The hunt for...

[Nobert]

Understanding that, due to copyright issues, it's not kosher to post links to download sites, (r.e. the sticky on copyrights) I was wondering if I (or anyone) could ask about specific things that I (or the aforementioned anyone) might be looking for: recording date, disc number, etc.

Having said that, does anyone know anything about the Fats Waller recording of Ain't Misbehavin' in which he opens the track by saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I just want you to know that I paid my alimony, and I Ain't Misbehavin'," then delivers perhaps the most muted and desultory performance he ever put to wax? It ends with a resigned, "Here's your money." I've got this on vinyl somewhere but it's in storage.

 

[Nobert]

Also, what's the best version of Ain't We got Fun, that contains the vocal?

 

[GHT]

does anyone know anything about the Fats Waller recording of Ain't Misbehavin' in which he opens the track by saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I just want you to know that I paid my alimony, and I Ain't Misbehavin'," then delivers perhaps the most muted and desultory performance he ever put to wax? It ends with a resigned, "Here's your money." I've got this on vinyl somewhere but it's in storage.

Did he put that on a record? I thought that it was a live recording on a chat show, you live and learn.

Ain't We Got Fun.

Written by, Raymond Egan and co-written with: Gus Khan and Richard Whiting.
Composed by:Gus Khan and Richard Whiting.
A signature tune of the early 20th Century, Ain’t We Got Fun? was composed by Raymond B. Egan, Gus Khan and Richard Whiting and popularized by the musical-comedy team of Van and Schenck. Quickly soaring to number one on the Billboard Charts in 1921, the song went on to become a standard in vaudeville shows, speakeasies, and films that dominated much of the period.

Ain’t We Got Fun? is a song that celebrates the significant social and economic changes that occurred in the United States during the Roaring Twenties. Its most famous usage was by Warner Brothers, Looney Tune cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, who would often sing Ain’t We Got Fun? when hatching mischievous plans. In literature, the song appears in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In 1953, Ain’t We Got Fun? was revived by Doris Day, who performed the tune as part of a duet with Danny Thomas in the Hollywood hit movie, I’ll See You In My Dreams.

Cover artists include: Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Bing Crosby, Billy Jones & Benson Orchestra, Chet Atkins, Bob Hope, Al Jolson, Gordon MacRae, Mitch Miller, Stephanie Pope, Rex Stewart, Don Swan, Bob Thompson, Van & Schenck, Dick Van Dyke, and Margaret Whiting.
As for which one is the best, that's in the ear of the listener, I like the original, but that's probably because I learned to dance the foxtrot to the original song.

 

[Nobert]

Ah, that would explain it. The Particular Waller compilation I have is full of that sort of catch-as-catch-can recording. For example, the track The Joint Is Jumping is clearly just lifted from the sound track of Stormy Weather.
Thanks for that, the Van and Schenck recording is the one I was leaning towards anyway. You see, I'm doing a radio show on the local college station, and this week's show is geared towards money or, more often, towards poverty and penury, destitution, deficit and depression. This is timed to April 15, when we Yanks are honor-bound to pay our income taxes.

 

[Nobert]

An odd and negatory request. I'm looking for period songs on the subject of nothing. Absence. Void. "I looked out the window and there he was, gone." I've already got:

I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (Gershwin, of course)
Nothin' by the Ink Spots
Good For Nothing by Clooney and Deitrich

...and a few more. Any suggestions welcomed. No suggestions are at least taken in the spirit of the request.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You're Nothin' but a Nothin' -- Raymond Paige and his Orchestra, v. The Three Rhythm Kings.
Good For Nothin' But Love -- Fats Waller and his Rhythm -- v. Fats Waller
Nothing Lives Longer than Love -- Enric Madriguera and his Orchestra, v. Tony Sacco
There's Nothing The Matter With Me -- George Olsen and his Music. v. Ethel Shutta
Nothing But The Best -- Little Jack Little and his Orchestra, v. Jack Himself

 

[Nobert]

Thank You!

 

[Nobert]

LizzieMaine, thanks again for those suggestions. I played a few on my show. For a bit there, I was worried that I might get through a whole program without a Fats Waller song. That Ethel Shutta was quite a discovery. I couldn't find a full version of You're Nothin' But a Nothin', but was able to get an excerpt that worked nicely as background for a station I.D. The vocal sounds like Jack Mercer, is this from one of the Fleischer Popeyes?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was written for a Disney Silly Symphony, "The Flying Mouse." The version I have, the Paige side on Victor, has a vocal trio on the chorus, but there may be another one out there using a frog-voice vocal. There were several performers besides Mercer who did that type of voice in the mid-thirties, including Poley McClintock, who was Fred Waring's drummer and doubled in Popeye-like novelty vocals.

Ethel Shutta is one of my favorite vocalists -- she was a Broadway singer in the twenties who co-starred with Eddie Cantor in "Whoopee," both the stage show and the film version, but she didn't photograph especially well and that worked against her having more of a career in pictures. But she was big stuff on radio and on records thru the first half of the thirties -- she's what you'd get if you crossed Ruth Etting with Zelma O'Neal.

When I'm dictator, my state-run media will require that all radio programs of any kind, anywhere include at least one Fats Waller record. Preferably all radio programs will consist entirely of Fats Waller records, forever.

 

[vitanola]

Also, what's the best version of Ain't We got Fun, that contains the vocal?

Well, in 1921 Billy Jones recorded the song for practically everyone, Edison, Victor, Okeh, Brunswick, Emerson. His Edison recording, originally issued on Diamond Disc is, I think, the best, but the only Youtube posting is tranferred from a cylinder (which was a dub from the Diamond Disc)

 

[vitanola]

[QUOTE="GHT, post: 2399114, member: 21441]I like the original, but that's probably because I learned to dance the foxtrot to the original song.[/QUOTE]

Are you referring to the dance arrangement recorded by Benny Krueger on Brunswick in 1921?

 

[GHT]

Are you referring to the dance arrangement recorded by Benny Krueger on Brunswick in 1921?

I wouldn't know. When learning any dance at the dance school we went to, the dance teacher always played the same record to help the dance student. Once you have it in your memory, timing becomes second nature. our dance teacher played the song on a 78rpm record, the dust sleeve had an ink impression of the above photo. In those days, I was more into dance than most other things.

 

[Nobert]

Well, in 1921 Billy Jones recorded the song for practically everyone,

Were I ever to have a record label, I think that would be a great tag line.

Nobert
RECORDS
"Recorded for Practically Everyone."

 

[vitanola]

I wouldn't know. When learning any dance at the dance school we went to, the dance teacher always played the same record to help the dance student. Once you have it in your memory, timing becomes second nature. our dance teacher played the song on a 78rpm record, the dust sleeve had an ink impression of the above photo. In those days, I was more into dance than most other things.

Is this the recording?

It is in a strict 4/4 rhythm, and a perfect tempo for learning to Fox Trot.

 

[1mach1]

Is this the recording?

It is in a strict 4/4 rhythm, and a perfect tempo for learning to Fox Trot.

Love that one!

 

[GHT]

Is this the recording?

It is in a strict 4/4 rhythm, and a perfect tempo for learning to Fox Trot.

It could well be, but I was 18 when I learned the foxtrot, I'm 72 now. I know that long term memory stays with you but do you know, I just can't be sure.

 

[Nobert]

So, does anyone have a favorite interpretation of Happy Days Are Here Again?

On a side note, does anyone know if you can say "Tabernac" on the air without getting in Dutch with the F.C.C?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Leo Reisman's recording on Victor might be the definitive version if you're looking for something that sounds like 1929 is supposed to sound, and Annette Hanshaw on Columbia is also quite good. Likewise the Ben Selvin Columbia and the Benny Meroff Brunswick.

I don't know how apt the FCC folks are with foreign languages these days. I once said "va fangool" on the air and never got called on it. Of course it was all in fun.

 

[Nobert]

I didn't see your response until now, but I went with the Leo Reisman. If I'd known there was an Annette Hanshaw version, I probably would have zoomed into it like it were flypaper. The Ben Selvin stuff I've heard seems all right, I know he was a dance band leader of renown, but it doesn't set me on fire. It's good in a serviceable, workhorse kind of way, but nothing leaps out at me. Since I'm on the subject, do you know if the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra has anything to do with our own Potemkin tourist town? My feints and stabs at Googling the question have left me thrashing at air, but I know of no other Harbor that is Bar.

I ended up going without the Quebcois profanity ne plus ultra. My opening for the show, which I'm going to transcribe here just so that someone will have read, if not heard it:

Well, "Le printemps est la," as they might say in Paris, the land of springtime. Or, as they may say in Montreal this year, "Le printemps arrive...enfin. C'est hiver dernier, Mon Dieu." Or, as they might say in Lac Magantic, "Mon Dieu...Le Train!"

Thanks so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge, I expect I'll probably be pestering you at some point in the future with my insatiable curiosity, which I fully expect will end with someone grabbing the tip of my nose and distending it beyond recognition.

 

[vitanola]

Leo Reisman's recording on Victor might be the definitive version if you're looking for something that sounds like 1929 is supposed to sound, and Annette Hanshaw on Columbia is also quite good. Likewise the Ben Selvin Columbia and the Benny Meroff Brunswick.

I don't know how apt the FCC folks are with foreign languages these days. I once said "va fangool" on the air and never got called on it. Of course it was all in fun.

I always preferred the Charles King waxing, for after all, he did introduce the song in the picture "Chasing Rainbows". The accompnament is the epitome of "Nervous White Guy" jazz, and is very much of its period.