Album Title: Decca Curtain Call Series - Volume 2
Record Label: Decca
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 1956
Genre: Jazz
TRACKLISTING:
A-Side
A1 [3:11] [Bing Crosby] I Surrender Dear
A2 [3:13] [The Andrews Sisters] Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That Your Grand)
A3 [3:11] [The Ink Spots] If I Didn't Care
A4 [1:47] [The Mills Brothers] Tiger Rag
B-Side
B1 [3:18] [Bing Crosby] Where The Blue Of The Night
B2 [3:04] [The Andrews Sisters] (I'll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time
B3 [2:47] [The Ink Spots] Do I Worry?
B4 [2:41] [The Mills Brothers] Paper Doll
Playing Time.........: 00:23:12
MATRIX NUMBERS:
A side center label: MG2395 DL 7019
B side center label: MG2396 DL 7019
A side run-out stamped: MG2395T5
B side run-out stamped: MG2396T6
LINER NOTES:
DECCA CURTAIN CALL SERIES
The Decca “Curtain Call”
Series is devoted to the great performers of our times and the recorded
songs which helped to make them famous. Here is the music with which
America’s most popular singers have been identified. Here are musical
events which were actually milestones in their careers and in Show
Business – songs which vibrate with excitement and project the thrill of
an experience recaptured…a Curtain Call especially for you.
BING CROSBY
Although
well over a hundred songs have been distinguished by the Bing Crosby
treatment, two special numbers immediately are recognized as Bing's
particular property. They are '"Where the Blue of the Night Meets the
Gold of the Day" and "I Surrender. Dear." Both date back to the year
1931 and both have been countlessly revived. The first was the result of
a three-part collaboration, joining the talents of Roy Turk, Fred
Ahlert, and Bing Crosby him serf. Everyone knows that it became Bing's
theme song, in fact, this ''signature melody" is probably the best known
of any artist's identifying melody. Bing himself has sung it in many
versions and against many settings, including Hawaiian style. Here the
background is furnished by John Scott Trotter and his orchestra. "I
Surrender Dear," a song of the same vintage, was almost a family affair.
The words were by Gordon Clifford, the music by Bing's musical
team-mate, Harry Barris, and Bing himself had a part in it. According to
Ted Crosby, it was Bing who suggested the theme and it was Barris who
pointed out that the song was ideally suited to the singer's voice. Like
Bing himself, both songs have become as perennial as spring and as
popular as popcorn.
ANDREWS SISTERS
On
November 24, 1937, Maxene, Patty, and La Verne Andrews entered one of
the recording studios at Decca for the first time to give out with a
brisk, happy-go-lucky version of an old Yiddish song, "Bei Mir Bist Du
Schön." Within an hour the girls had waxed the English version which
became identified with the trio from that time on. From the mo-lent the
record hit the airways, via disc jockey shows, the Andrews Sisters were
the hottest thing in Swingdom. People mobbed record counters, struggling
for the few "Bei Mir" platters which remained only a few hours after
their release.
For quite a while the
sisters were known as vivid exponents of highly syncopated tunes, hot
singers developed in the swing era. No one could surpass them in the
field of jazz. Suddenly they made an abrupt departure. In 1940 they
waxed a recording of "In Apple Blossom Time" in a version that was as
tender as it was straightforward. From that time on the Andrews Sisters
were as celebrated for their sweet stylings as for their hot numbers.
INK SPOTS
It
was a long time before the Ink Spots found their own unique style. For
quite a while their singing was fast, hot, and jumping with jive. The
group never dreamed that their specialty would ever be the mellow kind
of ballad which made them famous.
In
1939, "If I Didn't Care" became a tremendous hit. It established itself
among the best-selling tunes of the day—and it established the Ink
Spots. The quartet changed its style to conform with this discovery, and
they began to adapt the slow, sweet manner implicit in Jack Lawrence's
persuasive "If I Didn't Care." Within a year—in 1940, to be exact —the
Ink Spots came up with another overwhelming success: Cowan and Worth's
"Do I Worry?" Although the Ink Spots have recorded scores of records for
Decca as well as several collections ranging from popular hits to
religious songs, they have never done anything more appealing or
effective than the two songs coupled here.
MILLS BROTHERS
The
Mills Brothers are a many-gifted group and they have a special gift
when it comes to the selection of songs. They are particularly happy
when they breathe new life into old numbers, when they take a song which
has been almost worn out by repetition and give it fresh meaning and
impetus because of their unique interpretation.
"Tiger
Rag" was popular as far back as 1917. It was one of the hottest items
in the repertoire of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The song lay
dormant until the Mills Brothers created their phenomenal vocal
interpretation, imitating instruments with the human voice. This brought
them an immediate popularity which has never ebbed. John Black's "Paper
Doll" was first heard in 1924 and was a surprise hit every time it was
revived. It became a spectacular success in 1943 when, according to
Sigmund Spaeth, in A History of Popular Music in America, "it began a
phenomenal reincarnation that even its publishers could not explain."
Perhaps the Mills Brothers could have explained it—at least their
rendition of these two numbers brought the tunes to the attention of q
public which relished the new and vivid Mills Brothers treatment.
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