Bonus: "Hit" Movie Hits!

Just because I like to keep going down these rabbit holes, I was thinking how there were five songs that we had heard in vocal-only records that were not also performed by Glenn Miller's Army Air Force band with vocalist Johnny Desmond.

But those five songs were released on the perhaps-somewhat-sketchy Hit record label in 1943 and 1944!

I say somewhat sketchy as they have musicians playing on them and seem to have been recorded while the American Federation of Musicians recording ban was in effect for all labels (before Decca or any other label settled) and there are no credits except for what appear to be fictitious bandleaders!

Case in point: Here's "Peter Piper and his Orchestra" with an unidentified vocalist with Bing Crosby's "Sunday, Monday of Always":

And they're back with this version of the Dick Haymes hit "In My Arms":

Now, nobody would think that's secretly Tommy Dorsey or Benny Goodman using a pseudonym, but who was Peter Piper?

A less fake-sounding name is "Allen Miller," but he seems to exist only for records on the Hit label, including this version of another Haymes hit, "It Can't Be Wrong":

Then there's Willie Kelly, which also seems suspicious, to round out the Dick Haymes hits with "You'll Never Know":

These records seem cheaply recorded and pressed and the performances are hit-and-miss (Bing and Dick Haymes were not shaking in their boots), but, hey, it's good to have vintage big band recordings of these songs, even if it's not TD or BG!

The above records are all from 1943, but our fifth song, Dinah Shore's hit "I'll Walk Alone," is from 1944, when Decca and Capitol and the smaller labels had settled with the union.

The Hit label did cover the song, but this time it's with an actual name band: Louis Prima and his Orchestra:

The vocalist, Lilly Ann Carol, is even credited! Seems like a legit release!

I have a couple of notes about that record: 

The label says the song is from the movie "Three Cheers for the Boys" rather than "Follow the Boys." Was "Three Cheers for the Boys" the working title?

Also, I think Lilly Ann sings "I walk alone" instead of "I'll walk alone." Hmmm...

It's also interesting to hear Louis Prima as a dance band leader and not the hip Las Vegas cat that modern audiences think of (when they think of him at all)!

So, some interesting sides!