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!
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