Stanley Pope Conducts Elgar

Back in the day, you could find classical vinyl records in several formats. My other blog features 10-inch and 12-inch "long play" records, and even some 10-inch "medium play" discs (which had shorter playing time). Almost all of these were 33-1/3 rpm releases.

The 45 rpm format, introduced in 1949, originally was used for singles (i.e., one song per side), but it wasn't long before an "extended play" (EP) version appeared, with two songs on each side. These were largely given over to pop records - repackaging of older singles, themed collections (e.g., "Hits from My Fair Lady"), and so on. But even classical recordings came out on EP, not so much in the US, but in Europe and perhaps elsewhere. Today's post brings us an example of that species.

Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches were well suited to the EP format. There are five such marches (six if you count the one reconstructed from sketches 70 years after the composer's death). However, only four will fit onto an EP, two per side. This allows the label to include the best-known marches (No. 1 and No. 4), along with No. 2 and No. 5.

The trio section of No. 1 is famed in its guise as "Land of Hope and Glory," a setting made by Elgar for his 1902 Coronation Ode, in honor of new King Edward VII. In the US, it is best known as the traditional graduation hymn - a tradition associated with Elgar. It reputedly began at Yale University in 1905 when the composer received an honorary degree, and the tune was used for the recessional.

The trio of No. 4 is hardly less memorable than No. 1, and in both works, they are beautifully set off by the march tunes. No. 1 has an organ accompaniment in the final section, included in this recording. The other marches are less familiar, but most enjoyable. 

On this recording, all four are handsomely played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Stanley Pope. The conductor generally takes quick tempos, which work well. (The need to keep side length under control may also have hurried things along.)

These days Pope is little remembered, probably because he left very few recordings for posterity. There are these marches, Schumann's Symphony No. 4 and a few transcriptions, including one of symphonies by Robert Simpson and Havergal Brian.

Born in 1916 in London, Pope studied conducting with Paul Kletzki and eventually conducted widely in Europe. He died in 1995. I have only found one photo of him - the one on the EP cover above. With his Van Dyke beard and penetrating stare, Pope gives off Mephistophelian vibes, but who knows what he was really like on the podium or elsewhere.

The marches were made in December 1954 in the Walthamstow Assembly Hall, which was frequently used for recordings, and which here produced pleasing sound - just a bit tubby. The download includes two laudatory reviews and two ads - one is below, promising "extended pleasure," which I hope the EP provides.

Astaire and the Gershwins Return in 'Shall We Dance'

Here's another in a series collecting the commercial recordings associated with Fred Astaire's films. The last entry, Swing Time, featured the music of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. For this post, 1937's Shall We Dance, we return to the work of the Gershwin brothers, whose songs previously have been heard in A Damsel in Distress.

As before, the Gershwins produced a raft of classic songs for the production - "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "They Can't Take That Away from Me" and "They All Laughed," with "I've Got Beginner's Luck" and the title song being only a little less memorable.

Johnny Green

For Astaire's Brunswick recordings, pianist-conductor Johnny Green provided the backing, perfectly suited to the dancer's vocals and personality. In addition to the songs mentioned above, Astaire recorded "Slap That Bass," and both that song and "Shall We Dance" capture his tap dancing along with his singing.

There are no commercial recordings of Ginger Rogers from Shall We Dance, to my knowledge, but Johnny Green contributed an instrumental disc - joining Dave Terry for a two-piano medley of songs from the score. It's included in the download.

I've also added Astaire's 1948 version of "They Can't Take That Away from Me," done for The Barkleys of Broadway. Finally, the file also includes the delightful instrumental "Promenade (Walking the Dog)," from a much later recording.

As usual, the file also contains many restored posters, lobby cards and stills from the film - although I have to observe that the lobby cards in particular are garish. Fortunately the music is as elegant as can be.

When Tony Bennett Was 'Joe Bari'

Bennett / Bari

Yes, there was a time (at least several years) when the famous pop singer Tony Bennett was known as "Joe Bari." And before that, there was a time when Joe Bari was known as Anthony Benedetto, his birth name.

There was nothing unusual about stage names back in the day, or even today. But Bennett's days as Joe Bari are little known; one of the few pieces of evidence is a rare 78 "Joe" made for the tiny Leslie label in 1949, just before he became Tony Bennett and went to the much bigger Columbia label.

Anthony Benedetto chose the name Joe Bari when he started singing about 1940, and stayed with that tag when he came back from the war and renewed his career in show business.

One of his first breaks was the Leslie recording date. In his autobiography, Tony says he was excited to do the recording because it was being produced by George Simon, the editor of the influential magazine Metronome. Simon was co-composer of one of the songs on the disc, "Vieni Qui," done as a duet with singer Pat Easton.

I found this rare record on Internet Archive because I was searching for anything by Easton, who was married at the time to Joe Derise. This may be the only record she made under her own name.

Bennett recalls that the group backing him was called the Tattlers, who had recently made a recording of "Jamboree Jones" with Bing Crosby. Actually, the Crosby session was in April 1950, about a year after Tony's Leslie date. The accompanying vocal group isn't identified on the label, which only credits Marty Manning as leading the band. The presence of Pat Easton, however, suggests that it might have involved Derise, but that's speculation.

"Vieni Qui" is backed by "Fascinating Rhythm," a Gershwin classic that Bennett was proud to have recorded on his first date. In the event, the Italian specialty is better done than the Gershwin tune. Oddly, Bennett's sense of rhythm fails him on the latter number.

At about the same time as the Leslie date, Bennett caught the attention of Pearl Bailey. She added him to her stage show, Bob Hope saw him perform, took him on the road, and simplified his given name to Tony Bennett. Soon thereafter Tony's demo record of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" found its way to Mitch Miller, and his Columbia career began.

Note (July 2023): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Joe Derise Obscurities

My last post about Joe Derise mentioned some obscure recordings he made as an arranger in the early 1950s. That note sparked a request for those items - here they are.

But before we get to them, let's listen to one of the numbers that Derise recorded with Claude Thornhill and the Snowflakes in 1949 for the transcription company Thesaurus. The Snowflakes and Derise did eight songs for Thesaurus, but I have just the one at hand, derived from an old bootleg.

The transcription is a version of "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)," which the group also recorded for RCA Victor in a similar arrangement. (You can find the RCA disc in the earlier Thornhill collection.) 

The instrumental chart is by Gil Evans, with Derise responsible for the vocal arrangement on both 1949 recordings.

After Derise left Claude Thornhill in 1950, he formed a group called the Four Jacks and a Jill. As far as I can tell, they made only a few recordings. The first was in support of the Al Lombardi Quintet and vocalist Poppy Marin on the small Robin Hood label. The song was a cover of one of the many mildly risqué numbers that April Stevens specialized in, called "Don't Do It." This dates from 1951.

In 1954, Derise provided the arrangements and instrumental backing for a single by vocalist Ray King on the small Vitam label. The songs were "Can It Be Love" and "I'll Always Love You." If the label is to be believed, the latter was the title song of a film, but I can't find any trace of such a release. King's single did elicit a mildly positive review from Cash Box. 

King was probably the singer that Cash Box wrote about earlier in 1954: "Anchor Records has just released a pop single by singer Ray King, whom the diskery is billing as 'The Singing Truck Driver,'" helpfully adding, "He is being billed in this way because he makes his living as a truck driver."

For the final coupling in this group, the Four Jacks and a Jill return to back soloist Marie Peters for a release on another tiny label, Jester Records. Derise provided the arrangements for the vocal group and presumably the accompanying Les Barry Trio.

The first song is "Maybe, I'll Find You Tomorrow," which Peters sings earnestly. The flip side is a clumsy piece called "The Old Fashioned Way." The only information I can find about the singer is a 1957 Billboard report that she had taken a job as a disc jockey in Springfield, Massachusetts. It's not clear when the Jester record was made but I suspect it was before Derise joined Bethlehem as a solo artist.

Desmond, Dale and Cornell Promote Their Wares

Alan Dale, Don Cornell and Johnny Desmond

Coral Records had three fine crooners on the rolls in 1953, and so decided to merge their talents and hopefully their audiences by having them record the 1926 Ben Ryan chestnut, "(The Gang that Sang) Heart of My Heart." Probably responding to the publisher's stimulus, Decca (which owned Coral) had the Four Aces do the same, and the two versions battled it out on the airways and record charts. Jack Pleis provided the orchestral backing on both records.

The three Coral artists were Alan Dale, Don Cornell and Johnny Desmond, who despite the Anglo names were all of Italian descent, being baptized Aldo Sigismondi, Luigi Francisco Varlaro and Giovanni Alfredo De Simone.

Coral decided it had to do something different to promote the record to disc jockeys, so it prepared two promotional tracks, one by the trio and one by labelmate Eileen Barton that DJs could program to intro the cut. The trio's cut is amusing, but Barton sounds ill at ease.

These promos were on one side of the 78; the other was devoted to touting the flip side of the commercial 78, "I Think I'll Fall in Love Today," an good new song by the duo of Robert Allen and Al Stillman.

The "I Think I'll Fall in Love Today" promo was a complicated bit in which the DJs were to engage in rhythmic colloquy with the trio. The promo record went so far as to have Eileen Barton provide an example of how this was to be done. Honestly, I wonder if anyone actually used this contrived bit.

Eileen Barton

The combination of two or more top artists on one record was becoming more common in 1953 and 1954, although the phenomenon was not new. Typically it involved female-male combinations such as Jo Stafford with Frankie Laine or Gordon MacRae, or Margaret Whiting with MacRae or Jimmy Wakely. Same-sex couplings were less common, although there were pairings of Lisa Kirk with Fran Warren, and Rosemary Clooney with Marlene Dietrich, among others.

A June 1954 Billboard article (in the download) notes the phenomenon, mentioning Dale-Cornell-Desmond along with Dale-Desmond-Buddy Greco, and a quartet encompassing Jane Russell, Della Russell, Connie Haines and Beryl Davis. The latter contingent had some sticking power. Jane, Connie and Beryl recorded a gospel LP for Capitol in 1957 called The Magic of Believing. The following year Coral issued a record called Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord by the four of them, with Rhonda Fleming replacing Della Russell on some songs. The Coral LP was largely a repackaging of earlier single releases.

The download includes both the promo record and the commercial release of the Dale-Cornell-Desmond materials.

Fred Astaire's 'Swing Time' Recordings

We continue our series of the commercial recordings associated with Fred Astaire's films with Swing Time from 1936. Unlike the last post, devoted to A Damsel in Distress, this film has Ginger Rogers as Fred's love interest.

Swing Time is considered one of Fred and Ginger's best films, and the dancing and music are extraordinary. However, the plot is contrived and the viewer has to contend with Victor Moore, who was inexplicably popular as a side-kick character at the time. That said, the cast also features the great Helen Broderick and Eric Blore. The two appeared in three Astaire-Rogers films, as did Edward Everett Horton, who is not in Swing Time.

Johnny Green

Unlike Follow the Fleet, Top Hat and Carefree, Ginger Rogers made no commercial recordings of the songs from this film (as far as I can tell). Pianist-bandleader Johnny Green took up the slack, however, with a recording of "The Waltz in Swing Time" and a two-sided medley of the movie's Jerome Kern songs, all of which are in the download.

Green's piano and orchestra also provide the backing for Astaire's records. Green is joined by future bandleader Dave Terry for the duo-piano medleys.

As with most if not all Astaire films, the score delivered a few songs that have become standards - here, "The Way You Look Tonight" and "A Fine Romance." A few others have achieved some renown - "Pick Yourself Up" and "Never Gonna Dance." All are graced by the excellent lyrics of Dorothy Fields.

As a bonus I've added a 1941 recording by the Gordon String Quartet of "The Way You Look Tonight," from the second of the ensemble's two Kern albums. Quartet namesake Jacques Gordon was a former concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony. Violist William Lincer was to become the New York Philharmonic's principal in a few years. Cellist Fritz Magg had been the Met Opera principal.

To-night vs. Tonight

If you examine the 78 labels carefully, you'll notice that the Astaire recording spells "The Way You Look To-night" with an hyphen (as does the sheet music). By the 1941 Gordon recording, that hyphen had been abandoned.  Someone has done research on this phenomenon, and found that the written usage of the hyphen in "to-night" (and "to-day") was surpassed by the simplified spellings in the early '30s, to the point that the hyphenated versions are seldom if ever seen today.

The sound on these items is good. They originated with Internet Archive and were cleaned up by me. The download includes refurbished stills, posters and lobby cards.

Joe Derise with the Snowflakes and Claude Thornhill

Joe Derise in 1949

Singer-pianist-arranger Joe Derise joined Claude Thornhill's influential big band in 1948 as a guitarist, singer and arranger, and began recording with the band in early 1949. He stayed with the group until about mid-1950, making a total of 10 commercial recordings - as a member of the Snowflakes, as an arranger and two as a solo vocalist. This post gathers together those 10 sides, all on the RCA Victor label. Derise's guitar presumably is also present on Thornhill's instrumental numbers of this period, but those aren't covered here.

The first two songs in this set come from January 6, 1949, with Derise as a member of the Snowflakes, who at the time also included Nancy Clayton, Jim Preston and Hugh Baker. The arranger for these two numbers is Gil Evans, but I suspect that Derise handled the vocal charts.

"I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" leads off the set, a standard by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk dating from 1931. Among others, Tommy Dorsey, with Stuart Foster on vocals, revived it in 1946. (That recording can be found in this collection.) Thornhill's version is easy-going and dreamy, as his recordings tend to be.

From that same date came "There's a Small Hotel," a Rodgers and Hart song from 1936's On Your Toes. This version probably was occasioned by Betty Garrett's vocal in the film Words and Music, released just a week before this recording session.

The Thornhill Band - I think that might be Derise on guitar at center

We move on to an April session and Derise's first arrangement for the band, presumably both vocal and instrumental. "Moonlight and Roses" is a song with an unusual story. Organist Edwin Lemare wrote it as an instrumental Andantino way back in 1888. In 1921 Ben Black and Neil Moret added words, turning it into "Moonlight and Roses." Lemare objected, but they eventually worked things out. The song was a standard at one time - and was a hit most recently as 1964, for Jim Reeves. As the title may suggest, it's a highly romantic piece, well suited for Thornhill and the Snowflakes. 

Russ McIntyre

"On the 5:45" was an English song new in 1949, a simple ditty with Nancy Clayton and the band's boy singer, Russ McIntyre, playing newlyweds. This is from a June 1949 session, and like the balance of songs here, was a Derise arrangement. On these records, McIntyre can't decide whether he wants to sound like Bing, Perry or Vaughn Monroe. Here Crosby is to the fore.

Next we have one of Meredith Willson's more peculiar inventions, "The Iowa Indian Song (Io-Wuh)," which is mostly concerned with the growth of corn ("Knee high by the Fourth of July!"), to the accompaniment of a stereotypical "Indian" tom-tom drum. Willson did love his home state.

The song must have had some merit; Bing himself recorded it. Don't confuse it with the better known (to me, anyway) "All I Owe Ioway," which Rodgers and Hammerstein had written for the film State Fair a few years before.

Coming from the same November 1949 session was Derise's first solo vocal, on a novelty called the "Johnson Rag," one of any number of old-timey songs that were in vogue during the postwar period. This tune actually dated from 1939, when Glenn Miller recorded it. For whatever reason, a decade later all the bands decided to get in on the action. I generally can't stand the old-timey genre; as soon as I hear the tinny plunk of an upright piano, I lunge for the on-off switch. But I must admit the Derise-Snowflakes-Thornhill version is catchy and enjoyable. This was the only Thornhill record where Derise received a label credit, to my knowledge.

Moving ahead to January 1950, we have one of the best Snowflakes records, a great song from the Gershwins, "Bidin' My Time," from the 1930 musical Girl Crazy. Thornhill included it in his album Claude Thornhill Plays George Gershwin for Dancing, one of a series that RCA was recording with bandleaders. (Ralph Flanagan's take on Rodgers and Hammerstein is here.)

Claude Thornhill

Joe's final recording session with Thornhill was in April 1950. It began with another 1931 song, the enduringly popular "Sweet and Lovely," which bandleader Gus Arnheim both wrote and recorded. Thornhill's effort is mainly a feature for Russ McIntyre. You can contrast his reading with that of the young David Allyn here.

Derise recorded his second rhythm specialty next - the "Sugarfoot Rag," a terrific country tune that made the 18-year-old guitarist Hank Garland famous. Joe is wonderfully relaxed and swinging in this number, and the Snowflakes get a chance to rock for once. Too bad that Derise did not get a label credit for his performance.

The final song in this collection is "Honolulu," another 1939 revival. Harry Warren and Gus Kahn wrote it for the film of the same name. This one has the Snowflakes to the fore and the Thornhill band more extroverted than usual.

Thornhill did not make any additional commercial records until 1953. By that time Derise had moved on to his own group, called Four Jacks and a Jill. That ensemble did make some records for small labels, mainly backing a few terrible soloists. I have the records if anyone is interested in hearing them.

I should mention that Derise did record some transcriptions with Thornhill, and I expect to transfer a few of those soon. The items above mainly originated with the Internet Archive. The sound is generally good after I cleaned it up, but a few sides have some residual wear and noise. The recording of "Bidin' My Time" comes from my collection.

This post is a companion to one on the main blog covering Derise's 1955-56 LPs for Bethlehem.