Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra "Rose Room" Art Hickman tune Victor 18473 (1918) RARE PHOTOS

• Report rights infringement
• published: 16 Oct 2014
• views: 1131

Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra plays "Rose Room" on Victor 18473, recorded on June 3, 1918. The additional number in this medley is "My Oriental Rosebud." Listen for Harry Raderman's trombone, Maurice Benavente's bass clarinet, and Hugo Frey's piano. The song "Rose Room" by Harry Williams and Art Hickman was very popular. Art Hickman himself recorded it as a band leader, and Hickman's version issued by Columbia sold well. Hickman's version is worth a listen since it is, in a sense, a "creator's record," but Columbia sound was inferior to Victor's at this time. This Victor version by Joseph C. Smith probably sold in larger quantities than Hickman's Columbia version when the song first caught on with the public. One reason may be that Victor had a wider distribution network than Columbia and other companies. Another reason may be that Smith's version offers a superior performance--upbeat, tight, catchy, instruments always in tune. This song was introduced by Art Hickman in 1917 at the Rose Room in the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. It is sometimes called "Sunny Roseland" because of the lyrics (which are rarely sung--the melody caught on, not the words). It remained popular for a long time, recorded by many dance bands. Benny Goodman played it often, so the song remained popular among dancers. Smith's Orchestra was incredibly successful from 1917 to 1921, reaching its peak popularity around 1919-1920, with Victor issuing new Smith discs almost every month. Smith's was the first "name" dance band to earn fame through records. He paved the way for Paul Whiteman, whose own success and innovations contributed to Smith's decline by 1921. Smith's Orchestra began recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company on September 25, 1916. From this session came twelve-inch 35593 featuring Stewart James's "Songs of the Night" (the Victor Dance Orchestra is on the reverse side). It was issued in December 1916. Victor's monthly supplement calls the orchestra "a new organization...popular with New York dancers." "Money Blues" was also recorded at this session but was held for a few months, and that session's take of a Cole Porter song went unissued. The record number of Smith's first ten-inch Victor disc, 18165, suggests it was intended for release in December 1916, but Brian Rust's American Dance Band Discography establishes that the orchestra returned to the studio on January 8, 1917, to re-record Cole Porter's "I've A Shooting Box in Scotland," a number introduced in 1914 in a Yale University Dramatic Association production and used again in the 1916 show See America First. It was the first Porter composition to be recorded (Prince's Band soon afterward cut it for Columbia A5950, issued in June 1917). The next ten-inch Smith disc featured "Poor Butterfly" backed by "Allah's Holiday" (18246), both recorded on February 19, 1917. At this time the orchestra was featured at New York's Plaza Hotel. In previous years, dance records made by the Victor Military Band, Conway's Band, and Pryor's Band had a different sound. Smith's music must have struck many as fresh, original, different. Military bands gradually went out of fashion, and Smith's music--with violin and piano--became increasingly popular (Smith's predecessors on the Victor label include Europe's Society Orchestra and McKee's Orchestra). In July 1917 four dance records by the Victor Military Band were issued (none by Smith), but in August, two Smith dance records were issued, only one by the Victor Military Band. Gradually a new era in dance music was ushered in, the way paved for Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra, the Isham Jones Orchestra, and others of the 1920s. After 1919 no new Victor Military Band titles were issued. The December 1917 supplement, announcing the release of two Smith discs (one ten-inch, another twelve-inch), again stresses the novelty of the sound: "Both these medleys are full of striking instrumental effects which almost compel one to dance, even if one doesn't know how. Joseph C. Smith and His Orchestra manage to produce a tone quality peculiar to themselves. It haunts you like the tone of a saxophone." The ensemble recorded a couple dozen titles for Victor within a year of its recording debut in September 1916. Nobody today would mistake it for a jazz band but the August 1917 Victor supplement states, in announcing a new Smith disc, "'Dance And Grow Thin'...has some sounds in it that would not disgrace a Jass Band--one observes particularly the sighing of the trombone and a mouse-like twitter in the treble that defies analysis." On November 20, 1917, Smith's Orchestra recorded two titles for Columbia disc, both being Frey compositions: "Calicoco" and "When You Come Back" (A2460). Smith's first Victor session had been in September 1916 and his one Columbia session was 14 months later, so Smith probably had a one-year contract with Victor.