Variety (Mar 1949)

44 Vgdnggday, March 2, 1949 Jocks, Jukes and Disks By Bernie Woods Alan Dale "A Million Miles Away"—"Waitin" For the Bobert E. Lee" (Signature). "Million Miles" is an unusually fine song, a candidate for the high spots for jukes and jocks. Dale does a swell job on the vocal, with exceptionally moving dance beat supplied by Ray Blocbi^s -ojrchestra. There will be many; ather disks of the solid tune (by tJjijrles Tobias-Nat Simon), but, niiea'nwhile. Dale's plattering will push through. Flipover holds a good rendition of .the standard "Lee," cut at a fast tempo. It has many good qualities, but ''Miles" should capture most of the play; ' Ray Bolger "Once in Love With Amy"; Ray Bolger-AUyh McLerie "Make a Miracle" (Decca). This disking may give "Amy," from the show "Where's Charley?' the boost it needs to hit the high levels it has been promising. Bolger does it exactly as he does it In the show, and that means the only way the tune sounds best» for he injects all the personal nuances that make it such a huge hit in the 'musical. For jocks it's great material. Backing is by Sy Oliver and a chorus. Flip- over brings up Bolger'S' exact perr formance, with "Cnarley's" Allyn McLerie, on "Miracle." It, too, is good material,' but it doesn't ap- proach the "Amy" side. George Towne "It's a Gruel, Cruel World"-"Shuff le Boogie" (Regent). Towne may have a jock and juke 'Sleeper in the "Cruel" side. An excellent novelty lyric done in simple two-beat style, It's the sort of material that either clicks big or drops dead. And the chances for this one hitting big are great; Towne uses Sonny Hayes . and Patti> Chapman, chorusing, whistling and everything else to i project the tune commercially.' Backing is a well-played but non- descript boogie' instrumental. Vic Damone "I Love You So Much It Hurts"-"Again'' (Mercury). Best sides Damone has made re- cently from the standpoint of per- formance. Relaxed control and good understanding of the tunes involved mark both sides, eittier of which could be solid jock and juke pieces. "Love You" is a swell tune now riding fast, and this disk may be too late to catch up. Reverse 4s a newly rising melody launched by Anne Shelton (London), Damone works it over smoothly and it should figure in request lists. Glenn Osser band' backgrounds nicely.: • BUly Eckstine "Caravan" - "A Senorita's, Bouquet" (M - G - M). Eckstine is becoming an increas- ingly hot property and It shouldn't be long before his diskings rate among the top vocalists. His cut- ting of the standard is a hefty performance which jocks will find to their liking. It's done with ap- propriate desert background by Hugo Winterhalter. Flipover puts Eckstine into the ring with Vaughn Monroe's waxing of the same tune. He doesn't do as well with the new melody, but in itself his job is good and should rate attention. Winterhalter handles the baton again. Dick Haymes "Rosewood Spin- et"-" While the Angelus Was Ring- ing" (Decca). Haymes doesn't get as much out of the "Spinet" as he could have, though his perform- ance will help push along the new tune, an excellent one. He does it slightly too fast to draw the full value of the melody, and he's not as careful as his disks have shown him to be in the past. "Angelus," another new tune, is slightly bet- ter, clearly more up to his standard, Jocks will use both, however. Vic- tor Young's orchestra and Jeffry Alexander choir provide lush as- sistance. -- Ray McKinley "Missouri Walk- ing Preacher"-"Simalou" (Victor). A rhymthic spiritual, "Preacher" holds solid possibilities for McKin- ley. Done In a medium, definite beat, with the entire band-doing a handclapping routine behind Mc- Kinley's vocal, the side has a lot to recommend it to jocks and jukes. It could be big. Backing is a good version of another new tune. But "Preacher" will take the play. Kitty Kallen "I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore''-"Kiss Me Sweet" (Mercury). Miss Kallen's first sides for Mercury, and in the "Eyes" tune she drew an unusual- ly good new melody. She performs it nicely, but the singer, who has been out of action for awhile, seems to have lost some of the fire that formerly characterized her work. This disking drags; the drab background' doesn't give her any help. In "Kiss Me Sweet" she drew a curious rhythm air that is just silly enough to have something solid happen to it. Mitch Miller's background moves nicely, and the whole disk bounces. Helen Forrest "I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore"-"Why Is It" (M-G-M). The "Eyes" tune is a natural for Miss Forrest, and she wraps it up in a hangup b.o. pack- age, pouring a maximum of appre- ciation for melody and lyric into her rendition and getting strong assistance from the baton of Hugo Winterhalter. She does almost an equal job on the backup tune, but the melodic content nowhere near equals it. It's also propped by Win terhalter. Eugrenie Baird "Powder Your (Continued on page 50) MGM RECORDS TEAM ASTAIRE & ROGERS Hollywood, March 1. Ginge^r Rogers and Fred Astaire, currently reunited in Metro's "Barkleys of Broadway," will be teamed for the first time on wax when MGM disks out an album of tunes from;the fllmusical. They'll duet on "My One and Only High- land Fling." Astaire solos on remaining three faces, "You'd Be So Hard to Replace," "Shoes With Wings On" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me," latter a reprise of an Astalre-Rogers tune^of the '30s. Col. Sets Dennis Morgan Screen-star Dennis Morgan has been contracted as a singer last week by Columbia Records. At the same time, CRC signed a pact with Mary Martin, formerly with Decea, and now rehearsing the lead in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific." She'll do an album first. ■ ' Morgan's deal with Columbia is a repeat. He was a name singer before going into films, recording for Columbia at that time. hade Orchestras-Muac Record collectors and Ray Noble fans are giving RCA-Victor a rather hard tiiMt over Noble's recording of "Lady of Spain.:' Disk, now high on Victor's bestseller lists, was dug out of the company's catalog and promoted into a hit, starting in Boston via Bob Clayton's WHDH jockey show. Made in 1935, originally carrying a solo vocal by Al BowUy (killed in the war), the disk now carries a quArtet vocal. And fans want to know how come, They've been writing Victor demanding to know stating that (1) Noble never has used a trio or quartet and (2) their own recording of "Lady" features BowUy solo. Actually, when the disk was brought out of Victor's catalog, the BowUy vocal was deemed inadequate. So Victor engineers in N.Y. dubbed a trio on top of BowUy's job and it worked out well enough to fool disk fans. LORRY RAINE "Can't Sleep"—Deceit Record* Disk Jockey of the Week: FRAN PETTAY, WJR Fran Pettay's "Hour oC Kntertain- nient" show is the goodwill feature seven times a week, 1-2 a.m. spon- sored by Chrysler Corporation on Detroit's .^0,000 watt's clear Channel Good Will Station, WJR. _ He's handled shows on 'all nets, everything from Cincinnati Sym- phony to International Soap Box Derby. Married, no children, Petta,y served, as reconalsaance radio oper- ator m the 102nd Infantry, including' Battle of the Bulge. : TIM GAYLE (Publicity-Personal Management) Temporary Mail Addressi - HOTEL SHERATON Detroit 2, Mich. Publication of Sylvia Dee's novel, "And Never Been Kissed," by Macmillan points up the odd fact that . the author and her mother, Elizabeth Evelyn, Moore, are the only mother-daughter members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publish^ ers. Sylvia Dee is a pseudonym, since she was bom Josephine Moore. In addition, she also occasionally writes under the tag of Josephine m' Proffitt, although divorced from the latter. A lyricist. Miss Dee has collabed with Sidney Lippman on such testsellers as ''Chickery Chick " "My Sugar Is So Refined," "It Couldn't Be True" and "Laroo, Laro'o Lilli Bolero." Her Macmillan tome tells of the romantic adventures of a teen-age girl. Femme songsmith's talent for prose evidently is a family flair since her mother is a staffer with the Rochester Democrat Chronicle. Columbia Records Going Deeper Into Bop; Cuts Jackson Columbia Records is heading deeper into the bop groove in com- petition with Capitol and RCA- Victor and the lesser labels that feature it heavily. Columbia last week signed and recorded a band led by Chubby Jackson, former bassist with Woody Herman, which included saxi.st Georgie Auld, Jack The difference in the shellac content in the manufacturing of record- ings made in the U. S. and those made in England is wide. And it makes a big difference in the durability of a disk. For example,: Lon- don Records, U. S. subsid of the British Decca company, has easy access to shellac since Britain is close to the source (India). London's press- ings are made in England and shipped to the U. S. by boat in wooden crates with little or no packing. They are encased in cardboard boxes, then packed into the crates and, despite the rough handling by long- shoremen on both ends, there's very little breakage; U. S. dislcs often are cracked going through the mails surrounded by several layers of cardboard insulation. Shellac is the answer. U. S. companies use very little of it because it's so expensive (72c. a pound); most majors have developed their own substitutes. London's disks contalq 22% shellac^ After three years of trying. Coast tune-touts finally got an okay from Music Publishers Contact Employees national proxy Bob MiUer to stage their own benefit show in 1950. StumbUng block until now has been Miller's insistence that CoAst pluggers and publishers put full efforts behind N.Y. benefit, held annually in late spring, which usually nets organization around $25;000; Coasters wanted to allocate all coin for disbursal to the needy on the Pacific shore. Miller finally gave in and the jubilant touts promptly named a 15-man committee to work on the project. Under present plans, plugs will ask CBS for loan of KNX playhouse for one night and will ftsk top name musical artists to donate their services. Discovery Records, Hollywood indie, voices a mild complaint con- cerning the statement that Columbia ReqOrds has OQly; Mercury Records lined up on the side of its 33^& Microgroove platter^, asiaiiist RCA-Victor and Capitol's use of the Victor-developed 45 rpm's. Discovery states son's combination consisted of five | that it is also marketing disks that spin at 33V&, using the MicrogroOve brass, four sax and rhythm. | technique. It has so far issued two 12-inch recordings in that groove, Columbia-recently took on Jerry | carrying works by Phil Moore's large orchestra, plus items by pianist Wald's new bop crew, too, altliough il Calvin Jackson, this outfit is more in the "progres- sive jazi!" style. This is in addi- tion to Gene Krupa^s band, which plays a lot of bop. Big companies are going in heav- ily for bop because dealers demand it; they find an everincreasing mar- ket for the style among teen-age youngsters. 10 Best Sellers on Coin-Machines Week of Feb. 26 J 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ■■ 7. CLEVE. CO. EXPANDS Cleveland, March 1. Completing its first year of suc- cessful operation. Lucky Music Corp. announced a major program for its second year featuring a series of novelty, children, race and international recordings. The company began operation last March under direction of. Ernest Bruell and Lloyd Rosen- blum, and featuring animal rec- ords..' , 8. 9. 10. FAB AWAY PLACES (11) (Laurel) {S<iretl^hmng:\\\:::Ja%ol f CRUISING DOWN THE RIVER (3) (Spitzer)..,............. Blwe Bafron. . . ■. ..... v. .M-G-M UTTLE BIRD TOLD ME (15, (Bourne) " l^^^^y^T^!--^^^^^^^ I POWDER FACE WITH SUNSHINE (5) (Lombardo) { Evelyn Knight ' V^^^*^!? '" * ■ t PnTOO ' SfcaiB;■•Lonoon • • ( DinaK Shore Columbia '.', ' l^ammy Raye', \ , ... v. i, • • - Victor ;; \ Bing: Crosby.... .»,'........ ;0ecca • ■ \ Anne Shelton. .. . . .London PUSSY CAT SONG (6) (Leeds) . . { Patti Andrev)s-B. Crosby. .Decea " " ''""' \ Perry Como. Victor RED ROSES FOB BLUE LADY (2) (Mills) : : i Vaughn Monroe ... Victor + t Guv liombarda......... .Decca ■ ■ I'VE GOT MY LOVE TO KEEP ME WARM (9) (Berlin) Lcs Brown Columbia '■ LAVENDER BLUE (4) (Santly-Joy). gAlwAY bay (8) (Leeds)......... M\ DARLING. MY DARLING (14) (Morris) Coming Dp SO TIRED (Glenmore) YOU, YOU, YOU ARE THE ONE (CWbell) DOWN AMONG SHELTERING PALM$ (MiUer) i Stafford-MacRae. ....... Capitol I Day-Clark Columbio I Russ Morgari.. , , . . . ..... Decca ' ''"*""" IKay 'Sfarr/.'.\.,^:, . ,. . Capitol ...vi. ...;. Ames Bros. ; Coral j Sammy. Kayk... . ......, . Victor > ■ \AI J.oXson-MUls Bros ..Dccco AGAIN (Robblns) ' ^cra- Lynn London SO IN LOVE (T. B. Harms) \ Sing ' Crosby ..: Decca „ ^■ " ■ ■(DinoTi' SHore.' Columbia ^ Ih U TRUE ABOUT DIXIE (Caesar) aI j[6Ummiis Bros Decco BEWILDERED (Miller) j Billy .Ectestine M-G-M ■■'V''V'V'V'vr' V •vi/nfcspote . , ..v...Decca SWEET GEORGIA BROWN (Remick) , Brot7icr Bones Tempo BRUSH THOSE TEARS (Peter Maurice) ....... 3 Evelyn. Knight Decca SWEET SUE (Shapiro-Bernstein) . ^^r7 V 'o""*''"'"' I ^ Johnny Lon^ Signature -- GLORIA (Rene). .... .i .. ) MilLs Bros. ....... Decca"" UP ABOVE MY HEAD (Taps) ^Signature ? YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE (Pic) Sister Rosetta' Thorpe/; . .Decco Paulo Watson,........ Supreme ■j Russ - Movgan ............ Decca BEAUTIFUL EYES (Leeds) • !!!! ^ ArT ^0^0^" ' SUNFLOWER (Famous) •..M-G-M :: mgwes in parentheses indicate number oi weeks song has been in the Ton 10J - * * " " V ♦ M M M I M ♦ « M . ♦ «♦♦♦♦ ; Perry Como drew an unusual reaction from a performance last week (21) of the song"A Million Miles Away." A Mrs. Gerard Allen wired from Florida stating that after hearing him do the tune she had junked divorce plans and was returning north to her husband: She had been in Florida for that purpose. Whole thing sounded like $ publicity plant* but Como is certain it wasn't. Tune, a new one by Charles Tobias and Nat Simon, consistent hit writers, is being published by the jaew George Paxton firm. AFN ERASES ii^ ONBACKra^^^ Woody Herinan is the mosi proni-' inent member of the American Federation of Musicians tO have been tossed out of the union and then reinstated in recent weeks by treasurer Harry Steeper. Steeper has been on a campaign to collect overdue taxes payable by travelling^ ■ bands workuig one-highters, liit-;' eries, etc. 'V^hen he-took over the treasurer's office in December, he found dozens of instances of laxity by bandleaders in paying th* sums. Usually, when a travelling band plays a date, a delegate of the local within whose jurisdiction the band is working collects the tax; b^t solnetimes none is present, and it's then up to the bandleaders to for- ward the coin. , Herman owed the AFM $76. He found that out when his agency. General Artists Corp., tried to file a contract for Herman to play a concert at Symphony Hall here Sunday (27) with King Cole. AFM wouldn't accept the pact, and it was then that GAC and Herman found out he'd been erased from membership. The $76, plus a $10 fine, was paid. Herman joined Sonny Dunham. George Olsen, Art Mooney and several other name leaders, all of whom have had their cards liftea in recent weeks. AH were rein- stated, of course, upon payment oi the overdue coin. Irving Fields As Disk Jock Atlantic City, March 1. Pianist Irving Fields, broadcast- ing nightly from the Senator hotel, also slotted for a disk jockey s^ot on WMID, Mutual's local staUon here.