1923 selected standards and hits

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Who’s Sorry Now? (Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby)
The Charleston (James P. Johnson, Cecil Black)
It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’ (Wendell Hall)
Mexicali Rose (Jack B. Tenney, Helen Stone)
I Cried For You (Gus Arnheim, Arthur Freed, and Abe Lyman)
Yes! We Have No Bananas (Frank Silver, Irving Cohn)
Parisian Pierrot (Noël Coward)
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Who’s Sorry Now? (Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby)

The 1958 recording of Who’s Sorry Now? by Connie Francis was so popular that song has been popularly associated with her ever since. But long before that it had been a jazz standard. Notable recordings include those by Harry James, Jerry Gray & his Orchestra (featuring Glenn Miller), Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Willie “The Lion” Smith.

Marion Harris – 1923

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Bob Crosby’s Bob Cats — issued in June 1938 on (US) Decca 1865, as the B-side of “March of the Bob Cats” — issued in 1938 in the UK on Decca F.6790, b/w “March of the Bob Cats”

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Jam session featuring Castle Jazz Band, Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band, Pete Daily’s Chicagoans, and Charlie Lavere’s Chicago Loopers – recorded at the Dixieland Jubilee, Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium October 7th, 1949.

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Connie Francis – 1958 —  a large hit: #4 in the US, six weeks at #1 in the UK

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Who’s Sorry Now? was performed as an extravagant dance number for the 1979 movie All That Jazz, choreography and direction by Bob Fosse. The clip below shows part of an adaption from that number for the Broadway revue Fosse.

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(Above) an extract from the book Africanisms in American Culture, by Joseph E. Holloway (2005) pp. 51-52.

The Charleston (James P. Johnson, Cecil Black) – Johnson, one of the originators of the stride style of jazz piano playing, was inspired by dockworkers from [in?] South Carolina inspired to compose the music. The dance known as the Charleston came to characterize the times. It was this song that propelled the dance to international popularity and a place in musical history. – adapted from Wikipedia

James P. Johnson — piano roll, 1925

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Quintette du Hot Club de France — recorded in Paris on 21 April 1937 — QHCF:  Stéphane Grappelli (v), Django Reinhardt, Pierre Ferret, Marcel Bianchi (g), Louis Vola (b)

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It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’ (Wendell Hall)

Wendell Hall – 1923

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Carl Fenton’s Orchestra, with vocal duet – 1924

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Follow the Bouncing Ball! – 1949

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Mexicali Rose (Jack B. Tenney, Helen Stone) is a love story of a man who must leave his love for a while.

The chorus, adapted from Wikipedia:

Mexicali Rose, stop crying; I’ll come back to you some sunny day. Ev’ry night you’ll know that I’ll be pining, Ev’ry hour a year while I’m away, Dry those big brown eyes and smile, dear, Banish all those tears and please don’t sigh, Kiss me once again and hold me; Mexicali Rose goodbye.	Mexicali Rosa no llores; Piensa que muy pronto volveré, Y que siempre triste sin consuelo, Cada non che y dia you pasaré, Seca tus hermosos ojos, Deja dellorar y suspirar. Besa me otra vez y es tré chame; Mexicali Rosa adios.
Helen Stone[1]	Manuel Sanchs De Lara (trans)[2]

Gene Autry — Autry first recorded the song in 1935. I don’t know if this is that version. The provider says it’s from a recent compilation called The Last Roundup (2007)

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I Cried For You (Gus Arnheim, Arthur Freed, and Abe Lyman)

The Boardwalk Orchestra – undated

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Billie Holiday with Abe Lyman’s Orchestra – 1936

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Judy Garland —  from the soundtrack of Babes in Arms (1939)

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Count Basie and his Orchestra, vocal by Helen Humes

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From Wikipedia:

Yes! We Have No Bananas – (Frank Silver, Irving Cohn) is the title of a novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn from the 1922 Broadway revue “Make It Snappy.” Sung by Eddie Cantor in the revue, the song became a major hit in 1923 (number 1 for five weeks) when it was recorded by Billy Jones, Arthur Hall, Irving Kaufman and others. It was covered later by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, Spike Jones & His City Slickers and many more.

Billy Jones – 1923

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The Great White Way Orchestra with Billy Murray – 1923

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Bailey’s Luck Seven (Sam Lanin’s band), with vocal by Irving Kaufman – 1923

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Spike Jones & his City Slickers — issued in 1950 on (US) RCA Victor 20-3912 (78 rpm), and RCA Victor 47-3912 (45 rpm), in each case c/w “Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula” — issued in the UK in 1950 on HMV B.9988, as the B-side of “Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

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I’ve Got the Yes! We Have No Bananas Blues – recording by the Jazz-O-Harmonists – 1923

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Parisian Pierrot (Noël Coward)

Answers.com says

According to Richard Briers in Coward & Company, the playwright wrote “Parisian Pierrot” for his close friend Gertrude Lawrence in his review London Calling! but apparently she didn’t think much of it. The song was to be performed wearing a [P]ierrot costume, and Lawrence gave both to her understudy in André Charlot’s Revue of 1924, Jessie Matthews. In New York, she changed her mind and performed it herself, although she didn’t record it until November 3, 1931 – a pressing that was originally rejected. Coward recorded it in 1936.

According to the Noël Coward Society, Coward wrote the song in Berlin between December 9th and 18th, 1922. It was published in 1923 by Keith Prowse of London.

Coward himself said “The idea of it came to me in a night-club…a frowsy blonde, wearing a sequin chest-protector and a divided skirt, appeared in the course of the cabaret with a rag pierrot doll dressed in black velvet. She placed it on a cushion where it sprawled in pathetic abandon while she pranced around it emitting gutteral noises. Her performance was unimpressive but the doll fascinated me”. The title came into his head in the taxi on his way back to the hotel.

Gertrude Lawrence died in 1952, and in 1968 Julie Andrews performed the song in her biopic Star!. (thanks, Alexander Baron – London, England, for all above)

Noël Coward – 1936

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Julie Andrews in Star!, a Gertrude Lawrence biopic – 1968

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Texas – Twentieth-Century Blues – The Songs Of Noël Coward (1998)

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1924