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Dismuke's Hit Of The Week
Previous Selections
August 2007





August 30
 
 

This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by
Hotel Galvez - Galveston, Texas
Hotel Galvez
Galveston, Texas
(from circa 1930s postcard)


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallee





Where Are You Dream GirlClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees                               1929
(Victor 22062-B)

A Little Kiss Each MorningClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees                               1929
(Victor 22193-A)

PretendingClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees                               1929
(Victor 22062-A)

Gypsy Dream RoseClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees                               1929
(Victor 22261-A)

Everything's In Rhythm With My HeartClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees                               1936
(Victor 25233-A)
 
 
 

Rudy Vallee (née Hubert Prior Vallée) was the first popular male vocalist to achieve mass media superstar status.   Vallee started his career as a saxophone player.  His idol was the famous saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft and his playing Wiedoeft's records over and over again earned him the nickname "Rudy" from his University of Maine classmates.   After spending a year playing with the Savoy Havana Band at London's Savoy Hotel in the mid 1920s, Vallee enrolled in Yale where he formed a band, The Yale Collegians.   In 1928 Vallee  landed an engagement at New York's Heigh Ho Club with the assistance of bandleader Bert Lown and reluctantly agreed to handle the vocals.  The engagement resulted in additional exposure when the performances were broadcast by a local radio station.

Vallee used a megaphone to amplify his singing voice and it quickly became one of his trademarks along with an early public persona that suggested a stereotypical raccoon coat wearing 1920s Ivy League college student.   For a while whenever Vallee made a public appearance he was mobbed by female fans in a manner similar to that which was seen in later generations with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. 

By 1929, Vallee was staring in his first movie Vagabond Lover and, just four days before the stock market crashed, he began his very successful  Fleischmann's Yeast Hour broadcasts on NBC.   The Fleischmann's Hour quickly became one of the highest rated network radio programs and remained so throughout the early 1930s.    The program pioneered the variety show format that became a constant staple of network radio and of network television through the 1970s.    Vallee featured a mix of famous and new talent and, because of its vast audience, a guest appearance on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour launched the careers of a number of acts and stars who would later become famous including, Alice Faye, Francis Langford, Milton Bearle, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Joe Penner and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthey.  The highly successful Aldridge Family radio program of the late 1930s and early 1940s started out as a skit on Vallee's broadcasts. 

After his radio career, Vallee appeared in a number of motion pictures and starred in the successful 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  He continued to perform into the 1980s.  He died in 1986.

Vallee was a prolific recording artist.  In 1928 he appeared on Columbia's Harmony/Diva/Velvet Tone bargain labels before moving to Victor in 1929.  He also briefly recorded for the Hit of the Week label.  When Hit of the Week folded in 1932 he went to Columbia which, itself, was in deep financial trouble.  He spent the rest of the 1930s bouncing back between Victor and the American Record Company labels. 

Of the recordings featured this week, "A Little Kiss Each Morning" is my favorite, primarily because I think the song has a very pretty melody.  Recorded just eight days after the 1929 stock market crash, its lyrics are rather appropriate and are typical of a great many "cheer up" style songs which came along as the Great Depression worsened. 

I featured "Pretending" on a previous update a few years ago before I had my current audio restoration equipment so this update provides an opportunity to present a better sounding copy.

The record for "Gypsy Dream Rose" belongs to regular guest contributor Matt From College Station who requested that I include it on this update as a favor to someone who heard the recording many years ago and wishes to hear it again.   Matt tells me that this is one of the harder to find Vallee recordings on Victor.

I include "Everything's In Rhythm With My Heart" as an example of Vallee's mid-1930s recordings.  Vallee's band in 1929 was rather small for the era.    The 1936 band sounds much larger.

When I first started collecting vintage records as a kid, I was not at all fond of Rudy Vallee's recordings.   To me, his voice sounded anemic and nasal.   Over time, however, his voice has, for whatever reason, grown on me and, today, I actually enjoy many of his early records. 

 - Dismuke
 

 

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.

Nippon Columbia label
Label detail for first selection featured below.  Anyone understand what it says?

Nippon Columbia label
Label detail for second selection featured below.  Anyone know what it says?





Unknown Japanese RecordingClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Hibari Misora                                         1949
(Nippon Columbia A 736 mx 1211206)
 

Unkown Japanese RecordingClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Hibari Misora                                          1949
(Nippon Columbia A 736 mx 2211207)
 

UPDATE:  I want to extend my thanks to those who wrote in with information about these recordings.

The singer on these recordings is Hibari Misora who was a VERY famous post World War II vocalist in the Japanese musical genre called enka.   My guess about the dates of the recordings was WAY off - both were recorded in 1949 and issued in 1950 when Hibari Misora was only 13 years old.   At this link is an article about her life and career.   You can also view a photograph of her at this link

The title of the first selection translates to either "Red Rose of Tears" or "Tears of Red Roses."

The title of the second selection translates to "My Boyfriend" using the English words with Japanese phonetics.   The reason the English word was borrowed was because there wasn't a native tradition quite like the American custom of boyfriends and girlfriends. 
 

Here is a Japanese 78 rpm that I came across a few months ago and which will only temporarily be in my possession.   When I saw it, I figured that I would buy it to give to my friend and occasional guest contributor  Christian Kohlhaas who thinks Japanese records are interesting.   I can't say that I have cared much for most Japanese 78 rpms I have listened to and was quite surprised at how enjoyable I found this one to be.   The first recording is very pretty and the second is rather peppy. 

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to read Japanese or to even reproduce the alphabet on the credits so I include a scan of the labels on both sides of the record for the benefit of anyone who does.  (If anyone is able to translate the labels, I would very much appreciate hearing from you at dismuke@dismuke.org so I can update the update and pass the information along.  Please include the word "Japanese Record" in the subject header so it does not get mixed in with the heavy volume of spam that I unfortunately am subjected to.)

My guess is that the record is from sometime in the 1930s - but I know very little about Japanese records.

The is something about the first selection that reminds me of the music that one might expect to hear in old Western movie - and this is not the first time I have made that observation about an Oriental recording.   There is a Chinese buffet restaurant here in Fort Worth, Texas that I have nicknamed "The Temple of the Chinese Marlboro Man" beacuse it used to play music that sounded like something from one of the old Western themed Marlboro cigarette television commercials except that all the lyrics were in an Oriental language, presumably Chinese.   So if anyone who is knowledgeable about Oriental music can explain why there is such a similarity, I would also be interested in knowing. 

-  Dismuke



 
 

August 2

 
This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by
1931 White Rock Mineral Water ad
White Rock
The leading mineral water
(from 1931 ad)



 
 
 

 
Note - I am very please to welcome back guest contributor Matt From College Station  as he shares some more recordings from his excellent collection of 1920s and 1930s jazz and dance band 78 rpm records. 

All recordings and commentary in this update, both the regular and the "Extra" sections, are from Matt.  My only contribution was to transfer and digitalize the recordings. 

You can learn more about Matt and find his contact information by clicking here
 
 
 
 

Do The New YorkClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Victor Arden, Phil Ohman & Their Orchestra                               1931
(Victor 22726-A)

Here We Are In LoveClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Victor Arden, Phil Ohman & Their Orchestra                               1931
(Victor 22726-B)
 
 

This week I would like to present an orchestra which made many records for both Victor and Brunswick throughout the 1920s - 1930s and is very popular among vintage music collectors.

Victor Arden and Phil Ohman first collaborated in the early 1920's as arrangers for the QRS piano roll company. Ohman was the jazzy one of the bunch and often added improvisation to their arrangements.

They formed a team in 1924 and co-led many pit orchestras for Broadway shows, including Lady Be Good (1924); Tip Toes (1925); Oh, Kay (1926); and Funny Face (1927).....all Gershwin shows. They also filmed several Vitaphone sound shorts.  Their music remains vibrant and fresh to this day due to their superior arranging style and skill.

"Do The New York" is one of Arden-Ohman's best recordings. It is incredibly peppy and has a beguilingly complex arrangement. Plus this tune captures the vibrant feeling and energy of the New York City of that era.

"Here We Are In Love" is a sentimental ballad that benefits immensely from the arranging skills of Arden-Ohman . Note the piano solo under the vocal - it is very pretty.

Both of these tunes come from the Ziegfeld follies of 1931. It was sadly, the last of the Ziegfeld Follies and ran for 164 performances. Ruth Etting, Harry Richman and Helen Morgan starred in this production....it would have been something to see!

 - Matt From College Station
 

 

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.
 
 

The Hour Of PartingClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Victor Young And His Brunswick Orchestra 
Dick Robertson, vocal                                               1931
(Brunswick 6116)
 

In The Candle LightClick on song title to stream or right clock on folder to download
Victor Young And His Brunswick Orchestra 
Dick Robertson, vocal                                                1931
(Brunswick 6116)
 
 

Victor Young and his Orchestra and vocalist Dick Robertson bring us two beautiful melodies in "The Hour of Parting" and "In The Candlelight."

"The Hour of Parting" written by Misha Spoliansky, is performed here as a tango fox trot.  To me it is both sad and beautiful - reminding me of how one feels when leaving a loved one.  I especially love the French horn or oboe after the vocal.

"In The Candlelight" is also oa hauntingly beautiful tune.

Victor Young's Orchestra was the Brunswick/American Record Corporation house band for a number of years and was also very popular on radio throughout the 1930s.  Young was also known as a composer of film scores of which he holds 200 to his credit.
 

- Matt From College Station


 
 

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