So we have Busters Moten, Harding, Bailey, Dees, Benson, Ferguson, Brown, Larsen, Falkenberry and Bennett among the artists, plus songs titled "Button Buster,""Finger Buster,""Atom Buster,""Skull Buster,""Banjo Buster" and "Buster Astor." There are jazz, country, blues and pop records, but no classical items by Buster Heifetz or Buster Toscanini.

My thanks go out to my great pal Ernie Haynes, who has been encouraging me since the beginning - and who actually came up with the concept of this post. And of course thanks to all of you who have followed this blog through the years, especially those who comment. Your contributions make the comment sections just as lively than the posts themselves, if not more so.

Here is some commentary on today's selections, as usual presented in chronological order.

The first selection is "Button Buster" from 1922, a version of the laughing record that was inexplicably popular back then. No artist is listed on this cheapo Grey Gull pressing, but it is thought that the original was recorded in Berlin in 1920 for the Beka label. By the way, I think the record is called "Button Buster" not because you bust your buttons from laughing but you bust the buttons on your player in your frenzy to shut the darn thing off.

Also from 1929 is the Gus Arnheim band on Victor with "One Sweet Kiss," vocal by Buster Dees. The singer did not record much, but managed to make 10 records in 1929 with Arnheim, Henry Halsted and Jackie Taylor.

Buster Moten

Moving on to 1937, we have the wonderfully vulgar Western swing anthem "Ain't Nobody Truck Like You" by the Texas band Ocie Stockard and the Wanderers, with a vocal by Buster Ferguson. Despite the title, Buster repeatedly insists that "ain't nobody truck like me" in the lyrics.

The Tune Wranglers, with Buster Coward to the right of the microphone

Buster Bailey

Another key artist was the famous New Orleans pianist Jelly Roll Morton, heard here on "Finger Buster" from 1938, a few years before his early death. I've corrected the pitch on this one.

Our next selection comes from 1940 and returns us to the sound of Kansas City jazz. This record involves two Busters. One is again Buster Moten, who composed "Moten's Swing" with his brother Bennie. As "Moten Swing," this became a standard both in Bennie's own recording and in the Count Basie version of 1940. Our record is a rendition by a studio group led by guitarist Eddie Durham with solos by the brilliant alto saxophonist Buster Smith.

Buster Harding

Buster Bennett

Atomic bombs were on everyone's mind in the postwar era, and any number of songs at that time made use of the theme. This 1946 record not only includes it in the title, "Atom Buster," it came out on the Atomic label. The composition, which sounds like it is based on "I Got Rhythm," is by guitarist Barney Kessel, who leads an excellent ensemble in this swinging outing.

I couldn't resist adding another Buster Bennett opus to the mix. This is his entertaining double-entendre blues "Fishin' Pole" (in which he brags about his "very long pole," of course). This came out under the name of tenor saxophonist Tom Archia in a 1947 issue on the Aristocrat label. I faded this one in after a few moments because of groove damage at the record's edge.

Also from 1947 is "Silver and Gold," a pleasant country tune from the obscure Bob Pressley and His Sagebrush Serenaders, with whistling by the even-more-obscure Buster Falkenberry. Pressley cut a total of six sides for Decca at about this time.

Larry Vincent

"Skull Buster" from 1949 came out under the name of bop pianist Al Haig, but is mostly a showcase for the superb tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, who was making a name for himself at about this time as a member of Woody Herman's "Four Brothers" band.

Smilin' Ed O'Connell and Froggy the Gremlin

Buster Brown's stylish selections

Quick aside - Buster Brown Shoes were one of the leading examples of a commercial image well outliving its inspiration. Buster Brown was a cartoon character (supposedly inspired by the young Buster Keaton) who had disappeared by the mid-1920s, but he, his pageboy haircut, enormous chapeau and floppy cravat were still selling shoes well into the 50s. Notable recent examples of this atavistic phenomenon are Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, minstrel show stereotypes who are still hawking packaged food today - although not for long.

Arthur Smith and His Cracker-Jacks

Buster Larsen

Our final Buster is Buster Larsen, a Danish stage, film and TV actor of the time. His selection is titled "På Bustur Med Buster" ("On a Bus Trip with Buster"). Could you imagine something like this today - "On a Bus Trip with Lady Gaga.""På Bustur" comes from 1957.

Thanks, everyone, for taking this bus trip through my record collection for the past 12 years! Hope you have enjoyed yourselves.

In closing, let me mention some frequent commenters and contributors, knowing that I am sure to forget some people - in no particular order, Charlot, centuri, David Federman, Bryan Cooper, 8HHaggis, JAC, Ernie, A N Other, Scoredaddy, Eric, Grover Gardner, Andy Propst, jserraglio, coppinsuk, Sky Raven, gpdlt2000, Phillip, alfred venison, Boursin, Lennonka, Your Pal Doug, Rich, Addison, rev.b, styles, Jim, StealthMan, Rich, Rootie, SwingKing, Morris, RonH, monkeeboy, RecordHunter, hkitt42, iracema1, Jim in Seattle, flurb, TupeloBrian, Badgercat, kiken, 78heretic, dave_bruce, Geoconno, Nigel, Nick, Randy, Lee Hartsfeld, Ronnie, Alan Eichler, Kevin WOlf, luckymike, boppinbob, bhowani, jeronimo, barba, thedentist, Kwork, BobSanders, Muff Diver, Ravel, flyingfinger, woolfnotes, Moahaha, Wortley Clutterbuck, Andrew, dgrb, MOQChoir, tony, DonHo57, Richard Bock, Rio Veneno and Unknown. Thanks to them and everyone else who has been part of this wonderful community!

This is a continuation of two ongoing series - one devoted to the music of Howard Swanson, the other to the recordings of conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. The record also contains music by Sergei Prokofiev, which the blog has presented a number of times as well.

This 1950 LP is unusual in that represents the only appearance of Mitropoulos on US Decca records. At the time, he was recording for Columbia with his band, the New York Philharmonic.

Dimitri Mitropoulos

The Philharmonic does not appear here, but the featured ensemble is related to the Philharmonic even so. Its unwieldly name, "The New York Ensemble of the Philharmonic Scholarship Winners," signifies that the musicians all had received scholarships from the Philharmonic in younger years. In gratitude, they banded together to provide their own scholarships to other worthy young musicians. Mitropoulos was the honorary chair of the effort.

While the term "Scholarship Winners" might lead you to think participants were neophytes, that was not the case. All were well-regarded professionals generally in their 30s. The members included clarinetist David Weber, pianist William Masselos, cellist Avron Twerdowsky of the Kroll Quartet, violinist Jacques Margolies and bassist Fred Zimmerman, who were in the Philharmonic at the time, bassoonist Harold Goltzer and his oboist brother Albert, who also were in the Philharmonic for many years, and the well-known horn player David Rattner.

As far as I can tell, this is the only record that the Ensemble made. It is entirely a chamber program, so Mitropoulos' presence may only have been to lend prestige to the affair.

Sergei Prokofiev and Howard Swanson

Decca's engineers produced sound that was close and a little harsh. It benefited from my adding a small amount of convolution reverberation to the mix. The download includes a review from The Gramophone.

The LP's cover art is by Erik Nitsche, who handled many assignments for Decca during the period. His cabalistic symbols look like they ought to represent something, but I have no idea what. Interpretations are welcome.

I first began looking into the recordings of 1940s singer Jeri Sullivan because I had a Signature label 78 of hers that I liked. I soon found out that her career was far more interesting than I had suspected. You can read more about her in the earlier posts devoted to her life and recordings.

Today we come full circle back to the first recording I owned, but on a different label. This post - courtesy of vocal aficionado Bryan Cooper - consists of the 12 Sullivan recordings issued by Standard Transcriptions in the 1940s, which are almost certainly sourced from session or sessions that also came out at least in part on the short-lived Signature label.

The origin of the Signature/Standard recordings is not entirely clear. I believe that they first were the property of United Artists Records (UAR), which had been a semi-vanity label. As Billboard explained in 1948, "UAR assumed pressing operations of masters produced by individual artists on a profit-sharing basis. UAR and producers split net profits equally after production and pressing costs were deducted."

A good assumption might be that Southern proffered her recordings to UAR on this basis. Then, when UAR went under in 1948 it sold the 12 masters to Signature. At some point, Standard Transcriptions leased or acquired the same masters as fodder for its business of supplying recorded music to radio stations.

I previously speculated that the United Artists/Signature/Standard masters could have been made as early as 1944, because they contain a version of "Dream House," the theme song of Sullivan's radio show of the time. It now seems more likely that they come from 1946. At that time, her backing artists (the Les Baxter Singers and the Johnny White combo) were recording together. Vibist White was a member of Benny Goodman's orchestra throughout 1946, while Baxter was making records with Mel Tormé as one of the Mel-Tones.

Another one of my speculations was that the Les Baxter group backing Jeri was the same as the Mel-Tones. The Standard Transcriptions seem to bear that out - they call the singers the Mel-Tones on the labels. Perhaps Siganture did not want to or could not use the name Mel-Tones when Tormé was recording for the rival Musicraft company.

Now let's discuss the music at hand, and how it relates to what we have heard in previous Sullivan posts.

Two additional songs - "Love Ain't No Good" and "Regular Man" - were previously heard only in incomplete versions also contributed by Simon. (That post also contains two additional rare songs that were issued on the Metro Hollywood label.)

"Cowboy Jamboree,""Dream House,""Baby Won't You Please Come Home" and "You've Been So Good to Me Daddy" have previously been uploaded from Signature pressings found in my collection and that of Bryan Cooper.

The sound on the Standard Transcriptions is at least as good as the Signature masters. However, all the recordings were pitched too high, which I have adjusted. The transfers come from two 16-inch Standard discs, R-193 and R-197. The download also includes two rave reviews from Cash Box.

These are all exceptional recordings from a much underrated singer, who is heard here at her warm and intimate best. I am so grateful to Bryan Cooper for his generosity, and want to thank him and Simon Buckmaster again for sharing their treasures with us.

Looking ahead, Bryan has sent me eight Hal Derwin recordings from his collection that weren't included in my recent post of that singer's discs. Coming up soon!

Believe me, this has any number of gems amidst its 37 selections. I am looking forward to contributions by such notables as Duke Ellington, Kenny Delmar, Louis Jordan, Sophie Tucker, the Sons of the Pioneers, Yogi Yorgesson, and of course Buzz Connie's "Vote for Mr. Boogie." Ernie even includes several post office songs.

If you are in the US, or even if you aren't, you can use Ernie's playlist to accompany watching the election returns, then to console yourself if things don't break your way.

Once again I have the pleasure of presenting vocalist and bandleader Hal Derwin in a selection of his Capitol recordings from the late 40s. These rare sides are courtesy of vocal maven Bryan Cooper, who has gifted us with so many unusual items.

My previous Derwin collection included what I thought was all of Derwin's records, save for six. It turns out that there were (at least) eight missing - the eight contained in this collection direct from Bryan's stash. Most of the eight date from 1947, with the final two set down in 1949, after the recording strike was settled.

The first song in the set is Irving Berlin's "Kate (Have I Come Too Early, Too Late)," which may have been written for or in honor of Kate Smith - Berlin's publishing company put her photo on the sheet music. Several male vocalists recorded it - Bing Crosby, Alan Dale and Eddy Howard among them. Derwin's rendition is very accomplished. 

The flip side is "Home Is Where the Heart Is," a standard sentiment that has inspired several songwriters over the years. This edition is by Charles Tobias and Dave Kapp, and is not the same song that later appeared on Elvis Presley's Kid Galahad soundtrack.

"At the Flying 'W'" is a enjoyably bouncy tune from Allie Wrubel. Derwin's competition here was Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, back when Bing was in his Western phase. The other side of the 78 was "Sissy," written in 1938 by bandleader Louis Panico with Irving Kahal and Jack Fascinato. It is very much in the style popular then - a two-beat businessman's bounce.

Frank De Vol

Derwin reached back in time for his repertoire on this last disc. "Just Like a Butterfly (That's Caught in the Rain)" was introduced in an unforgettable version by Annette Hanshaw in 1927. And "Goodnight, Sweetheart," dating from 1931, was one of the greatest inspirations of composer-bandleader Ray Noble and his remarkable vocalist Al Bowlly. Derwin handles each song beautifully.

The sound is excellent on these records. Thanks again to Bryan for bringing us these rare recordings by a most talented singer!

Many people said they enjoyed therecent upload of mono recordings from Philadelphia led by Eugene Ormandy. So here is a new selection, with the notable bonus of two pieces led by Ormandy's predecessor in Philadelphia, Leopold Stokowski.

The source for these materials is the unprepossessing LP you see above, issued by RCA Victor's budget subsidiary Camden in the mid-1950s and ascribed to the spurious "Warwick Symphony Orchestra" for reasons known only to the RCA marketing wizards of the time. The "Warwick" is the Philadelphia Orchestra, I assure you.

One side of the program is devoted to the warhorse that inspired hundreds of B-movie soundtracks, Liszt's "Les Preludes." The other contains contemporary American music associated with the orchestra's home city, all in first recordings - works by Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti and Harl McDonald.

I also am reuploading two additional works by Harl McDonald and one by Max Brand, also from Philadelphia, that appeared here a decade ago. These have been remastered, and in one case newly transferred.

Liszt - Les Preludes

This 1937 recording was Ormandy's first shot at "Les Preludes"; he was to return to it in 1946 for the Columbia label. It is a straightforward reading, beautifully played by the orchestra. As with all these pieces, the recording quality is quite good. The 1950s transfer and pressing are much better than the cheap-looking cover would lead you to expect.

Barber - Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12

Samuel Barber and Eugene Ormandy

Barber's initial brush with fame was for his 1931 work, the brilliant "School for Scandal Overture," introduced by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Alexander Smallens. By 1938 he had been taken up by Arturo Toscanini, who premiered both the Adagio for Strings and the Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12 on the same NBC Orchestra program. On this disc we hear the Essay, usually called the "First Essay" these days, in Ormandy's 1940 recording, the first of any Barber composition. 

The conductor was to return to the composer's music just a few times in the recording studio, setting down the Adagio and the "Toccata Festiva" in the stereo era.

Menotti - Amelia Goes to the Ball Overture

Eugene Ormandy, Gian Carlo Menotti, Efrem Zimbalist

Menotti composed his first opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball, to his own libretto, written as Amelia al Ballo in his native Italian tongue. The work acquired its English name and translation before its 1937 premiere at Curtis, which was conducted by Fritz Reiner. 

The Ormandy recording of the overture dates from 1939, its first recording and apparently the first of any of Menotti's orchestral works. As with Barber, Ormandy was not often to return to Menotti's compositions on record; the only other example I have found is an excerpt from the ballet Sebastian.

Works by Harl McDonald

Harl McDonald and Eugene Ormandy

The three works here are apportioned out two to Stokowski and one to Ormandy. Stokowski chose "The Legend of the Arkansas Traveler" and the "Rhumba" movement from McDonald's Symphony No. 4. 

Leopold Stokowski in 1940

McDonald's "Rhumba" was presumably inspired by the dance that had become increasingly popular throughout the 1930s. The composer was a talented orchestrator, and his skills are shown to great effect in this superb 1935 rendering by Stokowski and the orchestra.

Ormandy is hardly less successful in his 1938 recording of a "Cakewalk" that forms the Scherzo movement of McDonald's Symphony No. 4. His orchestra could not be better in this piece, which again takes its cue from a popular dance form.

Reuploads

Today's reuploads also come from Philadelphia, involving Harl McDonald conducting his own work and Ormandy leading a piece by the little-known Max Brand. These come from two Columbia 10-inch LPs, both of which include the same recording of McDonald's Children's Symphony. The headers below take you to the original posts.

Music of McDonald and Brand

I wasn't crazy about the McDonald symphony either of the times I posted it. It's pleasant enough and very well presented, but when you put it up against such remarkable children's works as Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," you are matching skill against genius.

Brand's piece has something to do with a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. That aside, it's an enjoyable work.

McDonald's "Builders of America" (and Children's Symphony, Again)

The "Builders of America" is a sort of lesser "Lincoln Portrait," profiling both that President and George Washington. Edward Shenton, a well-known illustrator, provided the text, which is plain awful in parts. But the music is good, and narrator Claude Rains is fine. McDonald conducted the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, which was almost certainly composed of Philadelphia Orchestra members.

We start off this season's holiday shares with an early Columbia LP that combined two 78 sets, one from England and one from the US  - one from the Celebrity Quartette, the other from the Mount Holyoke College Glee Club.

Also today, we have another welcome contribution from David Federman - details below.

The Celebrity Quartette

On the LP, the better known ensemble may be the Celebrity Quartette, a super-group of sorts selected from among the finest song and oratorio exponents that the UK had to offer. I believe this was an ad-hoc group; at any rate, English Columbia later recorded an ensemble with a somewhat different members under the same grand title.

Gladys Ripley, Isobel Baillie

Harold Williams, John McHugh

The repertoire is familiar fare, save perhaps for "Christians, Awake," the lovely Anglican hymn that is not heard as often in the US. All are exceptionally well done; the singers may be celebrities, but they are suitably reverent in this religious fare. Isobel Baillie is featured throughout, and Harold Williams is impressive in the Coventry Carol.

English Columbia issued four of the six carols in late 1947. Columbia in the US brought all six out in a 78 set in 1949, combining them with the Mount Holyoke set for this LP that same year.

The Mount Holyoke College Glee Club 

The 110-voice Mount Holyoke College Glee Club makes an effective contrast to the quartet, both in size and in its more adventurous selections. The chorus makes pleasing sounds under the direction of long-time Mount Holyoke professor Ruth Douglass, although a snappier tempo might have been adopted in such joyful tunes as "In Dulci Jubilo." Large amateur choirs are difficult to maneuver, though.

The Mount Holyoke Glee Club in 1951

Mount Holyoke is historically a women's college; it is one of the schools in the Northeast US that are traditionally known as the "Seven Sisters." During the 1940s, the Glee Club traveled down from Massachusetts to Manhattan for a yearly Christmas concert. While the New York Times always announced the concert, I only found one review, from 1946, which was positive. The choir's selections on that date included music by Kodaly and Virgil Thomson's "Scenes from the Holy Infancy According to St. Matthew." None of that here, but the selections are nonetheless diverse and well presented.

Mount Holyoke 78 set

US Columbia issued these 10 songs on six-sided 78 album in 1949, at the same time as this LP. The download includes a review of this LP from Billboard, a brief 1947 review of the Celebrity Quartette 78s in The Gramophone, and the New York Times review mentioned above.

Bonus: Brief Music for Two Pandemics

David F.'s latest compilation, "Brief Music for Two Pandemics," commemorates the two viral catastrophes that struck 100 years apart. It contains 10 songs that take their cue from the Stephen Foster song of 1854, "Hard Times Come Again No More," heard in two versions in this typically thoughtful playlist.

A link is in the comments section, along with the usual link for the LP of the day.

May everyone have a wonderful (and safe) holiday season!

Dorothy Remsen was the principal harpist of several US orchestras, including Minneapolis, Buffalo and the National Symphony, before settling in for a long career on Hollywood sound stages. She can be heard on everything from the E.T. soundtrack to classical, pop and jazz recordings.

On this, which may be her only solo recording, she performs nine compositions written for the harp and appropriate to the Christmas season.

Two of the works were written for her: "The Psalmist" by noted film composer David Raksin and "Revery" by Disney Studios' Clifford Vaughan.

Most of the rest were prepared by famed harpists for their own use, including two works apiece by Marcel Tournier and Marcel Granjany, and single compositions from Carlos Salzedo and Louise Charpentier. The record opens with a work by French composer Marcel Samuel-Rousseau.

Dorothy Remsen

This record was apparently a production of Remsen and her husband, but is well recorded and of course beautifully played. My apologies for the brief pressing fault in the Clifford Vaughan piece. Discogs dates the LP to 1967; I might have guessed the 1970s.

Lehman Engel

Engel also conducted several albums of Christmas music. One such LP - featuring Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi of the Met - appeared here a number of years ago. Today we have two choral albums that he conducted, one near the beginning of his career, the other during his later tenure at Columbia records.

Let's look at the latter collection first.

Columbia Choristers - Christmas Hymns and Carols

This 10-inch LP was made with a studio group called the "Columbia Choristers". It dates from 1951, a typically busy year for Engel. In the studio, he also had conducted the first semi-complete recording of Porgy and Bess for Columbia. On Broadway, he provided the vocal arrangements for and conducted Bless You All, a short-lived musical by Harold Rome, with whom he was closely associated. (Engel conducted the cast album of Rome's 1946 revue Call Me Mister, which can be found here in a newly remastered version. The score includes a holiday song, the droll "Yuletide, Park Avenue.") Later in 1951, Engel provided incidental music for a Broadway production of Shaw's Saint Joan.

The Christmas LP is mainly composed of the standard holiday numbers, all of the more reverent variety, but does include several less-heard items among the old favorites. These include the Cornish "Holy Day Holly Carol," Gustav Holst's "Mid-Winter" and "Lullay My Liking" (not as well known then as now), Edmund Rubbra's "The Virgin's Cradle Hymn" and Peter Warlock's remarkable "Corpus Christi." (The latter carol can be heard in two vintage recordings on my other blog.)

The Columbia Choristers are an excellent small group, with fine ensemble, intonation, blend and diction. They very much put me in mind of the Robert Shaw Singers, so much so that I would not be surprised to learn that Engel contracted with that group for this session. Shaw himself was under contract with RCA Victor, which was to issue his second Christmas album the following year.

Indeed, trusty Ernie came to me rescue for this post by lending me his transfer so that I could patch some noisy parts and skips in my dub. I even pinched one whole track from him. Thanks, pal! I should mention that Ernie is brightening up the interwebs as usual with his holiday selections. This year he is featuring large numbers of unusual singles from the vast offerings of the Internet Archive. That's a repository I mine myself, finding such treasures as the album below.

The Madrigal Singers - Songs for Christmas

By 1937, Engel was recording both Christmas and contemporary music for Columbia, including the six seasonal songs contained in this album and a disc of choral music by Charles Ives and William Schuman, which I may share later.

Engel was consistent in his selections for the 1937 and 1951 compilations. Only "Jingle Bells" and "The Quilting Party (Seeing Nellie Home)" [is that a Christmas song?] were not to be included in the later album.

The Madrigal Singers weren't as well drilled as the Columbia Choristers, but the performances are pleasing even so. The recording is a trifle wooly but good enough.

The download includes a few contemporary reviews along with the transfers. The New Records was unimpressed with the Madrigal Singers album, saying that "the snap and the spirit of Christmas is (sic) missing."The New York Times, however, though that the Columbia Choristers "sing well." I like both sets, but the later one is undoubtedly superior and is a favorite of mine.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet production

Both maestros chose the suite as constructed by Tchaikovsky himself, designated as Op. 71a. It includes the Miniature Overture, the March, the Dance of the Super-Plum Fairy, the Russian, Arabian and Chinese Dances, the Dance of the Reed Flutes and the Waltz of the Flowers. 

Also on this blog, Op. 71a can be found as performed by the Chicago Symphony and Frederick Stock and the Royal Philharmonic and Sir Thomas Beecham. (The latter is newly remastered.) Finally, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops came up with a different and equally delightful Nutcracker Suite No. 2 in 1949, available here.

More about the Van Kempen and Lehmann recordings below.

Paul van Kempen and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra

Paul van Kempen

This transfer comes from what I believe is a postwar pressing on DG's main label; the original issue was on its Polydor imprint.

Fritz Lehmann and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra

Fritz Lehmann

This Nutcracker Suite comes from a July 1951 DG session with the Munich Philharmonic. As with the Dresden Philharmonic, the Munich ensemble may be the second-best known orchestra in its home city. The Bavarian State Radio Orchestra perhaps has a higher profile internationally.

EP cover

This transfer is from the original 78s; DG also issued the set on EPs and LPs with a variety of colorful covers that you can view in the download. One is at right.

Both of these sets were recent addition to the lossless files that can be found on Internet Archive. As always, I've cleaned them up for presentation here.

The church choir was under the direction of Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) from 1898 until about 1920. He was succeeded by Dr. (later Sir) George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987) as organist and director of the choir. Thalben-Ball was to remain in the post for nearly 60 years. (Sources differ on when Thalben-Ball took over, I have read 1919, 1923 and 1924.)

Temple Church, London

Temple Church blitz damage

Today's post contains a 1959 album of carols from the choir and Thalben-Ball, plus three earlier singles, including the famous 1927 recording of Mendelssohn's "Hear My Prayer," with treble (boy soprano) Ernest Lough as soloist.

The Christmas Carols LP

George Thalben-Ball

The opening carol is followed by one of the two spoken passages, Robert Herrick's "What Sweeter Music," presented by the self-assured Richard Brown, presumably one of the choristers.

Among his selections for the balance of this generous program, Thalben-Ball included four arrangements by his predecessor Walford Davies, along with his own arrangement of "The First Nowell" and his setting of "Gloria in Excelsis Deo," which concludes the LP.

Robin Lough

The Temple Choir was not as refined as the contemporary Choir of King's College, Cambridge, nor are the arrangements as elaborate. For example, there is no descant in "O Come, All Ye Faithful," possibly because the boys could not manage it. Even so, this is a well-chosen, well-presented and atmospheric program.

Singles from Temple Church

Thalben-Ball made many recordings as an organist. The second single, dating from 1951, couples his own "Elegy" with the "Introduction and Variations on an Ancient Polish Noël," written by his fellow organist Alexandre Guilmant.

EP reissue of "Hear My Prayer"

The final single is not strictly a Christmas item - it is the recording of "Hear My Prayer (O for the Wings of a Dove)" by treble Ernest Lough and the Temple Church Choir, dating from 1927. This is the record whose initial and enduring popularity is said to have made the choir famous.

"Hear My Prayer" comes from a transfer found on the UK's CHARM site. The first two singles are remasters from lossless transfer found on Internet Archive.

The download includes the original HMV LP cover (my transfer was from the US Angel equivalent), an EP cover, two ads, a High Fidelity review, plus the 78 labels and the EP cover shown above. The sound is generally very good, although "Hear My Prayer" is a little dim.

The monks sing what is generally called "Gregorian chant," a form of plainchant named for Pope Gregory I (c540-604), although it is now generally thought that this form of chant is from after Gregory's time. Current scholarship suggests that the Gregorian chant tradition goes back to the ninth or tenth century, before the Beuron Archabbey was founded.

The monastery at Beuron

So while what you will hear on these records sounds ancient, we can't say that it is identical to the Gregorian chant that was sung in medieval times. There is no question, however, that it is surpassingly beautiful and peaceful, well suited to Christmas Day. For me personally, it is uniquely comforting, having been raised with the Latin Rite.

Primae Vesperae cover

The Primae Vesperae recording is a remastered version of a transfer that I posted in the early days of this blog. Complete scans are now included, including notes in several languages, plus a review from The Gramophone. I've also added scans from the US Decca label's 10-inch release of this performance, also from my collection. Unlike Archiv's characteristically austere design above, Decca artist "Piedra Blanca" (Alex Steinweiss) depicts colorful tolling bells, which you will not hear on the record itself.

Tertia Missa cover

The quality of the two recordings is not greatly different, although in 1959 the microphones seem a little closer to the monks. In both cases, the gloriously resonant acoustics of the Abbey add to the atmosphere. I have added a mild ambient stereo effect to the sound to bring out that characteristic. The 1959 recording was issued in real stereo, but the transfer here is from the mono edition.

For today's post, David Federman has favored us with two new compilations, both on the theme of a "Cozy Covid Christmas" - "Home Suite Home" and "Holiday Happiness." Plus I have a garland of reups for you as a bonus.

Christmas Compilations

As always, David has put together a couple dozen of the choicest tunes for each set, mostly from the first half of the last century. "This year," he writes, "I'm thinking of being home bound and all the music themed to longing for home, arriving there, and staying put. My main purpose in selection has been to make the most of being shut-in, discovering its blessings, and overcoming its torments." To help in this process, he has put together sides from many of my favorites, including artists like Eddie Miller and Ruby Murray, who have not been featured here before. Also, greats such as David Allyn, Jack Teagarden and Gordon Jenkins make an appearance.

"Holiday Happiness" is just as felicitous. It includes more of my faves, never spotlighted here, including Caspar Reardon and Lee Morse. "This mix is an inverse gift-list of thank you's for the simple, self-renewing things to be thankful for - in a year where every day can be a Christmas celebration," David says.

Links are in the comments. Thanks, David!

Reups

I've mentioned a few of these in recent posts, but only in passing. So I am featuring them again, along with several other requests. Let's take the Christmas-related items first. Click on the titles below to be taken to the original posts.

Beecham Conducts the Nutcracker Suite

Merry Christmas 1952 from Coral Records

Call Me Mister

Tony Bennett - Because of You

Tony Bennett - Alone at Last

Tony Bennett - EPs

This post will be most meaningful for 70-something Americans who were regularly stationed in front of the television in the early 50s. I was one of those early tube-aholics and I have fond memories of one of the finest children's programs ever produced, Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

Kukla was the puppet at left looking like a bald shoe salesman with rosacea. Ollie was more formally known as Oliver J. Dragon, a snaggle-toothed creature who was certainly the central character on the show. Those of you who are a little younger may recall the cartoon figures Rocky and Bullwinkle. I suspect that these two were modeled on Kukla and Ollie - one earnest, the other dim but lovable. Their creators even went so far as to dub the latter character "Bullwinkle J. Moose," a likely homage to Ollie's formal name.

Kukla, Fran and Ollie made several records during these years, some of which are included in this post. Details follow.

Jack Fascinato and Burr Tillstrom

Bonus Singles

Fran Allison also made quite a few records for RCA Victor and other labels, including the single "(Sweet Angie) The Christmas Tree Angel" and "Christmas in My Heart," backed by Dewey Bergman. That 1950 record is included in the download.

Semi-Related Items

This site has a few somewhat related items that may be of interest to a few of you, even though they do not involve Kukla, Fran, Ollie or Burr.

First, Fran Allison and her puppet friends were an inspiration to author Paul Gallico, who wrote a few stories about a puppeteer that eventually became the movie Lili, with Leslie Caron. The 10-inch LP featuring songs from the film (combined with the Everything I Have Is Yours soundtrack) appeared here.

Kukla, Fran and Ollie were so popular in the early 1950s that they were the hosts of Ford's 50th Anniversary television show. Decca put out one segment from the show, a duet between Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, on an LP available here.

Finally, Many Moons was turned into an opera with music by Celius Dougherty. The composer has appeared on the site with his settings of Five Sea Chanteys as sung by William Warfield, backed by Aaron Copland's settings of Old American Songs. That record is available here, newly remastered.

Dogs were apparently attracted to Ollie

Like Kukla, Fran and Ollie - and many if not most TV shows of the time - Dragnet began as a radio drama. Starring Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department, the program went on the air in 1949. Webb's long-time sidekick Ben Alexander joined in 1951, remaining on the show for many years as Officer Frank Smith. The radio program lasted until 1957 - almost to the end of such programming on that medium.

Jack Webb and Ben Alexander show off their hat collections

I am not an expert on Dragnet, but in this episode Webb has no wife and seemingly no life outside of work, whereas Frank Smith does have a home life (and apparently views his wife as a combination cook, housekeeper and secretary). In this regard, Friday is something akin to the the standard hard-boiled detective's persona as a lonely crusader.

Today's post includes the Dragnet Christmas LP shown above (a 10-incher), the TV show itself, and four singles that played off on the popularity of the show.

Dragnet - The Christmas Story

Among the reasons for Dragnet's enduring popularity are the many memes it spawned. Although the program has a reputation for being "realistic," it actually was nearly as stylized as a kabuki drama. Webb is always the narrator, he always starts the program with the same introduction, he leads off each scene by giving its location and the time to the minute (he apparently had quite a memory), the conversations generally end with Friday one-upping the person he is interacting with (as happens in the first scene with both his partner and his boss), and so on.

Perhaps the most important of these stylistic trademarks was Walter Schumann's opening motto-theme: DUM - DE- DUM - DUM, etc. (Schumann apparently pinched this motif from Miklos Rosza's music for The Killers, which led to an eventual legal settlement.) The music was so catchy that it became the basis for a 1953 single by Ray Anthony and several other records, discussed in the next section.

Scene of the 'crime'

"A Christmas Story" was a charming tale involving a statue of the infant Jesus stolen from a church's manger scene. Joe and Frank go to great pains to find the statue, only to have it conveniently reappear as they return to tell the good padre they hadn't been able to locate it.

Joe Carioca, Jr. as Paco Mendoza

The performances are good, however, with Webb muttering in his usual monotone, familiar character actors like Herb Vigran turning up in bit roles, and the appealing non-professional Joe Carioca, Jr. as the juvenile "thief," Paco Mendoza.

The download includes both my transfer of the LP and a video of the program itself, courtesy of YouTube, plus the usual scans, photos, and Billboard articles. The bonus singles are detailed below.

Dragnet Singles and Parodies

Unsurprisingly, Webb liked records that promoted his show

Two notable parodies came from the usual sources: Spike Jones and Stan Freberg.

The 78s all are courtesy of Internet Archive, as remastered by me.

There's one mildly Dragnet-related item on my other blog: Jack Webb is said to have adopted the name Friday in honor of singer Pat Friday (originally Freiday), who had appeared with him on radio. You can find Pat's excellent records here.

Best holiday wishes to all from Jack, Ben, Ray, Spike, Stan, June, Daws, Kenny and Pat - and me, too!

Jack and Ben smoke the sponsor's cigarettes

Here is a new transfer of a recording presented on this blog several years ago. I did the recording on request - forgetting about my earlier effort.

Well, this transfer is better, so it's worth a listen for those interested.

The three principal artists on the record all have been featured here several times before - violinist Zino Francescatti and conductors Dimitri Mitropoulos and Eugene Ormandy. The program includes the music of Édouard Lalo and Henri Vieuxtemps.

Zino Francescatti

Francescatti performs Vieuxtemps's Concerto No. 4 with the support of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy. As far as I can tell, the recording, which dates from April 1957, was mono only, and has not been reissued. This concerto is not often played nowadays, which is a shame. It's a fine work.

Francescatti and Eugene Ormandy

The violinist is supported by the New York Philharmonic under Mitropoulos in Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, also recorded in April 1957. As was common 60 years ago, Francescatti omits the central Intermezzo movement of the five-part suite. This is the mono incarnation of a performance that later was issued in stereo in tandem with the Walton concerto.

The download includes a review of the Vieuxtemps from High Fidelity and a round-up review of Lalo recordings from Stereo Review.

Bonus - A Miracle on Cricket Avenue

David Federman has provided another welcome compilation, the third in his "Cozy Covid Christmas" series. This one, called "Miracle on Cricket Avenue," is a typically wide-ranging exploration of 20th century seasonal music. The 27-selection playlist contains everything from Fats Waller to the Miracles to a Rimsky-Korsakov overture. David's notes are in the download. See the comments for a link.

With this LP, one of the most dynamic of all performers, Sammy Davis, Jr., turned reflective for the first time. For Mood to Be Wooed, a 1957 Decca release, the singer is backed only with a solo guitar, played by noted studio musician Mundell Lowe.

Davis returned to this concept in 1966 for a better-known Reprise album, albeit with a new song list. There, he was accompanied by Laurindo Almeida.

This post combines the Decca LP with six single sides from the same label that haven't had an official re-release for several decades.

Mundell Lowe

I also suspect, without any evidence, that Davis' sparse accompaniment was inspired by Sinatra's chamber music LP, Close to You, recorded in 1956 with the Hollywood String Quartet and a few winds and brass.

Sam had an extroverted style, so even in Mood to Be Wooed he never seems as inward as Frank was in the latter's more subdued recordings during this period. In "What Is There to Say" (not really a ballad anyway), Davis can't resist belting out "what is there to DO-HEE-YOU-HOO-HOO" in the climax of the song. A similar use of melisma, a stylistic trademark of his, pops up several times in this collection.

But don't let me make too much of these matters. Mood to Be Wooed is a very good record, well sung and nicely accompanied by a talented guitarist. (FYI - two Mundell Lowe LPs appeared here in 2019, courtesy of David Federman.)

Davis at about the time the LP was recorded

The bonus singles all date from 1955. I remastered the files from lossless originals found on Internet Archive. These are all fast-paced numbers with big-band backings, and provide quite a contrast to the Davis-Lowe LP.

The flip side of "It's Bigger" was a cover of an early Gilbert Becaud song with new English lyrics, called "Back Track!" The exclamation point is fully warranted as Davis is at his exuberant best.

Bob Russell's "Circus" is a standard pop number of the time, well backed by Oliver. Another ephemeral number is "Dangerous," which was co-written by guitarist Billy Mure. The bombastic arrangement is by Morty Stevens.

The final number is "All About Love," which Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon wrote for Eddie Fisher to perform in Bundle of Joy, the film Fisher made with then-wife Debbie Reynolds. It's a tricky melody, which Davis just about negotiates successfully. In truth, the performance and the Morty Stevens arrangement are better than the song.

The sound on the LP and singles is good; please forgive some slight background noise at the opening of the album. The download includes several short reviews and a vintage ad.

My friend John Morris asked for this transfer a while back; happy to provide it for him and anyone else interested.