Welcome to the new home of the Mike's Noise Virtual Victrola.
Over the next few months I will be finishing up this site and importing all the music from my old Virtual Victrola blog category.
After you have browsed the posts here, head over to my old Virtual Victrola for dozens of great articles and nearly 100 Mp3 files of vintage jazz and pop music.
Probably the most enduring popular song written about the automobile is Gus Edwards' and Vincent Bryan's "In My Merry Oldsmobile," which was written in 1905 and is still recognized by a great many people today:
Naturally this song has been recorded by many artists over the years. Our first record is an "original version" recorded by the prolific singer Billy Murray for Columbia Records in 1906:
Download Billy Murray - In My Merry Oldsmobile (mp3)
In 1927, the Jean Goldkette Orchestra was invited by General Motors to make an updated record of the song. One side of the record was a waltz arrangement of the song in the
traditional style, while the other side, the one I have included here,
is a lively fox-trot arranged by Bill Challis. It notably features cornetist
Bix Beiderbecke improvising over the last chorus. These performances were recorded by Victor Records in May of 1927, and the special record was given by GM as a souvenir to those who attended the 1927 Detroit Auto Show. (If you click on the label image, you'll notice that one of the composers is incorrectly listed as "Vincent Edwards.")
Download Jean Goldkette - In My Merry Oldsmobile (mp3)
Our final version of "In My Merry Oldsmobile" dates from 1946 and features Les Brown and his Orchestra, with vocals by Pat Flaherty and Butch Stone. This swinging 1946 arrangement captures the excitement of American car buyers who anxiously awaited the arrival of the new post-war American automobiles. (If you recall, US domestic auto production was halted from 1942 through 1945, as Detroit's factories were re-tooled to produce military vehicles and airplanes.) The new 1947 Oldsmobile featured Hydra-Matic Drive, the first practical automatic transmission, and attractive "fast back" styling. (The legendary "Rocket V8" Oldsmobile engine wasn't introduced until 1949.)
Download Les Brown - In My Merry Oldsmobile (mp3)
Billy Murray, who successfully transitioned from records to broadcasting and had become a radio star in the late 1920's due in part to his partnership with another singer, Walter Scanlon, was invited by the Max Fleischer studios to to lead a sing-along cartoon of "In My Merry Oldsmobile" that was released by the studio in 1932:
Lots of vintage Oldsmobile advertisements are available here. I always enjoy looking at old car ads from the 1950's, if for no other reason than to appreciate the effots of artists to draw the cars so they look as big is possible.
Episode #6 of Futuristic Rhythm takes a look back at the music inspired and influenced by the Great Depression, from roughly 1929 through 1935. This extended edition of the program runs 68 minutes instead of the usual hour.
Download Music of the Great Depression -1
8 Mb MP3 audio 34:21
Download Music of the Great Depression -2 8.1 Mb MP3 audio 34:35
Playlist:
Leo Reisman and his Orch.-Lou Levin - Happy Days Are Here Again (1929)
(excerpt of Fox Movietone newsreel with economist Irving Fisher)
Eddie Cantor - Tips On the Stock Market (1929)
Bob Haring and his Orch.-Scrappy Lambert - I'm In The Market For You (1930)
Hotel Pennsylvania Music - Cheer Up, Good Times Are Coming (1930)
Vincent Rose and his Orch.-Scrappy Lambert - There's No Depression In Love (1931)
Phil Spitalny's Music - Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee (1932)
Phil Spitalny's Music-Eddie Cantor - Cheer Up (Nertz!) (theme from "Ballyhoo!") (1931)
Bing Crosby - Brother, Can You Spare A Dime (1932)
Hal Kemp and his Orch.-Deane Janis - Remember My Forgotten Man (1933)
(excerpt from the Texaco Fire Chief program starring Ed Wynn)
Adrian Rollini and his Orch. - Got The Jitters (1932)
Victor Young directing the Brunswick Orchestra and Stars - Life Is Just A Bowl of Cherries (1931)
Johnny Johnson and his Orch.-Vi Mele - Love And A Dime (1934)
Phil Spitalny's Music - Now's The Time To Fall In Love (1931)
Johnny Johnson and his Orch.-Harry McDaniel and Bob Treaster - Shut The Door (1934)
Chick Bullock - I Found A Million Dollar Baby (In A Five And Ten Cent Store) (1932)
Paul Whiteman and his Orch.-Ramona Davies - Are You Makin' Any Money (1933)
Duke Ellington and his Famous Orch.-Ivey Anderson - Raisin' The Rent (1933)
Chick Bullock - With Plenty of Money And You (1935)
George White's "Scandals" was a series of popular Broadway musical revues that "combined the best of America's own burgeoning
popular music (as opposed to the imported European variety) with
fast-moving sketches and glamorous women." The Scandals shows ran for 20 years, from 1919 to 1939, and helped to launch the careers of such showbiz giants as W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, Bert Lahr, Rudy Vallée, Louise Brooks, and Eleanor Powell. Although the Scandals shows were not as lavishly staged as Flo Ziegfield's productions, they were renowned for the quality of their songs and stage talent. (More about George White's Scandals is available from Wikipedia.)
The 1931 edition of the Scandals featured Rudy Vallee, Ethel Merman, and Ray Bolger, and fantastic songs by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. "Ethel Merman introduced the lovely 'Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries' and 'Ladies and
Gentlemen, That's Love,' as well as duetting with Rudy Vallee on 'My
Song.' Vallee also sang 'The Thrill Is Gone' (with Everett Marshall)
and 'This Is the Missus' (with Peggy Moseley)."
That same year, Brunswick Records released a double-sided 12" 78 rpm record entitled "Gems from George White's Scandals." The disc features virtually all of Brunswick's top recording talent, including Victor Young conducting the Brunswick Studio Orchestra, Connee Boswell and the Boswell Sisters, The Mills Brothers, Bing Crosby, and radio star Frank Munn. The record also features a trombone solo on "The Thrill is Gone" by Tommy Dorsey, and a brief trumpet interlude on "Ladies and Gentlemen, That's Love" by Bunny Berigan.
The only controversial song in the program is "That's Why Darkies Were Born," which, despite its cringe-inducing imagery, actually casts African Americans in a positive light:
Someone had to pick the cotton,
Someone had to pick the corn,
Someone had to slave and be able to sing,
That's why darkies were born;
Someone had to laugh at trouble,
Though he was tired and worn,
Had to be contented with any old thing,
That's why darkies were born;
Sing, sing, sing when you're weary and
Sing when you're blue,
Sing, sing, that's what you taught
All the white folks to do;
Someone had to fight the Devil,
Shout about Gabriel's Horn,
Someone had to stoke the train
That would bring God's children to green pastures,
That's why darkies were born.
This song stands as a stark reminder of the generally demeaning way that African Americans were portrayed on radio, in books and magazines, and in the motion pictures of the day. Interestingly, Paul Robeson also recorded "That's Why Darkies Were Born" in 1931, and kept it in his regular performance repertory for decades.
The 1931 Brunswick recording features, in order:
The Boswell Sisters - This is The Missus
Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey - The Thrill Is Gone
Frank Munn - My Song
The Boswell Sisters, Bunny Berigan - Ladies and Gentlemen, That's Love
Frank Munn - That's Why Darkies Were Born
The Mills Brothers, Connee Boswell, Bing Crosby, The Boswell Sisters - Life Is Just A Bowl of Cherries
Download Brunswick Orch dir Victor Young - Gems From George White's Scandals
Although he is not well known today, songwriter Herman "Dodo" Hupfeld scored a number of successes in the early 1930's, including the immortal standard "As Time Goes By."
Hupfeld was born into a musical New Jersey family in 1894. As a child, Hupfeld studied violin in Germany. Later he was a member of the United States Navy Band, where he played saxophone. As a young man Hupfeld penned the Princeton fight song "Here Comes That Tiger" but did not have a string of songwriting successes until the early 1930's. Hupfeld rarely performed in public and only recorded once, playing the piano and singing with Victor Young and his Orchestra on two performances of obscure original songs from 1932 -- "Goopy Geer (He Plays Piano And He Plays By Ear)" and "Down The Old Back Road."
Hupfeld's first wide commercial success was a novelty song entitled "When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba." Here is the Ben Selvin Orchestra recording as The Knickerbockers in June 1931 playing "Yuba." The vocalsit is the prolific Dick Robertson:
Download Ben Selvin AHO-Dick Robertson - When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba
In 1931, Hupfeld was asked to write a song for the Broadway Show Everybody's Welcome. Hupfeld did this often; he never wrote a complete Broadway or film score, but contributed many individual songs to shows and musical films when requested by producers and directors. For Everybody's Welcome, Hupfeld wrote a song called "As Time Goes By." Rudy Vallee and Jacques Renard both recorded it. The song failed to chart in 1931 and was soon forgotten. Here is Rudy Vallee's 1931 recording of "As Time Goes By," which includes the song's lovely verse:
Download Rudy Vallee - As Time Goes By
Vallee greatly admired Hupfeld, and immediately jumped on Hupfeld's sentimental 1932 song "Let's Put Out The Lights And Go To Sleep." With Hupfeld's permission, Vallee used the song for years as the signing-off theme for his regular radio broadcasts. Here is Rudy Vallee's own version of the song:
Download Rudy Vallee - Let's Put Out The Lights And Go To Sleep
Hupfeld's next hit, "Are You Makin' Any Money," came from the score of Universal's low-budget 1933 musical Moonlight and Pretzels. Our version is provided by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, with an appealing vocal by Ramona Davies. Listen for a brief trumpet solo by Bunny Berigan:
Download Paul Whiteman AHO-Ramona - Are You Makin' Any Money
Another 1933 musical film, Take A Chance, was the source for our final 1930's Hupfeld hit, the eerie "Night Owl." Cliff Edwards recorded the song in October 1933, reprising his performance of it in the film:
Download Cliff Edwards - Night Owl
By 1935 Hupfeld had made enough money to build a spacious residence in his hometown of Montclaire, New Jersey. He never married, and lived quietly in his Montclaire estate by himself, all but certain that the changing times ushered in by the Swing Era and a new World War had effectively ended his career as a hit songwriter.
Then by chance, the producers of the 1943 Humphrey Bogart/Ingrid Bergman drama Casablanca decided to revive his long-forgotten 1931 hit "As Time Goes By." They also chose a then-relatively unknown African American entertainer named Dooley Wilson to perform the song in the film. Wilson's relaxed, sympathetic vocal, accompanied only by his own piano, became an immediate sensation. But Casablanca was released in the midst of the long musician's strike of 1942 - 1944, which meant that no contemporary recordings of the song could be made. So Victor and Decca (which owned the catalog of Brunswick recordings made before the end of 1931) dug into their vaults and reissued their rather dated (by 1943 standards) recordings of the songs. Suddenly, Herman Hupfeld became a household name again.
He made radio and stage appearances, played the piano and sang his songs, and entertained the troops. After WWII ended and the allure of Casablanca was replaced by other hit motion pictures, Hupfeld retired once again to Montclair, New Jersey, and to the life of seclusion that he so fondly enjoyed. He died there in 1951 at the age of 55.
It seems like people are always interested in long-forgotten Christmas favorites, so this Christmas I'm stretching the boundaries a little and including some records from the 1950's and 1960's.
I hope everyone enjoys these jazzy, bluesy, and downright silly songs.
...
Bandleader Lionel Hampton gives us our first tune, a jazzy rendition of "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" with a vocal by blues shouter Sonny Parker. The Brian Setzer orchestra re-recorded this tune recently, and at least one other blogger has also posted an MP3 of this tune. But here it is again for your dancing pleasure:
Download Lionel Hampton - Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.mp3
Next, R&B legend Roy Milton steps up to the plate to deliver the appropriately-named "Christmas Time Blues." Milton was a popular and well-traveled R&B performer with roots in Tulsa, OK. But with the advent of 'rock and roll,' Milton's R&B music, with its roots in the Swing Era, did not provide enough of a platform to catapult him to the kind of super-stardom enjoyed by Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and other contemporaries.
Download Roy Milton and his Solid Senders - Christmas Time Blues.mp3
Prolific King Records artist Bill Doggett provides our next tune, one of two versions of "Winter Wonderland" that I'll be posting today. Doggett was a pianist and Hammond B3 organ player who started out as a big band sideman and accompanist for singers like Ella Fitzgerald. Doggett's biggest hit was the early rock tune "Honky Tonk." Unfortunately, Doggett's time in the pop music spotlight was short, and he lost favor with jazz audiences because of his efforts to make more hit rock records. He finally re-established himself with jazz listeners in the 1970's and remained active until his death in 1996.
Download Bill Doggett - Winter Wonderland.mp3
Sanguine pop singer Eileen Barton is best remembered for her 1949 hit, "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake." But in 1952, she recorded "The Night Before Christmas Song," adapted from the famous Clement Moore poem by Johnny Marks.
Download Eileen Barton - The Night Before Christmas Song.mp3
The early 1950's treated (?) us to a glut of grating child singers warbling silly Christmas songs -- "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas," "Where Did My Snowman Go," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Nuttin for Christmas," etc. Here is yet another one, 9 year old child star Little Rita Faye singing "I Fell Out of a Christmas Tree," which is what happens when evergreens fail to practice proper birth control.
Download Little Rita Faye - I Fell Out Of A Christmas Tree.mp3
The late 1950's brought us The Chipmunks and yet another glut of annoying records featuring benzedrine-addled "animals" singing silly Christmas songs. For your amusement, here are Dasher, Prancer, and Nervous singing "The Happy Reindeer Song."
Download Dancer, Prancer, and Nervous - The Happy Reindeer Song.mp3
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes had just released their first top 20 R&B, hit "My Hero," when their version of "Winter Wonderland" was recorded in 1960. Although it post-dates the 78rpm era by just a few years, the classic do-wop harmonies and relaxed 'cha-cha' feel of their performance merits its inclusion in this post. This group would go on to super-stardom in the 1970's thanks to new lead singer Teddy Pendergrass and their monster 1972 hit "If You Don't Know Me By Now."
Download Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - Winter Wonderland.mp3
1960 was also the year that the King label paired two genuine old-school 1940's R&B kings together on what would be the last hit record for either of them: Charles Brown's "Please Come Home For Christmas," and Amos Milburn's "Christmas Comes But Once A Year." Charles Brown's smooth singing and piano playing made him very popular on the West Coast in the wake of Nat 'King" Cole's stardom. Amos Milburn made a name for himself playing in the roadhouses around Houston, TX, before rocketing to nationwide fame with "Chicken Shack Boogie." But by 1960, both artists had faded into near-obscurity, having been eclipsed by rockabilly, jump blues, and rock and roll.
Download Charles Brown - Please Come Home for Christmas.mp3
Download Amos Milburn - Christmas Comes But Once A Year.mp3
Of course you can't talk about the 1960's without talking about rockets and spacemen, and our last record seems to have been inspired by the USA/USSR space race of that decade. There is little information online about our last record, but it is a recitation of two short anti-war editorials, told from the point of view of an observer in space looking down on poor Planet Earth.
Download Rob Townsend - Christmas Message From Space.mp3
Download Rob Townsend - The Night Before New Years.mp3
...
Merry Christmas to everyone from the Virtual Victrola. See you all next year!
November 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz trumpet
legend Bunny Berigan. During the month of November 2008, The Virtual
Victrola will feature the music of Bunny Berigan, both as a sideman and
bandleader.
__________________________________________
Any trumpeter who is serious about playing jazz, especially traditional jazz, will eventually be called to play the Vernon Duke-Ira Gershwin standard, "I Can't Get Started." We have Bunny Berigan to thank for that.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the song was discovered by John DeVries, an occasional songwriter and friend of 52nd Street jazz musicians. He brought the sheet music to The Famous Door and asked Red McKenzie's band to run it down during rehearsal. Bunny immediately fell in love with the tune, and the band made it a regular part of their nightly shows. The band recorded it on April 3, 1936, with Berigan playing lead (no solo, though) and Red McKenzie singing the lyric.
The Red McKenzie recording is a rather straight reading of the tune, but apparently the Famous Door band -- and especially Bunny Berigan -- had been doing much more with it than the McKenzie recording bears out. For Bunny Berigan was in the Vocalion studios ten days later with his own group, and their version of "I Can't Get Started" is a wonder. The performance begins with a straight reading of the tune, similar to the Red McKenzie version. Then Berigan sings the vocal chorus himself in a thin, slightly quivering voice that belies the power of the trumpet playing that follows. Berigan transitions out of the vocal chorus through a series of muscular trumpet cadenzas that lead from C major into D flat major, and then into a final bravura outchorus ending on a climactic high concert D flat.
With this one performance, Berigan formally invaded, and perhaps conquered, territory that had previously been the sole domain of Louis Armstrong.
Download Bunny Berigan and his Boys - I Can't Get Started
After Berigan formed his own big band, he commissioned pianist Joe Lipmann to score "I Can't Get Started" for the group. Lipmann added another series of trumpet cadenzas at the beginning of the tune, stretching its duration to nearly five minutes. But every note that Berigan plays on that record, cut for Victor on August 7, 1937, is absolutely astounding. Berigan seems to relish performing his solo work in front of a full big band, and the performance takes on a much heavier feel than the small group version waxed a year and a half earlier. Still, the song became a huge hit, and Victor was compelled to release not only the 12" four minute version, but also a commercial 10" version with the opening trumpet cadenzas omitted.
Download Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra - I Can't Get Started
November 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz trumpet
legend Bunny Berigan. During the month of November 2008, The Virtual
Victrola will feature the music of Bunny Berigan, both as a sideman and
bandleader.
__________________________________________
Music connoisseurs have long considered Billie Holiday's 1930's small group recordings to be among the finest jazz records ever made. Those efforts were produced by John Hammond, who assembled consistently high quality integrated studio bands whose personnel were drawn from the top jazz talent in New York. Bunny Berigan accompanied Billie Holiday on two sessions recorded in July and September 1936. I am featuring the September 1936 session in this post.
The band assembled by Hammond for this date consisted of Bunny Berigan (tp), Irving Fazola (cl), Clyde Hart (p), Dick McDonough (g), Artie Bernstein (b), and Cozy Cole (d). And as usual, Hammond managed to reserve good songs for Billie to sing, as opposed to the pot-boilers usually given to colored singers or minor label talent.
Berigan is in fine form on this set, displaying the full range of his playing capabilities -- the fierce outburst on "A Fine Romance," the rich lower register of "I Can't Pretend," the elegant, almost introverted muted work on "Let's Call a Heart A Heart," and the joyous romp through "One Two Button Your Shoe."
It must have been playing like this that prompted Louis Armstrong to once remark, "To me, Bunny can't do no wrong in music."
Download Billie Holiday - A Fine Romance
Download Billie Holiday - I Can't Pretend
November 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz trumpet
legend Bunny Berigan. During the month of November 2008, The Virtual
Victrola will feature the music of Bunny Berigan, both as a sideman and
bandleader.
__________________________________________
1936 was a very busy year for trumpeter Bunny Berigan. He had been a member of Benny Goodman's band throughout the middle and latter part of 1935, but quit when the band returned to New York in October. Berigan disliked the drudgery of touring in a road band, and work for him in the studios and clubs of New York City was plentiful.
He began hanging around The Famous Door on 52nd street, playing in the evenings with a group led by singer Red McKenzie, guitarist Eddie Condon, and tenor saxophonist Forrest Crawford. The Famous Door band was a hit, and McKenzie soon got a recording contract with Decca records for the group, under his longstanding working name - The Mound City Blue Blowers.
These sides, recorded between January and April of 1936, again show Bunny to be a powerful lead player, satisfying accompanist, and thrilling soloist. They also provide the first glimpse at what was to become a Berigan phenomenon - his interpretation of the Vernon Duke-Ira Gershwin standard, "I Can't Get Started."
As the story goes, the song was discovered by John DeVries, an occasional songwriter and friend of the 52nd street gang. He brought the music to The Famous Door and asked the band to run it down during rehearsal. Bunny immediately fell in love with the tune, and the band made it a regular part of their nightly shows. The band recorded it on April 3, 1936, with Berigan playing lead (no solo, though) and Red McKenzie singing the lyric. The rest, as they say, is history.
Download Mound City Blue Blowers -
Mama Don't Allow It
(mp3)
Download Mound City Blue Blowers -
The Music Goes 'Round And Around
(mp3)
Download Mound City Blue Blowers -
If I Had Rhythm In My Nursery Rhymes
(mp3)
Download Red McKenzie and his Rhythm Kings -
I Can't Get Started
(mp3)
November 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz trumpet
legend Bunny Berigan. During the month of November 2008, The Virtual
Victrola will feature the music of Bunny Berigan, both as a sideman and
bandleader.
__________________________________________
On March 31, 1937, RCA Victor records brought together veteran jazzmen Tommy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan, Fats Waller, Dick McDonough, and George Wettling to record several "jam session" sides for the label.
Jazz historian and author Dick Sudhalter writes,
And indeed they are. Unfortunately, by this time Bunny Berigan had already begun drinking very heavily, and although it had not yet physically affected his playing, his descent into severe alcoholism had already begun to overshadow over his ability to be a responsible and successful bandleader.
But the two sides recorded by this all-star group (with no bass player!) are still a treat. Surprisingly, Tommy Dorsey is probably the weakest pure jazz soloist of the group; yet he turns out two very solid performances. Guitarist Dick McDonough's tricky ascending triplet figure is the highlight of "Honeysuckle Rose," and Berigan's beautiful solo on "Blues" elevates the number in ways that envoke Louis Armstrong's classic "West End Blues."
November 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz trumpet
legend Bunny Berigan. During the month of November 2008, The Virtual
Victrola will feature the music of Bunny Berigan, both as a sideman and
bandleader.
__________________________________________
Legendary record producer and A&R man John Hammond established himself in the early 1930's as a fearless promoter of jazz, organizing the recorded debuts of such luminaries as Billie Holiday and Count Basie, and urging Columbia Records to invite Bessie Smith back into the studios for what would be her last record session. Hammond also had a passion for social justice, and strove to promote racial integration; when he wasn't able to achieve it publicly, he insisted on racially-mixed groups for the recording sessions that he produced.
The session that John Hammond produced for xylophonist Red Norvo on January 25, 1935 was a typical effort. Hammond recruited the up-and-coming black tenor saxophone star Leon "Chu" Berry and drummer Gene Krupa to join Norvo's group. Norvo brought clarinetist Johnny Mince, bassist Artie Bernstein, pianist Teddy Wilson, twenty-one year old guitar whiz George Van Eps, trombone star Jack Jenney, and trumpeter Bunny Berigan.
The set opens brightly with "Honeysuckle Rose," giving each of the soloists a chance to air his chops effectively. Then it settles down with the dance-tempo ballad "With All My Heart And Soul." An uptempo Teddy Wilson/Red Norvo original "Bughouse" follows; both this tune and "Honeysuckle Rose" are prime examples of Bunny Berigan's powerful lead playing. But the masterpiece of the session is the final number, the transcendent "Blues in E Flat."
Jazz historian and author Dick Sudhalter writes,
The mood is cumulative, each twelve bars adding something -- some insight, some new dimension -- to the chorus preceding it. In that sense it's the very best that jazz as a shared language has to offer: a colloquy, in which each speaker grasps a central idea and carries it a step further by adding thoughts of his own.
I can't really add anything to that, so for your enjoyment here is Red Norvo's Jan. 25, 1935 Columbia Records session:
Download Red Norvo - Honeysuckle Rose.mp3
Download Red Norvo - With All My Heart And Soul.mp3
