1945: Records - Part 2

OK, let's get right into ten more records I like from 1945!

Big bands were still cutting some great sides, such as this from Erskine Hawkins:

I just love "Tippin' In" and the flip with a vocal by pianist Ace Harris and the band is a fun take of another Irving Berlin standard in the Tommy Dorsey "Marie" style.

Erskine Hawkins was billed as "The Twentieth Century Gabriel" and was certainly a fine trumpeter with a penchant for high notes and led a great band for a long time. 

In the photo above he goes over an arrangement with trumpeter Sammy Lowe, tenor saxist Julian Dash and Bobby Smith, who played alto sax and wrote and arranged "Tippin' In."

Next as we proceed alphabetically, we run into my favorite artist ever: Spike Jones and his City Slickers!

I love novelty records and Spike is the King! Here's one of his greatest:

I think that with "Cocktails for Two" Spike and vocalist Carl Grayson and arranger Country Washburne raised the bar significantly and separated the City Slickers from other "corn" groups such as the Hoosier Hot Shots, the Korn Kobblers and Freddie "Schnickelfritz" Fisher's group - and I love those bands!

The flipside is reminiscent of the Slickers' earlier output on Bluebird from before the recording ban as it features a vocal by Del Porter (seen above not impressing Spike!) on a corny arrangement of a novelty tune. It's awesome as well!

We go from the King of Corn to the King of the Jukeboxes - Louis Jordan! Like Spike Jones and his City Slickers, I think that Louis and his Tympany Five operated at a level above that of any competitors. And did he have an equal as a double-threat singer/instrumentalist?

Here's one of Louis's best-remembered songs:

It's stunning how many great Jordan records were coming out in the post-war period!

Veteran bandleader Andy Kirk was still going in 1945 and he cut this memorable record with the gospel group the Jubalaires:

A couple of great sides there!

I think the Jubalaires are outstanding on the pop tune "I Know," but the flipside is more typical of their repertoire.

An extremely popular bandleader of the era was Kay Kyser who not only had ton of hit records but a popular radio series with "The Kollege of Musical Knowledge" and string of starring movies!

This record pairs a wacky novelty with a "normal" tune:

"Horses Don't Bet on People" is a masterwork to me! It has the faux serious opening (like "Cocktails for Two") before erupting into wackiness, including Max Williams breaking up the band with his trombone playing. But the band also goes into full swing mode with clarinetist Rosy McHargue showing that Benny Goodman and Buddy DeFranco had nothing on him! Just wild!

"Rosemary" features a vocal by future talk show host Mike Douglas. I remember his show being on in the afternoon the whole timeframe in which I was a kid and I also remember being surprised that he was such a good singer when I discovered his records with Kay Kyser!

Somewhat coincidentally, Mike Douglas's rival in the afternoon talk show biz, Merv Griffin, also made his name as a band vocalist, with Freddy Martin and his Orchestra.

Freddy led a strictly "sweet" band, but the musicianship was always very high, due in part to his own virtuosity on tenor sax. Here's a pre-Merv record from 1945:

Side One really shows off Freddy leading the sax section and Side Two showcases the band's piano-centric way with tunes adapted from the classics.

I like this version of "Laura" from the movie of the same name. Great melody by David Raskin used hauntingly in the film!

This next record is something: the original version of "Guitar Boogie" as by The Rambler Trio featuring Arthur Smith:

That's just a tremendous side, very influential, becoming even more so when MGM Records later picked it up for national distribution. And for the rest of his long life, Mr. Smith was known as Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith!

The flipside by The Tennessee Ramblers led by steel guitarist Cecil Campbell is also great!

We stay in the country music field with the King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers and this very popular song, which was also the title of one of his movies:

He was the King, all right!

Back to the big bands for this outstanding cut from Artie Shaw:

Artie always had a keen ear for quality songs and liked to record standards like these two.

The outstanding arrangement of "'S Wonderful" is by Ray Conniff (shown above), then a trombonist and not the total square he became by the 1960s!

Meanwhile, Artie married Ava Gardner in 1945, so he was having a good year all around!

One more jump into the "Cowboy Songs" world with this hugely popular number from Dick Thomas:

I think "Sioux City Sue" is such a fun song and co-writer Dick Thomas does it best. I also like his take on "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," the great Bob Nolan western standard.

So that wraps up twenty records I like from 1945. So glad that recording ban was finally over!

Next: One more song!