What do you say — may I interest you in the music of May? You see, I haven’t posted for a spell, but I don’t think I want to disturb a single brain cell — though I fear somewhere in my sphere the strain’s already rung a bell, as near I can tell. So, before I go too far, let’s get to the tunes, most of which may be before your time….but at least you won’t have to suffer (much) more of my rhyme.
Another cracking post. Mel Torme…sooo smooth! Ever heard of Matt Munroe? He had a voice like that. Al Bowlly….. my Granny loved him! And Michael Buble….brilliant! I’ve never heard of the Pied Pipers but for some reason, the picture reminded me of Ben Lyons & Bebe Daniels….!
Thanks for the clarification, Ashley. Yes, I heard of old-time American movie stars Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels (his wife), but I couldn’t relate them with the Pied Pipers picture, so I let it pass. I also didn’t know they had a radio show “here in the UK” — which tells me why your Granny loved Brit Al Bowlly!
A disc jockey gave him that nickname in honor of his smooth vocal style (the disc jockey may have been under the influence of whiskey at the time, but in any case, the name stuck).
You May indeed, Rg….and just to show my appreciation, I’m going to resist the temptation you say you’re well done yourself. Not that you’re not well done, but….maybe I’d better quit while I’m ahead (or am I?). π
The change of the seasons has been an inspiration since forever. I too, never heard of the Pied Pipers. Strange how some very popular acts of the day just don’t have ‘legs.’
It is said that Fame is fickle, but it’s probably more accurate to say that Fame is selectively fickle. Most entertainers of lasting fame probably deserve it, but IMHO, many others deserve it but don’t have it.
Kate, I don’t know where you got the idea that Mel is a crooner. He is first and foremost a jazz-influenced singer (even when he sings ballads). And when he sings straight jazz – well, judge for yourself:
Those who are unfamiliar with Mel Torme, the great one, probably never watched Night Court on TV either. And the Pied Pipers, great on their own or backing up Frank Sinatra in his Dorsey Years. And out of that group came Jo Stafford, one of the best ‘girl singers’ ever.
Al Bowelly, so sad.
And then you even got my second favorite stunt man, Yakima.
Nice mixture.
Thanks, Don. I couldn’t agree more about Jo Stafford. And if there has ever been a better and more unforgettable name in movie history than Yakima Canutt, I don’t remember it. π
Man, if that didn’t knock your socks off, you’d better put your shoes on and scat back to Squaresville, because you’re just not with it! To say scat singing isΒ little more thanΒ vocal jazz improvisation with nonsense words is like saying The DonaldΒ isΒ justΒ improvising when heΒ lets looseΒ with nonsense tweets (to use aΒ reverse perverseΒ metaphor).
So, who was the cat whoΒ ‘invented’ scat?Β ThereΒ seems to beΒ no definitive answer, but some say it began 2/26/26Β when Louis Armstrong supposedlyΒ forgot the words to this song and began improvising a little more thanΒ halfway through the recording:
Let’s wrap it up with this recent scat-iteration (which, I kid you not, ends with tweets):
Indeed! I own her Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hart Songbook albums (not to mention dozens of her old 78s dating back to the 1930s).
How exciting that Satchmo recorded one of your songs! If you don’t mind telling me, what’s the title of the song? I’d like to try to find it online and give it a listen.
Now that the madness ofΒ America’sΒ interminable election season is over, it’s time to get back to the saner things in life. It has been a while since I devoted an entire post to a subject which isΒ right down my (Tin Pan) Alley, namely theΒ Golden Age of Popular Music (between WWI andΒ WWII).Β I assumeΒ that, unlike me,Β few (if any) ofΒ you were alive during that era….but,Β since I feelΒ reasonablyΒ certain you wouldn’t miss thatΒ opportunity again if you had the chance, I forgive you forΒ such aΒ lamentable shortcoming.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term TIN PAN ALLEY, I quote excerptsΒ from a 1975Β book of that title by researcherΒ Ian Whitcomb about the beginnings of pop music: The name “Tin Pan Alley” applied to the railroad flats around 28th and Broadway in NYC where the music publishing houses were clustered. Around the 1890’s a canny bunch of businessmen, keenly aware of the new mass-market created by the Industrial Revolution,Β decided to manufacture songs. They fed theaters andΒ parlors, cafes and dance halls with their wares. By 1910 The Alleymen had pushed hundreds of songs into million-selling sheets. These tall piano copies, fronted with colored art-workΒ and spotted with ads for other songs, were the sole pop moneymakers until records, radioΒ and talking pictures became the chief pop vehicles.
This brings us to the period immediately following the end ofΒ WWI on Nov. 11, 1918, and to one of the biggest hits of the next year, when our doughboys were returning home by the hundreds of thousands from the battle fronts of Europe and the pleasure fronts of Paris.Β WithΒ un peu d’imagination,Β perhaps you canΒ appreciate the question….
Two years later (1921), song writers were still asking questions, including thisΒ one posed by itsΒ composer Richard Whiting (whose birthday was three days ago, Nov. 12, 1891), sung hereΒ by his daughter and Bob Hope:
Of course, the above words and recordings have barely scratched the surface ofΒ the sounds you would have savored had you been around in those days (and make no mistake, that music would haveΒ seduced youΒ as much then as today’s musicΒ seduces youΒ now). And so on that note….
It’s all about electronic music now. Well, not all, but a lot. I feel like an old grandma complaining about young people’s music, but electronic music hurts my ears. π
Mel was multitalented: musician, vocalist, arranger, songwriter. He wrote THE CHRISTMAS SONG with lyricist Bob Wells in 1946, but previously wrote both words and music. Here is another example of his solo work from 1945:
Don Frankel
9:24 am on November 15, 2016 Permalink
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I always like the way guys like Bob Hope who really can’t sing will talk their way through a song and really do a good job of it. Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady comes to mind. You can watch that movie and think he’s singing when he never does.
Excellent observation, Don. Another great example of someone who couldn’t really sing but put over a song better than most guys who could sing was Walter Huston (SEPTEMBER SONG).
What wonderful, wholesome songs. Love the instrumental background. It harkens back to a time when we didn’t have to have all these obscenities to have entertainment, I mean I don’t want to sound like a grandma either, but seriously, the verses of today’s “music.”
My sentiments exactly! It’s good to know I have readers like you who can appreciate, and don’t dismiss, songs like these simply because they’re old. Stay tuned for more of the same in my next post.
arekhill1
10:55 am on November 15, 2016 Permalink
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Haven’t really paid much attention to music of any kind since I kicked a daily pot habit back in my early twenties. Now that weed is legal out here in CA, maybe I’ll start again.
Today’s music doesn’t seduce me at all…it’s mostly adolescent, barbaric noise. I really enjoyed listening to these. I know them well. Listening to them again is like a lovely visit with my dear grandparents.
I couldn’t agree more, but I’ll bet neither you nor your grandparents listened to (or even knew of) the song in my previous comment (actually there were many such songs in the 20s & 30s, though I doubt they got played on the radio in those days)!
I remember hearing some of these songs played on the piano when as a little boy visiting relatives on my mother’s side–a fun bunch. Anyway, before you leave politics totally, suggest you read Bernie Goldberg on why New York media missed the boat so badly with the last election. Great analysis that I can relate to, living in the Midwest. Here’s the link:
I’d already heard similar analysis (in substance, if not in spirit) in the heathen liberal media, Mark, but I didn’t know that Goldberg has written a book called ARROGANCE, which I would’ve guessed to be the title of a Donald Trump biography….but then, we on the near-left (or am I on the FAR-left in the black-and-white world) are wrong about so many things.
Anyway, I’m glad to hear that you can dig this music. There has been a piano in my house for most of my life, but after several years of piano lessons in my boyhood, I forgot what I learned and still can’t play it.
Do you mean to say that Torme was 15 when he sang that song? If so, quite amazing!
I have to say that listening to these tunes is a much better pursuit than reading political commentary of late . . . π I’m finding a station on my TV that plays ‘oldies’ now. Lovely sounds!! Thanks so much, mister muse!
Were you subscribed to Lady sighs blog? Haven’t heard anything from her lately and was wondering if she’s ill. .
I didn’t subscribe to Ladysigh’s blog, but I was a regular reader and frequent ‘liker’ and commenter. As I recall, she took a rather lengthy hiatus due to illness a few years ago. Hopefully, she’ll come back again like before, but I don’t know the reason for her absence this time.
Ashley 11:05 am on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
Another cracking post. Mel Torme…sooo smooth! Ever heard of Matt Munroe? He had a voice like that. Al Bowlly….. my Granny loved him! And Michael Buble….brilliant! I’ve never heard of the Pied Pipers but for some reason, the picture reminded me of Ben Lyons & Bebe Daniels….!
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mistermuse 11:44 am on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
Thank you, Ashley. Yes, I’ve heard of — and heard — Matt Munroe. I don’t own any of his albums, but I do own a ton of Al Bowlly and Mel TormΓ© albums, as well as two of the Pied Pipers (they were voted top vocal group of the mid-to-late 1940s in the annual Downbeat and Metronome magazines polls, surpassing even the very popular Mills Brothers and Ink Spots).
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Ashley 10:56 am on May 24, 2020 Permalink
You may not have registered my comment about Ben & Bebe Lyons. It was a radio show here in the UK.
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mistermuse 12:58 pm on May 24, 2020 Permalink
Thanks for the clarification, Ashley. Yes, I heard of old-time American movie stars Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels (his wife), but I couldn’t relate them with the Pied Pipers picture, so I let it pass. I also didn’t know they had a radio show “here in the UK” — which tells me why your Granny loved Brit Al Bowlly!
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Carmen 1:18 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
I think my favourite was the Pied Piper piece. . it would have been a great dance tune! (Nice to see the inclusion of a Canuck!)
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mistermuse 4:53 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
Better Michael than Justin! π
P.S. I was hoping this guy was a Canuck so I could make a bad pun, but only his name is close:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima_Canutt
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mistermuse 11:29 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink
I resemble — I mean, resent — your next remark, Carmen (though I admit it may explain why my neighbors call me old picklepuss).
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arekhill1 4:14 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
How do you get a handle like “The Velvet Fog” anyway? Sounds like a name for a whiskey, not a singer.
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mistermuse 6:24 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
A disc jockey gave him that nickname in honor of his smooth vocal style (the disc jockey may have been under the influence of whiskey at the time, but in any case, the name stuck).
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Rivergirl 5:23 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
May I just say… well done.
π
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mistermuse 6:34 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
You May indeed, Rg….and just to show my appreciation, I’m going to resist the temptation you say you’re well done yourself. Not that you’re not well done, but….maybe I’d better quit while I’m ahead (or am I?). π
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Rivergirl 6:47 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink
At this point in my life? Iβd say Iβm approaching medium well.
π
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mistermuse 8:21 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink
The best I can say for myself is that I’m well preserved (and that may be stretching it).
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Carmen 9:03 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink
Well preserved or well pickled? π
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obbverse 5:33 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
The change of the seasons has been an inspiration since forever. I too, never heard of the Pied Pipers. Strange how some very popular acts of the day just don’t have ‘legs.’
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mistermuse 6:47 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
It is said that Fame is fickle, but it’s probably more accurate to say that Fame is selectively fickle. Most entertainers of lasting fame probably deserve it, but IMHO, many others deserve it but don’t have it.
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calmkate 7:40 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
enjoyed the pied pipers, and like their name! But michael wins hands down, what a voice!
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mistermuse 8:13 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. Mel is the man!
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calmkate 8:54 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink
na crooners leave me cold Michael .. wow!
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mistermuse 11:15 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink
Kate, I don’t know where you got the idea that Mel is a crooner. He is first and foremost a jazz-influenced singer (even when he sings ballads). And when he sings straight jazz – well, judge for yourself:
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Don Ostertag 11:49 pm on May 17, 2020 Permalink |
Those who are unfamiliar with Mel Torme, the great one, probably never watched Night Court on TV either. And the Pied Pipers, great on their own or backing up Frank Sinatra in his Dorsey Years. And out of that group came Jo Stafford, one of the best ‘girl singers’ ever.
Al Bowelly, so sad.
And then you even got my second favorite stunt man, Yakima.
Nice mixture.
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mistermuse 8:40 am on May 18, 2020 Permalink |
Thanks, Don. I couldn’t agree more about Jo Stafford. And if there has ever been a better and more unforgettable name in movie history than Yakima Canutt, I don’t remember it. π
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masercot 8:29 am on May 18, 2020 Permalink |
I tried to play Torme and Bowlly at the same time but they did NOT synchronize…
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mistermuse 9:13 am on May 18, 2020 Permalink |
There aren’t too many jazz-influenced singers (like TormΓ©) and crooners (like Bowlly) I can think of who “synchronize” — unless they’re combined in one man, like the YOUNG (late 1920s-early 1930s) Bing Crosby. However, if it’s synchronization you want, try playing two orchestras’ versions of the same song at the same time, like the sophisticated Spike Jones
and jazz man Duke Ellington
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annieasksyou 10:26 am on May 18, 2020 Permalink |
Your guided May tour was very pleasing, of courseβ
But not quite as much as Melβs Ella scat de force!
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mistermuse 12:07 pm on May 18, 2020 Permalink |
Scooby-dooby-rooty-tooty-ella-mella-fella-ratta-tatta-scatta-you-gotta-thata-right, Annie!
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annieasksyou 1:11 pm on May 18, 2020 Permalink
Indubitably-buble-doos, mistermuse!
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Silver Screenings 2:45 pm on May 18, 2020 Permalink |
I love the (new to me) Pied Piper version! Thanks for sharing it.
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