What are you listening to?

[CharlieB]

I usually forgoe the radio, and just listen to something I own.

Today it's "Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass" Herb was my inspiration growing up to take up the trumpet - along with my parent's swing records!

 

[Fletch]

Ferde Grofé's Metropolis - a "Blue Fantasie" in 4 parts.
Paul Whiteman & Concert Orch., 1928; Roy Bargy, piano soloist.
Not, supposedly, inspired by the motion picture. But good listening nonetheless.

The guy who posted it above thinks it's "pretty tepid and totally unremarkable."
He also said the Grand Canyon Suite belongs in "history's fluff bin forever."
It must be boring having such good taste.

 

[LizzieMaine]

An entire generation of Americans couldn't listen to "The Grand Canyon Suite" without thinking of Philip Morris cigarettes. Now it's just that background music from "A Christmas Story." Somehow I doubt either option is what ol' Ferde had in mind.

 

[Fletch]

When I hear Metropolis - not that you asked - I think of Fritz Lang's vision, but applied to Jazz Age Manhattan.

My Maria - one of the great muses of the age - Elizabeth Lee Miller, painted here in 1927.

 

[Dagwood]

Listening to Bing sing about the San Fernando Valley.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cornflake time again, and the radio offers as accompaniment the Log Cabin Syrup program of November 6, 1937 -- starring Jack Haley, with Ted Fio Rito and his Orchestra, announcer Warren Hull, and the wonderful, utterly forgotten vocalist Virginia Verrill, who spent most of her career dubbing for actresses who pretended to sing on screen. If you were ever amazed by Jean Harlow's snappy contralto song stylings, well, you were hearing Miss Verrill instead. She finally got fed up with the whole racket, married a doctor, and disappeared forever from show business. It was radio's loss.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Cocktail Nation 149, with a tune entitled "I Dig," by Les Baxter, followed by Antonio Carlos Jobim doing something called "Surfboard."

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Also in a Cocktail Nation Mood, here in Australia on a Friday night

[video=youtube;U7rbOwC6hrI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7rbOwC6hrI&feature=related[/video]

 

[Fletch]

Cornflake time again, and the radio offers as accompaniment the Log Cabin Syrup program of November 6, 1937

Log Cabin is probably yummy on Corn Flakes, come to think of it.

the wonderful, utterly forgotten vocalist Virginia Verrill, who spent most of her career dubbing for actresses who pretended to sing on screen. If you were ever amazed by Jean Harlow's snappy contralto song stylings, well, you were hearing Miss Verrill instead. She finally got fed up with the whole racket, married a doctor, and disappeared forever from show business. It was radio's loss.

Also Jim Breyley's. He was Isham Jones' manager, who cottoned on to Virginia when she was a new discovery at CBS, got her a record date with Jones' Juniors small group - then married her. For awhile.

If her rendition of Slappin' the Bass is anything to go by, she was a pretty fun gal. She sounds like Peg Lacentra after a couple manhattans.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

John Boles -- Song Of The Dawn (1930)
From the film The King of Jazz

[video=youtube;2V7TCXTGXaM]http://youtube.com/watch?v=2V7TCXTGXam[/video]

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Rex Harrison "Why Can't A Woman"


[video=youtube;hRyOQmff5eE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRyOQmff5eE&feature=related[/video]

 

[Chas]

Some rare Duke Ellington small group stuff from the early 30's. I found an album that had a bunch of sides on it that he did not have on CD; I now realize that I have quite a bit less than 100% of the Duke's recordings between 1927-1945 I previously thought that I owned.

The game is afoot....

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Collegians -- Oh Doris! Where Do You Live? (1927)

[video=youtube;78VtM3nlzm4&NR=1]http://youtube.com/watch?v=78VtM3nIzm4&NR=1[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Conny Froboess -- Gino (English version) (1962)

[video=youtube;8X1vD9uXb4o]http://youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1vD9uXb4o[/video]

Conny Froboess -- Zwei Kleiner Italiener (original German version](1962)

[video=youtube;K9DOlRlFgbA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9DOlRlFgbA[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

78s to bake a Spam by --

Now playing it's Bob Causer and his Cornellians in 1933 with a ducky Chick Bullock vocal on "Now We're On Our Second Honeymoon." I can't get enough of these Depression-era A. R. C. records, and this is another pip.

Next, ahead to 1938 with Sonny Schuyler and Kay Weber teaming for the love theme from "Pins And Needles," "One Big Union For Two," with Harold Rome and Baldwin Bergerson at the twin pianos. "No scabbing when you're out of town!"

 

[HadleyH]

French singer ,Charles Trenet (1913-2001)


"Boum" 1938

[video=youtube;-T3qo-_Rc1w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T3qo-_Rc1w[/video]

 

[Nik Taylor]

French singer ,Charles Trenet (1913-2001)


"Boum" 1938

[video=youtube;-T3qo-_Rc1w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T3qo-_Rc1w[/video]

Thanks for sharing this song with us. I enjoyed it so much that I found the English translation.

The clock goes tic toc tic tic
The birds of the lake quick quack quick quick
Gobble gobble gobble go all the tom turkeys
And the pleasing bells bing bang bong

But...

Boom
When our hearts go Boom
Everything about it says Boom
And it's love which is awakened

Boom
It sings "love in bloom"
To the rythym of that Boom
Which repeats Boom to the ears

Everything has changed since yesterday
And on the street are eyes which look from the windows
There are lilacs and there are open hands
Over the ocean the sun will be rising

Boom
The daytime stars go Boom
Everything about it says Boom
When our hearts go Boom Boom

Verse 2:

The wind in the woods goes whoo oo oo
The does at bay go baa aa aa
The broken dishes go crick crick crack
And the wet feet go flip flip flap

But...

Boom
When our hearts go Boom
Everything about it says Boom
The bird says Boom, it's the thunderstorm

Boom
The lightning that he makes goes Boom
And the good Lord says Boom
In his throne of clouds

For my love is more lively
Than lightning, lighter than a bird, a queen bee
And if it goes Boom, if it colors itself
It will carry us away with the marvels

Boom
The whole world goes Boom
The whole universe goes Boom Boom
Because my heart goes Boom Boom
I hear only Boom Boom
That always goes Boom Boom...
Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom

I enjoy this artist; this one reminds of another time in my life I think of with fondness...

[video=youtube;fd_nopTFuZA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd_nopTFuZA[/video]

 

[HadleyH]

^
^
^

Charles Trenet's "La Mer" is my favorite interpretation of that song! Thank you!

 

[Fletch]

Business in F - Gene Kardos & Orch., 1932. The first "riff tune" to gain popularity. Dick Robertson and Gene's all-New York band yell about that "soitin business!" - then get to it.

High Hat - Jesse Crawford at the Wurlitzer Hall Organ, Chicago, 1928. Intermission-esque twiddly-bit with Larry Gomar, big name show drummer, helping out on xylophone.

Isn't It Heavenly? - Lew Stone & His Band, 1933. Al Bowlly's earnest delivery and a whispery sub-toned clarinet obbligato add much to this simple-and-sweet number.

I Want a New Romance - Teddy Grace with Mal Hallett's Orch., 1937. Bright late 30s movie tune to which Miss G. brings some ideal Southern sass, well abetted by Hallett's under-appreciated swingsemble.

Sun Spots - Paul Whiteman & Orch., 1934. Frank Trumbauer leads the saxes in an Art Deco tour de force - the kind of thing you'd hear in one of the Big Broadcast flicks, while waiting for atmospheric conditions to clear for a short wave pickup from China or for a hapless Bing Crosby to get to the studio on a delivery bicycle or in the back of a milk truck.

 

[LizzieMaine]

78s to fight with the cat for the last donut by --

Now playing, it's 1935 and Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra with Ramona on the vocal for "I'm In The Mood For Love." Nothing hoop-te-doo here, no baroque solos or gimmicky arrangement, just a classy, definitive treatment of one of the century's great pop tunes. If someone teaching a class needed a prototypical example of what a first-rank mid-thirties dance band record sounded like, they wouldn't go wrong for choosing this one. (Victor 25091, for those who keep track of the minutiae.)

Next, ahead to 1937 with Dolly Dawn and her Dawn Patrol (the Hotel Taft Orchestra while maestro George was out having his moustache re-waxed), and a playful take on one of those great Warner Bros. tunes that only seem to survive in the background of Porky Pig cartoons, "How Could You?" Or as Dolly insists, "How Coo Ja?"