Buster's Unusual Spring

If your heart doesn't go dancing at the thought of another spring-themed compilation, I hope this collection, "Buster's Unusual Spring," will at least start your feet tapping.

In these 28 selections, I've avoided the usual spring songs - "Spring Is Here," "It Might as Well Be Spring," and so on - in favor of more esoteric fare. Multiple genres are represented - pop, classical, jazz and country among them. I myself was unfamiliar with most of these numbers. The best known are probably "It Happens Every Spring" and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" - and you will recognize a few classical melodies in new settings.

As usual, the recordings are discussed below in chronological order.

The first selection is the only acoustic recording in the set, and a late one at that - it's from 1926 and the technology-challenged Gennett label. Chic Winter (other sources say it's Winters) and orchestra offer the peppy "Spring Is Here" (not the Rodgers and Hart song). Winter(s) led a fancy outfit that was in residence at the impressive but long-gone Hotel Gramatan in Westchester County, north of New York City.

The following year, HMV had the incomparable John McCormack in London's Queen's Hall for a session devoted in part to settings by Granville Bantock of poems by Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (the name itself is poetry) that were based on ancient Chinese texts. "A Dream of Spring" is from a work by the eighth century writer Ts'en Ts'an. McCormack sings with his usual penetrating intelligence, sympathy for the text, sweet tone and faultless diction.

Harry McClintock by R. Crumb

We abruptly switch genres from Sir Granville to the musings of Haywire Mac, the author of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." Here, under the name of Radio Mac, the America folk singer Harry McClintock presents the "Hobo's Spring Song," done for Victor in 1929. Mac was a colorful character who was a member of the International Workers of the World and spent time as a union organizer.

Harold aka Scrappy aka Burt

Also from 1929, we have tightly-muted trumpeter Henry Busse with orchestra and the much-recorded vocalist Scrappy Lambert under the name Burt Lorin. They offer up "Like a Breath of Spring-Time," which makes me wonder when "springtime" became a compound word. The song comes from the lost film Hearts in Exile, which was issued both as a silent and a talkie. Presumably the song was more effective in the latter version. By the way, this song was also recorded by Dr. Eugene Ormandy's Salon Orchestra before the conductor went uptown.

From 1930, Waring's Pennsylvanians give us "It Seems to Be Spring," written for the film Let's Go Native. With a title like that, the movie had to be offensive in some manner, but the plot summary just sounds inane, as does the casting - Jack Oakie and Jeanette MacDonald. One hopes that MacDonald rather than Oakie introduced the song. In either case, they had to be better than the anemic Three Girlfriends who assist Fred Waring on the record.

"Spring in Manhattan" of 1934 is one of the earlier releases from the Liberty Music Shop label, which specialized in cabaret music. Most of its artists were familiar from New York nightlife, but here, despite the song's title, we have Los Angeles' Bruz Fletcher, who recorded very little but has a following even today. Fletcher's song comes from the album above.

Ray Noble

We now transport you from Manhattan to France for "Paris in Spring," which Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote for the film of the same name. Despite the titles of movie and music lacking the definite article, Al Bowlly sings "Paris in the spring." The South African vocalist had come to the US with English bandleader Ray Noble, who assembled a superb American band. The troupe began recording in 1935, including this fine song, here in a wonderfully polished and presented arrangement with a characteristic vocal by Bowlly, an exceptional singer. Noble was to stay in the States, but Bowlly moved back to England in 1937 and perished in the London blitz.

Ella and Chick

"I Got the Spring Fever Blues" is from 1936 and and the band of Chick Webb with the young Ella Fitzgerald sounding surprisingly like Connie Boswell with a touch of Mildred Bailey. Ella is great, and the band, led by the short-lived drummer Webb, is as well. In the ensemble are such luminaries as Taft Jordan, Teddy McRae and Sandy Williams.

Peg LaCentra

Another great band was led by Artie Shaw, here with one of his first recordings, also from 1936. At this early date Shaw was known as "Art Shaw." Some of you may be familiar with "There's Frost on the Moon (Spring in My Heart)," which turns up in Christmas compilations. Shaw already had started incorporating strings in his arrangements - unusual for a swing band at the time. One of the violinists here was Jerry Gray, later a famed arranger for Glenn Miller (who himself was a Ray Noble sideman and played trombone on the "Paris in Spring" date above). The success of the Shaw record, though, is largely due to the excellent singer Peg LaCentra.

Teddy Wilson

Moving to 1939, we hear the evocative song "Some Other Spring," from the band of pianist Teddy Wilson and vocalist Jean Eldridge. Billie Holiday fans will likely be familiar with her Columbia recording of this song. Although Holiday made many great recordings with Wilson earlier in her career, she had moved on by this point. Eldridge was a sensitive singer, but didn't have a strong voice. Wilson's piano is excellent, as always.

Fletcher Henderson

The fashion for adapting classical airs for swing numbers was in full flower when Benny Goodman and band decided to adopt Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" for a 1939 record with a Fletcher Henderson chart. I can't imagine the composer approving this version, but he had been gone for almost a century at the time. More than 80 years later, we can enjoy both Mendelssohn's piano piece and the Goodman-Henderson swing interpretation.

Earl Robinson and Paul Robeson

A very different "Spring Song" comes to us from the great Paul Robeson and frequent collaborator Earl Robinson, working with Harry Schachter. Robeson and Robinson had their biggest success with "Ballad for Americans" in 1939. "Spring Song," an anti-war ballad, was issued in 1941 during the run-up to the American involvement in World War II. Robeson and Robinson were Communists, a group that wanted to keep the US from waging war on Germany, which had signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviets in 1939. "Spring Song" was released shortly before the German invasion of Russia.

Jerry Mazanec

From 1942, Jerry Mazanec and his Bohemian polka band regale us with "Spring Awakening." I believe Mazanec was from Cleveland, but his more traditional approach soon was supplanted on Columbia records by the propulsive Slovenian band of that city's Frankie Yankovic, who became nationally popular after the war.

Larry Green led a Boston society band in the Eddy Duchin mold. He offers "Spring Is Really Spring This Year" (as opposed to being autumn, I suppose). It's a nice song and the leader's florid Carmen Cavallaro-style piano playing occasionally gives way for a good Gil Phelan vocal. This one comes from 1946; I have a Green LP on Vik from about 10 years later, but it tells us nothing else about him.

Charlie Spivak

The trumpeter Charlie Spivak was at the helm of a swing band for many years and many recordings, among them "Spring Magic" from 1946. You will immediately recognize the melody for this one. Alexander Borodin invented it for one of his string quartets. Alec Wilder rudely appropriated it without attribution for this pleasant tune with vocal by Jimmy Saunders and the Stardreamers. Several years later, Wright and Forrest borrowed the same melody for "And This Is My Beloved" from Kismet.

Old friend Johnny Johnston peeks in with "I Bring You Spring" with the assistance of the Crew Chiefs and bandleader Sonny Burke. This is a good tune with a sonorous vocal that wasn't included in my 2019 compilation of Johnston's recordings. It comes from 1947.

Hal McIntyre

That same year, excellent Hal McIntyre band featuring the sorely underrated vocalist Frankie Lester produced an M-G-M single of "Spring in December" - another song that features in holiday compilations. Some of Hal's later recordings have appeared here.

Fans of Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes may be familiar with "It Happens Every Spring," which originated in the 1949 film of the same name. The tune is nothing special, but Mack Gordon's lyrics paint a charming American scene at mid-century. This interpretation is from the future talk-show host and media mogul Merv Griffin, working with Freddy Martin's band.

Bill Farrell

The talented but now-forgotten vocalist Bill Farrell sings "Spring Made a Fool of Me" with support from Russ Case. Farrell, supposedly discovered by Bob Hope, had been listening to two other Bills - Billy Eckstine and Billy Daniels - but his singing is nonetheless impressive. He recorded for a few labels circa 1950, then made a few albums for Dobre in the 1970s.

At the same time and also for M-G-M, Russ Case recorded instrumentals under his own name, including an inoffensive "Symphony of Spring," which is our next selection.

In December 1951, Mercury invited Paul & Roy the Tennessee River Boys (seems like there should be some punctuation in there) to Nashville's Tulane Hotel to set down their own "Spring of Love." Paul & Roy were in the Bill Monroe bluegrass mold, minus the banjo. Good stuff.

Early the following year, the popular Four Aces Featuring Al Alberts did "Spring Is a Wonderful Thing" for Decca. Al's vocal gyrations have never been a favorite of mine, and here he is at his most elaborately emotive.

Back to the country genre for the Maddox Brothers and Rose and their "The Time Is Spring." This comes from 1953 and a group that is always entertaining, here supplemented by guitarists Joe Maphis and Johnny Bond.

The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen and the illustrious arranger Nelson Riddle turned their attentions to Matt Dennis' excellent ballad "Love Turns Winter to Spring" for a 1954 release on the Capitol label.

Next, an obscurity - the multi-talented Ken Moore, who not only sang and played the piano on "Spring May Come," but wrote the piece and released it on his own Lucky label in 1954. Billboard called it "listenable after-hours wax" and so it is.

Kitty Kallen came out of a big-band background for a successful solo career, with her biggest hit being "Little Things Mean a Lot" in 1954. "Come Spring" is from the next year, about the same time that Kallen began having the vocal problems that impeded her career for several years. I don't know if this is why Decca turned the vocal reverb up to 11 for this record; I do know that the sound would be better without the intrusion.

Jimmie Rodgers

Bobby Troup's touching song "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" is perhaps better known as the reworked Beach Boys tune "A Young Man Is Gone," yet another James Dean homage that is beautifully sung but pointless. The Boys' harmonies were modeled on those of the Four Freshmen in that group's recording of the original. Here we have the excellent folk-oriented pop singer Jimmie Rodgers backed by Hugo Peretti. His rendition was on the flip side of his big 1957 hit "Honeycomb."

Our final selection will be familiar - perhaps overly so - to any fan of the cabaret singer set. It is "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," a wonderful Tommy Wolf-Fran Landesman song that is done perfectly by jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. This is taken from the singer's 1962 LP Rah, which I have featured in its unexpurgated version. (See the post for an explanation.)

Except for the final number, these files have been remastered from lossless needle drops found on Internet Archive.

Hope your spring is going well; it snowed here today.