Deep Purple: selected early recordings, 1934 and 1938-39

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page originally published on 4 December 2015; latest edit: 16 July 2022

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Deep Purple (m. Peter De Rose, w. Mitchell Parish) — According to various sources, the music was published as a piano composition in 1933, but it was evidently registered for copyright on 7 June 1934 as an unpublished work. Mitchell Parish later wrote a lyric which was first recorded in 1938.

Selected links, song:

Songwriters:

From Wikipedia:
“Deep Purple” was published in 1933 as a piano composition. The following year, Paul Whiteman had it scored for his suave “big band” orchestra that was “making a lady out of jazz” in Whiteman’s phrase. “Deep Purple” became so popular in sheet music sales that Mitchell Parish added lyrics in 1938.

In Appendix 3 of the book Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, Volume 2, by Don Rayno, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2012, on page 651 the author says, “Whiteman had his chief arranger, Adolph Deutsch, write an orchestration for it, and this was the first recording of the song to be released.”

Paul Whiteman and his Concert Orchestra — recorded on Tuesday, 11 September 1934; issued on Victor 36131 as the B-side of “Park Avenue Fantasy”

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians — (instrumental) recorded on Wednesday, 23 November 1938; issued as the B-side of “Thanks for Everything,” Decca 2215

Dick Todd — recorded on Saturday, 17 December 1938; issued on Bluebird 10072, c/w “Are You in the Mood for Mischief”

audio file, VBR MP3 (6.4 MB), from the page Deep Purple, at archive.org:

Larry Clinton and his Orchestra, vocal: Bea Wain — recorded on Friday, 23 December 1938; issued on Victor 26141, b/w “A Study in Red”

Al Donahue and his Orchestra, vocal: Paula Kelly — recorded on Sunday, 8 January 1939; issued on Vocalion 4596, c/w “We Speak of You Often” — also issued as the B-side of Conqueror 9175

Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra, vocal: Bob Eberly — recorded on Tuesday, 10 February 1939; issued on Decca 2295, b/w “Fate (It Was Fate When I First Met You)”

Artie Shaw and his Orchestra, vocal: Helen Forrest — recorded on Sunday, 12 March 1939; released in April 1939 on the single Bluebird B-10178, b/w “Pastel Blue” (also issued on Montgomery Ward 7957)

Bing Crosby with Matty Malneck and his Orchestra — recorded in Los Angeles on Wednesday, 22 March 1939; issued on Decca 25285 as the B-side of “Stardust”

Leslie Hutchinson (as Hutch and his Charm Music) — recorded on Wednesday, 5 April 1939; issued on (UK) Parlophone F 1412, c/w “The Masquerade is Over”

Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, vocal: George Melachrino — recorded on Thursday, 6 April 1939 (according to rateyourmusic.com); issued on (UK) Columbia FB 2200, b/w “I Can’t Get You Out of My Mind”

Ambrose and his Orchestra, vocal: Denny Dennis — recorded on Thursday, 6 April 1939 (according to Second Hand Songs); issued on (UK) Decca F 7029