"Winter Weather" - Bob Chester (1941)

Today's the first day of Winter (at least here in the U.S.)!

In keeping with the situation, here's Bob Chester and his Orchestra from 1941 on Bluebird Records with vocalist Betty Bradley singing "Winter Weather":

A fun record!

Bob Chester had a solid band, but it was patterned too much after Glenn Miller's band to have a particularly distinctive sound.

But they made some great records!

And Betty Bradley always delivered the goods!

"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!