Big Bands Forever Vol. 2 Benny Goodman Let's Dance - 1977

This is the fourth and last installment of this Big bands Forever series. Solid record, but I wouldn't expect anything different from Benny Goodman. These aren't necessarily the big hits from Benny and the band, that first come to mind, but that doesn't matter. There are plenty of songs you may know from the era. I like this record a lot. The huge stand out for me is "It's Only A Paper Moon" which I sang for a full week after digitizing this record. I think I sang it every morning in the car taking my daughter school. I'm sure she was sick of it.

01 Taking A Chance On Love
02 Gotta Be This Or That
03 Jersey Bounce
04 Where Or When
05 Amapola
06 It's Only A Paper Moon
07 Let's Dance
08 Symphony
09 Why Don't You Do Right
10 One O'Clock Jump

Enjoy!

Benny Goodman Let's Dance

I apologize in advance that there is no active link at this point. I'm still trying to figure out how and if I will share links in the future.

Big Bands Forever Vol. 2 Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye - 1977

This is the third installment of the Big Bands Forever records. For my money this is the weakest of the four. It's not bad, but the other are just better. Tracks on this record are:

01 I Can't Give you Anything By Love.
02 As Time Goes By
03 It Isn't Fair
04 In The Mission Of St. Augustine
05 I'll Be Seeing You
06 Harbor Lights
07 Daddy
08 Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
09 Dream A Little Dream On Me
10 Let Me Call You Sweetheart

You can see from that list the record has a good share of classic song. My favorite on the record is Daddy. This was a number one hit for Sammy and his orchestra back in June of 1941. The song was written by Bobby Troup. This was one of his first hits. He later wrote the classic "Route 66". Then later in life he had a bit of an acting career. He played Dr. Joe Early on "Emergency!", which was a show I actually watched when I was very little. He played opposite his wife Julie London who you may also know as a singer. In fact before they wed he produced her hit song "Cry Me A River" in 1955. Okay, that's enough rambling about Bobby Troup. The song is good and the standout for me on the record.
Enjoy!

Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye

Big Bands Forever Vol. 1 Kay Kyser And His Makes you Wanna Dance Music - 1977

This is the record that help start this project of digitizing this series a few weeks back. This is the record with the ole "Woody Woodpecker Song" that I had on that old mix CD. I was so glad I went back to digitize this whole record because there are a lot or great tracks on here. Listening to the record again and again in prepping it for this blog made me appreciate Kay Kyser all over again. Let's go down the tracks.

Track 1 Jingle Jangle Jingle. First of all I love some of these songs of this era that we kind of cowboy songs, but at the same time were just jazzy swing songs. Another example of this that I listened to recently is Bing Crosby singing "Deep In The Heart of Texas." Bing isn't really a Cowboy and Texas doesn't immediately come to mind when I hear his voice, but you know what? It works. Same thing here, except perhaps even better. Jingle Jangle Jingle really swings and I do mean SWINGS. It lives up to the album's subtitle of Kay Kyser and His Makes You Wanna Dance Music. This song makes you want to dance. It is also a song that can get stuck in your head for days.

Track two is "He Wears Silver Wings" which is just okay so I won't say much there.

Track three "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" is another good track. I love how it is such a product of the time and that time being The War. Then there is the whole mixing of religion and war and patriotism that is definitely of it's time. The tune itself is actually quite catchy and you'll find yourself singing along, no matter what your politics.

Track four "Bell Bottom Trousers" is another war song. There is a voice in this one, that sounds like Popeye the Sailor. I don't think it actually is Popeye, but I'm sure that it was supposed to be a reference to the famous cartoon character.

Track five is "Ole Buttermilk Sky" features Michael Douglas on vocals. This one is infectious. It has a great hook. I sang this for days after listening to it. This one also falls into that faux cowboy song genre. It doesn't quite have the full jump factor that "Jingle Jangle Jingle" has , but you can dance to it.

Track six is "Woody Woodpecker" sung by Gloria Wood. Gloria Wood I know from her work on some Disney records. For example she is on "Walt Disney's Christmas Concert" and she is on "A Christmas Adventure in Disneyland". I had this song on a mix CD when my kids were younger and we played it all the time. The funny thing is they haven't really seen much of Woody as far as cartoons.

Track seven "Who Wouldn't Love you" with Harry Babbitt and Trudy Erwin walks the fine line bordering on cheese. Of all the tracks this one sounds like it is more a product of the 50's to me because it is so happy and kind of cheesey. It is decent, but not a favorite.

Track eight is "On A Slow Boat To China" and it features Harry Babbitt again, but this time with Gloria Wood. I like this track. It's not the greatest, but it is four out of five stars on my ipod rating system. For a little more history on this Frank Loesser song, read this article on The Straight Dope website.

Track nine is "Managua, Nicaragua" is another song featuring Gloria Wood. It is also a product of the time where America had a fascination with Central and South America as an exotic location to visit. I can't imagine a song today painting a romantic view of Nicaragua.

Track ten "The Old Lamplighter" finishes off the record and I'll be honest, it is just so so, especially after so many good songs preceding it. It is a slow song, with no swing whatsoever. As a closing track perhaps it works. It sounds like a song for the end of the day. A "closing time" number if you will that gets you ready for bed.

So that's it. That's the run down and now you can give these songs a listen or track down a copy of the record for yourself. I don't think it is on CD anywhere so vinyl may be your only option there.

Enjoy!

Kay Kyser and His Makes You Wanna Dance Music

Big Bands Forever Vol. 1 Harry James I've Heard That Song Before - 1977

Sorry, that I've been missing for such a long while. Started on a new project at work and so January got really busy. The story behind today's post started a few weeks back when I played an old mix CD in the car with my family. The CD was 10 ro 11 years old and many of the tracks on it were from when I first started digitizing vinyl records. Back then I would digitize just a song off a record and put it on a mix CD because this was before I had Itunes or a ton of music digitally stored on hard drives. Well some of these songs were great and made got me thinking about the records they came from. Some of them I honestly couldn't remember where they came from. So a week or so later I started going through records on the record shelf. There was a Bing Crosby and Bob Hope song I was looking for as well as Kay Kyser's Woody Woodpecker song. Neither of those are on this record. However the Kay Kyser track was on a record that was part of this series, "Big Bands Forever!" I eventually found the Bing Crosby track and in the process found another 4 record collection of music from WWII era. I decided I'd digitize all these records. Now that I have them digitized, I figured I'd share them over the next few weeks.

This Harry James record is the first record on this Big Bands Forever Series. There are two volumes and each volume has two records. This is record one of the first volume.

I have a couple Harry James records, one of which I featured on the blog previously called Young Man With A Horn. I love that record and I really like this record as well. I big stand out on this record is track three "I've Heard That Song Before" which features vocals by Helen Forest. The other track I really like is track six "It's Been A Long, Long Time with Kitty Kallen pulling vocal duties. Something both these songs have in common is something I find with a lot of songs from this era, is that they have long instrumental openings before the vocals kick in. You don't find that much anymore in popular music. I actually like that a long, because the music has to be so good to pull you in that it doesn't rely on the lyric. Then when you are hooked the vocals come in and take it to the next level. There is a Benny Goodman track "Perfidia" on Swing into Spring that is structured like this as well and it is one of my all time favorite Big Band era songs.

The rest of the record is pretty good as well. The record has basically no information as far as the years of the songs or who the vocals are on the tracks. I've done my best to do some internet research to provide some of that information. I can't guarantee it, though. The rip isn't perfect by any means, but if you don't mind some crackles and pops give it a listen.

Tracks.

01 I Had The Craziest Dream (Featuring Helen Forrest)
02 Sleepy Lagoon
03 I've Heard That Song Before (Featuring Helen Forrest)
04 I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You (Featuring Dick Haymes)
05 One Dozen Roses (Featuring Jimmy Saunders)
06 It's Been A Long, Long Time (Featuring Kitty Kellen)
07 I Can't Begin To Tell You (Featuring Betty Grable)
08 Ciribiribin (They're So in Love)
09 All Of Nothing As All (Featuring Frank Sinatra)
10 You Made Me Love You

Enjoy!

Harry James

Ethel Waters - Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue? - 1981

I think I first became acquainted with Ethel Waters when I got a 2 disc CD called Women in Blues. On that CD there is a track called My Handyman by Ethel Waters. It is a racy double entendre song where every line about what the handyman did for her also had sexual innuendo.

I then learned more about her when watching Ken Burns' Jazz series. Around that time is when I picked up a couple Ethel Waters records, this being one of them. The cool thing about this record is that the recordings are from TV broadcasts (or as the jacket reads
telecasts") as well as unreleased 78's. This came out back in the early 80's so I'm sure by now some of these have been released on other various compilations. However because that is the source, you won't find "My Handyman". I think that would have been a little too racy for TV in the 50's.

Some of her best recordings are from the 20's and 30's. She has a few records that have been inducted in to the Grammy hall of fame from that period. She however did enjoy a resurgence in popularity in the lat 40's and 50's. I'm guessing that part of that was due to her Oscar nomination in 1949 for Best Supporting Actress in Pinky.

the following year she was in the play and film The Member of The Wedding. Below is a clip of her singing "Eyes On The Sparrow" from the film.



She won a New York Drama critics award for this role.

For more on her life check out the wikipedia entry.

As far as this record goes there are quite a few good tracks. I really like the opening track, "Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue?". The piano has a nice saloon quality and the recording is very intimate.

I also really like the song "The Birth of The Blues" and Ethel does a nice version here. You'll notice that I like her blues songs and if they have blue in the title I tend to like the song. Hence i also recommend "The Blues In The Night' and another good track. Again I like the live back saloon quality of the recording and the arrangement. Very simple and real.

I like "That's What Harlem Means to Me" I think mostly because it reminds me of the Sinatra song "That's What America Means to Me". I'm sure the two songs are related, but I'm not sure how. If you have any insight on that history, please let me know.

Another favorite for me is "The Sunny Side Of The Street". It is a good song to start off your day literally on a good note.

One other song that seems like a good theme for this weekend in Southern California is "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". I say that because I write this on a Saturday morning, the smoke from the fires around Los Angeles is horrible. It makes me think that I wish I had a song called "Smoke Gets In Your Lungs" because it would be even more fitting. But "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" will have to do.

And the last song to point out is another blue song. The last track "I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues" is another really good track.

Enjoy!

01 Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue_.m4a
02 Young At Heart.m4a
03 My Gal Sal.m4a
04 How Are Things In Glocca Marra_.m4a
05 Eli, Eli.m4a
06 The Birth Of The Blues.m4a
07 My Man.m4a
08 Come Rain or Come Shine - The Man I Love - The Floodgates Of Despair.m4a
09 The Blues In The Night.m4a
10 That's What Harlem Means To Me.m4a
11 I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good.m4a
12 Easter Parade.m4a
13 You're Just In Love.m4a
14 I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart - Music Maestro Please.m4a
15 The Sunny Side Of The Street.m4a
16 A Porter's Love Song To A Chambermaid.m4a
17 You Took Advantage Of Me.m4a
18 Yesterdays.m4a
19 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.m4a
20 I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues.m4a

Ethel Waters - Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue part 1.zip
Ethel Waters - Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue part 2.zip

Hollywood Sings - 1982

This one digs deep into the past with a bunch of songs from old Hollywood movies. I think a lot of these songs are probably not too easy to find. I could be wrong, but who knows.

Some of the more interesting tracks are Jimmy Stewart singing. I bet a lot of you didn't know Jimmy Stewart sang. In the early 30's when sound was still such a novelty just about every star in Hollywood was made to sing at some point. Jimmy was no exception. Another one in the same vain is Rudolph Valentino. I never knew he sang, but here you have it.

The other fantastic one is the Marx Brothers song "Hurray for Captain Spaulding" from Animal Crackers.

Many of the others are interesting and are from films that I haven't seen and chances are you haven't seen either so they are probably new. Have fun with this one walking through Hollywood history.

Enjoy!

01 Happy Feet - Paul Whiteman's Ryhth Boys (Bing Crosby, Harry Barris, Al Rinker).m4a
02 Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye - Al Jolson.m4a
03 Johnny - Marlene Dietrich.m4a
04 Day After Day - James Stewart.m4a
05 Can Broadway Do Without Me_- Clayton, Jackson & Durante.m4a
06 If You Haven't Got Love - Gloria Swanson.m4a
07 Doin' The New Low Down - Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson.m4a
08 Keep Your Sunny Side Up - Janet Gaynor.m4a
09 Kashmiri Love Song (Pale Hands I Love) - Rudolph Valentino.m4a
10 Broadway Melody - Charles King.m4a
11 Puttin' On The Ritz - Harry Richman.m4a
12 How Long Will It Last - Joan Crawford.m4a
13 Hooray For Captain Spaulding - Groucho and Zeppo Marx with Margaret Dumont.m4a
14 Just Like A Butterfly That's Caught In The Rain - Helen Morgan.m4a
15 I Love Louisa - Fred Astaire.m4a
16 We Can't Get Along - Ginger Rogers.m4a
17 You've Got That Thing - Maurice Chevalier.m4a
18 Beyond The Blue Horizon - Heannette Macdonald.m4a
19 The White Dove - Lawrence Tibbett.m4a
20 Yes, Yes, My Baby Said Yes, Yes! - Eddie Cantor.m4a

Hollywood Sings Part 1.zip
Hollywood Sings Part 2.zip

Jack Guthrie - Oklahoma Hills/Oakie Boogie 7"

Here's another record from my now infamous country music find from a few years back. I also purchased the 78 of this same record at the same time.

This is good old country music and I mean that in the truest sense of the word. These songs are from the 40's. I don't know when this record was pressed, but I'm guessing that it was back in the 50's or 60's.

This is simple hillbilly type music, with some western swing thrown in for good measure. The first "Oklahoma Hills" swings well and good, but "Oakie Boogie" is the one that will cause you to burn up the rug. It's got a great pep to it. The fiddle work is great. The lyric delivery is awesome. This has got to be one of my favorite country records of all time and chances are pretty good that this one is going to be new to you.

Jack Guthrie was a cousin to Woody Guthrie, but from what I've read, Jack was far more successful commercially than Woody ever was. Judging by these couple songs I an see why. There's nothing controversial here, just plain old shoe shufflin' fun.

Jack grew up in the Texas/Oklahoma area which explains these songs. He's from the school of cowboy country music like Jimmie Rogers and Gene Autry. Some stories say that Gene taught Jack how to play guitar.

"Oklahoma Hills" was a hit for Jack. In fact it was his first hit. It was the song that got him a record contract with Capitol records. The song was originally penned by Woody. Jack made some changes to the song and recorded it. Jack's version is the one that became the most famous. Read more about Jack and "Oklahoma Hills" here.

So find a dance partner, clear out your living room and put on "Oakie Boogie" and enjoy 2 and a half minutes of dancing glee.

Enjoy!

01 Oklahoma Hills.mp3
02 Oakie Boogie.mp3