1940s Christmas Playlist Housekeeping - Part 2!

Now we tend to a bit of housekeeping on the song "(It's Gonna Be a) Lonely Christmas," the 1948 hit by The Orioles.

I had mentioned that I could only find one other version of the song, which appeared to be a 1958 album track by tenor saxophonist Buddy Tate (shown at top of page).

So, I was excited to come across this 1951 record by the Cedric Wallace orchestra on the Derby label:

The label says it features Jimmy Holmes on tenor sax.

My initial thought was that it sounded a lot like the Buddy Tate recording, then I realized, it is the Buddy Tate recording! Or, more properly, the Buddy Tate recording is the Cedric Wallace recording!

Let's hear the flipside of the Cedric Wallace record, which is "White Christmas":

So, can we do any untangling?

Well, the Cedric Wallace record is a "real" release, reviewed in the December 1, 1951 issue of "Cash Box" and all:

Love the show biz lingo!

Now, I do realize that small, independent labels like Derby would record a number of tracks, then disappear after a while and the recordings would be somewhat up for grabs and rereleased on other labels, often in a very budget-minded context. (See the Hollywood label releases.)

This budget label (Halo? Who are they?) credited to Buddy Tate did trick me, which was the intention in 1958:

I just figured that the album featured new recordings by Buddy Tate and it was called "Rock and Rollers Orchestra."

Closer inspection shows that one side is by Buddy Tate and the other by the "Rock and Rollers Orchestra" and that the album doesn't really have a title. And now we know that the tracks attributed to Buddy Tate (including the oddly retitled "Snowy White Christmas" are recycled!

I feel like I should have known better, as these budget LPs would include a few tracks by a "name" artist (so they could put their name in big letters on the cover) from various sources, with the rest of the album filled out by, well, filler.

Here's one of the tracks by the "Rock and Rollers Orchestra":

Despite the song being titled "Let's Rock and Roll," this sounds to me like an older r 'n' b track. Not bad, but not rock and roll!

So, now the question is whether "Lonely Christmas" and "(Snowy) White Christmas" are Buddy Tate tracks at all. And the answer is: I don't really know!

I do know that Cedric Wallace was a real person. He was a very talented bassist who cut several sides with Fats Waller in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He later did producing and session work, including for the Derby label.

The real question is who is the "Jimmy Holmes" credited with the tenor sax solos?

I can't find any references anywhere else to a sax player by that name.

There was a Jimmy Holmes in the music business around that time, but he was a singer, a member of the version of The Ink Spots led by original member Charlie Fuqua with three new members - The Ink Spots story is complicated!

This Jimmy was certainly an accomplished singer, but most likely not so skilled on the tenor sax, so I don't think it's the same guy.

Was it maybe Buddy Tate using a pseudonym? Could be. He actually did record for Derby records, including this 1952 release, both sides of which pop up on the Halo album:

That's pretty solid!

Count Basie's band in 1940, including Buddy Tate (far left in sax section) and fellow tenor man Lester Young (at far right).

Buddy Tate was definitely a real guy, having a long career, including playing with the great Count Basie band from the late 1930s (he replaced the late, great Herschel Evans) until the late 1940s. 

So, did Buddy play the tenor sax on the Cedric Wallace record? Or more to the point, did Halo Records know or care?

At this point we've accounted for four of the Buddy Tate tracks on the LP, but I can't determine the origin of the other two. Maybe someday!

Let's go a bit further down the budget label rabbit hole with this album on the Allegro label:

Yes, the same stock cover images were used over and over on budget LPs!

This one pairs the same Buddy Tate-credited tracks with some from another tenor sax player, Don Byas!

In an unusual bit of provenance, the cover indicates that the Byas tracks are from a 1945 all-star session. And in a rare bit of truth in advertising, that's quite a lineup!

But a look at the original 1945 releases of those songs on Jamboree Records shows that info was right on the label, so they just carried it over!

Let's listen to this coupling of a couple of standards:

Sounds good!

The moral of the story is that we'll probably never know who Jimmy Holmes was!