Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 6, No. 6 (1932-03)

March 1932, Vol. VI, No. 6 117 sides of the disc are taken up by the Mahatma’s ad- dress, which is given in English and is concerned ex- clusively with spiritual subjects. The recording is good, and the message easily understandable. A most unusual recording, and one that will be of great historic value. POPULAR-DANCE RECORDED RHYTHM Show Numbers The only new show represented this month is yincent Youmans’ “Through the Years,” with Drums in My Heart and Kinda Like You played by Leo Reisman in attractive style on Victor 22915. Abe Lyman’s “Of Thee I Sing” medley was incorrect- ly decribed in the advance notice last month. The disc is Brunswick 20103, one side of which is given over to three hits from the Gershwin show, and the other to four hits from Ed Wynn’s “Laugh Parade.” The vocal chorusers are Neely, Rowland, Robertson, and Sylvano. Also from the “Laugh Parade” is “You’re My Every- thing,” played by Buddy Campbell (Okeli 41545) and Ben Selvin (Columbia 2596-D), both in routine fashion. Campbell is likewise less spirited than usual in his coupling, Af Wiedersehen My Dear, while Selvin’s When We’re Alone—a penthouse idyll—is sweetly colorless. Russ Columbo does the only vocalization of You’re My Everything, thickly saccharined, and coupled with an equally honeyed Just Friends (Victor 22909). On the Victor long-playing list, single-faced ten-inch discs, 85c eachj is a collection of Leo Reisman’s gems from Kern’s score to “The Cat and the Fiddle”: Over- ture, Night was made for love, One Moment, Alone, French March, Poor Pierrot, She didn’t say yes, Try to Forget (L-16005). Nat Shilkret leads the Victor orchestra in the waltz, Don’t Ask Me Why, from Hey- wood Broun’s late “Shoot the Works,” coupled with a new version of the “tango Valentino”—Fate (L-16004). Film Flits The Gershwin Bros.’ score for the Fox Gaynor-Farrell opus, “Delicious,” is pretty slight compared with that of “Of Thee I Sing.” ( I except, of course, the “rivets” music later developed into the “Second Rhapsody.”) Three platter versions of “Delishious” are out this month. Shilkret does it in pretty methodical fashion on Victor 22902, and the coupling, Somebody from Some- where—a graceful number from the same film—is played slowly, sentimentally. The vocalists are respectively Paul Small and Sylvia Froos, with the latter scoring. Abe Lyman gives “Delishious” crisper, more varied and rhythmic treatment on Brunswick 6255, and couples it with a richly Teutonically sentimental Auf Wiedersehen My Dear, featuring an accordion. Ben Selvin’s version of Delishious is not as crisp as Lyman’s, but it is more lyrical and more richly toned than Shilkret’s. The coupling is a catchy, clean recorded performance of Was That the Human Thins: to Do?, in which the vocal chorusers displays better enunciation than the average (Columbia 2604-D). “Possessed” (M-G-M film) is also represented by three versions of its featured song. How Long Will It Last? Leo Reisman plays it in graceful, light concert style (Victor 22910), Ted Wallace (Columbia 2601-D) and Jacques Renard (Brunswick 6244) do it smoothly, with Renard’s bland fiddling starring. Shilkret’s coupling is Arden and Ohman’s sturdy, well articulated version of When We’re Alone, exhibiting some nice lyrical and rhythmical contrasts; Wallace’s is Starlight; Renards is a songful but methodical Just Friends. Leo Reisman does Someday I’ll Find You, from Cow- ard’s “Private Lives” (M-G-M film) and the Paradise Waltz from RKO-Pathe’s “A Woman Commands” (Vic- tor 22904). Both performances are more in light sym- phonic than dance style. The former is a well modulated tune in attractive tonal dress (I like the nice flute solo), and the latter, after a vigorous symphonic introduction goes into a slow rich waltz, with flute again featured. Frances Maddux’s choruses are good, especially the warm hummed phrases in the Paradise Waltz. Crooners The crooners, still smarting under Cardinal O’Con- nell’s excommunication, are keeping pretty well under cover. Russ Columbo ventures out with Save the Last Dance for Me and All of Me (Victor 22903) and Dick Robertson with Somewhere in the West and Old-Fash- ioned Home in New Hampshire (Victor 23645). Both discs are of the excessively sentimental type under fire, redeemeed if at all by the deft accompaniments. More interesting are Sylvia Froos in I Found You and When We’re Alone (Victor 6248) and Bing Crosby in I Found You (to Helen Crawford’s organ accompaniment) and Snuggled on Your Shoulder, very slow and lyrical with one good slow wa-wa passage (Brunswick 6248). Co- lumbia’s star, rotund Kate Smith, deserts Tin Pan Alley tunes for backwoods stuff, the penitentiary favorite, Twenty-One Years (enlived with rustic color), and a more lyrical ballad of happenings in The Baggage Coach Ahead (Columbia 2605-D). Popular Instrumentals Jesse Crawford organizes band versions of Call Me Darling and Carolina’s Calling Me (Victor 22901); Terence Casey unearths a large group of Father’s Favor- ites (many British in Origin) and dashes them off in spirited, none too polished theatre organ versions (Co- lumbia 2593-D); and the Gilmore Sisters, assisted by an indefatigable traps artist, run through quiet, routine rhythmic piano duet performance of Rockin’ Chair and Some of These Days (Victor 23316). British Re-Pressings Three of the leading British dance bands are in- cluded in the American lists this month, with first prize going to Jack Hylton, as usual, for his very graceful and light treatment of Dancing on the Ceiling, an American tune currently featured in the London show “Evergreen.” The coupling is Leo Reisman’s rich, but not too luscious There’s Something in Your Eyes, featur- ing deep, organ-like harmonies in the accompaniments to the tune (Victor 22912—one of the best ballroom dance discs of the month). Jack Payne’s B. B. C. Dance Band, has recently left both B. B. C. and Columbia, but from his older Columbia recordings, now coming out under the Regal label, American Columbia picks a rich, but not too bland version of Kiss Me Goodnight, with Payne himself singing the chorus, and an odd com- position in pseudo-Negro style, called Hosannah (Co- lumbia 2603-D). It is a vigorous one-step, opening with a quasi-Oriental introduction, and going into a peppy British imitation of Negro idiom. The chorus is par- ticularly artificial blackface, but the piece has con- siderable zip and swing. Least colorful of the group is Ambrose and the Mayfair orchestra in a slow songful I Found You, coupled with Arden & Ohman’s Who’s Your Little Who-zis, a sprightly performance, more interesting and better varied than any version of this piece I have yet heard (Victor 22893). Hupfield Novelties Victor Young features Herman Hupfield as soloist and composer of two novelty fox trots, Goopy Geer and Down the Old Back Road (Brunswick 6251). Goo-