Variety (Jul 1946)

50 ORCMESTBAS-MCSIC Wednesday July 24, 1946 RECOMMENDED RECORDS (For Jocks and Jukes) By BARRY GRAY iWOR-Mutuals All-Night M.C.) SUn Kenton (vocal' by June Christy and orch) "Rika Jika Jack" -•-■'Artistry In Boogie" (Capitol. V, -Rika Jika" has great rhythm'. June Christy, backed by the boys, turns in a vocal that-will remain a spc- nally with her for her style will defy copying on this turn. A bit wild in spots, the Kenton crew still pounds with great finesse, and definitely shapes this disk as a real bid for heavy plugs. It'll go great ai the jukes and on the request air- shots. "Artistry..In Boogie" features the macstro's piano' at the entree and secuics to full brass, and. solo sax sending. It's truly fine musicianship. ever, it's still good listening. It'll sell and get, radio request mail! "This Thing" proves warmer, and the Dant arrangement can't be topped as a vocal accompaniment! This is the best side, and Will do a Jot tor Miss Rhodes' professional position. • With a warmer approach to the music and a: "feel" for the lyrics she could be excellent. Rec- ommended. Sam'. Donahue (vocal by Mynell Allen) "Just The Other Day'"—"I Left My-Heart In Mississippi" (Capi- tol ). ."Just The Other Day" is handled' test by Sam Donahue. If the buyers can be sold on the idea but it will only be appreciated . by ! that this new maestro is good mer iho hepsleis. It's splendid exhibi-j chandise to pack home, this disc will tion ot talent for all the crew. I get heavy action at Ihe counters, nolablv that great bass man! .As a j Rhythm is fine, and will call for two-side buy. its a powerful show- tcrps. Miss Allen's vocal "just fair. ease of Kenton's talent Xavler Cu^al' (Vocal by Buddy Clark) "South America, Take It Away" — "Chiquita Banana" (Co- lumbia). "South America", from the score of the Broadway smash, "C;rll Mo Mister," is sung, in the show by Betty Garrett, and the femme sets a pace (on Decca) that's hard to fol- low. No one has. that is until this disk which features' the top drawer work of Buddy Clark. With tricky tempo and lyrics to match, it's a tough one to master, but Clark shows his experience, and turns in a win- ner. Cugat is better here than he has been in many a side, with cork: fiddles and top backing for Claris. The.chorus is adequate. Very coirir mcrcial disk. Talking-points: Buddy Clark, always a top vocalist, was out of action professionally for years, while in action with Uncle Sam. Famous in the late '30s for a great voice-dub job jh'.a Jack Haley film, he's back at the same old Her sustained notes grate, and at times get loudly rough. More coach- ing needed. Good side though, in toto. and recommended. Donahue is gonna be big. but big.. "Mississippi" is the tune that was purchased by Martin Block, for a reputed IOC. but this side sounds as though he overpaid. Not recommended. Phil Harris (vocal with Orch) "Woodman Sparc That. Tree"— "Bump On-The- Head Brown" (ARA). "Woodman" is real Harris delivery. The-band play the melody, and Harris just talks his way through three choruses ol comedy and southern patter. His work is a modern, slightly, happier version of the great Bert Williams who wrote the tune. Harris.. although a top sight performer; will sell sides with this one. "Bump" is • mediocre and doesn't afford the maestro an op- portunity to let the personality , shine through. Recommended only for the 'A" side. Cab Calloway (vocal with Oreh) British Best Sheet Sellers i Week Ending July 18, 1946) London, July 19. Bless You .. .Gay Mary Lou .... .F. D. 8c H. : Can't Begin Tell You. .Chappell Money Root All Evil.. .Chappell Oh. What Seems Be....... .Sun. Home Sick. Sterling Bygones Be Bygones'. . .Feldman Laughing On Outside. .Connelly Cruising Down River.Cinephonic Rain Must Fall Wood Chickcry Chick.. .. . .. .Connelly Land Beginning Again.Feldman straight is adept and lends much. The musical effects by' the Dale ag- gregation are a good showcase; This is great Durante, and will prove that even Durante works for nickels. The other side is good, but. not up to the plug side. Actually it's reminiscing with Durante and Jackson, for the tunc calls for a straw sailor on a rubber string, a bit of soft- shoe, and waving malacca sticks. Both excerpts from Durante's latest pic, "Two Sisters From .Boston." stand doing a film with Mark : ,. Blue Sel . gc Suit witn a Belt In Stevens and June Havoc at 20 th-! The Back "-'Afternoon Moon" (Co-. Fox; and does a weekly commercial ■ radioshot. On-his new sides will be compared to Jolson. "Chiquita". on lumbia). "Blue Serge" is pure Callo- way, bright, rhythmic and a lot of ad-libs by Cab. It's good dance reverse, is^still in the Cugat tradi- lempo and for tne fan tnere>s the lion, sounds rehearsed and again voca , .. Aflernoon Moon" has the terrifically commercial Clark s vocal j maestro leamng into the milte . and is good, but not up to the other | exudjn swobn It . s adcquate , but side, primarily, because the tunc lhe $ales tflerks will fill orders tot doesn t have enough to get his teeth into. This boy's a balladeer primar- ily. Recommended! ' Betty Rhodes (vocal with Charles Dant orch) "What Is This Thing Called Love"—'-I've Got You Under My Skin" (Victor). Simultaneous with the release of Warners'. "Night And Day" the diskeries are releasing Cole Porter tunes by the score, ioh, what a pun). Miss Rhodes, billed as "First Lady of Television", formerly a mediocre femme vocalist, has done her best work to date with '"Under My Skin". Expertly backed by Dant'& Co., it's one.of the few sides around, that is a pure vocal arrangement, meant for listening, and.dancing. The femme sounds well rehearsed but not too relaxed; how- thc "A" side. Jimmy Durante with Eddie Jack- son (with Ted Dale Orch) "G'Wah Home, Your Mudder's Callin''— "There are Two Sides To Every Girl" (Majestic). This is two-thirds, of the original Clayton. Jackson & Durante, and with it Majestic have wrapped up what will prove to be one of the biggest juke draws the sawdust spots nave ever had in the box! Du/anle is Durante. There are suqh priceless lines by the Schnoz as "I live in a neighborhood so tough that anyone that had ears was a cocker-spaniel", followed by a dis- ertation on his linguistic abilities. This is one to demonstrate show- manship to the newer school. Jack- son's tenor trilling and playing 10 Best Sellers on Coin-Machines 1. Gypsy (13) (Leeds)..... 2. They Say It's Wonderful (9) (Berlin). . 3. Doin' What Comes Natur'lly (5) (Berlin) 4. I Don't Know Enough About You (6) (C) 5. Prisoner of Love (16i (Mayfair)....... 6. In Love in Vein (5) (T. B. Harms).'.:.; 7. Sioux City.Sue (12) (Morris)........... 8. One More Tomorrow (4) (Remick) 9. Surrender (I) (Santly-Joy),...;..; 10. Laughing On the Outside (13) (BMI>... Ink Spots .Decca Dinah Shore; Columbia Perry Como.......... Victor Bing Crosby.......... Decca Dinah Shore.. ... .Columbia Jimmy Dorsey Decca Peggy Lee. .Capitol Mills [ Bros .' Decca Perry Como Ink Spots ....... Haymes-Forrest Margaret Whiting.. .Capitol Bing . Crosby . . .. .. .,Decca Tony Pastor Cosmo Frankie Carle Columbia Margaret Whiting.. .Capitol Perry Como . -.Victor Diuah Shore ..,.. .Columbia Victor Decca .Decca Coming Up Stone Cold Dead (Miller) . Love On Greyhound Bus. (Robbing).... Do You Love Me (BVe).,,.... ...... . There's No."One But You (Shapiro), Come Rain, Come Shine (Crawford)... Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop (Leeds) Bumble Boogie (Martin). Cement Miier (Mills) Mabel, Mabel (United)........ fiftuAiAmwUca, Take. ft.way (Leeds)..... Fitzgerald-Jordan j Guy Lombardo... ' ( Vaughn Monroe . -, Haymes-Forrest . !!Mills Bros........ Tommy Dorsey.. Dinah Shore.. . ... Haymes-Forrest'. Lionel Hampton.. Beneke-Miller .. Freddy Martin ... Slim GaiUard ... Woody Herman.. Andre ws.S. is ters. ... .Decca .-.Decca ..'..Victor Decca .... .Decca .... Victor ColumWa .... .Detsa .... .Decca ....Victor .-. ..Victor .....Cadet .Columbia Decca Buddy Morris Adds To Rating Protests With B-VH Gripe The E. H.. (Buddy) Morris pub- lishing combine, which has been bat- tling the American Society of Com- posers, authors and Publishers for the past year or more for better, avail-, ability ratings for its Morris, Mel- rose and Mayfair catalogs, added fuel to its fire by adding a protest on the Morris company's Burke-Van Heusen availability assignment. B-VH. a comparatively new firm set up by Morris to handle the works of Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. was recently assigned a 20-point rating by -the Society. Morris and his attorneys instantly appealed the assignment to the So- ciety's appeals board on the theory that there are many other firms with lesser catalogs that have higher ratings. They will fight the case through., GPS BANNED FROM BAND DATES BY PETRILLOMEN Hollywood. July 23. The American Federation of Mu- sicians' campaign, waged since V-J Day, to. gel U. S. Army to rule against uniformed bands playing gratis dates has borne fruit. New Army Regulations amendment ex- pressly forbids any enlisted man playing a musical engagement of any description which otherwise a civilian could All. All commands have been notified rule stands regardless, of whether servicemen would play for free a certain date., which automatically civilian musikers would accept only with emolument. Reading of the lengthy amendment plainly indicates Army personnel must confine selves hereafter purely to military music- making. Fact, that Army narrowed restriction to enlisted . men only doesn't worry, professional musicians, since average khaki-clad band has but one commissioned officer, the batoneer. Nidorf to Limit Self To Stafford, Kaye Orch Mike Nidorf, manager of Jo Staf- ford and associate of Jim Peppe in the direction of Sammy Kayo's or- chestra and interests, will hence- forth restrict his activities to just those two artists. ' He has given up Randy Brooks' orchestra and dropped any idea of handling the new Elliot Lawrence orchestra, which has created a lot of comment in the band business since its debut at the Pennsylvania hotel, N. Y., sev-r eral weeks ago. ■ Brooks has switched personal management affiliation to Lou Mind- ling, who set up an office of. his own some months ago after his dis- charge fro mthe Navy. . Brooks joins singer. Martha Tilto'n. maestro Buddy Rich, singers Buddy Clark, Dorothy Shea;, ct al., under Miudling's di- rection. ':. • Inside Orchestras—Music Musicraft Records has abandoned try to Induce Victor to let it wax Duke Ellington before batoneer's pact with latter expires and new paper with Musicraft starts on Nov. 1. Musicraft wanted consideration so flock of Ellington disks could be made- before American Federation of Musicians tills recording scale in October; Deft overtures made to Victor by Musi- craft are -reported.--to have received Tathcr a brusque brush. Victor still has 12 Ellington sides to cut, discounting the eight he made last week on Coast, before pact dissolves. It is known that Ellington isn't too happy over situation, and trade teems with talk because Victor, with huge backlog of Ellington wax, hasn't released a platter of it in more than six months. Rumors now have arisen that Victor may never issue the stuff, but will exact full measure from contract, thus freezing a host of prime tunes, since Ellington can't record a selection for Musicraft which he has done, for Victor for at least five years. Meeting of representatives of various major band, agencies, which was to have taken place in New. York during the past week or so. probably will ; not be held. Idea behind the projected meeting was similar to last year's, when the agencies got together -to iron out certain'annoyances. At that; time an agreement was made that one agency would not attempt to. lure'away indiscriminately either talent or personnel of a rival agency a pact, incidentally, that never, w.as; completely adhered to. ' Jusi why the 1946; get-together is not being held, after the false start of a few weeks ago. when reps convened and broke up without doing anything concrete, is uncertain. All sorts of vague answers greet queries. Elliot Lawrence.'-whose band at the Pennsylvania holel. N. Y.. has stirred up more trade coihmcnt than any outfit in years, ,is the object of an un- usually concentrated buildup by General Artists. He's been slipped into as many commercial radio guest shots as possible as a means of quicken- ing' recognition of his name. Lawrence's next gucster is. the "We the People" show (CBS) Sunday (28), a shot on Camels (Vaughn Monroe) in September, "Teen-Timers" program (NBC) Saturday (27). These follow a long list of shots in the past couple weeks on Margaret Aulen show. (CBS), Horn & Hardart commercial (NSC), Chesterfield program (Hist time an entire band guested on that show), and numerous disk shows. Cycle of nostalgic musicals Is a windfall for the recording companies, which find that they don't have to do much beyond reassembling some ot their standard waxings and issue them in album form. For instance Irene Dunne did a series of Jerome Kern excerpts and seven of the eight-sides she waxed will be part of'Metro's forthcoming "Till the Clouds Roll By,", biog of the late composer. These will be rcedited and reissued as an album by Decca. to lie in with ihe film. Same was done for the current Cole Porter "Night and Day" musical (WB) to tie up with that film. Incidentally, dearth of sales in pops on the current wax works, ascribed to undistinguished song material, liasn't affected the standards. These are selling better lhan ever. . Although Jimmie Rogers died in 1933. ditties he: composed continually have been published posthumously at the rate of 30 or 40 a year. Southern Music Co., to which Rogers was under pact, already has issued more tliiiu'. 800 of his compositions, and approximately 200 manuscripts still are in the flies for future feeding to public. There's little doubt Rogers was the most prolific of all professional hillbilly-song writers. During his lifetime he worked on straight royalty basis of lc.-per-sheet copy, and this figure, still is paid his widow. Another distinction enjoyed by Rogers during lifetime was having each of his tunes recorded in one'.or more versions by Victor: since his demise the plattery has continued practice. .Jay Faggen. who recently bought Song Hits Guild from Santly- Joy. intends eventually to set Up a publishing house to market the tunes stemming from the organization. Idea of a publishing venture to go hand in hand with the SHG will not be put into practice, however, until at least the coming fall. Meanwhile. Faggen will operate SHG similarly to S-J's methods. He applied to the Songwriters Protective Assn. for permission' to continue to use professional songwriters in collaboration with either melody or lyrics submitted to SHG by amateur tlincsmiths. This was the original idea behind the Guild. Second-quarter .ASCAP divvy, issued to members.'last week, was about $400,000 less than anticipated due to U. S. Alien Property Custodian stop- ping in and tapping ASCAP for monies owed European countries which had been hostile during the war. Since Pearl Harbor ASCAP knew it would have to face such a payoff eventually, but no funds accumulatively were put aside and matter just drifted until Government called for funds which were owed on reciprocal deals with performing rights societies in Germany, Italy and Austria: Swiss Dlsker Opens In Vienna Vienna, July 10. The Swiss- gramophone company, Elite, has opened studios here. Its local branch company,. Austro- phone. however, must leave fabrica- tion of the disks to Swiss, factories in Berne, mainly due to the lack of raw material here. . . Prod, of Instruments Will Reach Pre-War Level by '47-NAMM Chicago, July 23. Production of musical instruments will be right up to the 1941 rate by the end of this year, according -to manufacturer members of the Na- tional Assn. of Music Merchants, at- tending their four-day convention at the Palmer House last week/Con- sensus, was that increased produc- tion is a certamly, despite short- ages of labor, as well as metals for instruments, with advancers of this theory pointing to the fact that cur- rent production Is already at 50% of the 1941 rale. Expected sales in 1947 for pianos alone look from here like 300,000, as against 159,000 in 1941. Platter sales are going to boom too. it was pre- dicted. Now at an all-time high, they'll go even higher, inasmuch as buyers are snapping up turntable sets as soon as they hit the end of the assembly line, / V, One out of every eight homes In the U. S. has a turnable now. If pro- duction ■ meets demand (and there's no question about the latter, while there is of the former), there'll be one in every two-and-arhalf homes by the end of this year.-It's also predicted that more than 75% of the radios sold in the future will be radio-phonograph combinations-' Gloria Wallls, vocalist in summer show at Leon it Eddie's, introducing Art Waner's latest song "Atomic Joe from Mexico." Waher is orch leader at spot. FLOCK OF BAND NAMES INTO DORSEY BROS. PIC "Fabulous Dorseys," Charles R. Rogers' production for United Art- ists release, will probably have more top name maestros in the cast than have been seen in any other film. In addition to Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, whose life story forms the subject of the film, it will feature Paul Whiteman, Henry Busse, Chnr- ' lie Barnet, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton and Bob Crosby. Janet Blair, featured vocal- ist with the late Hal Kemp's combo before entering pictures, will be co- starred in the film, and Helen O'Con- nell. Bob Eberle and Mike Pingitore, Whiteman's banjoist, arc also slated to appear. As a pre-release exploitation gim- mick, the 'Tommy Dorsey Play- shop," aired Monday nights over the Mutual web, will be broadcast from the General Service studios during the shooting of the Aim. For an- other gimmick, the femme vocalist currently-being selected for T. Dor- sey's band will be tested for a part in the picture, Committee selecting the vocalist via .'recordings includes Dorsey, Dick Haymes, Marie Mc- Donald, Dorothy Lamour and Vivian Bla'ine. Charlie Barnet will ^disband, his band prior, to leaving for the Coast Aug. 11. Barnet will finale with present orch. at Convention hall, Asbtiry Park. He'll probably ■ organize a new band in the fall.