Songbook site index

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A fond look back at Everybody Draw Mohammed Days of the past

2010

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(above) TheAmazingAtheist says he has never heard of Moo-ha-med, the Moo-slim faith, or the religion of Is-lame. Nevertheless, he gamely joins the fun and contributes an impromptu illustration to this special day set aside for drawing pictures of the big Moo. Thanks, TAA. You’re the best. It is wonderful how you were able to depict this iconic figure in such a tasteful and respectful manner, carefully avoiding anything and everything which might have been perceived as the least bit offensive.

2011

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2012

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(below) How American TV and pop culture created one suicide bomber. What else could he have done?

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• 1890-1969 selected standards and hits pages, with overview
• Galleries: performing artist and songwriter
• Galleries: film
• Songwriters, to 1954
• Songwriters, 1955-1969 (partially constructed)
• Complete page index
• Film Musicals and Revues: selected films and songs, 1929-47
• Performing Artist features
• Jazz Age
• Swing Eras 1 and 2
• about the site + some previous messages

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Standards and hits feature pages 1890-1969:

• 1890-1899 selected hits and standards
• 1900-1909 selected standards and hits
• 1910-1919 selected standards, hits, and special features
• 1920-1929
• 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926 (1), 1926 (2), 1927, 1928, 1929, additional late-1920s hits and standards
• 1930-1939
• 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, additional 1930s hits and standards
• 1940-1949
• 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, additional 1940s hits and standards
  
• 1950-1954 selected standards and hits (link fixed 4 December 2012)
• 1955-1959 (in construction)
• 1960s selected songwriters and performers (in construction)

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African American musical theater, 1896-1926: feature pages and galleries

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Please visit our new index page:

• African-American musical theater 1896-1926: Songbook feature pages and galleries, and external links

January-February 2013 feature pages

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feature pages published in Jan 2013:

• 1933 –  Close Your Eyes
• 1934 – As Long as I Live
• Johnny Mercer, part 2: selected standards 1936-1939*
• Tommy James and the Shondells selections
• 1930 – Sweepin’ the Clouds Away
• 1931 – Home (When Shadows Fall)
• 1933 – Under a Blanket of Blue
• 1933 – Smoke Rings

new feature pages and posts, Feb 2013:

• 1931 – Prisoner of Love
• 1934 – (Tabú) Taboo
• 1932 – Isn’t It Romantic
• 1914 — When You’re a Long, Long Way From Home
• 1931 –  When Your Lover Has Gone
• 1938 – Heart and Soul

* The songs included in the second part of our Johnny Mercer feature had previously been in part 1, which was too large. Part 3 (the old part 2) contains more songs than either of the first two parts, but it’s condensed, functioning primarily as an index of links to 14 separate feature pages.

Who was Bert Williams?

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Bert Williams, from an article in American Magazine, as quoted in a post titled Bert Williams — King of Comedy, dated 13 September 2012, at the site Yesterday’s Papers:

Williams, of course, is obviously not a Danish name. Nobody in America knows my real name, and, if I can prevent it no one ever will. That was the only promise I made to my father.

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Visit my index to feature pages on

• Bert Williams, George Walker, and Aida Overton Walker

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Louise, and other standards introduced in early Chevalier films

• 1929 — Louise (Richard A. Whiting, Leo Robin) – Introduced by Maurice Chevalier in the film Innocents of Paris (1929)
• 1930 – Sweepin’ the Clouds Away (Sam Coslow) was introduced by Maurice Chevalier and a chorus of chimney sweep girls in the 1930 Paramount Pictures all-star revue Paramount on Parade, released 22 April 1930.
  

 1932 – Two Rodgers & Hart standards which were introduced in the Paramount film Love Me Tonight:

• Isn’t It Romantic (m. Richard Rodgers, w. Lorenz Hart) – sung by Maurice Chevalier, Bert Roach, Rolfe Sedan, chorus and Jeanette MacDonald
• Lover (m. Richard Rodgers, w. Lorenz Hart) – sung by Jeanette MacDonald

The page on Isn’t It Romantic is my latest feature, published earlier today, 19 February 2013.

Wikipedia says that Sweepin’ the Clouds Away is, or was, Maurice Chevalier’s theme song. However, IMDb’s Chevalier biography unambiguously gives Louise as his theme song. Meanwhile, certain creators of crossword puzzles seem to believe that the Chevalier theme song is Mimi. That’s odd, I always thought it was Thank Heavens For Little Girls.

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When Your Lover Has Gone

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When Your Lover Has Gone (Einar Aaron Swan)

From the Wikipedia profile of the songwriter:

Einar Aaron Swan (born Einar (Eino) William Swan) (March 20, 1903 – August 8, 1940) was an American musician, arranger and composer. Born of Finnish parents who had emigrated to the United States at the turn of the century, he was the second of nine children.

Born in Massachusetts, his father was a keen amateur musician and before Einar Swan had entered his teens, he played violin, clarinet, saxophone and piano. At the age of 16 he was already playing in his own dance band, Swanie’s Serenaders, and travelling around Massachusetts for three years. Swan’s main instrument had been the violin but during this period he switched to alto saxophone.

Around 1924, the bandleader Sam Lanin invited Swan to join his orchestra at New York’s famed Roseland Ballroom, and Swan played with leading musicians such as cornettist Red Nichols, and members of The Charleston Chasers Vic Berton (drums) and Joe Tarto (tuba), with whom he soon started composing and arranging material for the orchestra. He also started arranging for the other resident band at the Roseland Ballroom, Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra.

After five months with Lanin, Swan joined Vincent Lopez’s band in 1925 and went on tour to England. The band at that time also featured Mike Mosiello, Xavier Cugat and his old bandmate Joe Tarto. Shortly thereafter, the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra released “Trail of Dreams” credited to Swan and Klage.

Around 1930 Swan stopped working as a musician and concentrated on arrangements, starting to work for radio programmes and bandleaders such as Eddie Cantor collaborator Dave Rubinoff and Raymond Paige.

In 1931 he wrote “When Your Lover Has Gone” which was featured in the James Cagney film Blonde Crazy (1931). The song became a hit and has since been covered by many other performers such as Lee Wiley, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra.

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Gene Austin – 78 rpm single Victor 22635, c/w Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, recorded 5 February 1931

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The Charleston Chasers  –  recorded in New York on  9 February 1931; issued as Columbia 2404-D, b/w Walkin’ My Baby Back Home (m. Fred Ahlert, w. Roy Turk)

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Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra — recorded in Chicago on 29 April 1931 (source: The Louis Armstrong Discography at michaelminn.net); released as Okeh 41498, c/w Blue Again (m. Jimmy McHugh, w. Dorothy Fields)

Armstrong, Louis (Trumpet, Vocal)
Randolph, Zilner (Trumpet)
Jackson, Preston (Trombone)
Boone, Lester (Clarinet, Alto Saxophone)
James, George (Reeds)
Washington, Albert (Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone)
Alexander, Charlie (Piano)
McKendrick, Mike (Banjo, Guitar)
Lindsay, John (Bass)
Hall, Tubby (Drums)

• When Your Lover Has Gone (.ra audio file from redhotjazz.com)

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most popular Songbook posts and pages, first four years

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The top 25 pages for the first four years, top 10 pages for the last 365 days, and all-time top 10 pages featuring a single song :

• All-time most popular Songbook posts and pages (top 25, Mar 2009-Feb 2013)

Prisoner of Love + Russ Columbo gallery

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Prisoner of Love (m. Russ Columbo w. Clarence Gaskill and Leo Robin)* — 1931 standard

Early recordings include:

• 1931 — Russ Columbo with Nat Shilkret and his Orchestra
• 1932 — Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, vocal: Jack Plant
• 1932 — Roy Fox and his Band (at the Monseigneur Restaurant, London), vocal: Al Bowlly; issued as Decca 2775 (see label, right), paired with You Didn’t Know the Music
  

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Will Friedwald, in his 2010 book A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, p. 554, wrote:

[Russ] Columbo’s ultimate mantra was “Prisoner of Love.” written for him* by lyricist Leo Robin,who would pen some of Crosby’s best movie songs of the thirties, and composer Clarence Gaskill, best known for working with Jimmy McHugh on the early jazz standard “I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love with Me.” The harmonies of “Prisoner of Love,” closely inspired by “Body and Soul,” are rather complicated, but the melody and words are simple and soulful, in a way that not only inspired the Italian and black crooner of the postwar era but continued to be sung by R&B and soul singers into the sixties.

Russ Columbo — recorded 9 October 1931 with Nat Shilkret and his Orchestra; issued as the B-side of the 78 rpm Victor single 22867, Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day).

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Under a Blanket of Blue

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Under a Blanket of Blue (m. Jerry Livingston*, w. Al J. Neiburg and Marty Symes) — 1933 standard

(above) The Casa Loma Orchestra, Atlantic City, 1933

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, vocal: Kenny Sargent — 1933

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Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, vocal: Harry Bentley –  recorded in London, 9 October 1933 — Columbia Records (British) CB 666

Carroll Gibbons: (p, dir) Bill Shakespeare, Billy Higgs: (t) Arthur Fenoulhet: (t, tb) Paul Fenoulhet: (tb, a) Sam Acres: (tb) George Melanchrinc: (cl, as, vn) Laurie Payne: (cl, as, bar) George Smith: (ts) Ben Frankel: (vn) Harry Sherman: (g) Jack Evetts: (sb**) Rudy Starita: (d) Harry Bentley: (v)

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Layton & Johnstone — 1933

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Roy Fox and his Band, vocal: Sid Buckman — 1933

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Joe Loss and his Band, vocal: Jimmy Mesene – 1933

The label in the video below credits the recording to “Joe Loss and his Band at the Kit-Cat Restaurant, London.” I presume that is a description of the band, not necessarily an indication of where it was recorded. In the group photo above, taken (I gather) at the Kit-Cat Restaurant, the band being led by Joe Loss is referred to at my source as the Harlem Band. The same source says that Joe Loss & the Harlem Band was “the back up band for R0y Fox and his Kit Kat Orchestra.” I presume Kit-Cat and Kit Kat denote the same place.

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Home (When Shadows Fall)

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Home (When Shadows Fall)

The song was published in 1931. Early sheet music covers credit the songwriting to Peter van Steeden, Geoffrey Clarkson, and Harry Clarkson. There is a copyright entry for the song, under the title Home, dated Aug. 8, 1931, in the 1931 edition of the Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 3: Musical Compositions, published by the Library of Congress, Copyright Office, in 1932. The entry credits the music to P. Van Steeden, Jr. and Jeff Clarkson, and the words to “Frank” Clarkson.

Without citing its source, Wikipedia claims “Van Steeden’s contribution was administrative and he was compensated by being given writer credit.”

An early recording, possibly the first, by Van Steeden and his Orchestra was issued under the title Home, according to Second Hand Songs. However, in the same year sheet music bearing the subtitle When Shadows Fall was published (above right).

Who has recorded Home (When Shadows Fall)?

• 35 artists, Wikipedia
• 20 artists, Database of Popular Music

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Peter van Steeden and his Orchestra, vocal by Dick Robertson — recorded on 25 November 1931, and issued, titled simply Home, as the Victor (Am.) 78 rpm single 22868, b/w I Promise You (Little Jack Little), in December 1932

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Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees, vocal: Rudy Vallée — recorded in January 1932, New York

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Henry Hall & His Gleneagles Hotel Band, vocal: Maurice Elwin  — 1932?*

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Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra — recorded 27 January 1932 in Chicago, Illinois (Okeh 41552)

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Sweepin’ the Clouds Away

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Sweepin’ The Clouds Away (Sam Coslow) was performed by Maurice Chevalier and a chorus of scantily clad chimney sweep girls in the 1930 Paramount Pictures all-star revue Paramount on Parade, released 22 April 1930.

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Ben Selvin and his Orchestra, under the pseudonym The Columbia Photo Players, vocal: Smith Ballew

It is the B-side of the Columbia (American) 78 rpm single In My Little Hope Chest (W. Frank Harling, Sam Coslow) (2131-D, British: CB 99), recorded in New York City on 14 February 1930. The fact that Selvin recorded it over two months prior to the release of the film Paramount on Parade suggests that it might have been released earlier than the film.

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Charles “Buddy” Rogers

Rogers recorded the song for Columbia, with a small combo, on 4 March 1930. It was issued as the B-side of the single Anytime’s the Time to Fall in Love (m. Jack King, w. Elsie Janis), Columbia 2143-D. Rogers, with Lillian Roth and a chorus, performed the A-side song in Paramount On Parade.

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Introducing The Revelers and The Comedian Harmonists

From the Wikipedia profile:

The Revelers were an American quintet (four close harmony singers and a pianist) popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Revelers’ recordings of “Dinah”, “Old Man River”, “Valencia”, “Baby Face”, “Blue Room”, “The Birth of the Blues”, “When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba”, and many more, became popular in the United States and then Europe in the late 1920s. In August 1929, they appeared in Holland with Richard Tauber at the Kursaal, Scheveningen and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

All of the members had recorded individually or in various combinations, and formed a group in 1925. The original Revelers were tenors Franklyn Baur and Lewis James, baritone Elliot Shaw, bass Wilfred Glenn, and pianist Ed Smalle. Smalle was replaced by Frank Black in 1926. The group (with Black at the piano) appeared in a short movie musical, The Revelers (1927), filmed in the sound-on-disc Vitaphone process. This one-reel short film, recently restored by “The Vitaphone Project,” shows the group performing “Mine”, “Dinah”, and “No Foolin’”. A second short, filmed the same day with another three songs, awaits restoration. [read more]

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The above bio is negligent in failing to mention that the same group of vocalists had previously recorded, in a more traditional quartet style than that of The Revelers, as The Shannon Quartet, a name adopted c. 1922 by the group that had evolved from The Shannon Four, which had begun recording for Victor in 1917. By 1918, only Elliot Shaw (baritone) and Wilfred Glenn (bass) remained of the originally four members. They began, in 1925, to record songs in a more modern, jazzy style as The Revelers, but the quartet also continued to record sides for Victor as The Shannon Quartet until 1928.

Around the time they began recording as The Revelers in 1925, the quartet, consisting of James, Baur (tenors), Shaw (baritone), and Glenn (bass), were expanded to a quintet by the addition of vocalist, pianist, and arranger Ed Smalle (who sometimes recorded with the Shannon Quartet as well) as an official member. Source #4, below, identifies Smalle as a baritone, though he recorded numerous sides for Victor as a tenor, often as a vocal duet partner with Billy Murray (source #5). In claiming that Smalle joined the group in 1924, source #4 complicates the matter of connecting his arrival to the birth of Revelers.

According to the Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound (See source #3), in their Shannon mode, the quartet recorded under at least seven other names for various labels. The Revelers also moonlighted under pseudonyms, becoming The Merrymakers when recording for the Brunswick label, and transforming into The Singing Sophomores for their Columbia sides, according to source #4, and the Wikipedia profile.

Sources:

• 1. The Revelers — Wikipedia profile
• 2. The Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (at UCSB.edu) treats The Shannon Quartet, and The Revelers as the same group, but sorts the recordings into two separate chronological (for the most part) lists.
• 3. Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound: A-L, Vol. 1 by Frank W. Hoffmann, Howard Ferstler (2005), p. 986
• 4. Notes by Richard Leppert attached to the translation by Thomas Y. Levin of the essay “Culture, Technology, and Listening” as republished in the book Essays On Music: Theodor W. Adorno (2002), p. 276
• 5. Ed Smalle Victor discography (instrumentalist: piano), (vocalist: tenor)

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Selected recordings by The Revelers:

Bam Bam Bammy Shore (m. Ray Henderson, w. Mort Dixon) — recorded 5 November 1925

The Revelers:
Lewis James — tenor
Franklyn Baur — tenor
Elliot Shaw — baritone
Wildfred Glenn — bass
Ed Smalle — piano

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