touches for a more up-to-date sound. "I Waited So Long" is a pretty ballad that elicits an impassioned vocal from Grant. It has a good arrangement, too, which is more than can be said for "Call Me," which employs a chorus to coo "ding-a-ling" as Gogi emotes her plea for telephonic contact. "You've Never Been in Love" is another pleasant pre-fab ballad; Grant's vocal skill makes the most of this material.

As a bonus, I've added Grant's two hit records to the download, made for the small Era label in 1955. Ironically both songs, "The Wayward Wind" and "Suddenly There's a Valley," are superior to the RCA material.

"The Wayward Wind" is a second cousin lyrically to Lerner and Loewe's "Wand'rin' Star" from the Paint Your Wagon score. It was a major hit for Grant. "Suddenly There's a Valley" is one of a number of inspirational songs popular during the period. Here, too, Gogi is effectively impassioned, and Buddy Bregman's backing is good.

Grant sued Era to get out of her contract, went with RCA in 1958, then was on to Liberty a year later, where she completed just one LP. Afterward, there were only a few albums for small labels.

Throughout this period, she had some terrible luck with art departments. The photo above isn't especially flattering, but check out her first Era LP and this monstrosity from Liberty.

By the way, The Big Beat was reportedly released as a double-feature with another teensploitation film. Summer Love. You can find the soundtrack to that epic on my other blog. Also there: a new post with Grant's studio recording of the Kiss Me, Kate songs with Howard Keel and Anne Jeffreys.

Billboard ad from April 1958