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Last broadcast on Sun, 17 May 2009, 21:00 on BBC Radio 2.
Synopsis
Our weekly tune-sleuthing rarely fails to bring up some mysteries, such as this week's puzzle over the authorship of I May Be Wrong (But I Think You're Wonderful): How could the names of Jack Yellen and Milton Ager displace that of Harry Ruskin - always accepted as co-writer of the song, with Henry Sullivan - on the original sheet music? It stumped us. If you know the reason, please let us know.
The show in which I May Be Wrong first appeared was John Murray Anderson's Almanac of 1929 but who was Mr Anderson? Here's where the web becomes useful, for it didn't take us too long to discover a biography of the great man; see the website below which reveals another link - through the Paul Whiteman Hollywood spectacular The King Of Jazz (1930) - to Messrs Yellen and Ager, who provided the film with a number of songs, among them Happy Feet, A Bench In The Park and Song Of The Dawn; and to Harry Ruskin, who was a writer on the film. Still it fails to explain the odd attribution of I May Be Wrong, doesn't it?
The famous Irving Aaronson cut of Cole Porter's Let's Misbehave omits much of Porter's original (and funny) lyric - which is quite common. The most complete recording is that by Irene Bordoni who was in the cast of Paris, from which the song was dropped. So complete, in fact, that it includes a number of lines that don't appear in Robert Kimball's The Complete Lyrics Of Cole Porter.
Recommendations
Sepia’s Original London Cast recording of ‘The Pajama Game’ provided us with our farewell to the great Edmund Hockridge (‘Hey There’) He also sings ‘A New Town Is A Blue Town’ ‘Once A Year Day’ & – with Joy Nichols – ‘There Once Was A Man’ & ‘Small Talk’. It’s a great score and well-served by the West End cast of 1955, which also had Max Wall & Elizabeth Seal. This well-produced & re-mastered CD also gives us 10 additional Joy Nichols recordings from 1949-1955 and a very comprehensive illustrated leaflet. Number is SEPIA 1072 whose website is above.
A CD from 2005, “John Sheridan’s Dream Band: Easy As It Gets Featuring Rebecca Kilgore” provided that ‘Spring Cleaning’ song with which we opened this week’s show. It’s a joy of a CD with lots of good songs (15 in all) a good few of them seldom heard and all treated with love. 8 tracks have Kilgore vocals, pianist-leader John – a man who knows how to pick his musicians – sings himself on one. The label is Arbors and the number ARCD 19309. Their web address is above.
Just room to squeeze in a brief mention for Vol 5 of JSP’s heroic Complete Fats Waller series; 4 CDs containing “Squeeze Me” & many other Waller classics and including the sides he made in England in 1938 & ‘39 . There are 101 sides all told, all in the best possible sound. The number of the box is JSC949: and watch out for the final volume in the series, which we’ll be looking at in the near future. Find out more at the JSP Records web link above.
Recommended: Fats Waller
Tracklist
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Rebecca Kilgore & John Sheridan’s Drea Band — Spring Cleaning (Getting Ready For Love)
John Sheridan’s Dream Band: Easy Does It, Arbors, ARCD 19309 -
Michael Bublé — Quando, Quando, QuandoMichael Bublé – It’s Time, Reprise / 143 Records, 9362-48946-2 -
Joe Mooney & The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra — Nina Never Knew
The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra – Directions In Music, RCA / Bluebird, ND 86468 -
Doris Day With Harry James Orchestra — I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful)
Doris Day, Harry James: Young Man With A Horn, Columbia Legacy, CK 65508 -
Orig Cast: The Broadway Musicals Of 1929 — I Can’t Remember The Words
Scott Siegel’s Broadway Musicals Of 1929, Bayview, RNBW038 -
Edmund Hockridge — Hey There
The Pajama Game: Original London Cast – Plus., Sepia, SEPIA 1072 -
Thelonious Monk — Abide With MeMonk’s Music (1957), Original Jazz Classics, OJCCD 084-2 -
Frank Sinatra & The Metronome All-Stars — Sweet Lorraine
Frank Sinatra: The Complete Columbia Recordings, Columbia Legacy, CK 52871 -
Keely Smith — It Was A Very Good Year
Keely Sings Sinatra, Concord, CCD-4943-2 -
Irving Aaronson and His Commanders — Let’s Misbehave
Let’s Misbehave! A Cole Porter Collection 1927-40, Naxos Nostalgia, 8.120533 -
Angela Lansbury — Some People
Gypsy Original London Cast Recording, RCA, 605712RG -
Fats Waller and His Rhythm — Squeeze Me
Complete Recordings (Vol 5 Of 6 X 4 Cd Sets), JSP, JSP949C -
Julie London — People Who Are Born In May2-On-1 Calendar Girl & Your Number Please, EMI 100, 7243 8 59959 2 7
Broadcast
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Sun 17 May 200921:00
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