Bing's 'Emperor Waltz' - Songs, Sources and Spin-Offs

Bing serenades what appears to be
a stuffed likeness of Joan Fontaine

In his postwar films, Bing Crosby continued his picaresque adventures, with or without Bob Hope. Today we'll look at the music from his 1948 film The Emperor Waltz, where he was a plucky turn-of-the-century gramophone salesman. The story involved Bing trying to get the emperor of Austria to buy a new-fangled Victrola, so as to give it some much needed publicity. The crooner also gets to romance a Countess, played by Joan Fontaine.

At the time, Paramount's (or Bing's) usual ploy was to engage Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen for his movie songs, so that a big element of the film's success was ensured.

For this score, however, the duo was employed only for the minor number "Get Yourself a Phonograph," and Bing didn't even make a commercial recording of the piece.

Instead the big tunes (relatively speaking) were taken from existing sources. First, the title song, an adaptation of the Johann Strauss II composition, with Burke's lyrics added.

The other numbers were more obscure, at least to American audiences. "The Kiss in Your Eyes" was a version of a piece from Richard Heuberger's 1898 operetta Der Opernball. "Friendly Mountains" was reputedly based on Austrian yodels. And "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame" is a Ralph Erwin song from a 1929 German film of the same name (Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame) that starred Marlene Dietrich and Harry Liedtke. Burke provided the English lyrics for the first two; Sam Lewis and Joe Young the latter, back when the film was new.

In this post we'll present Bing's commercial recordings, a selection from a promotional disc, and the sources of the songs, as appropriate. And we'll add a few surprises.

The Emperor Waltz

First, we have the "The Emperor Waltz" with Bing's reading of Burke's at times clunky lyrics ("Like poets say, 'It's perfectly swell!'"). Bing does his best, but the number doesn't come off completely. The transfer is from the Decca recording.

For contrast, we have the original composition (Kaiser-Waltzer, Op. 437) from a superior 1950 recording by the eminent conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Vienna Philharmonic. You will note that Strauss's composition is much more complex than the Bing/Victor Young adaptation (as might be expected).

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Friendly Mountains

On the soundtrack, "Friendly Mountains" does indeed start with Bing's version of a yodel - characteristically including any number of "bum-bum-bums." The soundtrack has fun with elaborate echoes. ("Let the friendly mountains sing along," Crosby advises.) This transfer comes from the Paramount promotional disc at right. 

Also included is Bing's commercial recording, in which the echo effects are not quite as prolonged; even so, the device gets tiresome.

I Kiss Your Hand, Madame

As noted, "Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame" comes from a 1929 film of the same name, with the famed tenor Richard Tauber providing the vocal on the otherwise-silent soundtrack. He is not seen in the film, but nonetheless appeared in the publicity along with the principals (below). We have his recording from the German Odeon release.

Harry Liedtke, Marlene Dietrich and Richard Tauber

Bing himself had recorded "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame" with the Lewis-Young lyrics back in 1929. The arrangement accentuated the tango rhythm, with Eddie Lang on guitar, Roy Bargy on piano and Matty Malneck on viola, all uncredited.

Crosby's 1947 commercial recording is very fine, appropriately dreamy with luscious backing by Victor Young and orchestra. It's my favorite of the three readings.

Tauber, 1929 Bing, 1947 Bing, and Spike

Even a good record deserves a parody, and Spike Jones provided one that, if anything, has become better known than either of Bing's efforts. There is a straight presentation of the tune from Paul Judson and choir before transitioning to a chorus of gunshots, cow bells and the like. Then the choir offers a cooing reading of the lyrics interspersed with rude noises and sound effects, followed by a tasteless bravura close. Richard Tauber died at about the same time as this record came out. Coincidence?

The Kiss in Your Eyes

Richard Tauber

Heuberger's "Im Chambre Séparée" was transformed by the film into "The Kiss in Your Eyes," here transferred from Crosby's Decca recording. The original is represented by Tauber's 1931 Parlophon disc, with an orchestra led by an uncredited Frieder Weissmann. It's a beautiful piece, well served by both artists in their own ways.

"Im Chambre Séparée" gained another life a few years after the film. In 1953 Dorcas Cochran came up with a song titled "Suddenly," somehow forgetting to credit Heuberger for its melody. Les Baxter recorded it for Capitol with a very good solo vocal by Bill Kennedy. It, too, is in the download.

In addition to the various permutations in the download, the "Emperor Waltz" and "Kiss in Your Eyes" did occasion a good number of cover records, presumably trading off Bing's popularity, if not Strauss or Heuberger.

* * *

The film itself wasn't a huge success. Made in 1946, it wasn't released until 1948 and while it did recoup its investment, it wasn't a blockbuster. During the filming, Bing was reportedly chilly to co-star Joan Fontaine and resistant to direction from Billy Wilder. The director, who had lived in Vienna when young, was disappointed by the final film.

The recordings have been restored from Internet Archive transfers.

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On a Sugar High with Rosie, Roy and Three Bears

Promotional labels; picture sleeve for commercial release

This post presents a 1951 promotional record for Sugar Crisp cereal featuring Roy Rogers, Rosemary Clooney, and three cute bears. But before we get to the record, some background might be helpful.

When Post's Sugar Crisp cereal came out in 1948, it quickly became popular with children, if not dentists because it was literally more sugar than cereal. Post's ad agency, Benton & Bowles, came up with a memorable (and lengthy) tag line, "For breakfast, it's dandy. For snacks, it's so handy. Or eat it like candy." Like candy? It was (and still is) candy.

B&B conceived the idea of having three bears as a mascot for the cereal - Dandy, Handy and Candy - who appeared in Sugar Crisp ads. (There's one below.) In 1951, the agency decided the bears needed a song, and tunesmiths Alan and Marilyn Scott set to work. Then B&B arranged for Rosemary Clooney to record the result, "Dandy, Handy and Candy," for Columbia records.

Rosemary Clooney

Now, the record does not push the cereal, per se. Instead the Scotts invented a tale of the bears living in a hollow tree, wanting something bigger, building a house, becoming disenchanted with the upkeep, and moving back to the hollow tree. Rosie Clooney managed to make all this charming.

Post then set up a deal where cereal buyers could get both the record and sheet music. Cash Box magazine reported they expected to move some 50,000 discs that way.

Dandy, Handy and Candy sell the product

But for this post we're presenting a different promotion for the same record, apparently designed to be sent to merchants. On one side we have Rosie with the "Dandy, Handy and Candy" song. On the other we hear from singing cowboy and TV/radio star Roy Rogers, whose programs were sponsored by Post cereals. In addition to some folderol involving wife/sidekick Dale Evans and dog/sidekick Bullet, Roy breezily mentions a brochure providing the details of the promotion, while explaining that comical sidekick Pat Brady was off working on his Jeep, Nelliebelle. He concludes by singing a splendid Western swing number, "San Antone," which, if truth be told, beats the heck out of "Dandy, Handy and Candy."

I don't know if all this sold any cereal or not. It couldn't have hurt because Sugar Crisp was very popular, and I ate it myself occasionally. I even remember the tag line and the bears.

A few decades later the Federal Communications Commission banned such product tie-ins aimed at children.

If you want to know more about Sugar Crisp cereal (now known as Golden Crisp in the US) and an exhaustive delineation of its evolving bear mascots, please see this discussion by blogger Dan Brady.

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Songs from the 'My Sister Eileen' Musicals

When Ruth McKenney started writing about moving to New York with her sister Eileen, she began a multimedia enterprise that spawned New Yorker articles, a book, a play, a film, a Broadway musical, a Hollywood musical, and a television show. And perhaps some other things I've missed.

Today we'll concentrate on the musical offspring of the My Sister Eileen stories - the 1953 Broadway production Wonderful Town, and the 1955 Hollywood film issued under the original title. The two musicals had different scores - Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green; My Sister Eileen by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. (Columbia Pictures apparently didn't want to pay for the Broadway score.)

Wonderful Town has sired a series of albums, including one by the original cast and another from the 1958 television production, both with Rosalind Russell as Ruth. There was no cast album from the film, possibly because the score was too skimpy. In that production, only Betty Garrett (Ruth) was known as a singer. (Yes, I realize that Jack Lemmon issued a few vocal LPs.) For me, the high point of the film is not a song but a spectacular dance duel between Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall, who were competing for Eileen.

This post is not concerned with any recordings by the original casts; rather it examines the records that appeared in the market covering songs from these musicals. Most are from Wonderful Town, but the few from My Sister Eileen are worth hearing as well.

Wonderful Town

Let's start with Wonderful Town and my favorite song from either score - "Ohio," in a heartfelt version by the superb Lisa Kirk. The work has witty lyrics by Comden and Green and a loping tune (possibly inspired by Gershwin's "Bidin' My Time") that suggests Bernstein thought that Ohio is out West where the tumbleweeds blow. Rosalind Russell and Edith (Edie) Adams introduced the song.

The Hi-Lo's (Gene Puerling, Bob Strasen, Clark Burroughs, Bob Morse)
and Lisa Kirk

"A Quiet Girl" is a hymn-like Bernstein creation here in a uncharacteristically restrained - and very beautiful - reading by the Hi-Lo's. Frank Comstock suggests the composer's debt to Aaron Copland in his arrangement. This song was done first by George Gaynes as Bob Baker, Ruth's eventual love interest.

In Wonderful Town, Eileen betrayed her feelings for Frank in the excellent and unaccountably neglected "A Little Bit in Love." Here we have the talented Sandy Stewart several years before her big hit "My Coloring Book." The song comes from an Epic EP devoted to songs from the score.

Sandy Stewart and Lena Horne

The most popular song from either musical was possibly "It's Love," here in a typically polished version from the great Lena Horne. Edie Adams and George Gaynes introduced it.

One of Bernstein's most felicitous inspirations was the "Wrong Note Rag," near the end of the Wonderful Town score. Pianist Jack Fina, who made his name with Freddy Martin, has some fun with the piece, although he seems almost pained by the wrong notes.

Jack Fina and Arthur Fiedler

Finally, we have a medley of the Wonderful Town songs from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. The conductor was more attuned to musical humor than Fina, and he nails the manic quality of the "Wrong Note Rag." Arranger Dave Terry comes back to it a few times in this exceptionally well-done compilation. It comes from the LP Curtain Going Up, available newly remastered on my other blog.

My Sister Eileen

We switch to My Sister Eileen for "There's Nothin' Like Love," here in a effective arrangement by Ralph Flanagan that features baritone saxophonist Stan Webb and the smooth vocalist Johnny Amaroso, who also played trumpet in the band. On film the singers were Bob Fosse (Frank) and Janet Leigh (Eileen).

Art Mooney and Johnny Amaroso

Next, some old-style corn called "Give Me a Band and My Baby," just the thing for Art Mooney and his crew, who specialized in such material. The bandleader's biggest success was "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" in 1948. His hits in 1955 were "Honey-Babe," a march from the film Battle Cry, and "Nuttin' for Christmas," the lament of a juvenile Barry Gordon.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Finally, Sammy Davis, Jr. does wonders with the Styne-Robin "It's Bigger Than You and Me," a crass tune that the vulpine Bob Baker (Jack Lemmon) croons to Ruth (Betty Garrett). With Davis, arranger Sy Oliver provides a brassy introduction, followed by Sam embarking on some jaunty vocalese that sets the tone for the number.

These selections were cleaned up from my collection and Internet Archive.

About the McKenneys

Ruth and Eileen McKenney

Ruth (1911-72) and Eileen (1913-40) McKenney grew up in East Cleveland, Ohio. Ruth wrote her stories for The New Yorker in the 1930s. They became a book in 1938. She was more multi-dimensional than the film suggests, being socially aware and a member of the Communist Party for quite a few years.

Eileen moved to the West Coast in the 1930s and worked as a Disney artist. She married the writer Nathanael West (Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust). She and West were killed in an automobile accident a few days before the play My Sister Eileen opened on Broadway.

Ruth's daughter believed her mother never quite recovered from Eileen's death.

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Completing the Vic Damone Silvertone 78s

Vic Damone c1946-8

Some time ago on my main blog I posted most of the recordings that the great singer Vic Damone made for Sears' Silvertone Record Club circa 1946-7. These were among his first records, along with the three songs he contributed to an early 1947 Rodgers and Hart album and perhaps some of his Mercury output.

Those Silvertone singles came from my collection. Now I have found the remaining three Silvertone sides on Internet Archive and am presenting them here to compete the set of 14.

The new items start with "My Blue Heaven" (with Ted Dale's orchestra), which was the first Damone Silvertone. Also in the set are two with Tutti Camarata - "Something to Remember You By" and "Dancing in the Dark."

These all demonstrate that Vic was an accomplished singer right from the start, although certainly under the spell of Sinatra. The sound is good, but note that the single with Camarata has quite a bit of surface noise.

The recordings I posted previously are in better shape, and I've newly remastered them in ambient stereo.

From the 1947 Sears Christmas catalog

The Silvertone Record Club was a high-toned pop and light classical label that Sears operated from 1946-49. 

From my earlier post: "I believe that Sears contracted with Mercury for its Damone output ... Many of the songs first issued on Silvertone show up in his Mercury discography as well. It seems likely that the masters reverted to Mercury after the Sears imprint went under.

"So why transfer these if some can be found on Mercury issues? First, because the majority come from 12-inch masters, and I believe that Mercury shortened them for subsequent release. Second, not all of them were re-released. And most importantly, they are fine examples of Damone's balladry, and thus enjoyable in and of themselves."

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The Vocal Side of Leroy Anderson

Although Leroy Anderson is renowned as a composer of light orchestral music, seven of his compositions were given lyrics by Mitchell Parish - and one has become a holiday standard.

That standard is, of course, "Sleigh Ride," recently heard on this blog in the excellent version by Johnny Desmond. This post covers the rest of the Anderson-Parish vocal arrangements, save for "Belle of the Ball," which as far as I can tell has never been recorded. (Correction: my knowledge was incomplete. Reader JAC tells me that William Dazeley and Kim Criswell recorded it for the Anderson collection conducted by Leonard Slatkin for Naxos.)

I should mention in passing that Anderson also wrote music for the 1958-59 musical Goldilocks, with lyrics by Walter and Jean Kerr and Joan Ford, but those songs aren't covered here.

Eileen Barton

The first three recordings in this post come from 1951, one of the composer's most fruitful years. First we have "The Syncopated Clock," in a charming account by Eileen Barton, with the band directed by the estimable Neal Hefti, still in his 20s and writing charts for Count Basie.

Barton was recording for the small National label at the time. "The Syncopated Clock" was one of that company's last releases before folding. Eileen had enjoyed a number-one record the year before with "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake," originally on National and then picked up by the larger Mercury label. Barton moved on to Coral after National closed. You can hear a bit of her on that label here.

Mary Mayo never had a big hit, but she was well-known as a studio singer. Her Capitol version of "Serenata" makes use only of the gorgeous B section of Anderson's composition. Mary was one of several vocalists who specialized in ethereal vocalise, popular at the time, which she employs in the second chorus of "Serenata." (Others known for this technique were Loulie Jean Norman and Sally Sweetland, the latter of whom will be the subject of a main blog post in the near future.) The conductor of "Serenata" is Mayo's husband, Al Ham.

Mary Mayo and Florian ZaBach

Florian ZaBach was best known as a violinist, but on his record of "The Waltzing Cat" he introduces the song by singing at least the first part of Parish's lyrics, shakily but effectively. His fiddle and the band then indulge in the "meows" that populate the song. ZaBach had done well with another novelty, Paul Nero's "The Hot Canary," so varying the species made good sense.

Vico Torriani

Swiss singer-actor Vico Torriani presumably makes some use of Parish's lyrics in his c1952 recording of "Blue Tango" (a huge instrumental hit for Anderson), but I can't be sure because he sings in German. It's a good record; Torriani was popular for a long time.

A vocal version of Anderson's "Forgotten Dreams" unexpectedly turned up on Ed Ames' 1965 LP, My Kind of Songs. Ames' impassioned singing is just right for this lovely song. Marty Manning's arrangement features the plink-plunk piano accompaniment that was popular at the time, a cliché that has not aged well.

Ed's singing does redeem the record, though, and shows just how well Leroy Anderson's compositions work with vocals - as do all these selections.

This post is a companion to a two-part series on my main blog devoted to all of Anderson's 1950-54 recordings. Part 1 is here; Part 2 is forthcoming.

LINK to singles

Constant Lambert Conducts Borodin and Waldteufel

The composer-conductor Constant Lambert has been a long-standing interest of mine, as demonstrated by the frequent posts both on my main blog and most recently on this singles outpost, where I presented his recording of Émile Waldteufel's Skaters Waltz.

Today, we follow up that Waldteufel post with another from that composer - the waltz Pomona, again in a sophisticated performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Lambert. Waldteufel (1837-1915) was an Alsatian composer whose best-known work was the Skaters Waltz mentioned above, aka Les Patineurs.

Alexander Borodin

Lambert also was an aficionado of Russian music. His Tchaikovsky recordings have appeared on Big 10-Inch, but here he is in a superior performance of an atmospheric composition by Alexander Borodin (1833-87), In the Steppes of Central Asia. This helpful introduction to the motifs in the piece comes from Wikipedia: 

A caravan of Central Asians is crossing the desert under the protection of Russian troops. The opening theme, representing the Russians, is heard first; after it, the strains of an ornamented eastern melody on English horn, representing the Asians. The melodies eventually combine contrapuntally. Amid these two ethnic melodies Borodin inserts a "traveling" theme in pizzicato that represents the plodding hoofs of the horses and camels. At the end, only the Russian theme is heard.

As with the Waldteufel, this memorable work was recorded in London's resonant Kingsway Hall, the Borodin in 1946 (also with the Philharmonia) and the Waldteufel in 1950. Both recordings were remastered from 78 needle-drops on Internet Archive.

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Marion Harris Sings Gershwin

The singer Marion Harris is mostly forgotten today, even though she was very popular on records and radio from the late teens until the 1930s. Born Mary Ellen Harrison in 1896, possibly in Indiana, she was on Broadway in an Irving Berlin revue as early as 1915.

Soon thereafter she was making records for Victor, introducing such standards as "After You're Gone," "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "I Ain't Got Nobody."

Harris was successful because she was good, and moreover her voice was well suited to recording, with clear diction, lovely tone, and accurate intonation. She also had a personal quality that was well ahead of its time during a period when many singers developed a trumpet-like characteristic so they could be heard in the back of a theater.

Today, as a companion to a George Gershwin collection from Lee Wiley on my main blog, we have three Gershwin songs that Harris recorded in the 1920s.

The first was unfamiliar to me, and I suspect will be to most others: "Nashville Nightingale," which dates from 1923. This was before George was writing regularly with his brother Ira; the song has lyrics by Irving Caesar that trade on the usual Southern clichés complete with stereotypical language. If you can put that aside, you'll find that Harris sings the piece convincingly.

Sources differ on the genesis of the song. Some say it was heard in the short-lived revue Nifties of 1923, but the Internet Broadway Database does not list it in the songs from that show's opening night. It may have been cut before the opening or added during the six-week run. Later, the song was heard in the 1927 West End revue Shake Your Feet.

The next number, "Somebody Loves Me," is far more famous. It comes from 1924, when it was heard in that year's George White's Scandals. Gershwin worked with lyricist Buddy DeSylva on the song. Harris' Brunswick recording is first class.

Both these recordings were made by the acoustic process, with its limited frequency response. Even so, they are very listenable, in large part because Harris' voice recorded so well.

The final item, "The Man I Love," was written by the Gershwin brothers and remains one of their best-known numbers. As I note in my Lee Wiley post, "For such a famous song, it had the dubious honor of being cut from Lady, Be Good, inserted in Strike Up the Band, which closed out of town, and rejected for Rosalie." Although the piece was written in 1924, it wasn't until 1927 that the recordings started to flow. SecondHand Songs lists Harris' as the first, although versions by such fine vocalists as Annette Hanshaw and Vaughn De Leath came out at about the same time.

Harris' disc is fully satisfying, enhanced by the electrical recording process with its wider frequency response. The singer is accompanied by the unusual combination of violin, guitar and piano; the violin sounds like it might actually have been a viola.

The Discography of American Historical Recordings lists 167 sides by Harris, all of which were done before 1931. She appeared on American radio in the early 1930s, then was on radio in England for a brief time before retiring from the business. She died in a fire aged 48.

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