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!