Variety (Dec 1948)

S6 ORCIIESTBAS^MVSIC Vedneaiday, December , 22» 1948 Cat-and-Mouse Game Played Among Majors Over LP Disks Tx-ade observers are watghing fori; some indication of what positions Dccca and Capitol Records might take in the forthcoming battle be^ tween Columbia Records and RCA- Victor over long-playing-disk devel- opments of each. Columbia: de- buted a 331^3 rpm .Microgroove platter last June, with whiciv it has been surprisingly successfulr^so successful that Victor rushed to prepare a 45 rpm disk to; combat Columbia's lead. Interesting angle is what, will happen with Decca and Capitol. If either or both companies are in- duced by Columbia or Victor to join :them in marketing one of : the . developments, ,a knockdown-drag- out fight could ensue. Say, for ex- : ample, if both; Decca and Capitol Avent with Columbia's 33 IrS speed ideas against Victor's 45s,. the three-company front could dent Tops of the Tops Retail Disk Seller "Buttons and Bows" Retail Sheet Music Seller V ^-Buttons and Bows" "Most Requested" Disk "On a Slow Boat to China" ' Seller onr Coin Machines "A Little Bird Told Me" British Best Seller , "Buttons and Bows" 2 Leeds Tunes Belie Theory of Need For Disks to Ballyhoo 'Em Gastel Teams Herman, Cole Trio for 16 Concerts * Hollywood, Dec. 21, Carlos Gastel, who manages both crews, is taking either a straight 70% of the gross or a $3,000 nightly guarantee against 50%, for a packaged series of "con- certs featuring Woody Herman and the King Cole Trio. String of 16 opens Feb, 14 in Ames, la., and ends with a Carnegie Hall, N, Y., concert. Most stands will be in key eastern cities. ' Gaslel also has made a pitch to Charlie Parker, saxman now tour- ing with Norman Granz' jazz conr cert troupe, to join the Herman- Cole menage to supply the be-bop idiom. Cole trio last week set a new record at the Showboati Milwau- kee,, grossing around $11,200 and pocketing $6,700 as its share under a $3,500 against 60% deal. Her- man herd, preeming the- Holly- wood Empire, drew. 3,250 door ad- Jocks, Jukes and Disks By Bernie Woods Perry Como "Far Away Places"- "MissoUri Waltz" (Victor), Como's first side since the end of the disk ban is an excellent rendition of a song that seems headed for hitdom, One of the most relaxed of all top So closely does the music bust eve~to;•"vaTpo^v^^^^^^^^^ '"'P-'* recordings , puting bar and b arbecue biz evenby its Vast RCA parentage; it's , that few songs: become successful. held. Or, it Decca or Capitol, or ' unless hit disks start them rolling, both, went wilh Victor against Films and live radio sliaws are coX'effi'^Uu-er"" '^"- motivating factors, but only as as- But there's also the picture of ' '•^<=°''»«<1 «'^Pl°"«t'»n Decca and Capitol standing pat on a rule. Wlien songs do break i tli6 regular 78 rpm disks andj while ; through because of either, they're j Columbia and Victor bent all their 1 unique I efforts toward smacking one an-j one' new song, however, has ^ other down on the longer-playing .j^ . jf ' ,,j rlisks trrahhinu nff a annti rlnnl nf ?CnieVea Ule DeSt-Selling UStS purC bia). Either^ side the: best from mi^,^onrfo7"'thrfirst"'six'days" and Sinatra in a long time. He does the operation broke even after com strumental backing. A ballad, Oa« mone give§ it a light rhythm ti)<icii and it moves; smobthly and likably past .the ear, Jocks W'iU b^ play- ing it wheh it's released, ' ^ , I Doris Day-Buddy Clark "If You tonsileers, Como works over the, will Marry Me"-"You Was" (Co- tune with his usual lighthanded lumbia). "Marry Me," jocks wiB accomp ^and makes of the disk one j note by the title, is a good f61l6w- .„j up to the Day-Clark hit "Love Somebody/' thotigh it's not intend- ed that way. And performahce-wis^v it's just that. The tv0 work jightly and cutely over a good tune that could reach hit proportions, ■ get-' ting good backgroundihg./Reverse is also a cute item fi"om the stand- point of Interpretatioh., ,. TctiHitiy.: porsey ■ ''Down; By .the StatlQri,"r"How,: Many Tears MnSt Fall" (Victor),; {Dorsey's first post- ban record. ' At first glance, iVs difficult to understand why a band that will rank high in jock and juke schemes. • It's backed by a side that Will become standard in jock libraries just as the tune itself I is a standard. He does a swell job on it. Only a few days before the release of this new disk,: Victor is'^ sued Como's "Pussy-Cat Song," made just before the ban ended, with tire Fontane Sisters and a male group. It's not good. Frank Sinatra "Once In Love With Amy" - "Sunflower" (Colunir Beneke Mulk Cut Of String Section ■ Tex Beneke may-soon drop the huge string section from, his orr Amy" tune, which carries extra" hitrpotentials, In fine voice and a smooth beat;, backed solidly by Mitch Ayres' bright band work Tune is from "Where's Charley," Broadway musical, and it's every bit as good and perhaps superior to ^ ''My Darling," also from I''Charley.": Reverse brings up Sin- I atra on a hillbilly, surprisingly j enough. It's a wise move, for the tune is good and it's a good rendi- I tion that takes him into a new field. Backing is fine, too. Either side is solid: jock fare. For once Sinatra uses a small combo accomp that's not .too- unwieldy giving him more vocal freedom. ' Al Jolson-Mills Bros. "DoWn flf'lf^^'^u^l^lVl^ tfv Vh.^ 'y on the basisTf it inclusion in^a 1 ^hestra.. Leader and Don Haynes, the 78 business now held by the , ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ . his personal manager, are cur- two. Ijg^gj gjjjjjg g^j,^ are'rently mulling the slicing of the No matter what happens, there's :published by Leeds First is "Bella f band s personnel after .being urged bound to be immense confusion in ' Bella Marie." This tune is a major ^V Music Corp. of Amer-, ^mong" th^ Sheltering'Talm?'"'^^^^ the disk field when Victor brings , pan of the Monogram film, "Melo-. i^^^; }^ the. event the strings are; it xrue What They Say About -out Its 45s. -rhe playing of them dy Man." In it Freddie Stewart^''e "ze of Beneke s band | Dixie" (Decca). Made just before will require a^third turntable speed, and Phil Brito are songwriters, and I y°"'<^ ^„ reduced by ^ 13 men to the end of the ban, with the vocal and instrument-aping ability of the Mills Bros, taking the place of musical background, both the.sc sides are hit candidates, VPalms" .The -ys and 33 1-3 speeds are stand-! they're in the process Of writing 1 substantially reducing ard in_the industry and many of i"i^arie" all through the filiti ' "Pirating costs and making the the more expensive home, sets are j Nevei. ihbWn in a m"Sijor houSe the ' ''°"'''i"*ti""» that much easier to equipped to handle both, to which | fii^ alone started the song into the \ it s simple to add a tone-arm ca- hit-selling class. Long before ■ From the start of Beneke's band, is done at a good beat and sung ex- pable ot playing the Columbia Leeds went to work on it in ear- , after its discharge from service cellently by the perennial Jolson LPs But to require a third speed nest, sheet-copy orders were drib-' almost as £ unit (where it played and the Mills group, and it's fine turntable and tone-arm to repro-.bUng in as a result of the film- ""der the late Glenn Miller), its ■ disk jock material. "Dixie" ditto duce Victors baby is somethmg showings. There are manv record-1 arrangements were written in a ' • • ~ else again. | j^gg jj. ^^^^ was Capi- ' manner that would allow drop- Another angle to the picture is | tol's Jan Garber platter, but none ■ P^*^S of the , string section withput Mercury Records, a fast-growing 1 is outstanding in sales, outfit. Mercury is unlikely to be-1 other tune is "Pussy-Cat Song " which _Bob Crosby and the /n-' I making, it heeess^^^ to rewtite the .«ntii«? library,; I', L , ., . i, r,r. , . I v."^" ^xuan/j. «iiu iiic ' Benedcc IS currently Bt th* PbU or Victor's side in the LP fight' drews Sisters did last sp" ng on ' ladium, Hdllywood. since it's rumored that it has its i „„„ „f o™„i,„i, oT. ." own longrplaying development for debut next year. one of their Campbell Souj) com- mercials. So sharp was the reac- tion that Leeds had a difficult time sitting on the tune until the disk ban was over. Lou Levy, Leeds head, didn't want to release it Un- til recordings were available. Meantime, other live performances 1 Corp. Glaser Signs Hot Shots Hoosier Hot Shots signed a man- agement contract last. week with Joe - GlaserAssociated Booking t^iSL^lO Best SeDers on Coin-Machines'!"'!', ?! ,'"• ", Lunceford Widow Hits Snag in Band Suit An injunction sought in N Y ""'er nve pertormances i'-"if. supreme court by ChTystal Lunce- , ,u5'i"'^"K^°"^' demand for | Term agreement is effective im- ,ford. widow of bandleader Jimmie I became too heavy. It was , mediately, and ABC will begin set- Lunceford, to restrain pianist Ed- several ways a few weeks be-, ting up a cross-country route for die Wilcox from adapting or using ^"""^ °ver. the group as of Feb. 1 tlie name of "Jimmie ;Lunceford.'s orchestra," was denied last week by Justice Morris Eder. In original- ly filing a $10,000 damage suitf the plaintiff also named Edward Rosen- berg, road -manager of the band; i Irving W. Rosenberg, an account- ant, and the Gale Agency, the hand's booker,., as defendants: Couit also dismissed the action upon motion of the defendants' counsel, but directed Mrs. Lunce- ford to serve an amended ' com^ plaint. In- denying her motion for injunction upon the record pre- sented. Justice Eder said ho doubted that the plaintiff has a cause : of action individually "though l am not at this time pass- ing upon that feature." The jurist also noted that-she made no afFida- vVit in support of her application, nor verified the complaint; Joy -Nichols-Benny Lee "Pussy- Cat Song"-"Bounc-y Bounc-y Ball- Y" - (London). This interpretation of the new "Pussy" novelty is done with good twists on the imagination that can be poured into su(>h a lyric; and it ranks,- from a jock and. juke viewpoint, with the best that has been , made in the U. S.' Miss Nichols and Lee are fed an- other novelty to masticate on the other side. They chew it over well, but the flavor is missing, It's a rhythm thing. Vic Damone "My Heart in the Middle of July" (Mercury). Da- mone's disking of this tune was shipped by: Mercury in advance on the reverse of artist-Xmas mes- sages. - It's, a fine tune, and Damone does it exceptionally well, with in- 2. 4. :: -5^ ... . :: e; Disk Jockey Review VERN COOK 100 .Miiis^ , , Participating 7:10-9 a.m., Mon. to Sat. Vi'GY, Schenectady Cook, a Louisianan whose I clipped conversational style of . speaking sometimes is reminiscent I of Red Barber, has the stint long I assigned to Howard Reig. His man- ner is different, byt the results make /for good listening, Cook's commentaries on baads, composers ' and ' singers indicate a knowing background. . ■. The transcribed commercials tend to become strident and an- without much of the usual punch- ing. Voice is fairly pleasant al- though small, Miker would do veil to istrive for more pace aad noying. Cook does the others Variety. Jaco. LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME (5) (Bourne) t^SVa'^:^'*-. :.V.V.Vs«p''reZ SLOW BOAT TO CHINA (8) (Melrose) ' Kay Kyser Columbia X BUTTONS AND BOWS (10) (Famous) .....,... ....... i. i.. Dinah Shore......... Columbia Spike Jones ;, ..;;,. ,,.... .Victor ^ S Stafford-MacRae.. ,.,,., Capitol MY TWO FRONT TEETH (4) (Witmark) ... MY DARLING. MY DARLING (4) (Morri$) . CUANTA LE GUST A (7) (Peer-Int) MAYBE YOU'LL BE THERE (20) (Triangle) ■ J. Day-Clark i Miranda-Andrews Sis.... .Dccco I Xavier Cugat . : .. .. .. Columbia j Gordon Jc7)kiiis.. ...... . . Decca ' { Eddy Howard, ........ .Majestic 9. 10. TREE IN MEADOW (18) (Shaplro-B) i Margaret Whiting Capitol ' ' \Monica Lewis.. ..Decca Columbia i come a hit, but it.should be played 'often by jocks. She does a job on it. .''Wily Is It,'" also a, ballad, is close to the: same gf6oVe. -fflne ;. holds attention and it^ done welL: Platter Pointers Art Van Daihme's "Man 1 Love MrG-M ; • (Capitoli is an item that jocks Victor T ^^'ould latch on to break the monotony; accordion, guitar, vibra-- phone and rhylhm pieces hit -a solid jazz-beat pace r Carson Robinson; M-G-M): bas an, uiiUsual appreciation for the unusual in XAnni Shelton Lo7idon j "a^-at'ons: his "Secin' Red" is as J. I'VE GOT MY LOVE KEEP ME WARiV (Berlin) Les Brown CoIum?;ia YOU WERE ONLY FOOLING (1) (Shapiro-B) , w Blue Barron... UNTIL (7) (Dorsey) Tommy Dorsey Coming Up + BELLA BELLA MARIE (Leeds) .Andrews Sisfm .Decca f GALWAY B.\Y (Leeds) ', {Bi«£/ Crosby Decca •■ WHAT DID I DO (BVC) THAT CERTAIN PARTY (Bourne) SAY SOMETHING SWEET (Mills). BRUSH THOSn TEARS (Leeds) ( Help?! Forrest M-G-M ■ ( Dinah Shore Columbia ■ ■ ( Benny Strong Toicer (A/o)-'i.i-Leiois Capitol ( Ink Spots Decca I "Mime Shelton London ■■ J Evelyn Knight Decca • I Barry Green Rainbow IT'S TOO SOON TO KNOW (Morris) \^,a,rald""T"' ^« SO TIRED (Glenmore) r^^^ Morgan Decca 4 MONEY SONG (Crawford) [Andrews Sisters Decca 1 „ "'"\ Martin-Lewis Capitol < • PRETTY BABY (Remick) ^ay CohwMa ll LIFE GETS TEEJUS (Miller) carson Robinion... ''''™'' * PUSSY CAT SONG (Leeds) i^ndrews-Bob CrQsby. .M-G-M J, t rVE GOT MY LOVE (Berlin) LV;BVo;7::.:.::::.\-,Coho»biaf I Boume music mked Capt. Thom- [Figures in parentheses Indicate number oj weeks song has been In the Too 101 ^- Darcy, Jr., retired bandmas- ■ ■ " ■ J' ter of the U. S. Army, to an cx- vro M ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦« M t ♦ f » M-n «« ff y f I tin ivrrrti 1 ^, . ■ ■ . . .>ftrrf f 1 11 1 rnv i f t m n u 1 as capable as his should be as- signed a novelty such as "Station." But it jells. He makes of it a rhy-' thm piece that drifts smoothly and cleanly through an arrangement '■. that might have been dreamed up by Dick Jurgens. Dorsey's vocal quartet. Denny Dennis and Lucy : Ann Polk are all in the act, and they do a good job. Jocks should use it vi'idely. On the reverse there's a tune that carries hit po-i- tentialities. A ballad, it's sung with unusual' understanding. by Dennis, backed by. T.D.!s tromboning and clean full-band work. Primo Scala "Powder Your Face With Sunshine''-"More Beer" (Lon- don).: London is right on the ball with this new tune, which has a- fine chance to hit the jackpot. This ver.sion is strictly from banjos, ■ similar to all of Scala's ,stuff, but it's well done in a commercial vein. Keynotes .make with the lyric and the side is worthwhile. . Flipover brings up a tune that started , to move to the juke lists. This inter- pretation, naturally. Is good since the treatment the tune demands is up Scala's groove. Vauffhn Monroe "Red Roses For a Blue .. Lady"-"Melancholy ■ Min- strel"' (Victor). Also Monroe's first post-ban disk. "Red Roses," a tune that has possibilities, was done first by John Laurenz on Mercury, but it needed the push of someone like Monroe. He'll supply tliat push.' The disk is well done by Monroe's commercial voice, but. whether the push- will be enough.. is anybody's guess. Reverse is sup-* posed to have carried "Melancholy Minstrel." but somebody at Victor got signals crossed and another "Red Roses" turned up. Luis Russell "For. You"-"A Rainy Sunday" (Apollo). No hit prediction on this disk. But jocks who'd like an :unusually good ren- dition of the "For You" standard, in • addition to the . Perry Como and Gordon Jenkins versions, the vocal by Lee Richardson is a must. It's done with a rare : appreciation and feeling for an excellent work. Forget the reverse. • Fran Warren "Joe"-"Why Is It" (Victor). Fran Warren, formerly with Claude Thornhill. is Victor's newest acquisition;^: - -And -a. .good one. The gal has boudoir in hef voice, and her first side here is an excellent follow-up to some of the things she did With Thornhill. It's a ballad that isn't likely to be- good as "Life Gets Teejus," and jocks can do the U. S. a favor by wide use of it . . . Decca reissued Guy Lombardo's "Birth of the Blues" and "Stormy Weather, two fine examples of tlio LombardO beat Resgie Goff's iLondon) recording Of "In My Dreams" isn t a wise one In view of the fact that, Goff sounds like Vaughn Monroe; London has demonstrated more been out for months Samba .soppers ought to get tlieir fill witn The Brazilians' (Capitol) sidings of "Jucatada" and "Nao Chore" . • ■ Jazz jocks will get kicks from Ean Hines' "Sweet Honey Babe (M-G-M). T elusive writer's contract.