Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

In keeping with the situation, let's listen to some 78s!

The  most famous Easter pop song must be Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade," which was introduced by Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb in the 1933 Broadway show "As Thousands Cheer."

Clifton Webb recorded the song with Leo Reisman's orchestra for RCA Victor:

Sounds good!

It can be hard to reconcile the idea of Clifton Webb as a Broadway singer as he was so memorable as a star character actor in movies starting with "Laura" a decade later.

Among the many other recordings of "Easter Parade" was this 1942 hit instrumental version by Harry James on Columbia Records:

So many outstanding records from Harry and his band!

The second most popular Easter pop song is probably "Peter Cottontail," the 1950 novelty song written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, who also scored with "Frosty the Snowman" later in the year.

The first artist to record "Peter Cottontail" was country singer Mervin Shiner on Decca Records:

That's a very appealing version and was quite popular.

A bunch of other versions were released in 1950 and it seemed to be especially popular with singing cowboys, as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Jimmy Wakely all got into the act!

But let's jump ahead to 1951 with this kiddie version by Spike Jones on RCA Victor:

A few things about this record remind me of Spike's record of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" from the year before.

First is that both records seemed aimed at the kiddie market. I know I've said before that Spike's 1950s records are often less edgy than his 1940s records and these are evidence of that!

Second is that Rudolph and Peter have the same cute voice. Marian Richman gets label credit as Peter, whereas Rudolph was ostensibly himself!

The third thing is that the label of each record credits one of Spike's writers for special lyrics, Eddie Maxwell for "Rudolph" and banjoist/vocalist/comedian Freddy Morgan on "Rudolph." You don't see such credits very often and it makes me wonder how that came about.

One more thing is that Spike's record of "Peter Cottontail" does not mention Easter at all, using "year-round" lyrics instead!

While we're on the subject of Spike Jones and bunnies and such, if we go back a few years to 1947 we have Spike's record of "Ya Wanna Buy a Bunny?" featuring George Rock:

From the moment the record starts, you can tell it's a zillion times wackier than "Peter Cottontail!"

"Ya Wanna Buy a Bunny?" was written by original City Slicker with his frequent co-writer Carl Hoefle and the pair also collaborated on "Yingle Yingle Yumping Beans!"

Back to Easter, we'll wind up with this snappy little coupling of "Easter Parade" and "Peter Cottontail" on Tennessee Records in 1952 from honky tonk pianist Del Wood:

Have a happy Easter and save me one of those Almond Joy eggs!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 52 - Honky Tonk!

We turn from the then-current instrumental "Jingle Bells" of the Ventures to a few instrumental versions in the old school Honky Tonk style of piano!

First up is Del Wood, with this single on Tennessee Records from 1954:

And here's the flipside, which for a change is a  version of Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus":

Very snappy piano stylings!

What is not evident from her name is that Del Wood was a woman. Her stage name is a very clever takeoff on her full married name of Polly Adelaide Hendricks Hazelwood!

I'm under the impression that her gender was not originally known to record buyers until her 1951 recording of "Down Yonder" became a massive hit:

She identified as a country music artist and continued to record with releases aimed toward that market for a long time.

Another long-time proponent of the Honky Tonk style was "Crazy Otto" (German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel) who included "Jingle Bells" in this Christmas medley on Decca Records from 1960:

Crazy Otto was big on medleys and his name actually first became known to American audiences when pianist Johnny Maddox had a huge hit in 1955 with a medley of tunes called "The Crazy Otto":

I guess it was confusing that Crazy Otto was a person and not just a song!

We next check in with Big Tiny Little (real name Dudley Little, Jr.) with his own Christmas medley on Coral Records in 1961:

I like how he weaves "Jingle Bells" in and out, but I notice that "The First Noël" in included, but not listed on the label.

So, some enjoyable recordings, but remember - it's Honky Tonk, not Ragtime!