Mindy Carson Promotes Her New Record and a Sticky Candy

Singer Mindy Carson became popular in the late 40s through band experience, and then on radio and early television shows. RCA Victor took her on as an artist in 1949, and her single of "Candy and Cake" and "My Foolish Heart" did well.

Seeing her potential, the record company gave a big push to her 1950 recording of "A Rainy Day Refrain," with large ads in the trade papers (at bottom) and a special 45 (at right), which was sent to disk jockeys. These records are the subject of today's post, along with a jingle for a sticky candy of the time, as sung by Carson.

The DJ 45 was actually a five-minute radio show, "The Magic of Rain Songs," in which Carson tells of her love of rainy-day ditties, and sings several of them. At the end, she introduces "A Rainy Day Refrain." The program is charming, and Carson is believable even in the narrative nonsense written by a Victor publicist. ("Oddly enough, almost every important event in my career happened on a rainy day..." she tells us.)

Mindy Carson

"A Rainy Day Refrain" stands on its own: it's a good song that I haven't heard before from the excellent English songwriter Eric Maschwitz. The B-side is another pleasant outing, "Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter," which my pal Ernie has also posted. His is in the Georgia Gibbs version.

The flip side of the DJ record was another, unrelated promo featuring Spike Jones and his crew, which Ernie also may have posted (although I can't find it).

Carson had a lovely voice, perfectly suited to the commercial spots that were so much a part of the advertising business back then. I've included a promotional record from about the same period in which she sings the Bit-O-Honey jingle, accompanied by organ. The number is catchy, and I think I remember it. I definitely remember the candy. It was a honey and almond concoction that was waxy and not very appetizing, although it must have some appeal because it's been around for a century (slightly longer than me).

Mindy Carson has appeared on these pages only once before, in another promo, this one for the then-new TV sets, "I Want a Television Christmas." It's in a Christmas post from 2010 that's still available.

These records were found in the Internet Archive trove of vintage 78s, and cleaned up by me. Good sound, although "The Magic of Rain Songs" has some residual noise.

1950 Billboard ad

Sokoloff Conducts Rimsky and Tchaikovsky

Last year I devoted a long post on my other blog to conductor Nikolai Sokoloff and his recordings with the Cleveland Orchestra, also a late LP with his La Jolla orchestra. Today, here is a brief coda consisting of a 78 that Sokoloff and the Clevelanders recorded in 1926.

This Brunswick disc couples Rimsky-Korsakov's Song of India (in an arrangement by Victor Herbert) with the famous waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet music.

As with the previous post from this source, the music is played with great spirit from a remarkable ensemble that was founded less than a decade before.

These are electrical recordings, but were done with the GE "Light-Ray" method, which was inferior to the Western Electric process used by other companies. (The light-ray was soon extinguished by Brunswick). These recordings are not ideally clear, and become congested above forte. There are good enough, however, to demonstrate the sterling qualities of the conductor and orchestra. [Note (June 2023): These are now available in ambient stereo with better sound.]

My earlier post discusses Sokoloff's tenure in Cleveland, his dismissal in 1933, and his later career. This single was cleaned up from a needle drop found on Internet Archive.

Completing Gordon MacRae's Musicraft Sides

Vocalist Gordon MacRae made 16 recordings for the small Musicraft label early in his career, before joining Capitol. I posted 12 of the 16 sides years ago on my other blog, where they are still available. Today's post completes the set.

Unlike the first post, this group comes from the original 78s, as found on Internet Archive and remastered by me. There are some excellent songs to be found here, led by Irving Berlin's superb "Everybody Knew But Me." Published in 1945, the song attracted the attention of such vocal luminaries as Dinah Shore, but MacRae's version is not inferior.

The second selection is "I Have But One Heart," also known as "O Marinariello," which was written in 1893 but revived in 1945, eventually becoming popular in the Frank Sinatra and Vic Damone versions.

"(It's Gonna Depend on) The Way That the Wind Blows" is a pretty good number by Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer. MacRae's picture appeared on the sheet music for this tune.

Another interesting item is "Slowly," written by David Raksin and lyricist Kermit Goell for the 1945 film Fallen Angel, where the song is heard on a jukebox as sung by Dick Haymes. MacRae was very much under Haymes' spell at the time, so this was a good choice for him.

Composer Raksin went on to write two of the enduring melodies from American films - "Laura" and the "Theme from The Bad and the Beautiful," amid much other movie music.

As on all his other Musicraft sides, MacRae is accompanied by a band led by Walter Gross, best known as the composer of "Tenderly."

A Public Health Push from Frank and Dinah

One of the most unusual recordings in Frank Sinatra's lengthy catalog is 1946's "It's All Up to You," a duet with Dinah Shore. Unlike the standard "My Romance," which they recorded at the same November session, "It's All Up to You" was a public service announcement in music - a plea to the citizens of North Carolina to get behind public health measures.

The single was part of a larger effort to improve the health of the state's citizens. The genesis of the campaign was North Carolina's poor record in providing manpower for the Second World War. About half the state's draftees were rejected for medical reasons. Clearly much more needed to be spent on public health, and the Frank-Dinah duet was designed to support that drive. (The download has an outline of the state's "Good Health Plan.")

Sheet music cover

Heading up the musical part of the campaign was bandleader and North Carolina native Kay Kyser. He enlisted the support of his label, Columbia, who offered the services of Sinatra and Shore. Also on board were frequent Frank songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Styne's tune is catchy, and Cahn's lyrics were unusual in his catalogue. It certainly was the only time he had Sinatra tout the wonders of "clinics where the poor can go for moderate fees."

The record was only distributed in North Carolina, and the original single (label above) is something of a rare bird. The song was included in Columbia's Sinatra box set in the 90s, but this transfer is from a copy of the 78 found on Internet Archive. 

I was surprised to see that the label attributes the backing to Kyser. The aural evidence says it's Sinatra's regular arranger-conductor Axel Stordahl, and the Sinatra sessionography supports that.

The flip side of "It's All Up to You" was a genuine Kyser recording. Appropriately, it's his rendition of "Carolina in the Morning," with a vocal by Gloria Wood and the Campus Kids. After consulting Nigel Burlinson's Kyser discography, it appears to me that this title was not otherwise released.

The Songs of Mae West's 'I'm No Angel"

Mae West was a buxom star of vaudeville, Broadway (her first play there was simply titled Sex), and the movies who prospered in Hollywood until the blue-nose police came along in 1934. Fortunately, the amusing comedy I'm No Angel arrived just before the Motion Picture Production Code made the merest hint of sex verboten.

I'm No Angel is generally remembered as being the second pairing of West and a good-looking English youngster named Cary Grant. (The first was She Done Him Wrong, earlier in 1933.)

The film is also notable for an excellent set of songs that are too little known these days. The music is by Harvey Brooks, reputed to be the first black American to have written a score for a major motion picture. The lyrics are by Ben Ellison and Gladys Du Bois.

Although young, Brooks had quite a lot of experience. He toured and recorded with Mamie Smith in the early 1920s. He then co-led the Quality Four with Paul Howard. He was the music director for West Coast bandleader Les Hite throughout the early 1930s.

Ben Ellison had written a few songs that were recorded by Leon René and Louis Armstrong in 1932. Du Bois had scored a major hit in 1931 with Russ Columbo's famous recording of "You Call It Madness (But I Call it Love)."

The I'm No Angel songs are well suited to Mae's cartoonishly sexy persona. In the title song, she assures us, "I can make it heaven when the shades are drawn / I'm no angel." But the real gem is her remarkable reading of "They Call Me Sister Honky-Tonk," which contains a miniature scenario of its own. It opens with a sleazy carnival barker extolling her virtues to a group of enthusiastic gentlemen, with bump-and-grind accompaniment. West then sings a chorus, moans and asks slyly, "Do you follow me, boys?" One spectator shouts, "Aw, we're way ahead of you!" and the barker adds, "Wrap it up and take it home with you, boys!"

"I Found a New Way to Go to Town" is the sort of double-entendre title that would later become the stock-in-trade of such entertainers as Ruth Wallis. "I Want You - I Need You" is more conventional, the kind of thing that would have been done by such red-hot mamas as Sophie Tucker.

West came out of that vaudeville tradition. You'll have to forgive her faltering intonation and erratic rhythm (although her comic timing in "Sister Honky-Tonk" is superb).

West did not record one of the five songs written for the film, "That Dallas Man." I've added it to the download in a very enjoyable performance by Allan Lane and His Orchestra. The "Allan Lane" pseudonym was generally associated with Al Mitchell. The anonymous singer was the ubiquitous studio vocalist Dick Robertson.

The "Dallas Man" arrangement was heavily influenced by Eddie Durham's work on Bennie Moten's "Moten Swing" in 1932 (a song later to become even more famous in the Count Basie remake).

In addition to Mae's recording, I've included one more version of "I'm No Angel" - that by the excellent Gus Arnheim Band and enthusiastic vocalist Shirley Ross, a blog favorite. This and its flip side were the earliest recordings by Ross and apparently the only ones she made with Arnheim.

Shirley Ross

I've included that flip side - "Like Me a Little Bit Less (Love Me a Little Bit More)" - even though it doesn't come from I'm No Angel. It is from the prize-fightin' film Palooka, which was certainly inspired by the "Joe Palooka" comic strip of the day (adapting comics for the movies is nothing new for Hollywood). The songwriters were a very young Burton Lane and equally young lyricist Harold Adamson. 

While "Like Me a Little Bit Less" didn't have much staying power (it's not a great tune), the film also introduced Jimmy Durante doing his signature song, "Inka Dinka Do," which did.

The download includes many cleaned-up posters, lobby cards and other ephemera from I'm No Angel. The sound files were sourced from Internet Archive and remastered by me.

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.