The Almost Complete 'Orchestra Wives'

About eight years ago I prepared what I described as the "almost complete Sun Valley Serenade," which involved wrangling the soundtrack recordings to the Glenn Miller band's first movie. They had appeared piecemeal across a few different releases over the years.

Today I am doing the same for Miller's second and final film, Orchestra Wives, an uneasy amalgam of musical and melodrama, with a score just as glorious as the first Miller film. And again, the recordings have been cobbled together from several sources.

Meanwhile I've revamped and added to the Sun Valley Serenade post, which you can find here. The music from both films is available in sterling ambient stereo.

The primary sources for both films are the RCA Victor albums that came out in 1954, timed to the release of Hollywood's Glenn Miller Story, and the 20th Century Fox LPs that were issued about five years later. Each set contains materials that can't be found on the other. For this go-round, I've added an alternate take for each film, derived from a long-ago bootleg.

Here are the details of the Orchestra Wives recordings. This second Miller film comes from 1942, just a year after Sun Valley Serenade. The bandleader was to enter the Army soon after its completion. Two years later his plane disappeared over the English Channel.

The Orchestra Wives score opens with a brief version of Miller's theme, his own composition "Moonlight Serenade," heard over the titles. This is an alternate version that adds a swirling harp opening.

Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle and the Modernaires tighten their belts

Respecting its wartime setting, the next song, "People Like You and Me," is half sentiment and half patriotism, concluding with a "let's pitch in" stanza:

We'll have to roll up our sleeves, 

Tighten our belts,

But through the dark we'll see
The lady with the liberty light for
People like you and you and you,
And people like me,
People like you and me!

As with many Miller performances, what makes the song work so well is the brilliant arrangement (by Jerry Gray or George Williams) and the meticulous execution by the band and the vocalists - Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle, Tex Beneke and the Modernaires. The song itself is a highly professional effort by the stellar Hollywood team of composer Harry Warren and lyricist Mack Gordon. They also wrote most of the Sun Valley Serenade songs.

The next number is an instrumental, "Boom Shot," which the band plays at a dance in Iowa and which kicks off the plot. (Per a blog post by Miller expert Dave Weiner, the title relates to the overhead camera technique used during the sequence.) This is a Billy May original with a George Williams arrangement.

Pat Friday

"At Last" is one of the most enduringly popular songs in the Miller canon, not least because of Etta James' 1960 cover version. But the performance in the film is perfect in its own right. The song is one of Harry Warren's best, with a fine Mack Gordon lyric, and a powerful vocal by Pat Friday dubbing for Lynn Bari's viperish band singer. Friday's excellence is matched by Ray Eberle, in fine voice, the Modernaires, and a crack chart by Jerry Gray and Bill Finegan. (Miller at the time employed several famous arrangers - Gray, Finegan, George Williams and Billy May).

"At Last" was actually written for (and cut from) Sun Valley Serenade (available here), where Friday also dubbed for Lynn Bari. Her partner that time was male lead John Payne, who sang for himself but was no match for Eberle. The Orchestra Wives version is more romantic; it also has a slightly revised melody line.

"American Patrol" is a joyous swing march, an arrangement by Jerry Gray of F.W. Meacham's "American Patrol March" of 1885. As with all these songs, the playing is flawless.

Moe Purtill

"Bugle Call Rag," which dates from 1922, is from the New Orleans Rhythm Kings band book. This spirited version, arranged by Miller himself, has a feature for the band's flashy drummer, Moe Purtill.

"Serenade in Blue" is one of the Miller band's best known songs. Written for the film by Warren and Gordon, it receives an almost impossibly romantic treatment by Billy May and Bill Finegan, vocalists Pat Friday and Ray Eberle, the Modernaires, cornetist Bobby Hackett and tenor saxophonist Tex Beneke. This version from the RCA release is much longer than what is heard in the film; notably it has a moody instrumental opening that is a marked contrast with the balance of the song.

Following this swooning number is the jaunty specialty (also by Warren and Gordon) "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo." It was an entirely successful attempt to replicate the popularity of Sun Valley Serenade's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." Once again, Beneke is on the move to see a girl in another town, and again he is interrogated by the Modernaires in the process. Instead of "Hi there, Tex, what you say?" we get "Hi there, Tex, how's your new romance?" The performance is polished and the Jerry Gray arrangement is most effective.

The amazing Nicholas Brothers

As with "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "Kalamazoo" was the basis of an extended dance sequence featuring the astonishing Nicholas Brothers. The extended version of the song, with the brothers' contribution, only appeared on the RCA Victor release.

Marion Hutton

Now for three songs that were cut from the film, but appeared on the later 20th Century Fox LPs. The first is a feature for Marion Hutton, a personable singer who was not quite as explosive as her sister Betty. "That's Sabotage" makes use of a wartime concern to admonish a wayward suitor - "If you've been untrue, that sabotage!" Hutton insists.

Glenn Miller and Chummy MacGregor

"Moonlight Sonata" is a Bill Finegan arrangement of Beethoven featuring pianist Chummy MacGregor and Beneke on tenor sax. It is better than the usual run of such things. Miller expert Dave Weiner says that it probably was meant as a feature for Cesar Romero, who played a pianist in the film. Miller had recorded a commercial version of the song in 1941.

George Montgomery, Cesar Romero, Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Lynn Bari

The final unused song was "You Say the Sweetest Things, Baby," a song that Warren wrote for the Alice Faye film Tin Pan Alley. Here, a subset of the Miller troupe parodies the overripe sound of a society band until it is interrupted by a raucous trumpet solo. Dave Weiner says this was apparently supposed to be the soundtrack of a scene in which trumpeter George Montgomery, the film's lead, interrupts a square ensemble with his hip playing. The trumpet you hear is Billy May.

To close the set we have an alternate take of "Serenade in Blue." This one has a different moody intro to the main melody, a modified arrangement and no vocals. Please excuse the noise and pitch wobble on this decades-old bootleg.

Why do I call this the "almost complete" Orchestra Wives? I believe there may be a snippet or two I don't have that can be found on a limited edition of the soundtrack.

Several of the musicians mentioned above have appeared elsewhere on this blog: arrangers Jerry Gray, Bill Finegan and George Williams, vocalists Pat Friday (here and here) and the Modernaires, cornetist Bobby Hackett and tenor saxophonist/vocalist Tex Beneke.

The photo below of the band on set shows three actors in place of the real musicians: Cesar Romero is at the piano for Chummy MacGregor, Jackie Gleason is on bass instead of Doc Goldberg, and George Montgomery is at the left in the trumpet section, replacing Johnny Best - who is in the photo as well.

The Biggest Hits of '57, Not by the Original Artists

Today we have two RCA Camden budget LPs that cover the "Biggest Hits of '57," primarily with artists of a previous generation, including Tex Beneke, Stuart Foster and Robert Alda. Presumably the thought was that buyers would recognize both the songs and the performers, making a sale more likely.

The market for budget records exploded in the 1950s. With both the cheap labels and the low-price offerings of majors like RCA, performance standards could be surprisingly (but not invariably) high. Today's two LPs are examples - mostly good, but with a few clinkers.

Some Background

First a little background before we get to the records themselves.

Budget record releases have a long if not particularly distinguished history. For all I know they could go back as far as cylinders and single-sided 78s, but certainly the Great Depression was the stimulus for low-priced labels such as Hit of the Week, pressed on coated cardboard.

The advent of the LP in 1948 prompted even more budget productions. Inexpensive albums became inescapable in the 1950s, generally with lesser-known or even anonymous artists recreating the sound of the day's hits. 

My friend Lee Hartsfeld has been documenting and transferring these records on his blog, covering such labels as Parade, Prom, SPC, Allegro, Hollywood, Golden Tone and many others. A typical release might include a former big-band singer such as Loren Becker doing a current tune like "Blue Suede Shoes," along with similar such covers.

Lee has also occasionally taken note of the major labels' forays into inexpensive releases, most recently with a 1959 RCA Camden LP. That post inspired me to dig out a few of my own Camden budget albums, both covering 1957.

The Biggest Hits of '57, Vol. 1

I don't collect budget LPs per se, but the presence of two favored artists - Stuart Foster and Tex Beneke - led to my acquiring these examples of the genre.

Vol. 1 starts off with one of the most unexpected couplings of vocalist and material - Robert Alda, who originated the role of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, doing Jimmy Bowen's quasi-rockabilly hit, "Party Doll." Alda has an excellent sense of rhythm, so it works much better than I expected, as does his other contribution, Charlie Gracie's "Butterfly."

Robert Alda stares down the microphone

For this and most other cuts on the LP, the backing is led by New York-based arranger and bandleader Earl Sheldon, who had extensive experience with budget labels.

In contrast to Alda's cuts, bandleader and vocalist Tex Beneke brings an unreconstructed big-band sound to Melvin Endsley's "Singing the Blues," which was a hit for Marty Robbins on the country chart and Guy Mitchell in the pop market. Again, it works nicely for Tex and his lively band. The singer also does well with Sinatra's "Hey Jealous Lover," a rudimentary semi-R&B song that was one of Frank's lesser efforts (although it sold well).

Stuart Foster

The superb vocalist Stuart Foster, featured on this blog several times, was tasked with another Sinatra misfire, the awful "Can I Steal a Little Love." He also showed his range with covers of hits by Elvis ("Love Me Tender"), Sonny James ("Young Love"), Jim Lowe's pop novelty "The Green Door," and Pat Boone's "Don't Forbid Me."

Peter Ricardo

There were several calypso hits in the mid-50s, and RCA brought in the smooth Grenada-born and English-resident Peter Ricardo to sing them. The first was "Marianne," a traditional song that Terry Gilkyson and the Easy Riders appropriated and made into a hit. The second was "The Banana Boat Song," another traditional song that became closely associated with Harry Belafonte (who also recorded "Marianne"). Ricardo covers the Tarriers' version, which incorporated part of another traditional song, "Hill and Gully Rider."

I probably don't need to mention that Gilkyson and the Tarriers (one of whom was the actor Alan Arkin) claimed credit for writing these items.

Finally, the album has a rinky-tink version of "Just Walking in the Rain" by pianist Johnny Guarnieri and ensemble. The song, originally by the Prisonaires (who really had been prisoners), was a hit for Johnny Ray.

In all, a good album, probably worth its Nationally Advertised Price of $1.98 (about $20 today).

The Biggest Hits of '57, Vol. 2

Earl Sheldon was more to the fore on the second volume of 1957 hits. He starts things off with a florid version of "So Rare," a late-career hit for Jimmy Dorsey. Sheldon's alto saxophonist is not nearly as conservative as Dorsey and Sheldon's vocal arrangement emphasizes the R&B side of the song.

Similarly, Sheldon's thin-toned guitarist takes over "Around the World," missing altogether the romantic feel of Victor Young's version. Sheldon also does "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," complete with the "oh yeahs" of Billy Williams' hit, but the vocals are buried in the mix and the ukulele accompaniment might not have been appreciated by Fats Waller, who popularized the song in the 1930s.

George DeWitt

New to the lineup of artists was George DeWitt, who was the host of television's Name That Tune, where he warbled a few notes and the contestants had to identify the song. Even though he made some albums (and I own at least one), he wasn't much of a singer, sounding anemic in the company of Stuart Foster and Robert Alda. 

DeWitt was tasked with the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," which was a mismatch, and with Marty Robbins' "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)," where he misses the charm of the original. Finally, he is a weak substitute for Pat Boone's mellow voice in "Love Letters in the Sand."

Also new to the cast was Jim Stover, who does a good Elvis impersonation on "Teddy Bear." I know nothing about Stover. My guess is that he was one of Sheldon's studio singers. The guitarist also does well on this song.

Returning from the first volume were Ricardo,  Foster, Beneke and  Alda. 

Peter Ricardo offered another calypso associated with Harry Belafonte, a sly version of "Mama Look a Boo-Boo," originally recorded by Lord Melody. The three Ricardo songs are taken from his complete LP of calypsos issued by Camden.

Robert Alda sings "Who Needs You," a hit for the overbearing Four Lads. Alda is more intimate, but is not helped by Sheldon's backing. Alda's second number was a game attempt at "Why Baby Why," George Jones' first big country hit. [Correction: musicman1979 points out that this is a Pat Boone song.]

Tex Beneke

Tex Beneke and his band handle the instrumental "Petticoats of Portugal," which was a hit for Coral's Dick Jacobs. Tex presumably is the tenor sax soloist.

The excellent Stuart Foster has only one selection - Cole Porter's hymn-like "True Love," which Bing introduced in High Society.

These Camden records do make for a fun listen or two. Hope you agree.

More Camdens

A final note: RCA started Camden in 1953 to reissue classical recordings, at first under pseudonyms. The label later broadened to include pop and other reissues, then cover recordings such as the ones on view today, and even new recordings. There are examples of all these types on my two sites, including the records linked below:

Dolf van der Linden and His Orchestra - Floating on a Cloud and In a Casino on the Riviera

National Symphony/Hans Kindler - Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 3

Ray McKinley - One Band, Two Styles

Stuart Foster - Today's Hits EP

André Previn - Mad About the Boy and Love Walked In

Cincinnati Symphony/Eugene Goossens - Vaughan Williams - London Symphony

Philadelphia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski - Music by Wagner and Rimsky-Korsakov

Indianapolis Symphony/Fabien Sevitzky - Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 1

Florence Henderson - Selections from Gypsy and Flower Drum Song

Philadelphia Orchestra/Ormandy and Stokowski - Music by Liszt, Barber, Menotti and McDonald

Indianapolis Symphony/Fabien Sevitzky - Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony

Perez Prado - Latino!

Bob Carroll - Two EPs of Today's Hits

Gisele MacKenzie - Today's Hits EP

Florence Henderson - The Best from Fiorello! and The Sound of Music

The Popular Lecuona

My recent post of a few Morton Gould recordings of the music of Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) led me to seek out recordings that would demonstrate how the Cuban composer’s music became popular in America during the 1930s into the 50s.

This post is the result. It compiles 24 versions of Lecuona’s most popular compositions, drawn from 78s and soundtrack recordings. These include different interpretations of the songs that Gould orchestrated: "Andalucía" ("The Breeze and I"), "Malagueña," "La Comparsa" and "Jungle Drums."

Alfredo Brito

Perhaps the first Lecuona melody to become popular in the U.S. was his 1929 composition "Siboney.” (Siboney is a town in Cuba, and by extension can be understood to refer to Cuba itself.) The song gained notice in 1931 via a record by Alfredo Brito and His Siboney Orchestra, the first item in our collection.

Many artists have since recorded “Siboney,” often with the English lyrics written by Dolly Morse that have nothing to do with Lecuona’s original words. Bing Crosby recorded the English version in 1945 with Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Cugat was prominent in America at the time and recorded many Latin songs, but nonetheless his was not considered an “authentic” Cuban band, even though he spent much of his youth in that country.

The young Cugat. He later grew hair.

Cugat in fact popularized the second Lecuona composition in the set, "Para Vigo Me Voy” (“I’m Going to Vigo,” a town in Spain), which became known as "Say Si, Si" after acquiring Al Stillman’s English lyrics. Cugat recorded it in 1935, the year of its composition. The English version became a hit in 1940, with the Andrews Sisters having the best-selling disc. The download includes both the Cugat and Andrews records.

The next song, “Jungle Drums,” was called “Canto Karabali” by Lecuona when he published it in 1933. I believe “Karabali” refers to African slaves brought to Cuba from a particular region of Africa. Both versions in the playlist come from 1939, the first by Artie Shaw and his band, the second from Cugie again, with an unlikely vocal by Dinah Shore, making one of her first appearances on record. Dinah presents the English lyrics written by Carmen Lombardo, of all people. “Jungle Drums” went on to become one of the theme songs of the exotica movement of the 50s.

“The Breeze and I” is one of Lecuona’s most recognizable and enduring melodies, originally published as “Andalucía” in 1928. With Al Stillman’s new English lyrics, the song became an American hit in 1940 through the single version by Jimmy Dorsey’s band, with a vocal by Bob Eberly. This is another Lecuona song that is still heard today.

Jimmy Dorsey and Bob Eberly

After “The Breeze and I” and “Say Si, Si” became hits, Lecuona wrote the title song for the 1942 film Always in My Heart, which starred Kay Francis and Walter Huston. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, losing to "White Christmas." Dorsey and Eberly, recognizing a good thing, recorded a version with Kim Gannon’s English lyrics, and it became a hit as well.

One of Lecuona’s most popular melodies, "Malagueña" (that is, a type of dance from Málaga, Spain), comes from his 1933 Suite Andalucía, to which he added lyrics in Spanish. Our first interpretation comes from Del Campo and His Orchestra, with a piano solo by arranger Jose Esteves. Luis Del Campo was a former Cugat singer who formed his own band in the 1940s, continuing until his death in 1950. This record, from about 1947, appeared on the short-lived Coda label.

Dorsey and Eberly struck again in 1942 with a vocal version of "Malagueña" called “At the Cross-Roads,” with English lyrics by Bob Russell.

It’s been said that Lecuona lifted the melody of "Malagueña" from a section of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s 1851 composition Souvenirs d'Andalousie. I think it’s more likely that both Lecuona and Gottschalk were drawing upon the same indigenous melody.

Next we have a record by the Lecuona Cuban Boys, confusingly named because the group did not include Lecuona himself. He did, however, start the group in the early 1930s after seeing the success that Alfredo Brito was having with his music. The song “Panama” comes from a 1937 Columbia album by the group.

The Cuban Boys also contribute a rendition of one of Lecuona’s best-known melodies, “La Comparsa,” taken from their early Victor album Melodias Cubanas, with a piano solo by Armando Oréfiche, the group’s leader. I've also included a 1946 recording of "La Comparsa" from Camilo Lentini and His Latin-American Orchestra on the Pan-American label. Lentini was active in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s.

Hollywood called on Lecuona once more for a title song for the 1946 film One More Tomorrow, an Ann Sheridan-Dennis Morgan-Alexis Smith love triangle in which Morgan has to choose between his principles and his rich friends. (In other words, it has a plot you have seen a hundred times.) The version of the song in the playlist comes from Tex Beneke’s revived Glenn Miller Orchestra, with a sensitive vocal by Artie Malvin, who later became the king of the budget-label cover records.

Also in 1946, Lecuona provided the music for Carnival in Costa Rica, a musical starring Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen. I am particularly fond of the music from this film, so I have included the main songs directly from the soundtrack and from Haymes’ Decca recordings.

Vera-Ellen’s singing voice was dubbed by Pat Friday, a superb vocalist who appeared on several radio shows, did some film dubbing and made a very few records, including a version of Carnival in Costa Rica's “Mi Vida." My other blog will soon have a post of the few 78s she made in 1946 for the small Enterprise label.

Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen in Carnival in Costa Rica

In this collection, we have soundtrack versions of “I’ll Know It’s Love” (Friday solo and Haymes/Friday reprise), “Mi Vida” (Haymes/Friday duet) and “Another Night Like This” (Haymes solo). Also included are Haymes’ Decca 78s of “Another Night Like This” and “Mi Vida,” which have backing by Gordon Jenkins.

The Lecuona Cuban Boys return with a 1946 single on the Majestic label – “Rumba-Bomba,” with a Manyo Lopez vocal, and “Maracas,” vocal by Ernesto Ojea.

Lecuona’s music continued to be popular into the 1950s. The playlist concludes with two versions of “The Breeze and I” from that decade. The first is a Vic Damone vocal recording, which became a hit in 1952. Finally, there is a George Shearing instrumental from 1951 that demonstrates the influence of Shearing’s sound on the exotica bands that were soon to emerge.

The sound on these records ranges from good to excellent. Most were sourced from lossless needle-drops on Internet Archive.

The Nearly Complete Sun Valley Serenade

For some time now, the erudite Dave Weiner has been providing session-by-session commentary on the civilian recordings of the Glenn Miller band on Dave's blog, Community Swing.

This has been a real pleasure for me, a Miller fan since I was 10, and when Dave recently covered the songs from the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, I decided to do a post of my own. This for two reasons: one, these were among the first Miller items I owned myself, and two, the soundtrack recordings exist in a variety of versions, which Dave neatly straightens out, enabling me to assemble a coherent and nearly complete package.

We start with RCA Victor's 10-inch soundtrack LP, which belatedly came out in 1954 as part of the blitz of Miller recordings that RCA reissued in the wake of The Glenn Miller Story. In 1959, 20th Century Fox issued a Miller soundtrack set that included some but not all of this material - and added one item that isn't found on the RCA edition.

The RCA LP is unusual in that it includes the first version of the gorgeous Harry Warren-Mack Gordon ballad "At Last" (yes, the Etta James song), cut from this film only to turn up in the second Miller pic, Orchestra Wives. Here's Dave: "It’s a great arrangement by Jerry Gray and Bill Finegan, done here as a rhythm ballad, vocalized by Lynn Bari and John Payne. Payne sings for himself, rather reedily and Bari is doubled, as usual, by Pat Friday." I might add that Pat Friday was a superb singer who unfortunately is quite unknown these days. The Pat Friday-Ray Eberle version of "At Last" in Orchestra Wives is even better than this one. Friday, Payne and the Modernaires also do another beautiful Warren-Gordon ballad, "I Know Why" in Sun Valley Serenade.

The RCA LP includes the complete eight-minute "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." It starts with the familiar Tex Beneke-Modernaires vocal, followed by a long section featuring Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers. This is as seen during the film, but minus the sound of the brothers' tap dancing. (Their routine is astonishing, by the way.)

Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers

The album contains what Dave calls the best-ever version of Miller's famous "In the Mood," among several outstanding band features, including Jerry Gray's terrific "The Spirit Is Willing."

But as I mentioned, the RCA LP is not complete. It did not contain the snatch of Miller's theme "Moonlight Serenade" as heard in the movie. So I have added that song from the Fox soundtrack album (which did not contain this first rendition of "At Last" and had truncated versions of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "I Know Why").

Another song, "The Kiss Polka," appears in the film but is not played by the Miller band. However, the band did make a commercial recording of it that I have appended to the download.

I say my version is "nearly complete" because there is one song that was cut from the movie and has never been released. It is called "The World Is Waiting to Waltz Again." Dave, however, has somehow come up with the recording, and it can be heard via his blog post discussing Sun Valley Serenade.

The RCA LP has excellent sound, and is better than the Fox edition, which adds unneeded reverb. The soundtrack also is superior to the Victor commercial recordings of the early 40s. One final note for those who might be curious: the strange whistling sounds heard under the muted trumpet solos during "The Spirit Is Willing" are on both the RCA and Fox records.

Note (July 2023): I have now added an alternate take of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" to the download, cleaned up from a long-ago bootleg. You will note that Tex's whistling intro is different from the version used in the film. Please excuse the pitch instability and noise on this outtake. Also new in the download is a long document about the film from the American Music Research Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Below, the Miller band as seen during the film, with Lynn Bari as vocalist, John Payne as pianist, the sections all mixed up.