Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Here's the last cd of this set. What Have We Got To Lose? Stringing Along On A Shoestring, When My Ship Comes In and If I Had A Million Dollars all echo what a lot of people were thinking.  Our Penthouse On Third Avenue features one of my favorite singers, who to my ear just seems to sing perfectly. Almost as good as the Bea Wain vocal on Our Penthouse On Third Avenue is the photo of her (sorry, no scan). The editors chose Ramona's version of Raising The Rent because it includes the verse lyrics. Roy Bargy (p), Benny Bonacio (cl) and Bunny Berigan (tr) accompany here. Ramona also sings Now I'm A Lady, which is a tune Mae West sang in a film but never recorded. Gotta Go To Work Again from Ted Wallace is a tune that was used as instrumental background music in the film My Man Godfrey. This version features an unknown male vocal. Chick Bullock makes his appearance on the 3rd of 4 of these cds, so obviously the editors have good taste. Are You Making Any Money? (is all I want to know) was written by Herman Hupfield, of As Time Goes By fame. Even without Chick singing, it's a great tune and is the first song of his I'd ever heard (on another Depression collection found early in this blog). I'm not a big Disney fan, but Artie Shaw really made Whistle While You Work swing. Closing out the decade, the Mills Brothers and Louis Armstrong recorded WPA in 1940, and to close out the entire set is the extremely pollyanish, premature and rather insulting tune (considering it was recorded on February 3, 1930 just 3 months after Black Thursday) Happy Days Are Here Again. According to the liner notes, the song was taken to George Olsen, who was playing the Hotel Pennsylvania, who told his band to "play it to the corpses". It took a few choruses for the audience to warm to the tune. This version is by Ben Selvin and an all but anonymous studio orchestra. The book to this box set features a lot of great pictures of artists, sheet music, magazines, record sleeves, etc. It also has a selected bibliography for reading about the Great Depression, and an even bigger filmography. All in all, this set deserves its place as a resource for any study of the era. Very well done. Enjoy! +

Tracks

01 - Phil Harris Coconut Grove Orchestra - What Have We Got To Lose?
02 - Henry 'Red' Allen - Stringin' Along On A Shoe String
03 - Eddie Cantor - When My Ship Comes In
04 - The Boswell Sisters - If I Had A Million Dollars
05 - Gene Kardos Orchestra - Our Penthouse On Third Avenue
06 - Ramona & Roy Bargy - Raising The Rent
07 - Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers - Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore
08 - Connie Boswell - The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
09 - Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra - Now I'm A Lady
10 - Adrian Rollini & Orchestra - I Gotta Get Up And Go To Work
11 - Ted Wallace Orchestra - Gotta Go To Work Again
12 - Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers - Are You Making Any Money?
13 - Ozzie Nelson Orchestra - Got The Jitters
14 - Don Bestor Orchestra - Rain
15 - The Ink Spots - With Plenty Of Money And You
16 - Teddy Hill - I'm Feeling Like A Million
17 - Red Norvo Orchestra - Slummin' On Park Avenue
18 - Artie Shaw New Music - Whistle While You Work
19 - Louis-Mills Armstrong Brothers - WPA
20 - Kay Kyser & His Orchestra - Hey Pop! I Don't Wanna Go To Work
21 - Horace Heidt & Orchestra - Dawn Of A New Day
22 - Ben Selvin & His Orchestra - Happy Days Are Here Again

I'd Rather Be A Beggar With You

As the liner notes suggest, Supper Time (by Irving Berlin) from the satirical revue 'As Thousands Cheer' might  be taken for a deserted woman's lament", but it was performed by Ethel Waters wearing rags with newspaper headlines declaring onstage: "Unknown negro lynched by a mob!" Not only was the poverty and the depression hurting people, but the show gave a "glimpse of ugliness behind the ornate safety curtain of theatrical make-believe" that was very real for many in the South. Track 2 here is from Russ Carlson, and is one of my favorite tunes of the era. Be sure to check out the fantastic TOM cds of Crown Records recordings. Banks were fair game, and so was Hoover. A Shanty In Old Shanty Town was recorded by several artists, including Chick Bullock (on another post). Chick steps up with a fine version of I'd Rather Be A Beggar With You. Guarded optimism marks the next few titles including Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, and If I Ever Get A Job Again. Ben Selvin suggests that good times are indeed on the way, although his entry here was recorded on March 8, 1932 when the country was anywhere but headed for recovery. Six of these tracks were recorded in 1932, three in 1934 and the rest in 1933. After the havoc of 1932 things were looking up, right? Ben Bernie, Ted Lewis, Ruth Etting and another Chick Bullock tune promise that the Grass Is Getting Greener (the latter with Bunny Berigan with the Victor Young Orchestra). The theme continues with the Boswells and We're In The Money. Yes, I believe! For all the effort to cheer up and convince people that it really was just a matter of 'confidence', but then Emil Coleman brings us down to earth with Let 'Em Eat Cake. And with that, we're back to a one-room flat. Enjoy! +

Tracks

01 - Leo Reisman & His Orchestra - Super Time
02 - Russ Carlson High Steppers - Banking On The Weather
03 - Gene Kardos Orchestra - A Shanty In Old Shantytown
04 - Joe Morrison - (Here We Are) Rolling In Love
05 - Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers - I'd Rather Be A Beggar With Love
06 - Freddy Martin Orchestra - Here You Come With Love
07 - Bing Crosby - Let's Put Out The Lights And Go To Sleep
08 - Graham Prince Orchestra - The Clouds Will Soon Roll By
09 - Abe Lyman Orchestra - Rome Wasn't Built In A Day
10 - Gene Kardos Orchestra - If I Ever Get A Job Again
11 - Ben Selvin & His Orchestra - Them Good Old Times Are Coming Back Again
12 - Ben Bernie Orchestra - Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?
13 - Ted Lewis Orchestra - There's A New Day Coming
14 - Ted Lewis Orchestra - Buy American!
15 - Ruth Etting - Hey! Young Fella
16 - Victor Young Orchestra - The Grass Is Getting Greener
17 - Ted Fio Rito Orchestra - (I Went Hunting) And The Big Bad Wolf Was Dead
18 - Ramona With The Park Avenue Boys - We're Out Of The Red
19 - The Boswell Sisters - We're In The Money
20 - Dick Powell - The Road Is Open Again
21 - Emil Coleman's Riviera Orchestra - Let 'Em Eat Cake
22 - Freddy Martin Orchestra - In A One Room Flat

Cheerful Little Earful

Here's the second volume of Ben Selvin. On the post for volume one I cited the entry from Wikipedia which reports that Selvin's output is estimated at 13,000 - 20,000 song titles. I now doubt that seriously based on something I read in Scott Yanow's book under his entry for Chick Bullock. Yanow stated that Bullock recorded more than 4,000 songs during his career, when the number is actually about 740 (according to Peter Murphy's 1983 discography). I say "about" because I've found 3 or 4 or so titles that weren't listed, as well as determining that 1 record is decidedly not Bullock. Anyway, most of Bullock's songs were issued on several labels even though they were the exact same recording, often on as many as nine different labels (also accounting for pseudonyms). I suspect that the case is similar for Ben Selvin, though he was far more prolific than Bullock, and that there is sloppy counting going on. So again, 20,000? How many recording sessions per year would that require? I bet the count doesn't match up with the known recording dates. Anyway, this is another fine collection from this label. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Free and Easy [1]
2. Smile, Darn Ya, Smile
3. Why?
4. Mona
5. Do Ya Love Me? (Just a Tiny Bit, Do Ya?) [1]
6. Why Do You Suppose?
7. I Miss a Little Miss (Who Misses Me in Sunny Tennessee)
8. Do Ya Love Me? (Just a Tiny Bit, Do Ya?) [2]
9. 'Tain't No Sin
10. Thank Your Father
11. When I Am Housekeeping for You
12. Let Me Sing and I'm Happy
13. Thank Your Father [2]
14. I'm in the Market for You
15. Whole Darned Thing's for You
16. Why Have You Forgotten Waikiki?
17. My Man from Caroline
18. I'm in the Market for You [2]
19. Free and Easy [2]
20. Cheerful Little Earful
21. Whole Darned Thing's for You [2]
22. It's Easy to Fall in Love
23. You Said It

Last Doller

During his career Selvin recorded more sides than any other person, according to Guinness Book of World Records. This is estimated to be between 13,000 and 20,000 titles. Selvin accomplished this by being talented, but also by recording for dozens of different labels under even more numerous pseudonyms. I seriously doubt that any collection would be all inclusive, but here is Volume 1 from his Columbia period. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Last Doller
2. I Wanna Sing About You
3. You're My Everything
4. You Can't Stop Me from Loving You
5. Makin' Faces at the Man in the Moon
6. Lucille
7. Hot-Cha Medley: You Can Make My Life a Bed of Roses/Say & There I Go, Dreaming Again
8. Was That the Human Thing to Do?
9. You Try Somebody Else
10. When We're Alone
11. Happy Days Are Here Again
12. Whe Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba
13. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
14. It's the Darndest Thing
15. Little Mary Brown
16. She Didn't Say Yes
17. My Sweet Tooth Says I Wanna
18. Take It from Me
19. Who Am I?
20. You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)
21. When the Rest of the Crowd Goes Home