Radio Digest (June 1932-Mar 1933)

30 fashion, a summary of the story being that if the lover could wake up and find his fair one's arms entwined around him, and her kisses on his lips, he would not have to continue a dreamer. Feists are the lucky publishers, and I think the song should be played as a slow waltz. T TNDERNEATH THE HARLEM (_7 MOON. DeSylva, Brown and Henderson are the proud publishers of UNDERNEATH THE HARLEM MOON. I understand that one of the finest renditions of this number is that of George Olsen's very lovely wife, Ethel Shutta. I have not heard her rendition myself, but enough people have commented to me on her outstanding performance of this particular song, and there must be something really fine about the way she does it. Several weeks ago we had a young colored lady on our program, and if time had permitted, she would have sung UNDERNEATH THE HARLEM MOON. That was my first opportunity to hear this much talked of song; I have also heard a very fine record by the capable Calloway, in which he hi-de-hi's and ho-de-ho's all over the place ! It seems to me that that type of song would be especially adapted to his type of performance. Although I have done "Minnie the Moocher" myself, and according to some people fairly creditably, I sometimes feel that I am a bit out of character singing such a number unless it is of the soothing type. My recollection of UNDERNEATH THE HARLEM MOON is that it is a stimulating coon-shouting type of song, best fitted to the great Calloway, so unless enough requests come for yours truly to do it, I will leave it to a young man whose work in that direction in unparalleled. To my way of thinking it should be done in typical stomp blues manner. Not too brightly and not too slowly, but in a steady four beat rhythm. Such a chorus usually takes about fifty seconds of one minute. I am a little alarmed at the craze for negro songs and the negro style which seems to be sweeping the country. While I believe the style is refreshingly different and extremely full of life, yet I would like to feel that the happy medium is always to be preferred, even in appreciation of popular songs. As a program balancer, I believe that the show type of music, the comic popular type of music, the beautiful and serious type of popular music, combined with the coon-shouting type, should all be blended in equal proportions. However, no one can lead the public to water, and the public will decide what it wants. At the present tinre it cer tainly indicates a decided liking for the styles of Louis Armstrong, the Boswell Sisters, Mr. Calloway, Mildred Bailey, and others, who are unquestionably influenced by the resonant, lazy, dreamy, yet exhilarating and exultant style which seems to be typical of the negro. /'LL FOLLOW YOU. One of the better popular songs of the month from the pens of Messrs. Turk and Ahlert, who evidently have been freelancing as all the publishers seem to have something written by these two boys. I was rather surprised to find them writing with other writers ; that is cause for wonderment, and perhaps some misgivings, as it is always fine to see a team turning out hit material and always writing together. I was very surprised and somewhat unhappy to see the team of Ager and Yellen break up. I really believe that when two men each with a flair for songwriting get together, they should, unless they fail to produce anything outstanding, remain together. Two boys from Park Avenue, who have written such excellent operetta music, and only lately the music for the great Chevalier picture, "Love Me Tonight," Messrs. Rodgers and Hart, are another successful team. However, I believe Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert will always write the most of their music together, as they have shown over their past record the ability to get something really good. While ELL FOLLOW YOU lyric seems to be patterned on another song which was a terrific hit, "If I Had You," in its vow to cross the desert or over the snowcapped Himalayas, its melody, which I believe is written by Ahlert, is one which comes back hauntingly to the mind. Its intervals are spaced in such a way as to make the beginning of the melody the attractive part of the composition. With the Robbins organization behind it, you can't help' but hear considerable of it. We play it quite slowly, taking about one minute to the chorus, and it is published by Jack Robbins, Inc. ZANGUAGE OF LOVE. More and / more and day by day are music publishers beginning to realize that their tremendous organizations in the days when sheet music and records were big sellers, must go. I say this with profound regret as those were the real days of the music profession, when copies sold into the millions, and records into many millions ! Then it was that Feist, Berlin, and all the big houses had an organization which read like the roster of the Crane Co., or the Eastman Kodak Co., with big representatives in every city, staffs of some two or three hundred employees; a weekly cost of such an organization used to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now it would appear with the new radio set-up that a small office and a small staff are quite as satisfactory. That brings such small publishers as Phil Kornheiser, who directed the big firm of Feist for so many years, almost on a par with the big firms which were. Phil was one of the shrewdist pickers of songs that ever directed the affairs of Leo Feist, Inc. I will be extremely happy when he secures that much needed and much to be desired hit, because since his incorporation with his own firm he has had many fine songs, though no outstanding hit. Now he has "THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE" an excellent song, the melody quite reminiscent of "O Mr. Dooley." Enric Madriguera, of whom I have spoken in conjunction with "Adios," and who seems to have teamed himself up with a New England Yankee, peculiarly enough, one George Brown, who has unquestionably lyric writing ability— this same Enric Madriguera has written a melody that is really fine. Whether or not he realizes that his opening strain is just a slight bit like "O Mr. Dooley's" opening is unimportant. He has carried out the song from the first to the 32nd measure in expert fashion. And George Brown, in an attempt to give me a novelty song along the lines of "Let's Do It," has given me a lyric which, though typical and music in the style of a travelogue, is a dandy. Mr. Kornheiser was doubtful whether the song as constructed would please orchestra leaders, and is having revised, with a bit more of romance thrown in. He has a feeling that lyrics such as "From Zanzibar, to Panama, to old New York" are a bit too much like a Cook's tour listing. What I suggest is that he keep it at least as a second chorus, because I personally enjoy a song that is not over-romantic, and I believe the boys have done an excellent job of the thing. At least, when I reprised it last week on the Fleischmann's Yeast Hour, everybody in the studio, and your humble servant included, found the melody haunting, and haunting and haunting me for days afterward. I know Phil would be happily surprised to see the song attain hit proportions, and I think he will get that hit yet. We play LANGUAGE OF LOVE quite slowly, yet not too slowly. MY RIVER HOME. Last Monday I had my first demonstration of one of his own compositions