jim henson

Here's a well worn old kiddie record, a 6-inch, 78 rpm orange disc, the old 'Little Golden Record' format.

◀ (Click on image to view outer sleeve ENLARGED in a new window)

On Side A, Jiminy Cricket sings his 'Safety Song', just as he did in several educational cartoons that aired on TV's 'Mickey Mouse Club' show, beginning in 1955.

- Follow link to a list of the different 'I'm No Fool' educational cartoons at The Big
Cartoon DataBase.


Listen to:
Cliff Edwards as the voice of Jiminy Cricket, w/ the Merry Mouseketeers, chorus & orchestra -
I'm No Fool
(Little Golden Record 6" 78, circa 1955)
(click for audio)

Side B features a quick, no-frills 'round', sans Cricket...

Listen to:
Frances Archer, Beverly Gile, Merry Mouseketeers, chorus & orchestra -
Frere Jacques
(Little Golden Record 6" 78, circa 1955)
(click for audio)


- Click here for the outer sleeve's back cover text, with a roster of other Mickey Mouse Club records in the series.

Cliff Edwards (1895 - 1971) originated the voice of Jiminy Cricket for 1940's 'Pinnochio', and continued in the voice role until the 1960s.

Though he was uncredited in the film, the role helped to revive his career, which had been in decline since the depression.

In the 1950s, his return to the role on TV would do so again,
for a time.

During the 1920s and into the early '30s, Cliff Edwards, a.k.a. 'Ukulele Ike' had been a Genuine Super Star as a recording artist, and on stage and screen.

His flair for jazzy scat singing, crooning and vocal 'tromnet' influenced many, and it was quite likely his use of the ukulele that helped make the instrument a staple of the era.

By the latter-half of the 1930s though, problems with money and problems with substance abuse and high-living began a roller-coaster of ups and downs that would follow him through the rest of his life, which ended, sadly, in obscurity.

See also:
- The Red Hot Jazz Archive has many fine archived vintage Cliff Edwards recordings.
(audio requires RealPlayer)

- Assorted other Cliff Edwards recordings at the Internet Archive
If you've never heard Ukulele Ike, you must investigate.

- Follow link to a video clip of Edwards, performing 'Hang On To Me' from a curious 1935 short,
'Starlit Days At The Lido', filmed in an early Technicolor process.

- Other 'Cliff Edwards - Ukulele Ike search results at YouTube.

Below, ▼ one of the 'I'm no Fool' segments from TV...

Clarinetist and orchestra leader Severino Araujo has led Brazil's venerable dance band Orquestra Tabajara since 1938.

Many thanks to an anonymous reader for sharing this amazing samba reading of the classic Gershwin melody.

The story goes that this recording was a national success when it was released, although at the time it was also met with controversy for not being of Brazilian origin.








Listen to:
Severino Araujo & Orquestra Tabajara -
Rhapsody in Blue
(Continental Records 78, circa 1946)

(click for audio)

- See also:
Severino Araujo at All Music Guide.Com.

The song 'How Could Red Riding Hood (Have Been So Very Good)?', written by A.P. Randolph in 1925 and published in 1926 currently holds the distinction of being the first song known to be banned from the radio (except in instrumental versions), due to possible sexual connotations. +

According to a few sources, it may have begun with radio Station WFAA (Dallas/Fort Worth) declaring that bandleader Jan Garber's '26 recording of the song was "improper and suggestive".

Supposedly, slightly differing lyrics included in assorted recordings of the song made the difference as to whether or not it was deemed objectionable.

The Jan Garber recording and a SUPERB 1926 version by The Yacht Club Boys contained the verse purported to be the culprit:

'They say that she was a maid most discreet,
'And there's no doubt about it, she must have been sweet,
'But you know, and I know that even sweet girls must eat.
'How Could Red Riding Hood, Have Been so Very Good
and Still Keep the Wolf from the Door.'

Versions that escaped the ban include one by Harry Reser's Six Jumping Jacks, and the version by
Al Lentz and his orchestra presented here.

They don't contain the above verse, but do have in common the following verse:

'They say that she found a wolf in Granny's bed,
'A big sun-bonnet pulled over his head,
'But you know and I know what she found instead!
'How Could Red Riding Hood, Have Been so Very Good
and Still Keep the Wolf from the Door.'

- - Which was not viewed as possessing as many prurient possibilities, apparently.

Band leader Al Lentz was known back in the '20's for providing hot and fast dance music at his orchestra's live dates, but if he's remembered at all today, it tends to be for novelty numbers like these...

Dig those scatty throat-'tromnet' solos!



Listen to:
Al Lentz and his Orchestra -
How Could Red Riding Hood?
(Columbia Records 78, 1926)

(click for audio)












Listen to:
Al Lentz and his Orchestra -
Elsie Schultz-En-Heim
(Columbia Records 78, 1926)

(click for audio)


- For more versions of 'How Could Red Riding Hood' (and TONS of other material as well) click over to The Red Hot Jazz Archive.
Using their 'Search' feature and plugging in 'How Could Red Riding Hood' will produce dozens of results. (May require Real Player) Enjoy!

It was in 1960 that the music of piano duo
Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher took an abrupt and lucrative turn, as it headed firmly down Easy Listening's middle-of-the-road.

Their formulaic crowd-pleasing pop was a sharp contrast to the more sonically adventuresome 'prepared' piano sound present on many of their 1950's recordings, including the two posted here.

Ferrante and Teicher met in New York, while attending Julliard. They began performing together while teaching there in the latter half of the '40's.




Early on they began experimentation by modifying their instruments - - "...stuff(ing) wads of paper, sticks, rubber stops, masonite strings, cardboard wedges, and sandpaper into the pianos conjuring up weird effects
(a la [John] Cage) resembling gongs, castanets, drums, xylophone, and harpsichord." **

Pianos became percussion instruments as the team learned to play them from the inside.

Though it's currently lapsed out of print, the 1997 CD reissue of Ferrante and Teicher's 1958 'Blast Off' LP is highly recommended and worth seeking out.

But all good things come to an end.
Whether it's for the better is a matter of opinion and perspective.

Upon signing with United Artists Records in 1960, Ferrante and Teicher soon curtailed their gimmickry, filled out their sound with orchestral accompaniment, and played it straight (and safe) - - all to enormous success throughout the '60's and beyond.



Listen to:
Ferrante & Teicher - That Old Black Magic
(Columbia 78, circa 1953)

(click for audio)













Listen to:
Ferrante & Teicher - Beezwhacks
(Columbia 78, circa 1953)

(click for audio)




For more on Ferrante and Teicher, see also:
- All Music.Com

- The Official Homepage

- Space Age Pop's Ferrante and Teicher page clearly delineates the division between their prepared piano works and easy listening era.

- At Showcase, a Dutch record collector relates a tale of discovering the 1955 LP, 'Soundproof', and has posted a track.

Prior to this record (one of the earliest releases on the MGM label) and forming his own orchestra, multi-talented musician
Sy Oliver (1910 - 1988) had made his reputation as a Big Band arranger, working first for Jimmie Lunceford during the 1930's, and then Tommy Dorsey in the '40's.

In later years Oliver went on to a ten-year stint as musical director for Decca Records, working as a free-lance arranger and record producer, and leading his own jazz bands off and on until 1984.



Listen to:
Sy Oliver and his Orchestra,
with vocals by Sy Oliver and Dickie Wells -
Hey Daddy-O
(MGM Records 78, 1947)

(click for audio)











Listen to:
Sy Oliver and his Orchestra - Slow Burn
(MGM Records 78, 1947)

(click for audio)





See also:
- Sy Oliver at All Music.Com

- 'The Sy Oliver Story'; a 1974 interview posted at Jazz Professional.Com...
Part 1
Part 2

UPDATE: Mp3 files removed by request. Thank you.

Ordinarily on ILTS I don't post music that's in print or readily available, so in honor of
Bo Diddley's passing, I'm attempting to present his original 1955 hits in something approximating the original '55 sound.

You've heard these tracks before, but how recently have you heard them with all the magic of
78 RPM surface noise still intact?





Bo Diddley's music has a singular tang and tenacity, but I think it's important to remember the context of when it first appeared, to try and recall what it was like to drop the needle on a hunk of rhythm & blues rock & roll shellac when it was new and revolutionary and dangerous...





Listen to:
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
(Checker Records 78, 1955)





For these original 78 tracks, I've done even less than my usual light touch in cleaning up the sound.
Clicks, pops, skips, warps, warts and all, the grooves still perform!








Listen to:
Bo Diddley - I'm A Man
(Checker Records 78, 1955)



(BIG M.A.N.-sized thanks to Ripspix for entrusting to me his amazing early rock & roll platters;
I promise to give them a good home!)

There's a puzzling lack of information out there about band leader Allen Miller - - a situation that won't be changed by this blog post, unfortunately.

Nevertheless, here's a jaunty little instrumental, reminiscent of Raymond Scott or John Kirby.

Enjoy! (Record skips and all)

Listen to:
Allen Miller and his Modern Men of Music - Gossip
(Hit Records 78, circa 1942)
(click for audio)

Cliffie Stone was a larger-than-life jack-of-all trades on the Country Music scene in Southern California during the 1940's and '50's.

Singer, musician, band leader, disc jockey, radio and TV host, record producer, manager, A&R man, music publisher - - It seemed he was everywhere.

While under contract as a performer with Capitol Records, in 1946 he became one of their A&R men.

Several of the folks he was working with simultaneously on any of his several radio shows were soon under contract with Capitol, including Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Thompson and others.

The first side of this record includes a small bit of vocal breakdown from Stan Freberg, in one of his earliest appearances on a phonograph record.

Young Freberg was working as a comedian and vocal effects artists in Los Angeles at the time, and was a regular for several months on one of Cliffie Stone's radio programs, a morning show called
'Coffee Time at Harmony Homestead'. He was also providing some voices in Warner Brothers cartoons during this same period.

By the end of the decade and the beginning of the 1950's, Freberg's own novelty records would begin appearing on Capitol, while he and Daws Butler were also puppeteering and doing voices on TV's 'Time for Beany'.














Listen to:
Cliffie Stone and his Barn Dance Band, with crying by Stan Freberg -
Wabash Blues
(Capitol Records 78, 1948)
(click for audio)















Listen to:
Cliffie Stone and his Barn Dance Band -
Peepin' Thru the Keyhole (Watching Jolie Blon)
(Capitol Records 78, 1948)
(click for audio)



See also:
- Cliffie Stone bio at All Music.Com and at the Country Music Hall of Fame

- Official Website of Cliffie Stone

- A Stan Freberg Discography

- Previously on this blog - - Stan Freberg and the Mystery of Ronald Long

Here's a nice little R&B platter that must have been very well-loved by someone that owned it once upon a time - - and it's got the worn-out grooves to prove it!

I think the soul of the performances come through regardless of the beating this record has taken over the years.

In an era of sterile digital sounds, it can't hurt to get an occasional reminder of what analog surface noise sounds like, right?

Umm, right?

Singer Marie Adams (born Ollie Marie Givens) had been recording and touring on the blues circuit for just a couple of years before joining the Johnny Otis band as a featured performer in 1953.

More recording, more acclaim, and much touring with the Otis Show kept Adams busy for the rest of the decade and well into the 1960's beyond.

See also:
Johnny Otis World, the Johnny Otis Official Web site













Listen to:
Marie Adams, with the Johnny Otis Orchestra -
The Shape I'm In
(Peacock Records 78, 1954)
(click for audio)













Listen to:
Marie Adams, with the Johnny Otis Orchestra -
My Destination
(Peacock Records 78, 1954)
(click for audio








▼ Below: From 1958, Marie Adams & The Three Tons of Joy backed by The Johnny Otis Show, performing 'Goody Goody' in a clip from an episode of Johnny Otis' L.A.-based TV program.

From its inception, Rock & Roll music was deemed ripe for satirization and parody.

This shrill little record's appearance in 1957 jumped on that bandwagon at a time when the genre's future was uncertain.

There doesn't seem to be much information available about Larry and Bob Leslie or their comedy act, other than the notation of their broadway stage appearances in Mr. Wonderful and Ziegfeld Follies of 1957.

(UPDATE, 12.16.08: See comments for a bit of info regarding Bob Leslie. Thanks, Joel!)

Listen to:
The Leslie Brothers, with orchestra conducted by Milton DeLugg -
Ready Rudy Rock and Roll
(Columbia Records 78, circa 1957)

(click for audio)

- As to orchestra leader Milton DeLugg (who later went on to compose and conduct the film score to 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians' and to lead the band on TV's 'The Gong Show'), you can learn plenty about him at Space Age Pop, and for more information than you ever thought you'd need to know about DeLugg and everyone he worked with, head over to WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

Speaking of Lawrence Welk, here's an old hunk of shellac with a sound much more typical of what we expect from his TV orchestra.

Rocky Rockwell was a trumpet player in the Welk band, and appeared as a regular on the TV show from 1950 to 1962, often providing vocals on novelty or light-hearted tunes.

The origins of 'Good Morning, Mr. Zip, Zip, Zip' are as a morale-raising popular song during World War I, written in 1918.

Over the years (and with slightly altered lyrics) it was familiar to many as a campfire song, or Boy Scouts hiking song.

Just like 'Camels', the 'Fatimas' lyric refers to a brand of cigarettes.

Listen to:
Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music, vocal by Rocky Rockwell -
Good Morning, Mr. Zip, Zip, Zip
(Coral Records 78, 1953)

(click for audio)














See also:
Follow the link to YouTube
for a grainy B&W video clip from the mid-'50's presenting Rocky on The Welk Show performing his signature tune with the band,
'I Love Girls'

In these information-saturated times it's just a bit surprising to find so very little data out there regarding Sammy Jonah, his Joy Boys and accomplices.

Like, zilch. Is there anybody seeing this who can drop a line with some history or background info - - ?

Regardless, this is a cozily bent little party record of some playful and jazzy R&B, and that 'heckling' motif tends to make for choice entertainment whenever it's employed...

Listen to:
Sammy Jonah's Joy Boys, with Dixie Trombone by
Dudley Dobbins -
After You've Gone
(Capitol Records 78, circa 1948)

(click for audio)














Listen to:
Sammy Jonah's Joy Boys, with heckling by Hattie Hooper -
House Party Blues
(Capitol Records 78, circa 1948)

(click for audio)

By 1944, when this record was made,
Lancelot Victor Edward Pinard (1902 - 2001), a.k.a. Sir Lancelot had spent a few years performing in the United States helping to popularize Calypso music.

He'd also already made a few small appearances in Hollywood films, such as 1943's Val Lewton-produced 'I Walked with a Zombie'.

Pinard had moved to New York from his native Trinidad in 1939 to study medicine, but soon discovered an interest and aptitude for Calypso.
It was during a 1941 tour of the west coast that he gained the attention of movie makers.











Listen to:
Sir Lancelot and his Trinidad Serenaders -
Walking Around Hollywood
(Caribbean Records 78, circa 1944)

(click for audio)










Listen to:
Sir Lancelot and his Trinidad Serenaders -
Roosevelt Is The Man
(Caribbean Records 78, circa 1944)

(click for audio)


See also:
- Sir Lancelot profiled at the Val Lewton B-Unit Web Page and at Wikipedia

- His 1957 appearance in 'The Unknown Terror' discussed at Music From The Monster Movies 1950 - 1969

- Some of his music archived at Zero G Sound

- You can hear Sir Lancelot and other Calypso pioneers at a vintage Calypso Music section of
The Roots Music Listening Room

My best guess is that this curious 'demonstration' record was intended for radio station use, or perhaps as some sort of sales tool in record shops, but I can't say as I have any real clue...

The seeds of Bop music were sown long before pioneers like Bird & Diz & Monk began sprouting up in the first half of the 1940's.

By 1949, this brand of progressive jazz may have still been a novelty to many, but had gained enough prominence (if not respectability) to warrant reference materials like this recording as a handy guide to the layman.

By 1949, arranger/conductor Paul Weston ('the father of "mood" music') was working as A&R director for
Capitol Records and had his finger on the pulse of popular music and its trends.

The text piece he'd written was adapted as something of an audio documentary, using announcer Tom Reddy as narrator.

(Weston had worked with Reddy often when conducting studio orchestras for radio)

Coincidentally enough, many of the artists cited on this record were under contract with Capitol at the time...

Listen to:
Written by Paul Weston,
Narrated by Tom Reddy -
What Is This Thing Called Bop? (Parts 1 & 2)
(Capitol Records 78, 1949)
(click for audio)

- See also: Paul Weston entry at Space Age Pop.Com

Jazz bassist and bandleader John Kirby had come up through Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb's big bands in the 1930's.

He founded his own tightly swinging sextet around 1937.
With original trumpeter Charlie Shavers, that group had great success into the early 1940's.

Several personnel changes occurred during the course of
World War II. 1945 found Kirby leading a septet with only himself and clarinetist Buster Bailey remaining from the original lineup.

That year also found him recording with a new label.
Within the next couple of years, Asch records would transform
into the legendary Folkways Records label.

Personnel on these tracks:

John Kirby - bass
Emmett Berry - trumpet
Roger "Ram" Ramirez - piano
Bill Beason - drums
Buster Bailey - clarinet
Budd Johnson - tenor sax
George Johnson - alto sax

Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
K.C. Caboose
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)



Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
J.K. Special
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)













Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
920 Special
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)













Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
Maxine Dengoza
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)








- More info about these sessions can be found at an AllMusic.Com review of a
(sadly! now out-of-print) Kirby retrospective CD released by the Classics label.

Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones (1913 - 1998) had been using that 'Grandpa' persona for decades before he truly aged into the role, and a huge chunk of those years were prior to the existence of the syndicated TV phenomena 'Hee Haw'.

He began performing country music, bluegrass, old-time rural ballads and gospel tunes live on regional radio in the mid-1930's, when he was in his early twenties.

His character of the ornery old cuss with a funny tale to tell and a song to play developed soon after.

Jones' career-long association with Nashville's Grand Ole Opry began
in 1946. He was a regular on 'Hee Haw' from its inception in 1969, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978.

Though often known for his hot-pickin' rompin' & stompin' numbers like 'Mountain Dew' and 'Old Rattler', it's my personal opinion that Grandpa Jones was truly at his best performing sweet and sentimental tunes like 1958's 'Falling Leaves' (my favorite of his thus far), or the 78 side presented here, the B-side of 'Alimony Trouble'.





(click on images to ENLARGE)



Above ⬆ two images are from 'The Hee Haw Family Scrapbook', published in 1979.

Listen to:
Grandpa Jones -
Call Me Darling Once Again
(King 78, circa 1947)

(click for audio)










Below: ⬇ A 1950's performance of 'Eight More Miles To Louisville'

For more Grandpa Jones, see also:

- Bio Page entries at AllMusic.Com and CMT.Com

- Discography at Hillbilly Music.Com

- 'Search results' reveal several other archived musical performance video clips over at YouTube

Soon after graduating from college in Ohio with a Bachelor's Degree in music, pianist and bandleader Edgar Hayes (1904 - 1979) spent the latter part of the 1920's playing in various hotel orchestras and touring with smaller groups.

In 1931 he joined the Mills Blue Ribbon Band, staying with the group for several years as it passed into the leadership of Lucky Millinder.

Hayes formed his own orchestra in 1937, which he led until 1941.
He led quartets through the rest of the '40's, and played mostly solo in piano lounges after that.



Listen to:
Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra -
Sophisticated Swing
(Decca 78, 1938)

(click for audio)
















Listen to:
Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra - Fugitive From A Harem
(Decca 78, 1938)

(click for audio)



See also: Hayes bio page at Solid! The encyclopedia of big band, lounge, classic jazz and space-age sounds

Western Swing bandleader Johnnie Lee Wills remained behind in the Texas-Oklahoma area when his older brother, Bob Wills, moved his band to California in 1940.

After leaving Bob's band, Johhnie Lee formed his own group and enjoyed a great deal of regional fame.

A recording contract with Decca Records in 1941 was soon interrupted by World War II.

Post-war (and post-Decca) he had some national acclaim with a string of recordings on the Bullet label, before signing with RCA in 1952.

The popularity of the Western Swing sound began to wane in the 1950's, but via regular radio appearances in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Johnnie Lee Wills retained his status in the region throughout the decade.

- See also: A bio page at Texas Playboys.Net













Listen to:
Johnnie Lee Wills and his Boys -
The Thingamajig
(vocal by Curley Lewis and Trio)
(RCA Victor 78, circa 1952)

(click for audio)












Listen to:
Johnnie Lee Wills and his Boys - She Took
(vocal by Leon Huff and Trio)
(RCA Victor 78, circa 1952)

(click for audio)



ADDENDA, 5.2.09: Thanks to Michael Bates and his BatesLine blog for linking to this post and providing song lyrics and recording session details - -

"'The Thingamajig' was written by prolific songwriter Cindy Walker. ("You Don't Know Me" and "Dream Baby" are perhaps her two best known songs.)
"It was recorded on Feb. 3, 1952, at the KVOO studios, for RCA. (Was KVOO still in the Philtower in '52?)
"Lead vocals by Julian 'Curley' Lewis. Johnnie Lee Wills is asking the questions and singing on the trio part. Don Tolle on electric guitar, Tommy Elliott on steel guitar, Clarence Cagle on piano, C. Adams on bass, Waid Peeler on drums, Curley Lewis, Henry Boatman and James Guy 'Cotton' Thompson on fiddle.
"Don Harlan played clarinet on this session, but I don't hear it on this song. He might be singing with the trio, along with Johnnie Lee Wills and Leon Huff, the band's usual vocalist."