Thursday, September 30, 2010
For Mr. Anchovy... :)
Hard ta get this one outta yer head, once it enters...... :)
A Mills Blue Rhythm Band list.............
The Mills Blue Rhythm Band
The Mills Blue Rhythm Band was an American big band of the 1930s.
The band was formed in Harlem in 1930, with reedman Bingie Madison the first of its many leaders. It started life as the Coconut Grove Orchestra, changing to Mills Blue Rhythm Band when Irving Mills became its manager in 1931. At various times the same group was known as the "Blue Rhythm Band", "Blue Ribbon Band", "Blue Rhythm Boys", "The Blue Racketeers", "Earl Jackson's Musical Champions", "Earl Jackson and his Orchestra", "Duke Wilson and his Ten Blackberries", "King Carter's Royal Orchestra", "Mills Music Masters", "Harlem Hot Shots" and uncredited playing behind Louis Armstrong.
The Mills Blue Rhythm Band were based at The Cotton Club in New York. They worked steadily through the 1930s deputizing for the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway Orchestras; often taking their undesirable engagements . Violinist Carroll Dickerson briefly fronted the band, followed by Drummer Willie Lynch in 1931 and then compere Jimmy Ferguson (Baron Lee). Edgar Hayes, Eddie Mallory and Dave Nelson all had temporary stints as band leader until Lucky Millinder permanently took over the role in 1934.
The band recorded 150 sides for a variety of labels including Brunswick, Columbia, Victor, The ARC stable of labels (including Oriole, Perfect, Regal, Romeo, Banner, Melotone, Domino), Variety, and Vocalion. Despite success with a few hit records (including "Truckin'" and "Ride, Red, Ride") and a strong lineup of talented soloists, the group never became one of the more prominent black bands of the day. This is often attributed to the lack of a single identifable leader, and Irving Mills' preference to have the band perform an understudy role. Many of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band's recordings are now considered jazz classics by collectors.
The group disbanded in 1938. Millinder joined Bill Doggett's band before reforming it into his own orchestra in 1940
Irving Mills revived the Mills Blue Rhythm Band name for two recording sessions in 1947 under the guidance of Van Alexander. The only original band member at either of the 1947 sessions was trumpeter Charlie Shavers.
Some tunage:
They satisfy
Please don't talk about me when I'm gone
The band was formed in Harlem in 1930, with reedman Bingie Madison the first of its many leaders. It started life as the Coconut Grove Orchestra, changing to Mills Blue Rhythm Band when Irving Mills became its manager in 1931. At various times the same group was known as the "Blue Rhythm Band", "Blue Ribbon Band", "Blue Rhythm Boys", "The Blue Racketeers", "Earl Jackson's Musical Champions", "Earl Jackson and his Orchestra", "Duke Wilson and his Ten Blackberries", "King Carter's Royal Orchestra", "Mills Music Masters", "Harlem Hot Shots" and uncredited playing behind Louis Armstrong.
The Mills Blue Rhythm Band were based at The Cotton Club in New York. They worked steadily through the 1930s deputizing for the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway Orchestras; often taking their undesirable engagements . Violinist Carroll Dickerson briefly fronted the band, followed by Drummer Willie Lynch in 1931 and then compere Jimmy Ferguson (Baron Lee). Edgar Hayes, Eddie Mallory and Dave Nelson all had temporary stints as band leader until Lucky Millinder permanently took over the role in 1934.
The band recorded 150 sides for a variety of labels including Brunswick, Columbia, Victor, The ARC stable of labels (including Oriole, Perfect, Regal, Romeo, Banner, Melotone, Domino), Variety, and Vocalion. Despite success with a few hit records (including "Truckin'" and "Ride, Red, Ride") and a strong lineup of talented soloists, the group never became one of the more prominent black bands of the day. This is often attributed to the lack of a single identifable leader, and Irving Mills' preference to have the band perform an understudy role. Many of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band's recordings are now considered jazz classics by collectors.
The group disbanded in 1938. Millinder joined Bill Doggett's band before reforming it into his own orchestra in 1940
Irving Mills revived the Mills Blue Rhythm Band name for two recording sessions in 1947 under the guidance of Van Alexander. The only original band member at either of the 1947 sessions was trumpeter Charlie Shavers.
Some tunage:
They satisfy
Please don't talk about me when I'm gone
Straddle the fence
Levee down low
Heebie Jeebies
Moanin'
Blues in my heart
I can't get along without my baby
Minnie the moocher
Futuristic jungleism
Blue flame
Red devil
Moonlight fiesta
Stardust (yeah, I found another version only AFTER I posted the "Stardust" list)
Stardust (yeah, I found another version only AFTER I posted the "Stardust" list)
Low down on the bayou
Poor Minnie the moocher
Black and tan fantasy
Sugar blues
Minnie the moocher 2
Moanin'
Moanin' 2
Low down on the bayou 2
Minnie the moocher 3
Heat waves (as Billy Banks and the Blue Rhythm Boys)
Shine on harvest moon (as Carter and King's Jazzing Orch.)
Love is just around the corner (as Harlem Hot Shots w/ Wingy Manone)
March winds, April showers (as Harlem Hot Shots w/ Wingy Manone)
Feeling gay
In a sentimental mood
Love is just around the corner (as Harlem Hot Shots w/ Wingy Manone)
March winds, April showers (as Harlem Hot Shots w/ Wingy Manone)
Feeling gay
In a sentimental mood
Let's have a jubilee
Reefer man
Savage rhythm
Smoke rings
Blue rhythm
Labels:
Mills Blue Rhythm Band
Comin' up...a Mills Blue Rhythm Band list.........
Doing the Tab Smith list made me think about the Mills Blue Rhythm Band.......dug some tunes out....they'll be up this afternoon. Meanwhile.........dig on this :)
OTR....Command Performance Armed Forces radio broadcast #189 - 08/30/1945
Command Performance was a radio program which originally aired between 1942 and 1949. The program was broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRS) with a direct shortwave transmission to the troops overseas. It was not broadcast over domestic U.S. radio stations.
Troops sent in requests for a particular performer or program to appear, and they also suggested unusual ideas for music and sketches on the program, such as Ann Miller tap dancing in military boots. Top performers of the day appeared, including Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland and The Andrew Sisters.
A spinoff series, Request Performance, aired on CBS in 1945-46.
In 2009, the Pentagon Channel revived the show with some of today's newest acts.
This is a broadcast from 8/30/1945, with Frank Sinatra, Bogart and Bacall, and Victor Borge
I have a lot of these broadcasts, I often play them through a modified old radio cabinet (a shell outfitted with an ipod and Bose speakers). It's kinda cool late at night....lights off...radio dial glowing...old shows coming out of it :)
Labels:
command performance,
OTR,
radio,
various artists
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
A Tab Smith list..........
Tab Smith
Talmadge (Tab) Smith (Kinston, North Carolina, January 11, 1909–Saint Louis, Missouri, August 17, 1971), was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist.
Smith joined his first professional band, the Carolina Stompers, in 1929. In the 1930s and 1940s he spent several years in the bands of Lucky Millinder and Count Basie, as well as spending long periods freelancing both as a player and as an arranger. After the Second World War he led his own groups, which concentrated on rhythm and blues as jazz turned from swing to bop.
His biggest R & B hit was "Because of You", which reached number 1 on the R & B charts, and number 20 on the pop charts, in 1951. "Because of You" was made for United, a company for which Smith recorded prolifically until it closed in 1957. Tab Smith put out 24 singles and a 10-inch LP for the company. On his United sides, Smith sometimes played tenor saxophone.
During the 1950s, Smith was a significant rival to alto saxophone-playing bandleader Earl Bostic, who recorded for King. He was also in competition with his own formative influence, Johnny Hodges, until Hodges returned to the Duke Ellington band.
His career never recovered from the closure of United Records. After brief stays at Checker and King, Smith retired from the music business in the early 1960s. He sold real estate, and played piano part-time in a steakhouse.
The following is from:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/tabsmith.html
Talmadge (Tab) Smith was born in Kingston,North Carolina in 1909. By the early 1930s he had decided on music as a profession and joined the Eddie Johnson Orchestra as a tenor sax player.Soon he switched to alto sax as his instrument of choice. He made his way to St.Louis and played with Fate Marable and soon was a part of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. For a short time in the early forties he was in the Count Basie band and then went to the orchestra of Lucky Millinder. He began fronting his own small combo in 1946. He suffered what was a common tragedy among the traveling R & B crowd when a serious auto accident in 1947 injured him and killed vocalist Trevor Bacon. He quit music for a time and did not resume until late in 1950. At that time he led a small combo and had an extended engagement at the 20th Century Club in St.Louis.
In March of 1951, Tab Smith signed a recording contract with the Premium Records label of Chicago. There were two releases by Tab on the label - #874 - "Spider Rock" and "Messing Around", and #876 - "Jimmy's Blues" and"Anytime For You" voc- Chuck Young. In June "Spider Rock"is a good seller in the South. In July of the year Lew Simpkins leaves Premium Records and forms his own label in Chicago to be called United Records. He immediately signs Tab Smith to the new label. In September United #104 is released pairing "Because Of You" (the R & B instrumental version of Tony Bennett's big pop hit), and "Dee-Jay Special". United Records in the push for publicity for the record tout Smith in trade ads as "the world's greatest altoist". By November "Because Of You" has become the most successful of sax instrumentals and is also making inroads into the pop market. Soon it is the number one seller in the city of Chicago. United follows this successful formula with their next Smith release, "Sin" (a big pop hit for Eddie Howard first and then the Four Aces) and "Can't We Take A Chance" on #107. By the end of the year "Sin" is selling well on the West coast, and rival Chicago label Chess Records takes notice and purchases four masters by Tab Smith previously recorded for the Premium label.
In 1952 Smith starts to get many personal appearance jobs including the Ebony Lounge in Cleveland, Philadelphia's Club Harlem, and soon the Apollo Theater in New York. Soon Chess releases #1501 from their Premium masters - "Love" and "Easy Mr.Benson" (as in Al ,Chicago's d.j. "Ol Swingmaster"). United releases #113 "Milk Train" in February. In March a big show hits the Howard Theater in Washington D.C. - Tab with B.B. King and Tiny Bradshaw. Chess tries again with #1510 with "Love"and a new flip side "Slow And Easy". Complicating matters is a new release on Atlantic of a previous recording by Smith - "Echo Blues" and "Moon Dream"on #961. In April the current record on United #115 - "Blanket Of Blue" / "Down Beat"is issued. Smith goes to the West coast and appears at San Diego's Creole Palace. In July Tab Smith joins Edna McGriff and Lynn Hope for a number of one nighters. Now King Records gets into the act with #4546 - "Tab's Purple Heart". United counters with #124 - "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" and "Bit Of Blues", and in late October - #131 - "You Belong To Me" and "Auf Wiedersehn".
In early 1953 Tab joins Jimmy Witherspoon, Willie Mae Thornton, and the Johnny Otis band on an extensive tour of one nighters. In May United releases #147 - "My Mother's Eyes" and "Cuban Boogie". Other United releases during the year are #153 - "Cherry" / "I've Had The Blues All Day" voc-Johnny Harper; and #162 - "All My Life" / "Seven Up". Tab fills out the latter part of the year with long stays at Pep's in Philadelphia and the Capitol Lounge in Chicago. In early 1954 United #171 is out. It features "Jumptime" and "Strange" with Tab Smith doing the vocal. Tab and The Five Royales go out on tour throughout the South and Midwest lasting into June. Two more United Records releases are out in the spring and summer of 1954. They are #174 - "Rock City" and "My Baby" voc-by Tab; and #178 - "Ace High" and "How Long Has It Been?". The Tab Smith and the Five Royales show moves to the West coast, and as the tour dates go into Oklahoma, they are joined by the Todd Rhodes band and The Midnighters. In late October United releases #184 - "IN A Little Spanish Town" and "Mr. Gee".
In 1955 Tab Smith and The Five Royales continue on tour doing a number of dates in California as United Records continues to release instrumental stylings by the altoist. #187 - "Tabolino" and "Cottage For Sale" sells well initially and is followed by 190 - "Top 'n Bottom" and "For Only You". In October #195 is released and features "Mean To Me" and "Spider's Web". In 1956 time is running out for the independent United label. However the label issues a Tab Smith LP album called "Red, Hot, And Cool Moods". They release #203 - "Yo-Yo Blues" and I Feel Like I Wanna Die" voc-Ray King, and late in the year United tries again with Tab Smith's version of "Pretend" and the flip side "Crazy Walk" on #205. In February of 1957 Tab Smith & his band back up a huge lineup of talent including The Spaniels, ElDorados, Joe Turner, Bobby Charles, Gene & Eunice and many others at the Regal Theater in Chicago in an Al Benson production. "Pretend" is a big seller in Chicago and Milwaukee. In April Smith and his band and the Five Royales appear in Denver. United #209 is released featuring "Soft Breeze" and "Someone To Watch Over Me".
United is still at it in 1958 issuing a Tab Smith cover of Earl Bostic's "Mambolino" on #217. The flip is "Just One More Time". By July United Records is reportedly being merged with J.O.B. Records, and Tab Smith's contract is now in the hands of the Chess Brothers. Chess records Smith on their new subsidiary label Argo with #5304 - "Try A Little Tenderness" and "Don't Play With Love". At year's end Argo releases "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (a new version) and "My Happiness Cha Cha"on #5323. In 1959 Tab is recorded with a full complement of strings for Chess records at a studio session in Nashville. In August two cuts from that session are released by Chess - the pop standards "The Nearness Of You" and "Because Of You" on #933. This side was the last record by Tab Smith that made any headway among music listeners.
Tab Smith by now was a mostly forgotten player in the musical sweepstakes as the audience had changed by the late 1950s. Certainly not a part of the American Bandstand generation, and not happy with the situation with Chess, he hung around for a short time until he made the decision in late 1960 to retire from the music business altogether. He became a real estate agent in the city of St.Louis ending a thirty year career. He was United Records answer to Earl Bostic, and their careers certainly had many parallels. Smith had fleeting success, even less than Bostic, but his longevity as a sax stylist made him a musician to remember. He was a name to recall as the foundation of rock' n roll was being built, and his connection with United Records was part of that history in which the independent record labels were so much an important part. We remember Tab Smith, altoist.
Here's a little set of tunes for a Wednesday night:
I Don't Want To Play In The Kitchen
Tab steps out
All night long
Roebie's blues
Riffin' the bass
Granny dodging at the Savoy
You lovely you
Rosa Lee
On the sunny side of the street
Fat mouth blues
Darling you're all I need
Jumpin' at the Track
Morning blues
Echo blues
Feel like I wanna die
Boogie Joogie
Crazy walk w/ Combo
Dansero w/ Combo
In a little Spanish town w/ Combo
Just one more time w/ Combo
Mr. Gee w/ Combo
My Mother's eyes w/ Combo
Pretend w/ Combo
Rock city w/ Combo
Spider's web w/ Combo
T.G. blues w/ Combo
Yoyo blues w/ Combo
http://www.mediafire.com/?iz9ldij6bw1ipaj
Talmadge (Tab) Smith (Kinston, North Carolina, January 11, 1909–Saint Louis, Missouri, August 17, 1971), was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist.
Smith joined his first professional band, the Carolina Stompers, in 1929. In the 1930s and 1940s he spent several years in the bands of Lucky Millinder and Count Basie, as well as spending long periods freelancing both as a player and as an arranger. After the Second World War he led his own groups, which concentrated on rhythm and blues as jazz turned from swing to bop.
His biggest R & B hit was "Because of You", which reached number 1 on the R & B charts, and number 20 on the pop charts, in 1951. "Because of You" was made for United, a company for which Smith recorded prolifically until it closed in 1957. Tab Smith put out 24 singles and a 10-inch LP for the company. On his United sides, Smith sometimes played tenor saxophone.
During the 1950s, Smith was a significant rival to alto saxophone-playing bandleader Earl Bostic, who recorded for King. He was also in competition with his own formative influence, Johnny Hodges, until Hodges returned to the Duke Ellington band.
His career never recovered from the closure of United Records. After brief stays at Checker and King, Smith retired from the music business in the early 1960s. He sold real estate, and played piano part-time in a steakhouse.
The following is from:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/tabsmith.html
Talmadge (Tab) Smith was born in Kingston,North Carolina in 1909. By the early 1930s he had decided on music as a profession and joined the Eddie Johnson Orchestra as a tenor sax player.Soon he switched to alto sax as his instrument of choice. He made his way to St.Louis and played with Fate Marable and soon was a part of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. For a short time in the early forties he was in the Count Basie band and then went to the orchestra of Lucky Millinder. He began fronting his own small combo in 1946. He suffered what was a common tragedy among the traveling R & B crowd when a serious auto accident in 1947 injured him and killed vocalist Trevor Bacon. He quit music for a time and did not resume until late in 1950. At that time he led a small combo and had an extended engagement at the 20th Century Club in St.Louis.
In March of 1951, Tab Smith signed a recording contract with the Premium Records label of Chicago. There were two releases by Tab on the label - #874 - "Spider Rock" and "Messing Around", and #876 - "Jimmy's Blues" and"Anytime For You" voc- Chuck Young. In June "Spider Rock"is a good seller in the South. In July of the year Lew Simpkins leaves Premium Records and forms his own label in Chicago to be called United Records. He immediately signs Tab Smith to the new label. In September United #104 is released pairing "Because Of You" (the R & B instrumental version of Tony Bennett's big pop hit), and "Dee-Jay Special". United Records in the push for publicity for the record tout Smith in trade ads as "the world's greatest altoist". By November "Because Of You" has become the most successful of sax instrumentals and is also making inroads into the pop market. Soon it is the number one seller in the city of Chicago. United follows this successful formula with their next Smith release, "Sin" (a big pop hit for Eddie Howard first and then the Four Aces) and "Can't We Take A Chance" on #107. By the end of the year "Sin" is selling well on the West coast, and rival Chicago label Chess Records takes notice and purchases four masters by Tab Smith previously recorded for the Premium label.
In 1952 Smith starts to get many personal appearance jobs including the Ebony Lounge in Cleveland, Philadelphia's Club Harlem, and soon the Apollo Theater in New York. Soon Chess releases #1501 from their Premium masters - "Love" and "Easy Mr.Benson" (as in Al ,Chicago's d.j. "Ol Swingmaster"). United releases #113 "Milk Train" in February. In March a big show hits the Howard Theater in Washington D.C. - Tab with B.B. King and Tiny Bradshaw. Chess tries again with #1510 with "Love"and a new flip side "Slow And Easy". Complicating matters is a new release on Atlantic of a previous recording by Smith - "Echo Blues" and "Moon Dream"on #961. In April the current record on United #115 - "Blanket Of Blue" / "Down Beat"is issued. Smith goes to the West coast and appears at San Diego's Creole Palace. In July Tab Smith joins Edna McGriff and Lynn Hope for a number of one nighters. Now King Records gets into the act with #4546 - "Tab's Purple Heart". United counters with #124 - "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" and "Bit Of Blues", and in late October - #131 - "You Belong To Me" and "Auf Wiedersehn".
In early 1953 Tab joins Jimmy Witherspoon, Willie Mae Thornton, and the Johnny Otis band on an extensive tour of one nighters. In May United releases #147 - "My Mother's Eyes" and "Cuban Boogie". Other United releases during the year are #153 - "Cherry" / "I've Had The Blues All Day" voc-Johnny Harper; and #162 - "All My Life" / "Seven Up". Tab fills out the latter part of the year with long stays at Pep's in Philadelphia and the Capitol Lounge in Chicago. In early 1954 United #171 is out. It features "Jumptime" and "Strange" with Tab Smith doing the vocal. Tab and The Five Royales go out on tour throughout the South and Midwest lasting into June. Two more United Records releases are out in the spring and summer of 1954. They are #174 - "Rock City" and "My Baby" voc-by Tab; and #178 - "Ace High" and "How Long Has It Been?". The Tab Smith and the Five Royales show moves to the West coast, and as the tour dates go into Oklahoma, they are joined by the Todd Rhodes band and The Midnighters. In late October United releases #184 - "IN A Little Spanish Town" and "Mr. Gee".
In 1955 Tab Smith and The Five Royales continue on tour doing a number of dates in California as United Records continues to release instrumental stylings by the altoist. #187 - "Tabolino" and "Cottage For Sale" sells well initially and is followed by 190 - "Top 'n Bottom" and "For Only You". In October #195 is released and features "Mean To Me" and "Spider's Web". In 1956 time is running out for the independent United label. However the label issues a Tab Smith LP album called "Red, Hot, And Cool Moods". They release #203 - "Yo-Yo Blues" and I Feel Like I Wanna Die" voc-Ray King, and late in the year United tries again with Tab Smith's version of "Pretend" and the flip side "Crazy Walk" on #205. In February of 1957 Tab Smith & his band back up a huge lineup of talent including The Spaniels, ElDorados, Joe Turner, Bobby Charles, Gene & Eunice and many others at the Regal Theater in Chicago in an Al Benson production. "Pretend" is a big seller in Chicago and Milwaukee. In April Smith and his band and the Five Royales appear in Denver. United #209 is released featuring "Soft Breeze" and "Someone To Watch Over Me".
United is still at it in 1958 issuing a Tab Smith cover of Earl Bostic's "Mambolino" on #217. The flip is "Just One More Time". By July United Records is reportedly being merged with J.O.B. Records, and Tab Smith's contract is now in the hands of the Chess Brothers. Chess records Smith on their new subsidiary label Argo with #5304 - "Try A Little Tenderness" and "Don't Play With Love". At year's end Argo releases "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (a new version) and "My Happiness Cha Cha"on #5323. In 1959 Tab is recorded with a full complement of strings for Chess records at a studio session in Nashville. In August two cuts from that session are released by Chess - the pop standards "The Nearness Of You" and "Because Of You" on #933. This side was the last record by Tab Smith that made any headway among music listeners.
Tab Smith by now was a mostly forgotten player in the musical sweepstakes as the audience had changed by the late 1950s. Certainly not a part of the American Bandstand generation, and not happy with the situation with Chess, he hung around for a short time until he made the decision in late 1960 to retire from the music business altogether. He became a real estate agent in the city of St.Louis ending a thirty year career. He was United Records answer to Earl Bostic, and their careers certainly had many parallels. Smith had fleeting success, even less than Bostic, but his longevity as a sax stylist made him a musician to remember. He was a name to recall as the foundation of rock' n roll was being built, and his connection with United Records was part of that history in which the independent record labels were so much an important part. We remember Tab Smith, altoist.
Here's a little set of tunes for a Wednesday night:
I Don't Want To Play In The Kitchen
Tab steps out
All night long
Roebie's blues
Riffin' the bass
Granny dodging at the Savoy
You lovely you
Rosa Lee
On the sunny side of the street
Fat mouth blues
Darling you're all I need
Jumpin' at the Track
Morning blues
Echo blues
Feel like I wanna die
Boogie Joogie
Crazy walk w/ Combo
Dansero w/ Combo
In a little Spanish town w/ Combo
Just one more time w/ Combo
Mr. Gee w/ Combo
My Mother's eyes w/ Combo
Pretend w/ Combo
Rock city w/ Combo
Spider's web w/ Combo
T.G. blues w/ Combo
Yoyo blues w/ Combo
http://www.mediafire.com/?iz9ldij6bw1ipaj
Labels:
Tab Smith
My favourite movie........
There's an upcoming Hoagy Carmichael list........it got me to thinkin' about "To have and have not"....watched it again, and thought I'd share....
Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards.......
From Wikipedia:
Cliff Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. He also did voices for animated cartoons later in his career, and is best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940).
Edwards was born Clifton A. Edwards in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 and soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he entertained as a singer in saloons. As many places had pianos in bad shape or none at all, Edwards taught himself to play ukulele (then often spelled "ukelele") to serve as his own accompanist (selecting that instrument as it was the cheapest in the music store). He got the nickname "Ukelele Ike" from a club owner who could not remember his name. He got his first break in 1918 at the Arsonia Cafe in Chicago, Illinois, where he performed a tune called "Ja Da," written by the club's pianist, Bob Carleton. Edwards and Carleton made the tune a hit on the Vaudeville circuit. Vaudeville headliner Joe Frisco hired Edwards as part of his act, which was featured at the Palace in New York City, the most prestigious theater in vaudeville, and then in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Edwards made his first phonograph records in 1919. He recorded early examples of jazz scat singing in 1922. The following year he signed a contract with Pathé Records. He became one of the most popular singers of the decade, and appeared in several Broadway shows. He recorded, in his distinctive style, many of the pop and novelty hits of the day, such as "California, Here I Come", "Hard Hearted Hannah", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", and "I'll See You in My Dreams".
In 1925, his recording of "Paddlin’ Madeleine Home" would reach number three on the pop charts. In 1928, his recording of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" was number one for one week on the U.S. pop singles chart. In 1929, his recording of "Singin' in the Rain" was number one for three weeks. Edwards's own compositions included "(I'm Cryin' 'Cause I Know I'm) Losing You", "You're So Cute (Mama O' Mine)", "Stack O' Lee", "Little Somebody of Mine", and "I Want to Call You 'Sweet Mama'". He also recorded a few "off-color" novelty numbers for under-the-counter sales, including "I'm a Bear in a Lady's Boudoir."
More than any other performer, Edwards was responsible for the soaring popularity of the ukulele in the 1920s. Millions of ukes were sold during the decade, and Tin Pan Alley publishers added ukulele chords to standard sheet music. Edwards always played American Martin ukuleles favoring the small soprano model in his early career. In his later years Edwards moved to the sweeter, large tenor ukulele more suited to crooning which was becoming popular in the 1930s.
Edwards' continued to record until shortly before his 1971 death. His last record album, "Ukulele Ike," was released posthumously on the independent Glendale label. He reprised many of his 1920s hits, but his then failing health was evident in the recordings.
In 1929 Cliff Edwards was playing at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California, where he caught the attention of movie producer-director Irving Thalberg. His film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Edwards to appear in early sound movies. After performing in some short films, Edwards was one of the stars in the feature Hollywood Revue of 1929, doing some comic bits and singing some numbers, including the film debut of his hit "Singin' in the Rain". He appeared in a total of 33 films for MGM through 1933.
Edwards was very friendly with MGM's comedy star Buster Keaton, who featured Edwards in three of his films. Keaton, himself a former vaudevillian, enjoyed singing and would harmonize with Edwards between takes. One of these casual jam sessions was captured on film, in Doughboys (1930), in which Buster and Cliff scat-sing their way through "You Never Did That Before." Buster was battling a drinking problem at the time, and Cliff was nursing a drug habit, both of which are unfortunately evident in the finished film. In scenes when Keaton is sharp and alert, Edwards appears befuddled; when Edwards regains his sobriety, Keaton is now stumbling and fumbling. (Edwards was ultimately replaced in the Keaton films by Jimmy Durante.)
Edwards was also an occasional supporting player in feature films and short subjects at Warner Brothers and RKO Radio Pictures. He played a wisecracking sidekick to western star George O'Brien, and filled in for Allen Jenkins as "Goldie" opposite George Sanders in The Falcon Strikes Back. In a 1940 short, he led a cowboy chorus in Cliff Edwards and His Buckaroos.
Edwards appeared in the darkly sardonic western comedy The Bad Man of Brimstone in 1937, and in 1939 he played the character "Endicott" in the screwball comedy film His Girl Friday. Also in 1939, he voiced the off-screen dying Confederate soldier in Gone with the Wind in the makeshift hospital scene with Vivien Leigh and Olivia De Havilland casting large shadows on a church wall.[1] In 1940 came his most famous voice role, as Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio. Edwards's touching rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from that film is probably his most familiar recorded legacy. In 1941, he voiced the head crow in Disney's Dumbo and sang "When I See An Elephant Fly".
In 1932, Edwards got his first national radio show on CBS. He would continue hosting network radio shows on and off through 1946. However, from the early 1930s, Edwards' popularity faded as public taste shifted to sweeter style crooners like Russ Columbo, Rudy Vallee, and Bing Crosby.
Like many vaudeville stars, Edwards was an early arrival on television. For the 1949 season, Edwards starred in The Cliff Edwards Show, a three-days-a-week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings) TV variety show on CBS. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he made a number of appearances on The Mickey Mouse Club, in addition to reprising his Jiminy Cricket voice for various Disney shorts and the Disney Christmas spectacular, From All of Us to All of You.
Edwards was careless with the money he got in the boom years of the 1920s, always trying to sustain his expensive habits and lifestyle. While he continued working during the Great Depression, he would never again enjoy his former prosperity. Most of his income went to alimony for multiple former wives and for paying other debts. He declared bankruptcy four times during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Edwards suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction in his later years, living in a home for indigent actors. He often spent his days hanging around the Walt Disney Studios to be available any time he could get voice work, sometimes being taken to lunch by animators to whom he told stories of his days in vaudeville.
He had disappeared from the public eye at the time of his 1971 death as a charity patient at the Virgil Convalescent Hospital in Hollywood, California. His body was initially unclaimed and donated to the University of California, Los Angeles medical school. When Walt Disney Productions, which had been quietly paying many of his medical expenses, found out about this, it offered to purchase the corpse and pay for the burial; but this was actually done by the Actors' Fund of America (which had also aided Edwards) and the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund. The Disney company paid for his grave marker.
From www.redhotjazz.com :
Cliff Edwards got his start in show business as a teenager in St. Louis where he sang in movie theatres and saloons. While singing in the saloons he began to accompany himself on the ukulele and developed a style of improvised singing, which he called "effin". "Effin" sounds a lot like the human voice imitating a hot trumpet or kazoo solo. Edwards had a wonderful voice with at least a three octave range and he would inject his "effin" solos into his songs in the same way that a Jazz musician would take a solo. A good argument can be made that Edwards 1922 recordings with Ladds Black Aces and Bailey's Lucky Seven are the first recorded examples of scat singing, but some Jazz critics would disagee and point back to Gene Greene's 1911 Victor recording "King of the Bungaloos". Between 1913 and 1918 Edwards struggled to make a living traveling with carnivals and doing menial labor to get by. In 1917 he moved to Chicago where he took a job as a singer in the Arsonia Cafe going to tables and singing and playing the ukulele for tips. It was here that he started using the stage name of "Ukulele Ike". The pianist at the club was Bob Carlton who had written a novelty song that he called "Ja Da". Cliff became a sensation singing the song and he and Joe Frisco, a stuttering comedian and dancer, formed a vaudeville act that was successful enough to end up playing at the Palace in New York City. It is interesting to note that Frisco was instrumental in bringing Tom Brown's Dixieland Jazz Band north from New Orleans in 1915. After appearing in Ziegfeld Follies, Edwards and Frisco's act came to an end and Cliff teamed up with another dancer and singer named Pierce Keegan. They billed their act as "Pierce Keegan "Jazz Az Iz" and Cliff Edwards "Ukelele Ike" and toured the vaudeville circuit, performed in Zeigfeld's Midnight Frolic in 1919 and recorded five songs for Columbia which unfortunately were never issued. The act broke up in mid-1920 and Edwards then teamed up with Lou Clayton who would later work with Jimmy Durante in vaudeville. In 1922 Edwards recorded his first records with Ladds Black Aces and Bailey's Lucky Seven. In 1924 Edwards hit the bigtime when he appeared in George Gershwin's "Lady Be Good" on Broadway and introduced the song "Fascinatin' Rhythm" and stole the show. He went on to score other big successes in other Broadway productions and become a major star of vaudeville. When we think of the 1920s the image of a crooner with a ukulele comes to mind. This image is based on Edwards popularity and his uke. Throughout the 1920s Edwards recorded with top Jazz talents like Adrian Rollini, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, Vic Berton, Joe Tarto, among others. The records released under the name of Cliff Edwards and his Hot Combination are of particular Jazz interest. In 1929 Edwards scored another hit with his version of "Singin' In The Rain"in the movie "The Hollywood Revue Of 1929" and this role established him as a film star. He went on to appear in more than 100 motion pictures. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s Edwards continued to be a much sought after actor in Hollywood. His singing and film roles led him to be cast as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the Disney animated feature "Pinocchio". Cliff sang the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" in the film and it won an Oscar for best song in 1940. His rendition of this song is one of the great popular vocal performances of the 20th century and it became the theme of the Disney corporation. Edwards went on to be the voice of Jim Crow in the animated feature "Dumbo" and star in the Durango Kid "B movie" westerns. It is estimated that Edwards sold 74 million records during his career. Despite all of this success and earning millions of dollars in his career he went bankrupt several times due to alimony payments, income tax troubles, gambling, alcoholism and drug addiction. His star faded in the 1950s and 1960s and Edwards died broke and on welfare in 1971, a forgotten man.
Here are some tunes for you:
Good little bad little you 9-21-1928 w/ Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang
1 Entire radio programme 1940s "The Cliff Edwards show" 1944 NBC
2 Entire radio programme 1940s "The Cliff Edwards show" 1944 NBC
3 Entire radio programme 1940s "The Cliff Edwards show" 1944 NBC
4 Entire radio programme 1940s "The Cliff Edwards show" 1944 NBC
5 Entire radio programme 1940s "The Cliff Edwards show" 1944 NBC
Mr insurance man ('30s double entendre "party record") 11-1936
A pretty girl is like a melody
A song of old Hawaii
After my laughter came tears 12-1927
Ain't she sweet 1927
He's the Hottest Man in Town 1924
California here I come 4-1924
Clap hands here come Charlie 12-1925 Come up and see me sometime 10-13-1933
Dinah 1925
Feelin' the way I do 3-1924
For me and my gal
Give a little whistle (From "Pinocchio") 10-1939 Victor 26477
Hang on to me 5-30-1928
How can you look so good 1925
I can't give you anything but love 7-12-1928 from "Blackbirds of 1928"
I cried for you
I don't want nobody but you 4-1926
I used to love you, but that's all over now
I'll buy the ring and change your name to mine 2-1925
I'll see you in my dreams 2-5-1930
I'm a bear in a lady's boudoir 11-1936
Give "It" to Mary with love 11-1936
I'm no fool (yeah, that old kids song)
If you knew Susie 5-1925
It had to be you 4-1924
Just a night for meditation 1928
Just you just me (from the Talking Picture Production "Marianne") 6-14-1928
Mary Ann 1-1928
The night is young and you're so beautiful
Night owl 10-24-1933
Orange blossom time From Talking Picture Production "Hollywood Revue Of 1929" 5-28-1928
Paddlin Madelin home 6-1925
Paper doll 1949
Ragtime cowboy Joe
Reaching for someone (and not finding anyone there) 6-9-1928
Singin' in the rain (incomplete) From Talking Picture Production "Hollywood Revue of 1928" 5-28-1928
Sunday
Sweet Leilani
That's my weakness now 7-12-1928
The sweetheart of Sigma Chi 1949
You, the human animal (one of the later "kid's" songs)
Somebody loves me w/ Andy Iona and his Islanders from "George White's Scandals" 8-1924
St. Louis blues w/ Andy Iona and his Islanders
Stack O Lee pt 1 10-3-1928
Stack O Lee pt. 2 10-3-1928
A love like ours
Five foot two eyes of blue 1926
Halfway to heaven 8-15-1928
I'll take her back if she wants to come back 12-1924
In the gloaming
Love is just around the corner (with an annoying voiceover at the beginning)
My bundle of love 1925
Singing a song to the stars 1930
The only only one for me 1924
When you and I were young Maggie blues 1934
So nice 1934 w/ Dixie Dunbar
http://www.mediafire.com/?c93t147jb4jgrgz
Labels:
Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
(The Real) Tuesday Weld...another vid (For Sarah)
This one is for Sarah, who asked me to post it :) "Go to bed, hon", "Yes, Mom..." ;)
(The Real) Tuesday Weld.........
My daughter and I were just watching this after the post................fun.
(The Real) Tuesday Weld..........
I was having a TRTW moment this evening..........(I have those occasionally). Anyway, here's a little sampler of some of my favourites from them, from several CDs.
Bathtime In Clerkenwell (From "I, Lucifer")
Anything But Love (From "The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid")
I'll See You in My Dreams (From "At The End Of The World")
The Ugly & The Beautiful (From "I, Lucifer")
The Ugly & The Beautiful (From "I, Lucifer")
(Still) Terminally Ambivalent Over You (From "I, Lucifer")
Kix (From "The London Book of the Dead")
Easter Parade (From "I, Lucifer")
Daisies (From "The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid")
The Life And Times Of The Clerkenwell Kid (From "I, Lucifer")
The Show Must Go On (From "I, Lucifer")
Heaven Can't Wait (From "I, Lucifer")
The Birds and the Bees (From "The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid")
Apart w/ The Puppini Sisters (From "The London Book of the Dead")
Am I In Love? (From "The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid")
I Love The Rain (From "Where Psyche Meets Cupid")Return I will to Old Brazil
Cloud Cuckooland
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BIDRT1T4
Labels:
(The Real) Tuesday Weld
Me tired....a little "eye-wash"...some more vintage views gathered from around the webbage before ZZzzz for me.....
Long gone....torn down (of course)
Scary white kid in whiter face....??!!
Wrong..so wrong on so many levels........Fine...Slim Chiply was posted again on the "Flint Expatriates" blog...now I can't get the jingle out of my head..."I'm Slim Chiply, the guy you see on the Paramount Potato Chips bright red pack. I'm the flavor deputy, protecting crispness in every pack. They're delicious, and so nutritious, yes sir'ee, they're pips, Paramount Potato chips."
Chicago 1940s
Labels:
advertising
Stardust..............A little "End O' the Dance" collection....... ;)
The night is drawing to a close.......last dance. And the last song of the night is......Stardust.
Here is EVERY version I have......(just for fun)
Miles Davis (live in Stockholm)
Hot Club of CowtownBing Crosby
Les Paul
Artie Shaw (live)
Boswell Sisters
Coleman Hawkins
Django Reinhardt
Errol Garner Trio
Frank Sinatra/Pied Pipers
Freddy Gardner
Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band Vocal Dinah Shore (radio recording)Gus Arnheim Orch (radio)
Harmonicats
Harry James and his Music Makers
Helen Humes
Hoagy Carmichael 1927
Hoagy Carmichael 1931
Ink Spots
Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Band
Isham Jones
John Scott Trotter w/ Bing Crosby (radio)
Keely Smith
Liberace
Louis Armstrong
McKinney's Cotton Pickers
Mills Brothers
Nat King Cole
Original Victoria Band
Paul Whiteman Orch. w/ Connie Boswell
Hoagy Carmichael vers 3
Hoagy Carmichael vers 4 (spoken)
Art Pepper
Tommy Dorsey Orch.
Karl Schwendler AKA Charlie And His Orchestra (WWII Nazi Propaganda)
It's all in fun.....enjoy!
Labels:
stardust,
various artists
Lists coming up...........
I'm a thinkin' Gene Austin.......and another list by Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards. Any requests?? send 'em on...I'm always happy to look through my stuff, or do the legwork to locate it. Hey! thanks for helping push me over the 3000 in views..........Gotta love that someone out there likes what I like! :)
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