May 2008

May 15
 

Don’t Hold Everything
The High Hatters                                            1928
(Victor 21791-A)

To Know You Is To Love You
The High Hatters                                            1928
(Victor 21791-B)

Plucky Lindy’s Lucky Day
The High Hatters                                            1929
(Victor 21909-A)

Good Little Bad Little You
The High Hatters                                            1929
(Victor 21909-B)
 
 

Regular guest contributor Matt From College Station will be taking a hiatus from writing any updates for a few months as he busy doing the final work necessary to get his degree.   In the meanwhile, he will be still contributing by making  recordings from his collection available - it will just be me telling you about them rather than him.   And, as always, I am responsible for the transfer and audio restoration work.   This week's selections come from Matt's collection.

The High Hatters were an in-house band of the Victor Talking Machine Company led by Leonard Joy, one of Victor's music directors.   Most of the band's recordings were exceptionally upbeat and peppy even by the high standards of the era. 

"Don't Hold Everything" and "To Know You Is To Love You" are  DeSylva, Brown & Henderson  compositions from the Broadway production Hold Everything which ran for over 400 performances between October 1928 and  October 1929.   A film adaptation of the production was released in 1930.

"Plucky Lindy's Lucky Day" is a topical novelty song commemorating Charles Lindbergh's engagement to  Anne Morrow, the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.  Lindbergh met Morrow in Mexico in December 1927 eight months after his  solo trans-Atlantic flight made him an overnight celebrity.  The recording session for the song took place in March 1929, a couple of months prior to the wedding. 

This version of "Good Little Bad Little You" is performed at a somewhat slower tempo than one usually hears for both  the song and for the High Hatters.   The song was composed by Bud Green and  Sam H. Stept.
 

- Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board. 

 
 
 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
 
 

One Hour With You
Jeannette MacDonald                                               1932
(Victor 24013-A)

We Will Always Be Sweethearts
Jeannette MacDonald                                               1932
(Victor 24013-B)
 

Here are two additional recordings from the collection of Matt From College Station.  These are two songs  from the 1932 Paramount film One Hour With You which starred Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier and was directed by Ernst Lubitsch.   Matt introduced me to the film a couple of years ago and I rank it among my favorites.  It is a film I highly recommend - and unlike a lot of movie musicals and comedies from the early "talkies" era,  it has held up over time very well. 

While the musical score for the film was provided by the famous Viennese operetta composer Oscar Straus, the title song  was composed by Richard A. Whiting and Leo Robin.    I very much enjoy MacDonald's rendition of it in this recording.   However, in the film the song was performed by Donald Novis backed up by Jimmie Grier's Cocoanut Grove Orchestra.    A commercial 78 rpm version of the song performed by Novis and the Jimmie Grier Orchestra was issued on Victor 22971 and was years later featured in the 1973 film Paper Moon.   Matt has a copy of that record - I will have to see if he can make it available for a future update.

"We Will Always Be Sweethearts" is one of the Oscar Straus songs from the film - and like most Oscar Straus compositions, is very pretty. 

Happily, One Hour With You, along with three other Ernst Lubitsch movie musicals from the early 1930s have recently been reissued in a DVD box set by the Criterion Collection.  One of the films is The Smiling Lieutennant which is a 1931 adaptation of Oscar Straus' famous 1908 operetta A Waltz Dream (Ein Walzertraum) - which just so happens to be my favorite operetta.  The Smiling Lieutennant features Maurice Chevalier but not Jeanette MacDonald.  MacDonald does appear in the other films in the collection, Love Parade from 1929 and Monte Carlo from 1930.
 

 - Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board. 

Next Thursday:  Chester Leighton And His Sophomores

May 8
 
 

 
I’m Still At Your Beck And Call
The Rhythm Maniacs                                           1930
(UK Decca F 2015 mx MB 1785)

He’s My Secret Passion
The Rhythm Maniacs                                           1930
(UK Decca F 2015 mx MB 1786)

Maurice Chevalier Selection Part 1
The Rhythm Maniacs                                           1930
(UK Decca F 2131 mx GB 2370)

Maurice Chevalier Selections Part 2
The Rhythm Maniacs                                           1930
(UK Decca F 2131 mx GB 2371)
 
 
 

Regular guest contributor Matt From College Station will be taking a hiatus from writing any updates for a few months as he busy doing the final work necessary to get his degree.   In the meanwhile,  he will be still contributing by making  recordings from his collection available - it will just be me telling you about them rather than him. 

The Rhythm Maniacs were a British band that I was not familiar with until I heard these recordings from Matt's collection.     The band was a in-house group for Decca Records (a different company from the American record label named Decca which was founded in 1934) led by the company's recording manager Philip Lewis. 

When I first listened to the Matt's record of the first two selections, I was very impressed by the band's style - it is reminiscent of some of the less-known regional or "territory" dance bands in the USA.   I am not sure who the vocalist on the recordings is.

The Maurice Chevalier selections feature songs Chevalier popularized in his 1929 and 1930 movies.    The band sounds great - but, unfortunately, the vocalist does NOT do an especially good job at imitating Chevalier's accent. 

UPDATE:  A visitor was kind enough to write in with the suggestion that the vocalist on "I'm Still At Your Beck And Call" and "He's My Secret Passion" is Ella Logan. 
 

- Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board. 

 
 
 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wunderschöne Frau wir beide kennen uns doch
Paul Godwin Tanz Orch                                             circa 1930
(Polydor C4002 order 23271 mx 2399)

Komst du mich einmal verzeih’n
Paul Godwin Tanz Orch                                             circa 1930
(Polydor C4002 order 23271 mx 2398)
 

Here are two additional recordings from the collection of Matt From College Station.

I am very fond of German popular recordings from the 1920s - and I think both of these recordings are very beautiful and haunting.

Paul Godwin was one of a number of highly successful Jewish musicians and entertainers who were forced to flee Germany when the National Socialist came to power in 1932.

Godwin, whose real name was Pinchas Goldfein,  was a violinist and bandleader who achieved enormous popularity in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s.  Godwin recorded a wide variety of music ranging from  popular fox trot dance band selection to the classics.   By 1928 he had made over 1,500 records.  It is estimated that between 1923 and 1933 his records sold upwards of 9 million copies.  He and his band were also in heavy demand for live performances.

Godwin fled to Holland in 1933 where he continued to perform.  He also performed on tour in other European countries during the balance of the 1930s.   When the Germany invaded Holland in World War II, all Jews were forced into a Jewish Ghetto in Amsterdam.  Godwin found work performing with other Jewish entertainers in a theatre in the ghetto.  In 1942, however, that theatre was used as a collection point where tens of thousands of Dutch Jews were rounded up for deportation to the Westerbrook concentration camp from which they were subsequently transported to Auschwitz and murdered.   Because Godwin's wife was considered an "Aryan" he was able to go underground and avoided the concentration camps.

After World War II, Godwin chose to remain in Holland.   He became a Dutch citizen in 1952.  He continued to perform but focused mainly on classical music. 
 
 

 - Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board.