You're Telling Me

2 hits for 2 bits - how can you beat that? From a review on Amazon: Nobody is quite sure what happened to Charlie Palloy, the mysterious bandleader, guitarist, and baritone who recorded for the bargain-priced Crown Records label between 1932 and 1933. Was he a better-known musician working under a stage name or just a good Bing Crosby impersonator destined for obscurity? Regardless, these 23 tracks capture one of the Depression-era's most enigmatic and talented bandleaders in fine form. His budget-priced 78s (sold through Woolworth's for a quarter) were forged on the repertoire of Crosby's latest hits, but Palloy's single-note guitar solos--a hint at the sounds of jazz guitar to come--make these interpretations utterly fascinating. From the stripped-down arrangement of "Young and Healthy" to the full-bodied swing of "Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia," Palloy shines. His slightly ragged voice is somehow endearing and his talent on the frets is unmistakable. What other bandleader in the '20s or '30s would sing, scat, and do a guitar solo on "Forty-Second Street"? Guitarist-bandleader Nick Lucas may be a better-known figure than Palloy (after all, he did popularize "Tip Toe Through the Tulips"), but that's a shame: Palloy is every bit as interesting and his playing is just as remarkable. --Jason Verlinde. This is a fantastic collection. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
2. Young and Healthy
3. And So I Married the Girl
4. Stormy Weather
5. Say It Isn't So
6. Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia
7. Learn to Croon
8. Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
9. (Hi-Ho Lack-A-Day) What Have We Got to Lose?
10. Me Minus You
11. Forty Second Street
12. I've Got to Sing a Torch Song
13. Hustlin' and Bustlin' for Baby
14. On a Steamer Coming Over
15. You'll Never Get up to Heaven That Way
16. What a Perfect Combination
17. Gold Diggers Song (We're in the Money)
18. Pettin' in the Park
19. You're Telling Me
20. Try a Little Tenderness
21. One Little Word Led to Another
22. Just an Echo in the Valley
23. Cop on the Beat, the Man in the Moon and Me

Happy Repeal Day!

Aw, hooey! Happy Repeal Day! This day, 75 years ago, the United States Congress repealed the 18th Amendment - known as the Volstead Act - when Utah became the 36th state to ratify what is now the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution. This restored control of alcohol to the states. Although Andrew Volstead sponsored the bill, the 18th Amendment was the work of the Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler who conceived and drafted the bill.

Unfortunately I still have not digitized my copy of Bob Miller's "Page Mr. Volstead" (the flip side is "Five Cent Glass of Beer") but hope to do that soon. I'm still saving up for the really good turntable. Lacking any specific tunes related to Repeal Day, and seeing that the ranks of the unemployed continue to swell, I offer two tunes. Charlie Palloy's version of Brother, Can You Spare A Dime, and Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers with Are You Making Any Money?

When I get home I'll try to upload some songs of Prohibition. But for the moment, as the minutes in the work day dwindle, I think I'll go home and have a pint. Or two. Enjoy, just don't drink and drive.




(photo of a bartender 75 years ago today, serving the first two legal beers at a bar in Minneapolis, MN)