We're now into 1944 with our movie songs recorded on the Hit record label and we meet up with some actual bandleaders!
Apparently there were no hard feelings and the Hit label settled with the union and didn't need to use the fictitious bandleader names anymore!
The level of performance is taken up a couple of notches with a lot of these records, as they were not recorded surreptitiously with mysterious musicians!
The biggest name is probably veteran bandleader Jan Garber, who was in between major label affiliations when he made some records on the Hit label with his current swing band.
Here he is with vocalist Liz Tilton (younger sister of Martha) singing "No Love, No Nothin'" as introduced by Alice Faye in Fox's "The Gang's All Here":
That sounds good!
Another veteran leader on the label was Abe Lyman, who had been leading his Californians since the 1920s. Here they play "So, Goodnight" from the Universal picture "Hi 'Ya Sailor":
The movie title is so mid-1940s Universal!
Of note is that movie star Elyse Knox is the mother of TV star Mark Harmon!
The Hit roster also included some newer bandleaders, including saxophonist/arranger George Paxton, who recorded "More and More," which had been featured by Deanna Durbin in her Universal movie "Can't Stop Singing":
The vocalist, Alan Dale, later had a successful solo career.
Another saxophonist/arranger was Gray Rains, who recorded a pair of songs featuring vocalist Margie Wood from the Betty Grable starrer "Pin Up Girl":
Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra were featured in that movie and certainly would have recorded those songs, but Charlie was under contract to Columbia Records before the ban, then RCA Victor after.
I think the Paxton and Rains sides are quite good!
We had heard the popular version of "I Love You" by Enric Madriguera on the Hit label. The flipside, also featuring singer Bob Lido was "Someday I'll Meet You Again" from the Warner Brothers movie "Passage to Marseilles" starring Humphrey Bogart:
Also good!
The next bandleader is unknown to me and despite his made-up-sounding name, Bob Strong was apparently an actual person!
He leads his band on two sections from Frank Sinatra's second starring film for RKO, "Step Lively":
I like them!
"Step Lively" is a fun movie with a good cast and I'd say it made better use of Gloria De Haven than any of her movies at her home studio of MGM!
For my dough, the most talented artist on the Hit roster was star trumpeter Cootie Williams, who had made his rep with Duke Ellington's band. He made some great sides for Hit!
Among his records was this coupling of two songs from Dinah Shore's "Up in Arms" with the added attraction of young Pearl Bailey on the vocals:
We had heard Dinah's a cappella recording of "Now I Know," but she didn't record "Tess's Torch Song," which I presume was because it didn't work in that format.
I'd say the most successful act to first gain national prominence on the Hit label was The Three Suns, who were virtually unknown until they recorded some (ahem) hit sides for the label, including the popular "Twilight Time."
The group recorded the song "I'm Making Believe," which, although the label does not indicate as such, was from the Fox movie "Sweet and Low-Down," which featured Benny Goodman and his band:
That's a much jauntier take on the song than we usually hear!
Benny would have no doubt recorded "I'm Making Believe" at the time, but he was a Columbia artist.
The Hit label morphed in Majestic Records in 1945, but during the two previous years, it filled a much-needed gap!
I love me some pop culture relics!
No comments:
Post a Comment