Sunday, June 12, 2022

Bonus 78s - Bob Gets Label Credit!


I had mentioned last time that Judy Garland's first commercially released recordings were cut with Bob Crosby's band although the band was not credited on the label.

So, did the Crosby crew record any non-Judy songs at that June 12, 1936 session?

The answer must be yes or I wouldn't have brought it up!

Here's Decca's coupling of "Pagan Love Song" and "Come Back Sweet Papa":



Sounds good!

"Pagan Love Song" has terrific solos from bassist/arranger Bob Haggart and drummer Ray Bauduc (name misspelled on label!), who teamed up a couple of years later for the tremendous novelty "The Big Noise from Winnetka," which we heard here.

Ray and Bob were half of a great rhythm section along with guitarist Nappy Lamare and pianist Bob Zurke.

The third Crosby song from that session was "Sugar Foot Strut," which was paired with "Savoy Blues" from a June 16th recording session:



Those 1930s records by the Bob Crosby orchestra are a lot of fun!

It was a tight-knit group of musicians who had left Ben Pollacks group and assembled under Gil Rodin then hired Bob Crosby to front the band.

Bob was a good frontman and pretty good singer (no match for brother Bing!), but he was smart enough to stay out of the way and let Eddie Miller and Yank Lawson and Matty Matlock and the rest of the boys play some great dixieland!



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