Showing posts with label Glenn Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glenn Miller. Show all posts

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.            
 
 


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 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 
 
   
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:       
        
Jimmy Dorsey       
Tommy Dorsey       
Harry James     
Glenn Miller           
The Platters               
David Rose          
Fred Waring       
       
Net links:       
        
Desert Island Discs       
       
YouTube links:       
        
Tommy Dorsey ~ Sleepy Lagoon           
Harry James ~ Sleepy Lagoon           
Glenn Miller ~ Sleepy Lagoon           
The Platters ~  Sleepy Lagoon     
Dinah Shore ~      
       Sleepy Lagoon             
       Three Little Sisters               
        
        
        
        
        
       
        
        
        
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Thursday, February 29, 2024       
       
 
 
 ~
 
 
 
 
 
 
 













 

January 4, 2023

Barry Manilow articles/mentions

 ~        
      
     
mentions:     
The Andrews Sisters ~ 
       Boogie Woogie Bugle Girls     
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade     
     
     
     
     
     
     
photo by Miles J. Lourie 
    
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
 
 
 
 
 

October 18, 2021

Henry Mancini articles/mentions

 ~        
 
 
      
mentions:        
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade   
      
          
     
      
Henry Mancini - 1962    
photographer unknown     
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

October 13, 2021

78 RPMs 10: Frank Sinatra & Harry James On a Little Street In Singapore

 ~  
78 RPM record
 
    
On October 13, 1939, I can’t believe that was 82 years ago, Harry James and his band, with Frank Sinatra singing, recorded On a Little Street in Singapore. This recording is a reissue as the original issue gave James top billing over Sinatra.          

The trumpet of James is beautiful, of course, as it soars through the song and Sinatra is suave and sexy as he always was back then.        
     
I have loved On a Little Street in Singapore with its gentle and slow but bouncy beat and romantic lyrics all my life (link below). 
 
 
 On A Little Street In Singapore

On a little street in Singapore
With me - beside a lotus covered door
A veil of moonlight on her lovely face
How pale the hands that held me in embrace

My sails tonight are filled with perfume of Shalimar
With temple bells that guide me to her shore
And then I hold you in my arms
And love the way I loved before
On a little street in Singapore

On a little street in Singapore
With me - beside a lotus covered door
A veil of moonlight on her lovely face
How pale the hands that held me in embrace
 
 
It is a jazz song written by Peter DeRose and Billy Hill. Though it's obscure now, the song was popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Other artists who covered the tune included crooner Kenny Baker, Glenn Miller with tenor Ray Eberle and Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberle (Ray's brother).      
 
Baker's version is slower than the Sinatra/James rendition and it is oriental sounding with minor key modulations not in the original version and when Miller and Eberle covered the song, their tempo was faster and a bit livelier.  
 
 

Glenn Miller & Ray Eberle
 date & photographer unknown
 
 
In the fifties it was The Three Suns, slow, smooth and dreamy with xylophone, accordion, slide guitar and electric organ, also with an oriental flavor. Then there was Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond on sax (jazzy, of course) with no vocal, as was Harold Land with sax and Kenny Dorham on trumpet with their version.      
 
In the seventies Bert Kaempfert pizzscatoed his way through it, the Manhattan Transfer and even Bob Dylan covered it! (link below) Dylan! Can you believe it?         
 
The Manhattan Transfer (Tim Hauser, Laurel MasséAlan Paul and Janis Siegel) 1978 cover is faster than the Sinatra/James rendition and it is my favorite version of the song; it is up to date, well, in 1978 it was (link below). The harmonizing by the group is flawless and Alan Paul has the type of tenor voice and killer looks that teenage girls swooned over in the forties.             
 
 
photo by Nancy Clendaniel 
 
 
Harry James was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983. He was especially known among musicians for his technical proficiency as well as his tone, and was an influence on new trumpet players from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was also an actor in a number of films that usually featured his band.                 
     
      
Harry James and his band 
date & photographer unknown
 
 
Harry James was a heavy smoker, drinker and gambler. In 1983 he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, but continued to work. He played his last professional job, with the Harry James Orchestra, on June 26, 1983 in Los Angeles, dying just nine days later in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 5, 1983; he was 67 years old. Frank Sinatra gave the eulogy at his funeral, held in Las Vegas.         
          
         
         
   
    
   
   
Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - On A Little Street In Singapore, written by Hill*, De Rose*

Side 2:

B - Every Day Of My Life, written by Hays*, James*, Beck*

Credits:

    Alto Saxophone [Uncredited] – Claude Lakey, Dave Matthews (2)
    Bass [Uncredited] – Thurman Teague
    Directed By – Harry James (2)
    Drums [Uncredited] – Mickey Scrima (tracks: B), Ralph Hawkins (tracks: A)
    Guitar [Uncredited] – Bryan Kent
    Piano [Uncredited] – Jack Gardner
    Tenor Saxophone [Uncredited] – Bill Luther, Drew Page
    Trombone [Uncredited] – Bruce Squires (tracks: B), Dalton Rizzotto (tracks: B), Russell Brown (tracks: A), Truett Jones
    Trumpet [Uncredited] – Claude Bowen, Harry James (2), Jack Palmer, Jack Schaeffer
    Vocals – Frank Sinatra

Notes:

Obviously re-released, giving Frank top billing. He only sings toward the end of each song.
A side originally recorded Chicago, Oct. 13, 1939; B side originally recorded Hollywood, Nov. 8, 1939.

Performance credits from Jazz and Ragtime Records (1897-1942): A-K

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A Label): WC 2798
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Label): LA 2047
    Matrix / Runout (A side stamped variant 1): W2798A
    Matrix / Runout (B side stamped variant 1): LA2047A
    Matrix / Runout (A side stamped variant 2): WC2798A B 18 H
    Matrix / Runout (B side stamped variant 2): LA2047A B J

Frank Sinatra With Harry James And His Orchestra – On A Little Street In Singapore / Every Day Of My Life
Label: Columbia – 36700
Format: Shellac, 10", 78 RPM
Country: US
Released: Apr 1944
Genre: Jazz, Pop
Style: Big Band, Vocal





Viewfinder links:       
        
Dave Brubeck        
Jimmy Dorsey         
Bob Dylan          
Bob Eberly        
Ray Eberle         
Harry James         
Bert Kaempfert          
Manhattan Transfer        
Glenn Miller        
Alan Paul        
Frank Sinatra        
       
Net links:       
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
       
YouTube links:       
        
On a Little Street in Singapore ~                 
        
Kenny Baker        
Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond            
Bob Dylan           
Bert Kaempfert      
Manhattan Transfer      
Manhattan Transfer (TV)     
The Three Suns     
        
       
        
        
        
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, February 17, 2021       
       
 
 
 
 
 ~
 
 
 
 
 
 
 







Bob Eberly articles/mentions

 ~        
Amapola       
 
 
     
mentions:     
Frank Sinatra & Harry James On a Little Street In Singapore           
     
      
     
     
      
date & photographer unknown
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

September 16, 2021

Glen Gray articles/mentions

 ~         
      
     
mentions:     
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade     
     
     
     
     
     
      
Glen Gray     
date & photographer unknown     
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

August 29, 2021

Buddy Emmons articles/mentions

 ~        
      
     
      
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade     
     
     
      
     
     
     
      
Buddy Emmons     
date & photographer unknown     
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

January 16, 2021

Carol Burnett articles/mentions

  ~    
     
     
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade   
New Faces Of 1952   
New Girl In Town     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
date & photographer unknown



        
       
       
       
        
       














January 12, 2021

Ray Conniff articles/mentions


 ~  
     
Don Cherry ~ Band of Gold    
David Gates ~ First, Bread       
Home for Xmas - Vol 1      
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade     
     
      
     
     
     
     
Ray Conniff - 1967    
trade ad photo     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

November 10, 2020

Mantovani articles/mentions

 
~  
     
     
     
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade   
      
     
      
     
     
     
Mantovani (Annunzio Paolo Mantovani)
date & photographer unknown 
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

The Ventures articles/mentions

~  
The Ventures ~ Tchaikovsky & the Nut Rocker               
 
 
 
mentions:      
Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade      
Bobby Pickett ~ Monster Mash   
      
           

     
     
     
date & photographer unknown