Seasonal Songs - "I Love You" (1944)

                                            

Now that we're firmly into the Spring season, let's listen to a seasonal song!

There aren't nearly as many Spring songs as Winter songs, but there is quite a nice sneaky Spring song in the form of Cole Porter's "I Love You" from the 1944 Broadway musical "Mexican Hayride."

There were a number of recordings of the song in 1944, led by Bing Crosby's big hit version on Decca Records:

Bing was at the top in 1944, with hit records, the popular "Kraft Music Hall" radio show and the multi-Oscar winning movie "Going My Way." I don't think such pop culture domination has ever been equaled!

Bing was able to record "I Love You" with instrumental backing from John Scott Trotter because Decca had settled with the musicians' union and was recording as per usual.

Capitol Records had also settled and they had Paul Weston back their new singing star, Jo Stafford:

As noted before, Jo had led the Pied Pipers vocal group with Tommy Dorsey's band, then moved with them over to Capitol before starting her successful solo career.

Another popular version of "I Love You" was recorded by Enric Madriguera and his Orchestra with vocalist Bob Lido on the Hit label:

A lot of smaller labels had also settled with the union and filled the void with recordings of hit songs in 1943 and 1944. 

I'm not sure what the deal is with this next 1944 record, but it seems like it was recorded for use on WOR, the big New York radio station which recently celebrated its 100th year on the air.

Whatever the case, it's by veteran bandleader Jan Garber, "The Idol of the Air Lanes," who during the early to mid-1940s had adopted a more swingy musical approach as opposed to his earlier and later Lombardo-inspired style.

Here's Jan's band with Bob Davis on the vocal:

I appreciate that as the only real big band version of the song!

Another small label, Sonora, had noted Broadway arranger Russell Bennett record "I Love You" for his "Broadway Hits of Today" album:

I like that a lot! Extremely charming vintage sort-of-serious sound!

So, Decca and Capitol and several smaller labels were recording again, but huge players RCA Victor and Columbia did not settle with the musicians' union until very late in 1944, so "I Love You" couldn't get recorded by popular bands like Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Benny Goodman or a ton of others who were signed to those two labels.

RCA Victor and Columbia (and Decca before their settlement) did, however, continue to record some new sides featuring singers only. 

Columbia issued several numbers by new singing sensation Frank Sinatra with the Bobby Tucker singers as the only accompaniment, but the label did not have Frank (or anyone else) record "I Love You" at the time.

RCA had recently signed their own new vocal star, Perry Como (formerly of the Ted Weems band), and his first records for the label were a cappella recordings featuring a mixed chorus as backing.

Here's Perry's version of "I Love You":

I like that a lot and don't really miss the instrumentalists!

So, the hit song "I Love You" from the hit musical "Mexican Hayride" was very popular in 1944, but whatever happened to that show anyway?

Well, the movie rights were purchased by Universal-International and for some reason, the studio repurposed the material into a 1948 vehicle for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello!

Along the way, all of the songs from the musical were dropped! Why would a penny-pinching studio like Universal lay out the money for a Cole Porter musical and not use the songs?

I'm a big Abbott and Costello fan, and although the oddly disjointed plot of "Mexican Hayride" doesn't make much sense, to me the boys are in good form and have some great routines in the film, probably none of which were from the show!

I'm guessing that because the movie version of "Mexican Hayride" is basically just another A & C movie is the reason why the show seems to have drifted into obscurity.

In any event, "I Love You" is a great song with which to celebrate Spring!