Now that we're done with "Jingle Bells" (for now), I thought I would turn my attention to some other holiday/seasonal songs in between Scrooge-related content.
Let's get started with "Winter Wonderland!"
The song was introduced in 1934, a time when there were really no new seasonal songs. We know "Jingle Bells" was still being recorded, but that was about it until "Winter Wonderland" with words by Dick Smith and music by Felix Bernard came along.
Those songwriters are not well-known except for this one song.
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| Lyricist Dick Smith |
I don't know if Dick Smith wrote any other songs that were recorded, but Felix Bernard did co-compose the 1919 hit "Dardanella," if nothing else of note.
Both had untimely passings, Smith in 1935 and Bernard in 1944, neither seeing their song grow into the the huge seasonal standard it eventually became.
The first recorded version of "Winter Wonderland" was by Richard Himber and his Ritz-Carlton Orchestra with vocalist Joey Nash. Nash had apparently discovered the song and had sang it on the radio with the Himber band prior to recording it at the tail end of a Himber recording session.
Here's that first version on Victor Records:
Sounds good in that "hotel band" style so popular in those just-slightly-pre-swing-era days! I always like the sub-tone clarinet!
I don't think the Himber record made any splash at all, but another popular band came right along to make the song a hit...
The extremely popular Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians cut their version for the new Decca label:
The Lombardo recording was very popular and, to me, represents the band in its element, when its style was most popular and Guy's brother Carmen was leading the vocal trio with his very distinctive voice.
As referenced on the label of the Lombardo record, at some point "Winter Wonderland" made it into the 1934 Ziegfeld Follies. Flo Ziegfeld had died in 1932, but his widow Billie Burke attempted to revive the franchise, with her name noted on the sheet music seen at the top of the page.
Another popular version from 1934 was by Ted Weems and his Orchestra featuring singer Parker Gibbs on Columbia Records:
That's a pretty jaunty version and you have to dig the blue shellac!
Freddy Martin and his Orchestra also cut a version in 1934 with pianist Terry Shand on the vocal for Brunswick Records:
Freddy Martin's band wasn't as established as those of Guy Lombardo and Ted Weems at the time, so his version is more obscure, but it's good!
Those bands were all very popular, but the name Angelo Ferdinando, cool as it is, is way more obscure. He did, however, cut some sides with his Hotel Great Northern Orchestra for Bluebird Records, including another 1934 version of "Winter Wonderland":
The vocalist on that record is the prolific studio singer Dick Robertson, who remains well-known to 1930s music buffs, but by no means the general public!
Another busy studio vocalist of the time was Chick Bullock, who in addition singing with various orchestras was sometimes the leader, such on this 1934 recording of "Winter Wonderland" on the Perfect label:
The Levee Loungers has a ring to a it!
I think Chick's record is the only one at the time to have to include a vocal of the verse. Some of the other records have the band play a bit of it, but since Chick is the leader, he gets more room to spread out vocally than the band singers.
Records such as Chick Bullock's were issued on various labels from the American Record Corporation line in addition to Perfect (Banner, Melotone, Conqueror, etc.) and sold at five and dime stores for a lower price than those on the big labels, not a bad idea considering the Depression.
Chick was a great singer and employed a lot of great backing musicians, so the product was as good as anything on the major labels!
Also on the Perfect (and others) label was another 1934 version of "Winter Wonderland," this one by the Marimba Novelty Orchestra, which was led by xylophone/marimba player Joe Greene:
I don't know who the vocalist is on this one, but he sounds typical for the time. I do like the marimba!
I think those are all the American versions from 1934, so the song was off to a good start!
Next: We go across the pond!
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