The tune takes Ferde Grofé’s “Mardi Gras” theme from his 1925 Mississippi Suite and adds lyrics by Harold Adamson, resulting in a brand‑new hit song nearly two decades later. And all the major labels jumped on it!
The most popular version was recorded by Tommy Dorsey for Victor, featuring a young vocalist named Frank Sinatra:
Tommy’s band was really something. And that boy singer showed promise. Whatever became of him anyway?
Of course, Decca needed to get in on the action, so they had their own Dorsey brother, Jimmy, record it with his star vocalist Bob Eberly:
It’s always interesting comparing Tommy and Jimmy’s versions of the same song — and comparing Frank Sinatra and Bob Eberly while we’re at it. Bob was probably the more popular band singer at the time, and Frank reportedly left Tommy to start a solo career partly because he thought Bob might leave Jimmy’s band first and beat him to it!
Columbia also wanted a slice of the sunrise, so they handed “Daybreak” to their top bandleader, Harry James. His version features vocalist Johnny McAfee:
I like Johnny McAfee a lot — he’s obviously not as famous as Frank or Bob, but he had a lovely, warm sound. He also played sax, but as a romantic singer he was more in the Kenny Sargent mold than the Tex Beneke mold, as far as singing sax sideman go.
The new Capitol label joined the parade too, with arranger‑conductor Gordon Jenkins handling the chart and "guest vocalist" Bob Carroll doing the honors:
Bob Carroll was another fine singer who isn’t well‑known today, but he always delivered the goods.
Let’s jump ahead to 1947 for a nice instrumental detour. Here’s pianist Roberto Inglez on the British Parlophone label:
Roberto was born Robert Inglis in Scotland, but Latinized his name to match the Latin music he specialized in.
So, day has just broken five times now. No wonder this week is going by fast!
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