SOMETHING FOR
SATURDAY
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Photo by Dan Chapman ©2001 Stanyan
Entertainment Group
A Thought for Today
Christmas is more than a celebration it
is a time of summing up.
DECEMBER
7th 1941
As America found itself in a
state of war sixty years ago few of us who were alive at the time had any
idea of the profound effect WWII would have on American and world history.
Indeed, it was all that we could do to try and comprehend that on a sleepy
Sunday morning our peaceful shores had been attacked and violated. In the
first hours of the sketchy radio reports those of us living in California
feared ‘today Hawaii, tomorrow San Diego, Santa Monica or San Francisco.’
Every war is supposed to be ‘The War to End All Wars’ and of course it
never is. Because our enemies are being redefined every day it’s hard to
believe the current conflict will end any time soon. We can only hope the
wave of patriotism that has swept across our land will stay and help
sustain us and our armed forces for however long it takes till some kind
of peace is again prevalent.
SONGS THAT WON THE WAR
Rod,
Today's Flight Plan made me start thinking of the wonderful music of the
40's and worrying that the music (?) of our present war will be rap. Say
it won't! Pat and Pups
Dear Pat, What a depressing thought. Still, our armies run on the cuisine
and culture of their time. Alas the steady stream of junk that passes for
music these days has become the ‘temporary’ culture of now. But, let me
put it this way: At last count there were some 1100 recordings of “I’ll Be
Seeing You.” I seriously doubt that Puff Daddy, Dr. Dre or even Mariah
Carey have yet created a single “standard” that sixty years from now will
stand the test of time. As Ever, Rod
Dear Rod: I’ve just purchased the latest additions
to your ongoing series “Songs That Won the War.” These two new discs,
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” & “Christmas Jump & Jive” have to rank at the
very top of the series. I’m buying an extra set of both for my dad & my
uncle, both of whom served in World War II. I hope this series continues.
It is so valuable to all of us. What great songs and what a great job
you’ve done in preserving them. Sincerely, Richard Emory, St. Louis.
Dear Richard. Thanks. With fifteen albums completed & released “Songs That
Won the War” continues to be up front as far as my priorities in producing
records go. Another half dozen albums are on the way.
We have a few copies of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Christmas Jump &
Jive” & “Remember Pearl Harbor” at
Stanyan By Mail at a special price of
$10.00 for each CD. Alas the first two boxed sets are no longer available.
CHRISTMAS SONGS THAT WON THE WAR
Here, adapted from the notes
on the album is some information on the two holiday discs mentioned above.
302 066 293
Songs That Won The War: I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Santa Clause is Coming to Town
• Tommy Dorsey -vocal by Fred Astaire & Lee Wiley / I’ll Walk Alone •
Dinah Shore introduced by Bing Crosby / Jingle Bells • Bing Crosby and The
Andrews Sisters / It Happened In Sun Valley • Glenn Miller -vocals by:
Paula Kelly, Ray Eberle, Tex Beneke and The Modernaires / Little Jack
Frost Get Lost • Frankie Carle / The Little Boy That Santa Clause Forgot •
Vera Lynn / Santa Clause Came In The Spring • Benny Goodman / The Day
After Christmas • Corky Hale / Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas •
Judy Garland / Every Day’s A Holiday • Al Bowley / The Night Before
Christmas • Louis Armstrong / Christmas Child in Green • Liberace / I’ll
Be Home for Christmas • Bing Crosby / It’s the Season for Kraft Mustard
Commercial / Baby It’s Cold Outside • Dusty Springfield and Rod McKuen /
Dashing Through The Snow • Duke Ellington / Winter Wonderland • Johnny
Mercer / What Are You Doin’ New Year's Eve? • Lena Horne / Oh Come All Ye
Faithful • Dick Haymes / White Christmas • Bing Crosby
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
In times of war or trouble
there is no better morale builder or stress buster than music. WWII had
the good fortune of being able to press the best songwriters and artists
of the 1940’s into service. No better illustration of the songs that
helped win the war can be found than those written and performed to help
ease the strain of being away from home during the holidays. This disc
contains a generous helping of 19 WWII holiday favorites.
Friends are friends and before a recording session Tommy Dorsey had a very
wet lunch with Fred Astaire and Lee Wiley. The two needed very little
persuasion to tag along with Tommy to the Victor studios. One bottle of
bubbly led to another and thus we have the first and only documented
pairing of two of the most unique voices in pop music harmonizing together
on a swinging arrangement of the holiday classic Santa Clause is Coming to
Town. Dorsey close friends included all the movie stars and other swells
and if you give a closer look to the Dorsey discography you’ll discover
Eleanor Powell, Libby Holman, Dick Powell and other stars of the day
sitting in on various sessions. Sometimes they get billing on the finished
recording and sometimes not. To this day the vocals on the Tommy Dorsey
recording of “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” are credited to two of the
Dorsey Band’s staff singers of the time. No doubt the original label copy
was designed to ward off lawsuits since Astaire & Wiley had recording
contracts with other record labels at the time.
Fred Astaire needs no introduction, but the incomparable Lee Wiley, one of
the most influential vocalists of the thirties and forties is much less
known to the public at large. Her discography is small but impressive and
she had everything necessary to become a major act – everything that is
but the drive necessary to go with her formidable talent. Instead of
becoming a star she’s had to settle for legendary cult status. As a
‘singer’s singer she has over the years been copied by nearly as many
vocalists as Billie Holiday.
While Santa Clause is Coming to Town has been recorded by everyone from
The Boston Pops to Bruce Springstein, the Dorsey/Astaire/Wiley combination
on this great J. Fred Cootes, Haven Gillespie standard make this my
favorite of all the versions of this often recorded tune.
This performance of I’ll Walk Alone by Dinah Shore is taken from a 1945
radio Command Performance MC’d by Bing Crosby and celebrating VE day. This
was Dinah’s most requested World War II song and to this day remains a
standard she put her own personal stamp on. The music and words are by the
great songwriting team of Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Lyricist Cahn working
with both Styne and Jimmy McHugh provided Frank Sinatra with a steady
stream of hits throughout his long career. I Fall in Love Too Easily, The
Tender Trap, Time After Time, All The Way, Call Me Irresponsible, My Kind
of Town, The September of My Years, Come Fly With Me, Love and Marriage,
The Second Time Around, Pocketful of Miracles, Three Coins in the
Fountain, High Hopes might as well be the soundtrack to Sinatra’s life –
and ours.
Dinah Shore had a go at the movies but it was the color television camera
that fell in love with her and from the fifties on kept her in the
limelight. During the forties she was best known for a string of hit
records and her many appearances on radio to entertain and sustain the
troops. Her “Dinah Shore Open,” held annually in Palm Springs did more for
women’s golf than all the pros put together.
Who isn’t familiar with Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters and their many
recordings together, including J. Pierpoint’s Jingle Bells. Ten to one,
though, this more than mildly hilarious AFRS rehearsal has escaped your
attention. Listen closely as during the tongue twister arrangement Bing
then Patty and finally Maxine and Laverne all break up. It starts when
Crosby uncharacteristically misses a cue and ad libs “Holy Jesus Christ”
for an intended lyric. What? Yes. They faired much better with the same
arrangement later in the studio but nothing can replace this, until now,
not readily available performance.
All the big bands were featured in movie musicals during the 1940’s and
one of the most successful was 20th Century Fox’s “Sun Valley Serenade.
This low budget black and white offering was mounted to showcase Fox’s
‘Queen of the Ice” Sonja Heine but for band buffs it was a chance to catch
Glenn Miller, his orchestra and stable of vocalists Paula Kelly, Ray
Eberle, Tex Beneke and The Modernaires perform half a dozen top flight
tunes, among them Harry Warren and Mack Gordon’s It Happened In Sun
Valley. This track is from the broadcast “The Glenn Miller Christmas
Concert.”
Another Warren / Gordon collaboration Little Jack Frost Get Lost was
introduced by Betty Grable and John Payne in “Springtime in the Rockies.”
Here it gets the bandleader-pianist Frankie Carle treatment with an
entertaining vocal by his daughter Marjorie Hughes. There’s aren’t too
many versions of this much too neglected song available so it’s a pleasure
to put it back in the music catalog where it belongs.
Who could possibly listen to Vera Lynn’s version of the British favorite
The Little Boy That Santa Clause Forgot and not be moved to something or
other (the word I’m looking for is not tears). My favorite lyric in this
Kennedy / Conner Leach collaboration comes when they rhyme ‘Daddy’ & ‘Laddie,’
not only was this a chart topper for Dame Vera, The Sweetheart of Her
Majesty’s Armed Forces, but she re-recorded in the 1960’s as part of a
newer Christmas album. Vera Lynn was truly the vocalist of choice for the
British troops with songs like “The White Cliffs of Dover” but it wasn’t
till just after the war that she conquered the United States.
Johnny Mercer wrote Santa Clause Came In The Spring for the 1935 RKO film,
in which he had a featured role, “To Beat the Band.” Benny Goodman was
among the first artists to record it and this V Disc version has never
been in the record catalog before. version Mercer himself sang the song in
the movie.
Johnny Mercer, one of the co-founder’s of Capitol Records, had many hits
during the 1940’s and they were by no means confined to songs he wrote
himself. A good song was a good song as far as he was concerned and
Bernard & Smith’s Winter Wonderland enjoyed a long stay at the top of The
Hit Parade thanks to the Johnny Mercer, Pied Pipers, version heard here.
The versatile Paul Weston (he and his wife Jo Stafford were alumni of
Tommy Dorsey’s band) was hired as house arranger and A&R man for Capitol
and did nearly all of Johnny’s arrangements including this one. His charts
kept a steady supply of Stafford and Margaret Whiting records spinning on
AM radio. Later he and Jo both moved to Columbia where in addition to
producing Jo’s “You Belong To Me,” “Jambalaya” and all of her other hits
he arranged for and produced a steady stream of Doris Day, Rosemary
Clooney, Johnnie Ray and Frankie Laine chart toppers. He also brought
Liberace and The Norman Luboff Choir to the Columbia label.
I included The Day After Christmas in this collection because it was used
represent Christmas songs in The Unknown War, the 20-hour documentary
about WWII on the Eastern Front. Though not featured on this recording the
lyric goes in part “as you untie your packages and drink a toast of
good cheer, think how it’s going to be for us this time again next year.
We’ll pack the ornaments together after the tree comes down and on The Day
After Christmas, whatever be the weather we’ll both go driving into town.
And we’ll smile like tinsel on the tree and I’ll collect all the promises
you put aside for me.” While the lyric anticipates ‘next year,’ the
servicemen and sweethearts of World War II looked forward to for
reunification; it was four years in coming. Corky Hale, so adept at so
many instruments is featured here on a lilting piano solo. The track is
from her album “Harp! The Herald Angels Swing.
This version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland was
conducted by her new husband David Rose for a “Salute to the Service”
radio show. Garland had performed it earlier in MGM’s family classic “Meet
Me in St. Louis. Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine were under exclusive
contract to Metro and this is only one of the classic songs they provided
for the studio. From the same film came “The Trolley Song and “The Boy
Next Door.” Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas has a wonderful verse
that wasn’t used in the film and it has become somewhat of an orphan over
the years. And Judy never once sang the lovely verse Yip Harburg wrote for
Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow.”
Al Bowley had the best-selling version of the Coslow / Trivers tune Every
Day’s a Holiday. With his matinee idol looks and certainly a voice to
match Bowley had the same kind of following in England that Sinatra
enjoyed in the United States. A bit of a ladies man he was the target of
more than one angry boyfriend and husband. Bowley, himself, was a victim
of the war when he was killed in London in a 1941 air raid. Al Bowley had
been a band singer since 1929 when he was featured with the Ray Fox Band.
He also worked with Lew Stone and The New Cumberland Dance Orchestra but
it was probably his four years with Ray Noble that made him a star and a
much sought after soloist. He helped introduce many of Noble’s best-known
songs including “Love is the Sweetest Thing,” “The Very Thought of You”
and “Love Locked Out.”
One of my better ideas was getting Louis Armstrong to recite Clement
Moore’s enchanting The Night Before Christmas. Although he later performed
it on several holiday programs for both radio and television there is
something about this first performance that is as warm and endearing as
anything the great Sachmo ever did. Louis went into Radio Recorders and
polished the poem off in only one take. I never got around to composing
the musical background I promised to add to it, but I still love this
unadorned version. This year the track is being animated with paintings by
Grandma Moses as part of an HBO holiday feature entitled “Twas the Night.”
.
Liberace was one of the English-speaking world’s favorite entertainers.
The flamboyant showman could sell out Las Vegas Casino’s and The Royal
Albert Hall with just a brief announcement. Lee loved Christmas and
started decorating his Vegas mansion both inside and out a full month
ahead of the holidays. Christmas Child in Green is a lilting performance
of the Alex Drey perennial with The Liberace Combo and in addition to the
pianist’s bejeweled finger work it features Anna Gabriel on harp.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas and the Kraft Mustard Commercial are both from
Bing Crosby’s long running Kraft Music Hall radio series. This version is
the only time he performed two successive verses of the song, without
frills or even an introduction. White Christmas is from the same series
and was recorded the same year. Unlike his American Decca recordings that
featured The Jud Conlin Singers, he’s backed here by The Jordanaires. As
always his arranger conductor is the versatile John Scott Trotter. When I
worked with Trotter in the 1960’s on the score for “A Boy Named Charlie
Brown” he told me that after all these years Bing was still his favorite
singer and an all around “champ” to work with. I’ll Be Home for Christmas
was written by Walter Kent, Kim Gannon and Buck Ram. Of course it was
Crosby who introduced Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in Paramount’s
“Holiday Inn.” This arrangement of it differs quite a bit from his
commercial recording.
I’ve always loved Frank Loessor’s Baby It’s Cold Outside and sing it every
chance I get. I’ve recorded it with Petula Clark and Lisbeth List and the
Dusty Springfield/Rod McKuen version is taken from my TV special
“Christmas in New England.” I’ve known Dusty since she and her brother
singer-songwriter Tom were a duo and later founded the great British folk
trio, “The Springfields.” It was Dusty who had the hit in Great Britain on
“If You Go Away” and she and I did a lot of performing together during the
1960’s. She was the featured guest on one of my BBC TV shows and later we
were both on The Johnny Cash show together. Dusty was a sweetheart and the
consummate professional. And, THAT VOICE. I miss her a lot. Baby It’s Cold
Outside was introduced by Esther Williams & Red Skelton in MGM’s “Bathing
Beauty” and the hit recording of it paired Johnny Mercer and Margaret
Whiting.
David Ellman’s arrangement of Dashing Through The Snow was the perfect
vehicle to demonstrate the versatility of Duke Ellington’s 1940’s
Orchestra. It was officially billed and Duke Ellington & His Famous
Orchestra. The sidemen on this V-Disc session are a who’s who of the best
players in the business and arguably comprise the best of Ellington’s many
bands,
And now here to ask the musical question What Are You Doin’ New Year's
Eve? is the way Big Bang announcers of the period would probably introduce
Frank Loessor’s song. Here to give the very musical answer is the lovely
Lena Horne. In addition to her many stellar records, guided by Phil Moore,
Lena rose to fame in the All Black, black and white MGM musicals “Cabin in
the Sky and “Stormy Weather.” But the gorgeous Lena was made for
Technicolor as she proved in “Words & Music,” “Till The Clouds Roll By”
and “Ziegfeld Follies” among other Metro extravaganzas. Each of her
appearances was carefully slipped into the films so that it could just as
easily be slipped out of the prints when they played theatres in the still
segregated South.
During her years at MGM and a very successful nightclub career that
followed she was under the big wings of arranger, conductor and finally
husband Lennie Hayton. If the hands on (where everything involving his
stars was concerned) Louis B. Mayor ever disapproved of this famous mixed
union he never openly said so. Whatever difficulties the two may have had
in 1950’s America, and there were plenty of them, Lena & Lenny were a
musical marriage truly made in heaven.
Dick Haymes’ baritone fits nicely on this radio transcription of Oh Come
All Ye Faithful. Vic Damone, Dick Todd and Haymes each had their share of
hits but all three singers were forced by the critics and the public to
compete with Frank Sinatra. A shame since they all had styles of their
own. Haymes most enduring hit of the war years was “You’ll Never Know.”
Subject to James C. Petrillo’s phonograph record ban that prohibited
musicians from playing on records, Haymes like Sinatra, Como, Dinah Shore
and others were forced to record their singles with only vocal groups as
back up. One act, The Song Spinners cornered most of the back-up action.
So here they are, some of the great Christmas Songs and not a few of the
artists that helped buoy those on The Front and The Home Front for four
holiday seasons during WWII. The songs endure and so do their
performances.
302 066 294
Songs That Won The War: Christmas Jump & Jive
Sun Valley Jump • Glenn Miller
/ Ring Dem Bells • Duke Ellington / White Christmas • Charlie Spivak / G.
I. Jive • Johnny Mercer / Rose Room • Benny Goodman Quartet / The March of
The Toys / Christmas Night in Knightsbridge • The Arthur Greenslade Big
Band / Hey Now, Let’s Live • Louis Jordon / Mrs. Santa Clause • Nat King
Cole / Little Brown Jug • Glenn Miller / Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer •
Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby / Christmas Western Swing • Big Jim’s
Banjo Band / Ain’t Misbehavin’ • Kay Starr / When The Quail Come B. To San
Quentin • Artie Shaw / Quiet Christmas Riot • Buddy Rich / Santa Clause
Express • Jay Wilbur) vocal The Three Ginx) / Jingle Bell Jive • Benny
Goodman / Hark The Herald Angels Swing • Corky Hale / Jolly Old Christmas
• Billy Cotton Band Vocal: Fred Douglas (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) White
Cliffs of Dover • Louis Prima
CHRISTMAS JUMP & JIVE
Much of the music of the
1940’s went into World War II as segregated as the troops but the
combination of swing, jazz, country, traditional blues and just as many
different kinds of music from Great Britain contributed to a rich puree
that to this day makes up the rich foundation of American Popular song.
By whatever name, Swing was king during WWII and the Christmas Jump and
Jive that forms the basis of this CD permeated the airwaves, juke boxes
and live performances that brought us from the dark years of the forties
into the peace and prosperity of the nearly war free 1950’s.
Imagine a Christmas party with the big bands of Glenn Miller, Duke
Ellington, Charlie Spivak, Tommy Dorsey, Arthur Greenslade, Buddy Rich,
Artie Shaw and the Billy Cotton Band? Add a generous helping of the
legendary small ensembles of Benny Goodman, Louis Prima, Big Jim’s Banjo
Band and top it off with vocals by Johnny Mercer, Bing Crosby, Ella
Fitzgerald, Nat “King” Cole, Kay Starr, Louis Jordan and presto; the
swingin’ist Christmas ever.
The songs collected here aren’t bad either; White Christmas, March of the
Toys and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are flushed out with everybody’s
Big Band favorites; Sun Valley Jump, Ring Dem Bells, When the Quail Come
Back to San Quinton and Ain’t Misbehavin’. This latest compilation of
“Songs That Won the War” concentrates on what the Allies of WWII were
dancing and romancing to during the four holiday season’s most of the
world was at war. Most of these 20 tracks are taken from V-Discs and rare
1940’s radio transcriptions.
Sun Valley Jump was introduced by Glenn Miller in the 20th Century Fox’
film “Sun Valley Serenade.” It’s part of a great Mack Gordon, Harry Warren
score. This version and Little Brown Jug are both from “The Glenn Miller
Christmas Concert” broadcast. While we’re on the subject of Movie’s The
Bing Crosby / Fred Astaire flick “Holiday Inn” produced what is
undoubtedly the most successful pop Christmas song ever, “White
Christmas.”
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas must be second only to his “God Bless
America” as a WWII morale booster. This is a V-Disc performance by Charlie Spivak who recorded two completely different arrangements of the song for
commercial release.
The personnel on Duke Ellington’s Ring Dem Bells is Cootie Williams,
Wallace Jones and Rex Stewart, trumpets; Joe Nanton, Juan Tizol & Lawrence
Brown – trombones; Barney Bigard, Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges, Ben
Webster & Harry Carney, saxophones; Fred Guy, guitar; Jimmy Blanton, Bass;
Sonny Greer, drums and, of course The Duke on piano. The tune is by
Ellington and Irving Mills.
This version of Johnny Mercer’s anthem for ‘Grunts’ G. I. Jive
Was recorded as part of an all star radio show celebrating VE Day.
Meredith Wilson conducts the familiar Paul Weston arrangement here.
Harry Williams-Art Hickman’s Rose Room by Benny Goodman and his Quartet
from his nightly New York broadcast provides a nice bridge to the Tommy
Dorsey transcription of Victor Herbert’s March of The Toys.
The big band I provided for Arthur Greenslade to record Christmas Night in
Knightsbridge included not only England’s best studio sidemen but Chet
Baker who sat in on trumpet.
Mrs. Santa Clause by Nat King Cole is taken from a British air-check and
features the oh so mellow Cole at his mellowest.
That’s Alan Ainsworth conducting the orchestra with The Mike Samms Singers
featured.
Bing Crosby’s holiday radio shows are legendary and this pairing with Ella
Fitzgerald on one of them offers a classic rendition of Johnny Marks’
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. It’s followed by a patriotic Save the Fat
Commercial.
Lest we forget, the good old boys of country swing did plenty of music
making for the war effort and here’s Big Jim’s Banjo Band performing
Christmas Mountain Swing.
Thomas “Fats” Waller wrote Ain’t Misbehavin’ with Harry Brooks & Andy Razoff. This lilting version is provided by Kay Starr and her V-Disc Boys
(the term used for small pick up groups that provided backing for the many
singers who trooped into the Armed Forces Radio studios for V-Disc
sessions.
When The Quail Come Back To San Quentin starts off with the chord
structure employed by “When the Swallows Return to Capistrano” then takes
off on it’s own under the expert guidance of Artie Shaw
Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa were the most in demand drummers of the Big Band
Era and off and on each had his own band. Here’s the Rich aggregation on
the V-Disc Quiet Christmas Riot.
And let’s not forget our allies, the songwriters and the singers, who
contributed so much in the way of solid songs during WWII. British Big
Bands are represented here by Santa Clause Express as played by Jay Wilbur
and The Three Ginx and a sunny, silly, something entitled Jolly Old
Christmas by the Billy Cotton Band the DUH (on purpose vocals are by Fred
Douglas & The Brothers Sisters
On Jingle Bell Jive Benny Goodman forgoes his chamber group for the full
band. The results are everything you could expect from the apt named King
of Swing.
When I suggested to the classy harpist Corky Hale that she try this
revered hymn as a jazz waltz she was somewhat dubious but the end result
speaks for itself, and thus we have Hark The Herald Angels Swing.
This is a somewhat unorthodox version of Nat Burton & Walter Kent’s
(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover, but then what can
you expect from Louis Prima, who whatever guise he took over the years was
always a musical innovator.
And there you have it. Nice to know that while fighting the good fight GI
Joe & Jill and the brave allied troops paused long enough to occasionally
Jump and Jive.
All source material comes from original V-Disc radio transcription
recordings, The Armed Forces Radio Network Archives, period radio
broadcasts and the Stanyan Archives.
- RM 12/08/01
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