The Styrous® Viewfinder: 78 RPMs 11: Dinah Shore ~ Sleepy Lagoon

February 29, 2024

78 RPMs 11: Dinah Shore ~ Sleepy Lagoon

78 RPM record, side 2

Today is the birthday of "Leap Year Baby" Dinah Shore born in 1916. She was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the chart-topping female vocalist of the 1940's who rose to stardom as a recording artist during the Big Band era.

I love this song, it's one of my favorites; I remember my mom and dad slow dancing to the tune in our living room. It's actually the "B" side of the record. There are other versions I like better but this is the one from my childhood.

The song was recorded by. David Rose, Fred Waring, Glenn Miller and The Platters did an excellent cover of it in the mid-fifties.

It was written by British composer Eric Coates in 1930 with the title, By the Sleepy Lagoon. In 1940 American songwriter Jack Lawrence added lyrics with the approval of Coates; the resulting song, Sleepy Lagoon, became a popular-music standard of the 1940s.

Dinah Shore ~ Sleepy Lagoon

78 RPM record, side 2

Desert Island Discs

Sleepy Lagoon is used as the theme song for the Desert Island Discs radio program broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.

Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the show, is asked to choose eight audio recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, as they discuss their life and the reasons for their choices. It was devised and originally presented by Roy Plomley. Since 2018 the programme has been presented by Lauren Laverne. More than 3,000 episodes have been recorded, with some guests having appeared more than once and some episodes featuring more than one guest.

When Desert Island Discs marked its 75th year in 2017, The Guardian called the show a radio classic. In February 2019, a panel of broadcasting industry experts named it the greatest radio program of all time. I find it interesting to hear what musics famous people like and was the inspiration for my "Desert Island" series (link below).

Sleepy Lagoon murder

Sleepy Lagoon was a reservoir beside the Los Angeles River that was frequented by Mexican-Americans. Its name came from the popular song Sleepy Lagoon. The "Sleepy Lagoon murder" was the name that Los Angeles newspapers used to describe the death of José Gallardo Díaz, who was discovered dying near the reservoir with two stab wounds in Commerce, California, United States, on the morning of August 2, 1942. The cause of Díaz's death remains disputed to this day. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) arrested several Mexican-American youths for the murder.

Sleepy Lagoon murder Defendants - 1942

photo: Los Angeles Daily News

Beginning in the early 1930s and exacerbated by the Great Depression, approximately one million Mexican immigrants and native-born Americans of Mexican descent were forced to leave the United States for Mexico during the Mexican Repatriation as part of a policy by the administration of Herbert Hoover who had scapegoated Mexicans for the Great Depression and instituted stricter immigration policies with the stated intent of freeing up jobs for a narrow demographic of Americans.

The first side of the record has Three Little Sisters; a bouncy forties dance song that is not particularly interesting but fun.

Dinah Shore ~ Three Little Sisters

78 RPM record, side 1

Tracklist:

Side 1:

Three Little Sisters, written by Irving Taylor, Vic Mizzy

Side 2:

Sleepy Lagoon, written by Eric Coates, Jack Lawrence

Companies:

Record Company – RCA Manufacturing Co., Inc.

Credits:

Notes:

For best results use
RCA Victor Needles

With Orchestra

A: Featured in the Universal film "Private Buckaroo"

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Label side A): 27875-A
    Matrix / Runout (Label side B): 27875-B
    Matrix / Runout (Runout, side A, stamped): 1 27875A A2 1 I
    Matrix / Runout (Runout, side B, stamped): 1 27875B 1B 3 1 1

Dinah Shore – Three Little Sisters / Sleepy Lagoon
Label:    Victor – 27875
Format:    Shellac, 10", 78 RPM
Country: US
Released: May 1, 1942
Genre:    Pop, Classical, Stage & Screen
Style:    Vocal

Viewfinder links:

desert island' vinyl LP list

Jimmy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey

Harry James

Glenn Miller

The Platters

David Rose

Dinah Shore

Fred Waring

Net links:

Desert Island Discs