Vic Damone's SIngles from 'Rich, Young and Pretty'

The soundtrack record for the 1951 musical comedy Rich, Young and Pretty (the title describes star Jane Powell) found a home on the main blog many years ago and is still available.

The film has a nice score by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn, and the tunes are well presented by Powell and Danielle Darrieux. (Despite being only 12 years older than Powell, Darrieux played her mother.) The glowering father was Wendell Corey, mercifully left off the soundtrack LP. (Would that the same were the case for Fernando Lamas.)

Also missing from the soundtrack album is juvenile lead Vic Damone, who certainly can sing and does so well in the film. Presumably M-G-M could not get the rights to include him in its LP from his record company, Mercury.

Mercury instead had Damone do his own versions of three songs from the score. And while Powell handles "Wonder Why" and "I Can See You" beautifully in the film, it's great to have Vic's versions on a single.

Damone also offers one song that isn't on the soundtrack LP: "How D'Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning?" In the film, this tune is delivered by the Four Freshmen as singing waiters in a peculiar breakfast boîte where the patrons cook their own meals at their tables. Young lovers Damone and Powell endure predictable mishaps.

The Four Freshmen march away from Damone and Powell

It's actually a catchy and clever song, and racy for the period ("How d'ya like your eggs in the morning? / I like mine with a kiss."). Damone's single is highly effective.

Apparently Vic or the Mercury folks couldn't find another Rich, Young and Pretty song they liked: they backed "Eggs in the Morning," appropriately, with "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer contributed that number to Bing's Here Comes the Groom, another 1951 musical. Damone's reading, aided by the Pied Pipers, is exceptionally good.

Jane and Vic canoodle while Wendell fumes

Vic had the benefit of backings and presumably arrangements from George Siravo, a favorite around here who has appeared on the main blog several times - as has Damone. 

The singer was to be paired with Jane Powell twice more - in 1954's Athena and 1955's Hit the Deck. Vic appears on both soundtrack LPs - Athena can be found here.

The download includes many posters, lobby cards and stills from Rich, Young and Pretty. The recordings were cleaned up from originals found on Internet Archive.

A Special Gordon MacRae 78 Promoting Community Chest

Here's a circa 1950 charitable contribution in song from Gordon MacRae and his radio sponsor, the Association of American Railroads. It promotes giving to Community Chest, the forerunner of today's United Way in the US.

The disc dates from 1948-50, which is when MacRae's show, The Railroad Hour, was on the air.

You'll notice that the label says that the record was produced for the "United Red Feather Campaigns of America." The red feather was the symbol of the campaign; when you gave, you would get a red feather lapel pin in recognition. Even as a child, I received such pins for my small contributions.

The Community Chest campaigns began in Cleveland in 1913, then spread rapidly throughout the nation. Even today, the biggest contributors to the local United Way receive a "Red Feather" designation.

MacRae's song was called "Give Your Best to Community Chest," a march with music by Gus Haenschen, long-time radio and music industry figure who made many records under the name Carl Fenton. The lyricist was Bea Adams. I suspect she was the person of that name who was the creative director of the Gardner Advertising Agency of St. Louis.

The flip side of this record is the "United Red Feather March," by the Earl Paul Brass Band and Chorus. I can't tell you anything about the artist, or the Phil Davis who wrote the music.

This record is a companion to a post on my main blog focusing on the records of MacRae and Jo Stafford from the same period.

Bing's 'Welcome Stranger' - the Promo Discs and Commercial Releases

In casting Bing Crosby's latest film, 1947's Welcome Stranger, Paramount Studios tried to recreate the success of the Groaner's most recent films. First, they enlisted Barry Fitzgerald, the beloved foil from one of Crosby's most successful entries, Going My Way. Only this time, Bing and Barry would be doctors instead of priests.

Then, for good measure, Paramount cast Joan Caulfield as the love interest, as it had in Crosby's most recent film, Blue Skies. And as usual Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen were on hand to provide the songs (although the Irving Berlin catalog had graced Blue Skies).

The result was a success at the box office, but the songs are less remembered than many others written for Bing's film projects. Even Bing's The Bells of St. Mary's had a more durable hit, "Aren't You Glad You're You?", the only Burke-Van Heusen song in the score.

Too bad, because the Welcome Stranger songs are accomplished and varied - and perfectly suited to Crosby's talents and persona. Today we get to hear not only the four Decca sides recorded in conjunction with the film, but the same songs as heard on the soundtrack, courtesy of the promotional records that Paramount sent out in advance of the film's opening.

The sets lead off with the gorgeous ballad, "As Long as I'm Dreaming." Both versions are effective and affecting, but the soundtrack has a level of involvement that Bing sometimes didn't attain in his commercial recordings. The same is true of most of the other recordings, which is perhaps understandable considering that the Decca sessions were nine months after the soundtrack recordings.

The "dreamer" was a central element of Crosby's film and TV characters from Holiday Inn through to High Tor. A related aspect was the "regular guy" personality that was embodied in Welcome Stranger by the song "My Heart Is a Hobo." In this number, Bing insists that he "loves to go out berry pickin', hates to hear alarm clocks tickin'," while admitting that he "hates the stodgy guy that I am." (He apparently had to work at being irresponsible.)

"Country Style" is a square dance - far more common back then - which comes off better on the soundtrack than in the studio.

"Smile Right Back at the Sun" was a cracker-barrel philosophy piece that was a bid to replicate the popularity of "Aren't You Glad You're You?" or Going My Way's "Swinging on a Star." It didn't achieve as much success, even though it's a good song. Here the commercial recording is just as effective as the soundtrack.

The songs in both sets are well-recorded and very enjoyable. The download includes many stills and posters from the film, along with the booklet included in the 78 set (cover below). All recordings were cleaned up from Internet Archive originals.

Dennis Day's 1950 St. Patrick's Day Message and Single

In 1950, singer-comedian Dennis Day was at the peak of show business. He was famous on radio (with Jack Benny and in his own show), and his records did well. Television was to come, later in 1950 with Benny, then on his own show in 1952.

One of Day's his successes in 1949 was his single of  "Clancy Lowered the Boom." So when St. Patrick's Day 1950 drew near, he sent a recorded message to disc jockeys across the U.S. asking them to make his new Irish-themed record a success.

In this one-minute spiel, Day thanks them for plugging "Clancy," and asks that they do the same for his new record, "How Can You Buy Killarney?", which he proclaimed could be even greater than "Galway Bay." "Killarney" was included on the other side of the promo record shown above.

"Killarney" was, in truth, a nice song, although no "Galway Bay," and far different from the rollicking "Clancy Lowered the Boom," which trades on the stereotype of the fighting Irishman. "Whenever he got his Irish up, Clancy lowered the boom" went the refrain. It was a popular tune, and its publisher went so far as to push repeat sales in the 1950 season.

On the record available to the public, "How Can You Buy Killarney?" was backed with "O, Katharina!", which Day tells the disc jockeys was a popular favorite when he was young. It turns out to be a L. Wolfe Gilbert-Richard Fall song from 1924, an early example of a song making fun of an obese girlfriend. Just a few years before Day's record, Hoagy Carmichael had had a hit with the similar "Huggin' and Chalkin'" and Arthur Godfrey had made the "Too Fat Polka" a success. "O, Katharina!" also allowed Day to display his gift for dialect, in this case German. 

I've also included Day's follow-up to "Killarney"/"Katharina" - "The Horse Told Me," in which the singer becomes impressionist. He imitates (in order) Jimmy Durante, Ronald Colman, Jerry Colonna, Titus Moody of Fred Allen's radio show, and Bert Gordon ("The Mad Russian"). Most of these names are unfamiliar today, but would have been known to the 1950 American audience. "The Horse Told Me" is from the Bing Crosby horse-racing flick Riding High. (The hits from the Burke-Van Heusen score were "Sunshine Cake" and "A Sure Thing.")

In his records, Day also showed interest in Western themes - the flip side of "The Horse Told Me" is "There's an 'X' in the Middle of Texas" and the backing for "Clancy" is Cindy Walker's fine waltz, "The Romance of the Rose." 

If you want to hear more of Day, my other blog has his album of Irish songs as heard in the 1947 film, My Wild Irish Rose, newly remastered.

Thanks to my pal Ernie for alerting me to the Day promo record! Make sure to check in with Ernie at his blog - he's posting unusual Christmas material each week. Those items come from Internet Archive, as did these Dennis Day selections.

Dennis Day was popular on television in its early years

Astaire and Rogers in Songs from 'Carefree'

This post is a companion to a Fred Astaire extravaganza I've posted on my main blog, involving the three Chrysler Corporation LPs issued to promote Astaire's 1959-61 television specials sponsored by Chrysler.

For this piece, we will step back 20 years to the heyday of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and one of the terrific musicals they made together. Carefree, from 1938, was graced by the songs of Irving Berlin, and while it's not his best score, it does introduce one of the finest melodies ever written for Astaire - "Change Partners."

Fred's commercial recordings are well known to those with an interest in his career. Today's post gives me the opportunity to collect the four sides he made for Brunswick, adding a single that Ginger did for Victor. It also allows me to feature a picture label with Fred's smiling face floating just to the left of the spindle hole.

Astaire was a wonderful singer, and "Change Partners" is one of the best things he ever did. Rogers was not such a wonderful vocalist, and her versions of "I Used to Be Color Blind" and "The Yam" are strained. They are, of course, worth hearing, not least because of the very 30s arrangements played by Hal Borne's band. Ginger adopts a husky tone reminiscent of Libby Holman, yet with a touch of Mildred Bailey's phrasing.

Ray Noble

Astaire also does "Color Blind" and "The Yam," far more convincingly, and includes the verse to the first item. His accompanist is the distinguished English bandleader Ray Noble, whose troupe is, as always, immaculate. Noble was an actor as well - appearing with Astaire and Rogers in 1937's A Damsel in Distress. That film was based on a story by P. G. Wodehouse, and Noble made his screen persona here and elsewhere into a Bertie Wooster-type character. He was good at it, too, as you will hear in "The Yam Explained," where Fred attempts to give Ray a dancing lesson. Noble also was a songwriter, with credits for "Love Is the Sweetest Thing," "Goodnight, Sweetheart" and "The Very Thought of You," his signature song.

The download includes many lobby cards and stills from the film. The 78s were cleaned up from versions found on Internet Archive. The sound is excellent.

Ralph Blane Meets the 'Wizard of Oz'

My recent post of songs by Ralph Blane and The Martins elicited a note from Unknown telling me that the Internet Archive had posted another Blane single. Here it is in a cleaned-up version. This is the earliest Blane record we have found, very likely dating from 1939.

We can make that assumption on the date because it contains two Arlen-Harburg songs from The Wizard of Oz, which was released in that year: "Over the Rainbow" and "The Merry Old Land of Oz." Actually, Blane also recorded "If I Only Had a Brain" and "Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead" at the same time, but I haven't located a copy of the latter single.

Surprisingly, "The Merry Old Land of Oz" comes off better than "Over the Rainbow." Blane's jauntiness suits the former, but he seems uncomfortable with the wistfulness of the latter. He generally sings well, although his pitch is not always on the beam. The bandleader is Franklyn Marks, who also conducted on one of the Blane singles featured on the main blog.

Ralph Blane in 1938

The Liberty Music Shop of New York issued this single. That small chain of stores maintained a boutique label from the 1930s into the 1940s, primarily featuring cabaret artists veering into the jazz realm - so Cy Walter through Ethel Waters and Lee Wiley. I can only recall featuring two of the label's products before, a single by Bruz Fletcher than can be found in this compilation, and another by Cy Walter than is in this set.

The Blane recording was made before his first real success as the co-composer of the Best Foot Forward score with Hugh Martin in 1941. I believe that circa 1939, Blane could be heard on the radio with The Martins on Fred Allen's show, and on his own sustaining program.

Thanks to Unknown for the tip on this record! The sound is excellent, by the way.

Elliot Lawrence, the Sixty Minute Man

Elliot Lawrence, the big band leader turned Broadway maestro, had a long and distinguished recording career that took a quick turn into country music and R&B covers during his short stint on the King label in 1951.

His few releases for that company include a cover version of the Dominoes' giant hit, "Sixty Minute Man," and a song with King's big country star Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, who had broken out in 1946 with "Filipino Baby."

King published Lawrence's discs in its "Popular" series. Both records in today's post included one song that was a pop cover version for a record that came out in the label's "Sepia-Blues" series.

On the left is an edited Billboard ad advertising both the original version of the highly suggestive "Lovin' Machine" by King R&B star Wynonie Harris and an incongruous cover by Lawrence and his decorous vocalist Rosalind Patton. 

The company backed "Lovin' Machine" with a country ballad, "Don't Leave My Poor Heart Breaking," sung by Patton and Cowboy Copas.

King's double-barreled method was becoming increasing common at the time - record a song for the R&B (or country) market, then prepare a separate release for the pop audience. 

This continued to be a standard approach for years to come, although the original versions would increasingly invade the pop charts without a cover record's assistance. "Sixty Minute Man" was an early example of this. It became a number one single on the R&B charts and did well in the pop market, too, while the Lawrence cover went nowhere.

For the Lawrence version, King had former band vocalist Melvin Moore take on the vocals. He had sung with, among others, Lucky Millinder, Ernie Fields and Neal Hefti and was a member of one of the Ink Spots clone groups at the time of the session. Vocally, however, he wasn't any match for the charisma of the Dominoes' bass, Bill Brown, who sang lead on its recording.

Melvin Moore and Lucky Millinder

The final number in this four-song set is "Quick," which is the only item that is at all characteristic of Lawrence's usual sound, although much brassier than the records he had just made for Decca. The writers were Lawrence and Bickley Reichner, who composed several songs together. It's a very good record with one of Patton's best vocals, sounding less mannered than she did on the band's recent Decca sides. I suspect that this may be the more representative of Lawrence's preferred style, not as sedate as his Decca records and not in a country or R&B vein either. The arranger is not known, but it may be Johnny Mandel, who was on the band's staff at the time.

This post is a companion to an item on the main blog, where I present one of those Decca LPs, College Prom, a much different experience than his King singles of just a year later.