Fred and Ginger's Commercial Recordings for 'Top Hat'

I thought I might follow up my recent post of the Carefree commercial recordings with the singles from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' most famous film, 1935's Top Hat. 

As with Carefree, Fred and Ginger's records were done for two different companies, Brunswick (Fred) and Decca (Ginger). And as before, Astaire recorded more songs than Rogers - five to four.

Fred was, of course, a far more accomplished singer than Ginger, who could barely carry a tune. I will say that she seems more at ease here than she did three years later, at the Carefree sessions. Even so, her discs can be considered more souvenirs than masterworks of recording.

But who wouldn't want to have a chance to sing these glorious Irving Berlin tunes, written for the film. Both Astaire and Rogers have a go at the famous "Cheek to Cheek" and "The Piccolino," a novelty number that despite being set in Italy has a Latin beat. Ginger liberally rewrites the melodic line of "Cheek to Cheek."

There also are separate recordings of "No Strings," which in the film marks the nadir of the two's relationship. Both also do "Isn't This a Lovely Day," which accompanies their reconciliation. It's one of Berlin's best songs and Astaire's best vocals - also a good effort by Rogers.

The only song recorded by Fred but not by Ginger was, logically, "Top Hat," another iconic Astaire number. Both this number and "No Strings" include the sound of his remarkably rhythmic dancing.

For "Isn't This a Lovely Day" and "Top Hat" Fred is accompanied by Johnny Green, who in his mid-20s was already a well-known songwriter and a popular bandleader who backed Astaire both on records and the radio.

"Isn't This a Lovely Day?"

Astaire's other songs were conducted by Leo Reisman, who made a great many records in the 1920s and 30s. (FYI - the flip side of Astaire's "The Piccolino" is a Reisman instrumental, not from the film and not included here.)

Rogers' backings were by Decca bandleader Victor Young, who would soon relocate to Hollywood and find greater fame in the movies.

According to the Discography of American Historical Recordings, the Rogers 78s were issued only in England. I had to work from lossy originals for her recordings of "Isn't This a Lovely Day" and "No Strings." All other items were cleaned up from lossless originals found on Internet Archive. The sound is in general quite good.

The download includes many posters, lobby cards and stills from the film. 

The great Top Hat ensemble - Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Ginger and Fred, Erik Rhodes

Speed Riggs Proclaims 'Sold to American!'

Cigarette ads have been banned on US television and radio for 50 years, but way back when, tobacco companies were among the most active sponsors of the shows Americans watched and listened to every night.

The American Tobacco Co., makers of Lucky Strike cigarettes, were particularly busy on the radio, notably sponsoring Your Hit Parade, which ran on radio and then television from 1935-59. Luckies used a variety of ad techniques during this time - in print, it sponsored a series of paintings by such American Scene artists as Thomas Hart Benton and Doris Lee, all depicting tobacco growing and auctioning. It used celebrity advertising, as did many other tobacco companies. And it spawned a variety of catchphrases - "LS/MFT - Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco," "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet," and "It's Toasted." But perhaps the most famous of them all was one that few people could imitate - the spiel of tobacco auctioneer L.A. "Speed" Riggs and his incomprehensible, fast-paced recitation of the bids before ending with the sing-song, "Sold to American!"

L.A. "Speed" Riggs

Riggs' act is hard to describe, so perhaps it is best to hear it, and today's post provides the opportunity to do so. It's a transfer of a promotional transcription that Lucky Strike put out circa 1938, in which Riggs demonstrates and explains his craft to announcer Basil Ruysdael. This would have been soon after American patriarch George Washington Hill brought Riggs on board to be a spokesperson. The auctioneer quickly became famous for his vocal acrobatics, and promoted the brand for several decades.

Luckies also used a number of other tobacco auctioneers on its programs, all distinctive, but they were a letdown after Riggs. The idea was to have each auctioneer provide testimony to the quality of Lucky Strike. "Why, year after year I've seen Luckies buy the finest, the mildest, the most flavorful tobacco," they would tell the listeners, adding, "I've smoked 'em myself for [10 - 15 - 150] years." The commercial would inevitably add (as does Basil Ruysdael), "With men who know tobacco best, it's Luckies two to one!"

On one memorable Jack Benny radio show, the auctioneer averred that he had "smoked 'em myself for nigh onto 15 years!" The Benny cast was astonished by the antique phraseology straight out of North Carolina tobacco country, and it became a running joke.

This transcription is cleaned up from Internet Archive.

1938 Lucky Strike ad

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.