Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

In keeping with the situation, here's a record specifically about Halloween!

It's Country Washburne and his Orchestra with "Trick or Treat" from 1953 on Russell Records:

Pretty fun!

I'm presuming that vocalist Marilyn King was the youngest of the singing King Sisters. She wasn't one of the core four sisters popular in the 1940s, but was a member of the King Family ensemble from the 1960s.

And duet partner Mack McLean must be the session vocalist who was a member of the Six Hits and a Miss vocal group.

Country Washburne is well-known to me for his work as vocalist/bassist/tuba player with Ted Weems and his brilliant arrangements for Spike Jones and Red Ingle!

Russell Records was a specialty label that mainly seems to have produced records for dance routines and such, usually with no artist credit.

This record is unusual as it features something of a name artist and has an original pop song.

That being said, the flipside is a longer instrumental version of the tune:

I guess you would use that as the backing for your own fun Halloween routine!

Have a great day!

Halloween Countdown - Day 13 - "Dracula" (1939)

Tomorrow is Halloween, so we've come to the end of our 13-day countdown of 1930s instrumentals!

What's Halloween without monsters? Well, here's "Dracula" as recorded by Gene Krupa for Brunswick Records in 1939:

Not sure what the Dracula connection is specifically, but I like it!

Hope you enjoyed these records! More treats than tricks, I hope!

Drop a  comment and let me know what you liked!

Halloween Countdown - Day 12 - "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater" (1939)

As our Halloween countdown hits Day 12 and we move into 1939, I realize we haven't had any pumpkin yet!

So, here's a snappy instrumental arrangement of the nursey rhyme "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" by Herbie Kay and his Orchestra on Columbia Records:

I like the guitar on that a lot!

Herbie Kay was a fairly successful bandleader who passed away prematurely in 1944, but perhaps his greatest accomplishment was discovering and marrying to Dorothy Lamour!

Halloween Countdown - Day 11 - "(I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance" (1938)

Our Halloween countdown remains in 1938 for one more song, this time the standard "(I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance."

The song was introduced by co-write Bing Crosby in 1932, but since we're going instrumental, here's a nice version by trumpet/cornet star on Vocalion Records:

I realize that "ghost" is used as an expression in this song and it's not about a supernatural spirit, but it is haunting nonetheless!

Halloween Countdown - Day 10 - "The Black Cat" (1938)

We move into 1938 with our Halloween countdown and come across a novelty instrumental titled "The Black Cat" from our old friend Ozzie Nelson!

Here's Ozzie and his band on Bluebird Records:

Ozzie's band had a very nice way with numbers like this!

Halloween Countdown - Day 9 - "Nightmare" (1937)

Our Halloween countdown continues in 1937 with another theme song - the brooding "Nightmare" by Artie Shaw!

The more familiar version of the song was recorded by Artie for Bluebird in 1938, but here's his original recording, made for Brunswick while he was stilled billed as Art Shaw:

I find this version creepier, which I think is because of the louder drumbeat, like something sinister is marching toward you!

Artie Shaw was an interesting individual and was just not going to have a typical band theme song!

Halloween Countdown - Day 8 - "Hell's Bells" (1937)

Our Halloween countdown is still in 1937 as we hear from the great Jimmie Lunceford band!

The song is "Hell's Bells," which was originally recorded by Art Kassel and his Kassels in the Air in 1932. Art had written the song and used it as his theme song.

But we want the song as an instrumental, so here's Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra on Decca Records:

The band's great drummer, Jimmy Crawford, has a field day on this one!

Halloween Countdown - Day 7 - "The Goblin Band" (1937)

Still in 1937 with our Halloween countdown of 1930s, instrumentals, we have "The Goblin Band" by Glen Gray and his Casa Loma Orchestra on Decca Records:

Another fun song, this was written by Gene Gifford, the chief arranger for the Casa Loma band!

Halloween Countdown - Day 6 - "Satan Takes a Holiday" (1937)

We move into 1937 with our Halloween countdown and another hit song from another talented compose arranger!

This time it's "Satan Takes a Holiday" by Larry Clinton!

Larry later became a successful bandleader, but at his point he was composing and arranging for other bands and had recently written "The Dipsy Doodle," which was very popular and a big hit record for Tommy Dorsey.

Tommy also recorded "Satan Takes a Holiday" and had another big hit!

So, here's TD and his band on Victor Records:

That's a lot of fun and you can't beat Davey Tough on drums, or traps, as it were!

Halloween Countdown - Day 5 - "Mr. Ghost Goes to Town" (1936)

Our Halloween countdown left off with a song written by Will Hudson and now Day 5 picks up with the popular "Mr. Ghost Goes to Town" from 1936, which is another Will Hudson song!

In the interim, Hudson entered into a bandleading partnership with lyricist Eddie DeLange in what was billed as the Hudson-DeLange orchestra. Will and Eddie had previously collaborated on some songs, including the great standard "Moonglow" in 1933.

Here's the band's recording of "Mr. Ghost Goes to Town" on the Brunswick label:

Very bouncy tune and arrangement from the very talented Mr. Hudson!

It was probably inevitable that the clashing personalities of the co-leaders would result in a split, but they left some great records that we can still enjoy!

Halloween Countdown - Day 4 - "Witch Doctor" (1934)

For Day 4 of our countdown to Halloween, our next instrumental track features the all-girl band of Ina Ray Hutton!

Here's Ina Ray with her Melodears performing the Will Hudson-penned "Witch Doctor" on Vocalion Records from 1934:

Ina Ray Hutton was by far the most popular female bandleader of the era, but the concept of a female leader of an all-female group never really caught on.

Halloween Countdown - Day 3 - "Zombie" (1934)

We're at Day 3 of our Halloween countdown of 1930s instrumentals!

Here's Gene Kardos and his Orchestra with a 1934 budget label recording called "Zombie":

It seems that zombies entered pop culture in the early 1930s, with the movie "White Zombie" from 1932 and the popular adult beverage appearing around the same time!

Halloween Countdown - Day 2 - "The Ghost Walk" (1933)

For Day 2 of our countdown to Halloween, we move to 1933 to find Borrah Minevitch and his Harmonica Rascals!

Here they are with "The Ghost Walk" on Brunswick Records:

Very spooky! Easy to imagine as the soundtrack to a 1933 cartoon!

Borrah and his group were another example of wacky antics mixed with skilled musicianship!

Halloween Countdown - Day 1 - "The Nightmare" (1931)

Hey, Halloween is coming soon!

So, let's start a countdown with 13 lucky days of 78s from the 1930s!

There aren't many (any?) that are blatantly Halloween in theme, but I have 13 atmospheric instrumental tracks, which we'll listen to in approximate chronological order!

We start off in 1931 with master wah-wah trumpeter Clyde McCoy and his Orchestra with "The Nightmare" on Columbia Records:

I've said it before, but I am absolutely fascinated by Clyde McCoy's intentionally corny playing!

Even if you don't dig the style, you have to admit he was really good at it!

"A Pretty Co-Ed Has Gone to My Head" (1941)

We dip into 1941 with one more college song before Halloween takes over!

Here's Tony Pastor and his Orchestra on Bluebird with Johnny McAfee singing "A Pretty Co-Ed Has Gone to My Head":

That's a lot of fun! The co-ed in questions seems less fickle than "Betty Co-Ed" and her ilk!

It's interesting that Tony Pastor has alto saxist Johnny McAfee sing the vocal, as Tony himself usually did the vocals on novelty songs as he had done with Artie Shaw's band earlier. But Johnny, who was more likely to sing ballads handles the song quite well!

For another version, we get a rare-for-1941 non-band record!

Here's radio star Barry Wood of "Your Hit Parade" (and the Wood Nymph)s on Victor:

I like the arrangement and the "Wood Nymphs" on this record, but the material doesn't really fit Barry Wood himself, who was more of  ballad singer.

Barry was a Yale man, though, and got to sip a soda with Dorothy Lamour!

I had a lot of fun digging up these college songs and hope you enjoyed them!

"Autumn on the Campus" (1940)

While still in 1940, we turn to another Tucker with another campus song!

Here's Orrin Tucker and his Orchestra with "Autumn on the Campus" on Columbia Records:

Orrin Tucker was just another of the many sweet bandleaders until he hit pay dirt with his hit record of "Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny, Oh!" featuring vocalist Bonnie Baker, although this record with the Bodyguards vocal group isn't in that vein.

Another sweet band was Gray Gordon and his Tic-Toc Rhythm, who recorded "Autumn on the Campus" with vocalist Art Perry for Bluebird: 

You can hear the "tic-toc" at the beginning of the record, which was similar to the ticking clock effect used by Tommy Tucker on some of his records.

Both of those versions of "Autumn on the Campus" are pretty square, but we get a fun collegiate bonus if we flip over Gray Gordon's record!

Here's "Cuttin' the Class":

I like when the sweet bands recorded snappy instrumentals ("vocal refrain" label credit notwithstanding!) and this one has a nice sound!

"Stars Over the Campus" (1940)

We dip into 1940 with our college songs to view the stars on a lovely campus evening!

To set the mood, here's Tommy Tucker's band with Don Brown an Amy Arnell singing  "Stars Over the Campus" (co-written by Tommy) on OKeh Records:

Don Brown sounds a bit mannered, but I do like Amy Arnell, although she's in a supporting role here.

Amy Arnell strikes a pose with Tommy Tucker!

I find the "Tommy Tucker Time" sound generally to be a bit over-stylized, but I appreciate that such bands were popular during the big band era and I wouldn't criticize leaders for proving the public with entertainment.

Bob Chester's band was much less stylized, but it didn't really seem to have a recognizable style of its own, sounding more like Glenn Miller's band than anything, but it was a solid group that made some good records.

Helping matters considerably was vocalist Dolores O'Neill, who sings "Stars Over the Campus" on the Bob Chester Bluebird recording:

Nice version and always good to hear bands that aren't as famous as Miller, Goodman, Dorsey, etc.

For my favorite version, we turn to Johnny Long and his Orchestra with Helen Young on Decca:

I like Johnny Long's records a lot. I'm sure I'm biased because Johnny and his band appear in the 1943 Abbott & Costello film "Hit the Ice" as I talked about here!

And Helen Young makes an awfully cute co-ed!

"A Lonely Co-Ed" (1939)

Still in 1939, we turn to a somewhat unlikely source for our next college song: Duke Ellington!

What seems unusual to me is that Duke also wrote the lyrics to "A Lonely Co-Ed" in addition to writing the melody as usual. The subject matter seems out of his wheelhouse, so there must be a story!

Whatever the case, here's Ivie Anderson singing with Duke's band on Columbia Records:

Ivie does sound pretty lonely, but all she needs to do is look over to Duke's sax section, as alto man Johnny Hodges is keeping it swinging!

Here's Johnny with a small group of Ellington sidemen (with Duke on piano) with 1939's "Swingin' on the Campus" on Vocalion Records:

Those small group recordings of Ellington musicians are nice additions to the records by the while band.

And for my dough, you absolutely can't beat Johnny Hodges!

While we're swinging on the campus, let's sneak in a song by Artie Shaw that he featured in MGM's "Dancing Co-Ed" from 1939!

Here's Artie and his great band with "Traffic Jam" on Bluebird Records:

Great to hear and fun to see Artie and the boys in the movie with Tony Pastor, Buddy Rich, Georgie Auld and the rest!

Even better to see Lana Turner, who's so fresh-faced and adorable in this movie that you can understand how Artie must have flipped over her!

"Love Never Went to College" (1939)

Still in 1939, we have what I believe is our first college song from a Broadway show!

The song in question is "Love Never Went to College" from the Rodgers & Hart musical "Too Many Girls."

At this point in time, original cast albums still weren't a thing, but one of the stars of the show, Mary Jane Walsh, recorded a few of the songs for Columbia Records.

So, here's Mary Jane with "Love Never Went to College":

That's really nice. I'm so used to hearing dance band versions of 1930s show tunes that something like that is a pleasant change. (I'll talk more about that in a couple pf minutes!)

But I still love me some dance bands, so here's Paula Kelly singing "Love Never Went to College" with Al Donahue's band on Vocalion Records:

I really like Paula Kelly's singing a lot. Her handful of records with Glenn Miller are great!

Let's hear one more version, this time it's Hal Kemp with The Smoothies on Victor:

A fun version showing how the Kemp band was evolving with the times.

And one more version, this one by Benny Goodman with Louise Tobin on Columbia:

The most popular and enduring song from the show "Too Many Girls" was by far "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," so let's flip over BG's record for his version of that standard, again with Louise Tobin on the vocal:

Sounds great!

Louise Tobin is another underrated vocalist of the era, usually only being mentioned as Harry James's pre-Betty Grable first wife, but she passed away only about a year ago at age 104, so maybe she had the last laugh!

Benny Goodman had recently switched to Columbia label after a monumental run with Victor and the word is that part of the reason is that he felt Victor was favoring newcomer rival clarinetist/bandleader  Artie Shaw!

Whatever the case, here's Artie's version of "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" with vocalist Helen Forrest on the Victor subsidiary Bluebird:

More talk is that the tempo is too fast for this number causing Helen to rush through the heartfelt lyrics, and I agree, but I still like it!

Not underrated as a band vocalist and deserving of every plaudit she got, Helen Forrest was always great, but she really hit her stride after her stints with Artie's and Benny Goodman's bands when Harry James's band provided arrangements that better showcased her.

Let's keep things going and hit the movie version of "Too Many Girls" from RKO in 1940!

The movie included "You're Nearer," a Rodgers & Hart song not from the show, which was performed by Frances Langford, who took on Mary Jane Walsh's role from the show.

Here's Frances's recording of "You're Nearer" for Decca:

Talking about tempos, the rare solo vocal star of the era like Frances Langford didn't have to worry about a bandleader keeping a dance tempo!

The film version of "Too Many Girls" casts a very long shadow over pop culture as it was on the set of that movie that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz met!

The mind-boggling thing is that if that movie hadn't been made, maybe Lucy and Desi wouldn't have met and "I Love Lucy" may not have happened, which would mean the whole landscape of TV would have changed!