New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year's Eve!

In keeping with the situation, let's visit Raymond Scott again, as he invites us to spend "New Year's Eve in a Haunted House" with this 1939 recording on Columbia Records:

Lots of fun with the Quintet (or Sextet)!

Seasonal Songs: "White World of Winter" (1965)

Happy Day after Christmas!

Let's hear some more Bing Crosby as he sings the seasonal tune "White World of Winter" on the Reprise label from 1965:

The song was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish, who of course had collaborated on "Star Dust" years before!

I was first acquainted with Bing's recording from the Goodyear promo album shown at the top, which every family seemed to have back then!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

In keeping with the situation, here's Bing Crosby with "How Lovely is Christmas" on Kapp Records in 1957:

I think that may be Bing's most underrated Christmas single, as it's kind of "orphaned" since it's not on Decca, as were most of his classic recordings, nor on Capitol, which has tons of holiday reissues.

Enjoy your holiday!

Christmas Countdown - Day 24 - "Hello, Mister Kringle" (1939)

Happy Christmas Eve!

It's Day 24 of our Christmas Countdown and being that the holiday is tomorrow, if you didn't get the chance to write to Santa, you better get him on the phone!

With that in  mind, here's the cute novelty song "Hello, Mister Kringle" from 1939!

Kay Kyser recorded the song for Columbia with the whole gang chipping in:

That's a lot of fun, especially if you're familiar with the band and its vocalists!

Also of note is that this is the rare record of the era to fade out at the end, and it's a novelty effect to illustrate that Ish Kabibble's Christmas list goes on and on...

The only other record I can think of from around that time to fade out is "Cherokee" by Charlie Barnet, which was also from 1939.

In any event, Frankie Masters returns with his version of "Hello, Mister Kringle" on Vocalion:

Pretty fun!

And Vincent Lopez and Penny Parker are also back with the flipside of "(You're Just As) Cute As Christmas" on Bluebird:

I hope you enjoyed this selection of 1930s holiday and seasonal songs! Maybe you have a new favorite!

Christmas Countdown - Day 23 - "March of the Toys" (1939)

For Day 23 of our Countdown to Christmas, we have a swinging 1939 arrangement of an older song that's popular during the holiday season - "March of the Toys" from composer Victor Herbert!

Here's said swinging arrangement by Dean Kincaid and payed by Tommy Dorsey and his band on Victor:

That sounds great and fits right in to any big band holiday playlist!

The song originated in the 1903 operetta "Babes in Toyland" and was recorded back in 1911 by Victor Herbert himself (as the label insists!), also on Victor:

Those old acoustic recordings have their charms, but are kind of like history lessons to me. But I can listen to Tommy Dorsey all day!

Christmas Countdown - Day 22 - "(You're Just As) Cute As Christmas" (1939)

Our Christmas Countdown reaches day 22 with another rare Christmas song - "(You're Just As) Cute As Christmas" from 1939!

This Bluebird record by Vincent Lopez and his Suave Swing Orchestra might be the only recording of the song:

This is very "suave swing" from veteran bandleader Vincent Lopez, who wasn't known for such sounds, but vocalist Penny Parker comes ever so close to being too cute for Christmas!

Christmas Countdown - Day 21 - "The Only Thing I Want for Christmas (Is Just to Keep the things That I've Got)"

Christmas is approaching fast as we're already up to Day 21 of our Countdown as we run into our old pal Eddie Cantor!

Here's Eddie's recording of "The Only Thing I Want for Christmas (Is Just to Keep the things That I've Got)" for Columbia in 1939:

A nice message and a rare chance to hear Eddie sing a "straight" song!

And how much do I love the intro with the A.P. reporter?

Eddie tells reporter Ed Sullivan how it is!

This song did get a couple of other recordings, including this relatively late one from the De John Sisters on Epic in 1955:

I say this sort of thing a lot, but this sounds exactly like you would expect a record from sister act in 1955 to sound!

Christmas Countdown - Day 20 "When Christmas Is Gone" (1939)

Day 20 of our Christmas Countdown finds another rare holiday song, 1939's "When Christmas is Gone" by Connee Boswell!

Her Decca record of this song which she co-wrote might be the only recording of it, so let's give it a listen:

That's really nice! She was a wonderful singer!

I also dig the spare instrumental accompaniment!

Note that Connee was still "Connie" at this point in her career. The story goes that she was so popular with G.I. audiences during WWII that she adopted the new spelling of her name so she could sign autographs more efficiently without needing to dot the I!

Christmas Countdown - Day 19 - "When Winter Comes" (1939)

As we hit Day 19 of our Countdown to Christmas with holiday and seasonal songs, winter is just about here, so the song "When Winter Comes" seems appropriate!

The song is one of many that Irving Berlin wrote for the 1939 Fox musical "Second Fiddle" starring Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power!

A fun flick, and although Sonja's acting hadn't really improved from her debut in "One in a Million" a few years earlier, she was still a charming presence!

Rudy Vallée co-stars in the film and he sings "When Winter Comes," which he also recorded for Decca:

Of note is that Rudy is a singer now, not a singing bandleader!

Also featured in the movie was Mary Healy and she cut a version for Brunswick:

Not sure why Fox let Mary make a commercial recording, as that was against studio policy, but the label lets us know in no uncertain terms that she's under contact to Fox!

I mainly know Mary Healy from old TV show appearances with her husband, Peter Lind Hayes, and they always seemed like a very charming show-biz couple!

Brunswick also had Eddy Duchin record "When Winter Comes" with a vocal by Johnny McAfee:

That kind of seems like a more modern sound for Eddy (by 1939 standards) and I think Johnny's vocal helps a lot!

A new Irving Berlin song was sure to makes the rounds, and Hal Kemp recorded it for Victor with lovely vocalist Nan Wynn:

The trademark Kemp clippety trumpets get a workout here!

Nan Wynn is best known to me for her role in the 1942 Abbott & Costello vehicle "Pardon My Sarong," in which she looked great in the title outfit!

The Victor subsidiary Bluebird had Artie Shaw record the song with tenor sax man Tony Pastor on the vocal:

Artie really did set fast tempos for vocal numbers! Tony slowed it down when he formed his own band after Artie broke up this band!

Let's sneak in one more version of "When Winter Comes" with Frankie Masters and his Orchestra on Vocalion with Frankie and Marian Francis sharing the vocal:

Some fun effects on that one!

I like Frankie's records with his "bell tone" sound and I really like how he introduces the song at the beginning, as he also does on his big hit "Scatter-Brain" which became his theme song!

Christmas Countdown - Day 18 - "Gin for Christmas" (1939)

Our Christmas Countdown moves into 1939 with a song that is not Christmassy, yet contains "Christmas" in the title - "Gin for Christmas" by Lionel Hampton!

Here's Hamp with an all-star small recording group on Victor:

That really swings and would get the holiday party jumping!

Of note is that Hamp plays the drums on this record rather than his usual vibes.

And what a lineup! Ziggy Elman and Ben Webster together? Yikes! 

Christmas Countdown - Day 17 - "(Don't Wait 'Till) The Night Before Christmas" (1938)

We hit Day 17 of our Christmas Countdown with another actual Christmas song -  "(Don't Wait 'Till) The Night Before Christmas" from 1938!

Here's Sammy Kaye's version on Victor:

That sounds so much like a Sammy Kaye record from 1938, with some tinkly piano added to give a Christmassy sound!

I'm not nearly as big a fan of Sammy Kaye as I am of the Hoosier Hot Shots, but this record kind of does meet the criteria I talked about last time!

Another version was recorded by handsome society pianist/bandleader Eddy Duchin with vocalist Stanley Worth on Brunswick:

Now that's some tinkly piano!

Christmas Countdown - Day 16 - "The Man with the Whiskers" (1938)

Our Christmas countdown hits 1938 with Day 15, as we come across perhaps my favorite record of the whole bunch - "The Man with the Whiskers" by the Hoosier Hot Shots!

Here are the boys on Vocalion Records:

The boxes this record checks for Christmas music:

• An artist I like
• The song is performed in the artist's usual style (but maybe some sleigh bells or something thrown in)
• A rare or unique song (not many, if any, other recordings of the song)

And there we go!

I had talked a bit about this record before, but one other note is that the song takes to the extreme the idea that it won't actually name who the Man with the Whiskers is or his holiday!

Christmas Countdown - Day 15 - "The Toy Trumpet" (1937)

For Day 15 of our Christmas Countdown, we have a song that has a Christmassy feel and fits well in a 1930s holiday playlist - "The Toy Trumpet" by Raymond Scott!

Raymond Scott specialized in snappy little novelties played a by a sextet billed as a quintet, so here's the Raymond Scott Quintette on Master Records in 1937:

The label helpfully lists the personnel, so we know Dave Wade plays the tricky trumpet part, but it also shows it's a sextet! (Of note is that drummer Johnny Williams was the father of noted film composer John Williams!)

This next record is pretty cool, as it seems to be a commercially recorded aircheck of "Your Hit Parade" featuring "Toy Trumpet" (losing the "the") from slightly later (maybe 1939?):

That's pretty fun and André Baruch (Bea Wain's husband!) helpfully tells us the trumpet part is played by Russ Case, who was later a successful arranger/conductor, working a lot with Perry Como.

What's pretty fun is that Raymond Scott ran with the concept of Russ Case imitating auctioneer "Speed" Riggs and wrote a whole piece titled "The Tobacco Auctioneer," which the Quintet(te) recorded for Brunswick in 1939:

Very fun!

Back to "The Toy Trumpet," there were a number of recordings of it back in the day, but most based the arrangements on Raymond Scott's original and don't really add much, and really sound less charming.

But... we do have this fascinating recording by Paul Whiteman's Swinging Strings on Decca in 1939:

Not a trumpet to be found!

There also happens to be an aircheck of this tune from Paul Whiteman's Chesterfield show, which "Pops" introduces with some helpful info:

About all you hear (if anything) about Paul Whiteman these days is that he really shouldn't be "The King of Jazz," but I say whatever and find it intriguing that he made recordings like this that changed things around and did not stick to the style of his supremely popular 1920s records!

"The Toy Trumpet" wound up with lyrics by Lew Pollack and Sidney Mitchell in 1938, which Shirley Temple sang (and danced to with Bill Robinson while the Quintette played) in the Fox feature "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm."

I think the only commercial recording of this version at the time was this one on Bluebird by Frank Dailey and his Stop and Go Orchestra:

A couple of things with the label here are that the "the" is also missing here and Raymond Scott gets sole songwriting credit!

The Stop and Go Orchestra thing didn't do much for Frank Dailey, but his Meadowbrook remained successful, as we recall!

Christmas Countdown - Day 14 - "Roses in December" (1937)

Day 14 of our Christmas Countdown brings us another seasonal song from 1937, "Roses in December" from the RKO picture "The Life of the Party" starring Gene Raymond and Harriet Hilliard along with a very RKO cast!

As we know, in addition to her movies, Harriet was the vocalist with the band of her husband, Ozzie Nelson.

As such, she recorded the song with Ozzie for Bluebird:

Harriet's vocals seem very distinctive to me. She sings like she talks or something, so you know it's her!

Another version of "Roses in December" was recorded by Bunny Berigan on Victor with vocalist Ruth Bradley:

Bunny's trumpet always delivers the goods!

For some reason, Dick Powell also recorded the song on Decca:

I don't think Dick recorded very many songs from movies in which he didn't star!

For one more version of "Roses in December," let's go across the pond to London's Piccadilly Hotel with Maurice Winnick and his Sweet Music on British Decca:

The vocalist is Vera Lynn, very early in her long career, but already sounding great!

Christmas Countdown - Day 13 - "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1937)

For Day 13 of our countdown of Holiday and Seasonal songs, we encounter the most well-known of all the songs I'll be featuring: Irving Berlin's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" from 1937!

The song is from the 20th Century Fox movie "On the Avenue" and is sung in the movie by Dick Powell and Alice Faye. 

Neither star made a ton of records, so we're fortunate that both recorded the song commercially. Let's hear their records!

Dick Powell is top-billed, as he was the bigger star in 1937, so here he is on Decca Records:

Alice Faye was still on the rise as a movie star and she's actually third-billed (below the title with the Ritz Brothers!) beneath Dick and the lovely Madeleine Carroll, but she gets my vote in a tight race!

Here's Alice on Brunswick:

"I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" got a lot of action at the time, as befitting a song from a great songwriter from a major movie release, so a bunch of bands recorded it. Let's hear some!

Also on Brunswick is Red Norvo's version with Mildred Bailey:

Within seconds of dropping the needle, you hear Red's xylophone and Mildred's singing and there's not doubt who this record is by!

Ray Noble recorded the song for Victor with vocalist Howard Barrie:

That version has been a staple of my big band seasonal playlist for years, as I've had the 78 forever!

The Victor subsidiary, Bluebird Records, had Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra record the song with vocalist Bobby Goday:

I say it all the time, but the rippling rhythm fascinates me!

Back to Decca with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra and Kenny Sargent:

Kenny and the Casa Loma band make another of the memorable combinations of the era!

Despite it's popularity and status as a standard, I think "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" is underrated as a seasonal song, especially considering it even mentions December in the lyrics!

Which brings us to the most famous recording of the song, the no-lyrics-involved hit Les Brown recording of Skip Martin's great arrangement on Columbia:

That's such a brilliant and iconic record that it's hard to believe it sat in the vault for a couple of years before Columbia finally released it in late 1948!

Christmas Countdown - Day 12 - "I Told Santa Claus to Bring Me You" (1937)

Day 12 of our Christmas Countdown finds the snappy 1937 holiday number "I Told Santa Claus to Bring Me You," written by popular singer Pinky Tomlin!

Curiously, Pinky didn't seem to record this umber himself, although he was recording during this time frame.

Whatever the case, here's a nice version by Bernie Cummins and his Orchestra on the Vocalion label:

Another version was recorded by Jimmy Ray and his Orchestra on Bluebird. Since the flipside of the record was yesterday's featured song, "I Want You for Christmas," let's hear both sides:

Bandleader/trumpeter/vocalist Jimmy Ray is pretty obscure, but he cut some good sides back in the day!

But now I can't get that 1990s earworm "Are You Jimmy Ray?" out of my head!

Christmas Countdown - Day 11 - "I Want You for Christmas" (1937)

Day 11 of our Christmas Countdown takes us into 1937, where we meet Betty Boop!

More to the point, it's Mae Questel, Betty's cartoon mouthpiece, who returns with her Decca recording of "I Want You for Christmas":

I just love those records by the Betty Boop Girl!

Another version of the song was recorded by Russ Morgan and his "Music in the Morgan Manner" on Brunswick Records:

I'm a sucker for little novelty touches like the band vocal into at the beginning!

Christmas Countdown - Day 10 - "Wintertime Dreams" (1936)

For Day 10 of our Christmas Countdown, Woody Herman returns with another seasonal song from 1936, "Wintertime Dreams," which I think was his first recording as a bandleader! 

Here's Woody and his band on Decca:

Kind of interesting that one of the co-writers of "Wintertime Dreams" is Felix Bernard, who had co-written "Winter Wonderland" a couple of years before. Lightning didn't strike twice!

Another version of "Wintertime Dreams" was recorded by Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra with uncredited vocalist Dick Robertson on Bluebird:

I'm sure I've said before that Shep Fields's records are fascinating to me. I don't always go for such heavily-stylized sweet bands, but something about the Rippling Rhythm gets me!

Christmas Countdown - Day 9 - "(Who Is My Baby Gonna Love All Winter) Now That Summer Is Gone"

                                 

Our countdown to Christmas hits Da 9 with the long-titled seasonal song "(Who Is My Baby Gonna Love All Winter) Now That Summer Is Gone" from 1936!

Let's hear the great Red Norvo and his great band with the great vocalist Mildred Bailey (Red's wife) on Brunswick:

Red Norvo's band had a lot going for it, not the least of which was Red's own xylophone playing, which just gives his records a different sound!

For another version of the song, we have Woody Herman and his band on Decca:

This is very early in Woody Herman's bandleading career, as he had recently more or less taken over Isham Jones's band when Jones retired, but he and the band already sound solid!

Christmas Countdown - Day 8 - "The Fairy on the Christmas Tree" (1936)

For Day 8 of our Christmas Countdown, we have a song that seems ot be strictly British - "The Fairy on the Christmas Tree" from 1936!

Popular British singer recorded the song for Regal Zonophone:

Gives me that musical hall vibe!

Henry Hall returns with the BBC Orchestra for another version of the song featuring The Three Sisters on Columbia:

More of a traditional dance band sound, but still so very British!

 

Christmas Countdown - Day 7 - "Tell Santy I Live in a Shanty" (1936)

For Day 7 of our Christmas Countdown, we move into 1936 with a Depression-era Christmas song!

It's "Tell Santy I Live in a Shanty" from Frank Dailey and his Meadowbrook Orchestra with vocalist Ann Lee Davies on Bluebird:

Pretty snappy if not in keeping with the situation!

If remembered at all today, Frank Dailey was best-known as the owner of the Meadowbrook, a popular nightspot in New Jersey featuring bands that were more popular than his own ever was!

The Santy/Shanty rhyme had been used a couple of years before for the title song of the 1933 Warner Brothers "Merrie Melodies" cartoon "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives" (see image at top), but I don't think that song as ever commercially recorded.

That cartoon is now in the public domain, so it's easy to find, but it's really a bit too politically incorrect to be lumped in holiday cartoon collections so frequently.

Eddy Arnold used the same Santy/Shanty concept in his 1949 hit "Will Santy Come to Shanty Town," but that's another story!

Christmas Countdown - Day 6 - "What Will Santa Claus Say? (When He finds Everybody Swingin')" (1936)

As our Christmas Countdown moves into 1936, the Swing Era is firmly underway, as evidenced by the song "What Will Santa Claus Say? (When He finds Everybody Swingin')" by Louis Prima!

So, here's Louis and his New Orleans Gang on Vocalion Records:

This track is probably the one I've seen reissued most out of any we'll encounter during this countdown. This is mostly because of Louis Prima's latter-day fame among wannabe swing hipsters!

Whatever the case, it's a solid platter!

For fun, let's listen again to the King of Swing himself, Benny Goodman and his great Victor recording of "Jingle Bells":

Can't hear that enough!

Christmas Countdown - Day 5 - "The Winter Waltz"

As we hit Day 4 of our Christmas Countdown, we have another seasonal song, "The Winter Waltz" from 1935!

Here's Al Donahue's band with vocalist Barry McKinley on Decca Records:

Al Donahue always had a good-sounding band. On the sweet side, but not in an overly stylized manner!

A fascinating contrast comes in the person of South African guitarist Len Fillis, who cut this instrumental version of the song in early 1936:

Kind of like a Britishy Roy Smeck?