REVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates

Archie Bleyer

Music from the Pajama Game
Cadence, EP 4054/5, two ep 45s, recorded 1954.

Archie Bleyer

After serving seven years as Arthur Godfrey’s music director, Archie Bleyer (1909-1989) was unceremoniously fired almost the same day in 1953 as Julius LaRosa. Meanwhile, Bleyer had founded Cadence records where he would be developing a catalog that would eventually include LaRosa, the Chordettes, Andy Williams, the Everly Brothers, Link Wray and, in 1962, the megahit First Family album, featuring one North Vassalboro native, the late Vaughan Meader, whose day in the limelight ended, of course, on November 22, 1963.

The 45 rpm set under consideration this week features Bleyer, with his orchestra; the Ray Charles Singers, who backed up Perry Como on his own RCA records and TV shows for ten or more years; and singers Stephen Douglass, Dorothy Evans and Arthur Malvin, performing eight songs from the 1954 musical, Pajama Game, later even better known as a 1957 film with Doris Day and John Raitt. Two songs from the musical were hit records on their own – Hernando’s Hideaway for Bleyer and Hey There for Rosemary Clooney.

The renditions here of these superb songs were spirited in the best sense of the word. Some of them can also be heard on YouTube.

A P.S.- Bleyer got married to one of the Chordettes, Janet Extel, while both parties were still working for Godfrey, thus violating the boss’ rule about dating fellow employees – a factor most likely contributing to Bleyer’s dismissal!

The Big Sleep

starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, Elisha Cook Jr., Bob Steele, John Ridgeley, Dorothy Malone, etc.; directed by Howard Hawks; Warner Brothers, released August 23, 1946, 114 minutes.

Humphrey Bogart

In terms of the number of times I have watched this film since my first viewing at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brattle Street Theater in May 1974, the Big Sleep is my favorite from the peak film noir period from the mid-’40s through the ‘50s, when the detective movies and TV shows had a combination of quantity and quality that would remain unmatched to this day.

Humphrey Bogart may have given his best performance as the cynical, ever chain-smoking, always reparteeing detective Philip Marlowe. When he visits the very rich, but ailing General Sternwood (portrayed most movingly by the veteran stage and screen actor, Charles D. Waldron, just two years before his own death at 71), and is asked by the gentleman how he likes his brandy, he replies, “In a glass!”

Within ten minutes of the visit, Marlowe meets the general’s two daughters – the eldest, Vivian, (Lauren Bacall,) who , as described by her father, is “spoiled, exacting, ruthless”; and the youngest, Carmen, (Martha Vickers,) a quite promiscuous, addicted-to-dope loose cannon who wreaks much havoc on a regular basis.

The plot initially centers around Marlowe being hired by Sternwood to get a blackmailer to leave Carmen alone, the second such situation she has gotten herself into. And this problem is the most minor of a Pandora’s Box of nastiness involving pornography, deceit, grifters, hit men and at least five murders. And one fun movie!

The acting is masterful throughout all major and minor roles. Max Steiner’s lush soundtrack enhanced the melodramatic scenes in a most riveting manner right up to a truly cathartic climax.

The great Southern novelist, William Faulkner, was one of the three scriptwriters.

Beach Boys

Beach Boys

Spirit of America Capitol- SVBB 511384, two stereo LPs, released 1975.

Spirit of America collected 23 tracks consisting of earlier Capitol hits that were not part of 1974’s anthology, Endless Summer; it also contained a few album cuts regarded as worthy of inclusion and two rare 45 gems –1969’s Break Away and a very sweet gem from 1965, The Little Girl I Once Knew.

In fact, the entire album is a treasure of very captivating songs, each of which should be accessible for listening on youtube! This group was a major contributor to American music that will live on in posterity.

Rimsky-Korsakoff

Scheherazade
Leopold Stokowski conducts the Royal Philharmonic: RCA Victor ARL-1-1182, 12-inch stereo LP, recorded 1969.

Rimsky-Korsakoff

This piece has not only been recorded dozens of time, but has generated good recordings in almost every instance, at least among the ones I have heard own. The reason may be that players really love playing it and willingly and fully cooper-ate with conductors to achieve the best possible results!

The above is the last recording of at least four different ones that Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977 ) did; his first complete recording appeared in a 78 rpm set in 1927, the ad for it displayed on the back of the 1969 release. And it is pos-itively a joy, with much excite-ment, colorful instrumental detail, pulse and vivid sound and is a great choice for collectors.

Beethoven

Symphonies 1 and 9 Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with soloists- RCA Victor LSC 6026, two vinyl 12-inch LP, recorded spring, 1961.

Fritz Reiner

Just before the Chicago Symphony 1960-61 season, the orchestra’s music director, Fritz Reiner (1888 – 1963), was struck down severe heart disease but recovered enough to sit in a chair most of the time while conducting. And just in time to conduct the last concert of the season in May, 1961.

The program was the First and Ninth, or Choral, Symphonies, a concert so immensely exciting, stirring, exalting, inspiring — all these superlatives together with others would not begin to touch what people were applauding – and what Reiner drew from all of the players, singers and four soloists that one spring night, according to observers, and while in the frail health that would lead to his resignation in late 1962.

At 6 a.m. early the next morning, RCA Victor recorded the program in which Reiner delivered similar results that can be heard on the above-listed set, one still available on CD and most of it accessible on YouTube!

REVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates

The Captain and Tennille

Love Will Keep Us Together/Gentle Stranger
A t M- 1672, seven-inch stereo vinyl 45, recorded 1975.

The Captain & Tennille

This highly successful duo, married for 39 years until 2014, were both keyboardists, Toni Tennille playing with the Beach Boys for one to two years and jokingly referred to as the only Beach Girl in its history! Meanwhile Daryl Dragon was the son of the Capitol records conductor, Carmen Dragon, whose LPs have given me much listening pleasure for over 40 years.

Love Will Keep Us Together was not only a megahit for Daryl and Toni but a first class Neil Sedaka composition superbly arranged and performed. Finally, one of my favorite five sides from the ‘70s. The B side went in one ear and out the other!

Graham Greene

The Human Factor
a novel; Avon paperback, 1978, 302 pages.

Graham Greene

I am an admirer of Graham Greene the writer, 1904-1991, and have been since I read the 1951 End of the Affair 40 years ago. I just finished the above novel for the third time, itself one that has also stood out in my mind since my first reading of it, almost 40 years ago just after its publication. Both books deal with different forms of treachery, a favorite Greene theme; the compulsion to do it; the knowledge of its terrible effects, not only on one’s life but the lives of those one loves; and, in the end, the sense one has been damned irrevocably in the aftermath.

End of the Affair dealt with a selfish, very hateful man who has an affair with a friend’s wife, won’t take no for an answer when she ends it and causes a tragic death through his manipulative behavior.

The Human Factor deals with two intelligence clerks for England’s MI6, its own CIA, who read and assess mostly minor stuff from branch offices around the world; they are friends, but soon run into trouble when the boss spies smell a leak. The older friend, Castle, is a traitor; the younger colleague, Davis, is not but he is reckless, drinks and talks way too much and take reports out of the building to read at lunch. To protect himself, Castle deviously sets up Davis, and more treachery with a high cost in relationships with family and friends ensues.

Greene further had a unique gift for filling an often ordinary scene with fear, simply by using a tinkling cocktail, a damp morning waiting for a bus or noticing a butterfly struggling to fly on a village green picnic.

To close with a quote: “From the window on the 12th floor of the great gray building, Castle could see the red star over the University. There was a certain beauty in the view as there is in all cities at night. Only the daylight was drab.” There is very little comfort in the fiction of Graham Greene and what little there is will quickly prove an illusion.

REVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates

Gloria Gaynor

I Will Survive
Substitute; Polydor PD 14508, stereo seven-inch vinyl 45, released 1978.

Gloria Gaynor

Born in 1949, Gloria Gaynor grew up in Newark, New Jersey, living in poverty but commenting in her memoirs about a happy childhood with food on the table, lots of laughter and music emanating from the radio and phonograph. She mentioned Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan as her favorite singers, while acknowledging her father’s example as a guitarist and ukulele player in local clubs.

Gaynor and the late Donna Summers are two disco singers I enjoy a lot from the disco era, one I otherwise avoid and the 45 for this week contains two superb hits. A great one from the ‘70s.

Rachmaninoff

2nd Piano Concerto
Franck Symphonic Variations – Alexis Weissenberg, pianist, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic; Angel S 36905, 12-inch stereo vinyl LP, recorded 1973.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

For anyone trying to pick just one recording of the Concerto or Symphonic Variations that would stand repeated hearings and give consistent satisfaction in the long run, this pairing, which is currently also available in CD or streaming format, is totally recommended. The late pianist Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012) played with a refined, exquisite and powerful level of excellence while Herbert von Karajan’s conducting achieved depths of beauty beyond even his own usual level of excellence.

The Rach 2nd does not seem to be available presently in CD form but it might be found by scouring various CD websites. And, both it and the Franck can be heard via YouTube !

Perry Como

You Alone; Pa-paya Mama;
RCA Victor, 20-5447, 10-inch shellac 78 record, recorded 1953.

Perry Como

I have written about the great Perry Como (1911-2001) previously in this column, I find the two selections above very captivating novelty songs that were justifiably hits, and I wish also to cite the gifted arranger, Hugo Winterhalter (1909-1973); his charts for Como, the Ames Brothers, Buddy Clark, Jaye P. Morgan, Eddie Fisher, etc., gave these artists a quality of beauty, excitement and class that was priceless.

All of the above recordings can be heard on YouTube!

REVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates

Robert Farnon

Robert Farnon Concert
London, LPB 126, ten inch vinyl mono LP, recorded 1949.

Canadian-born, composer/conductor Robert Farnon (1917-2005) recorded numerous albums of the most imaginative mood music arrangements, a quality of work equalled, in my experience, only by Percy Faith, Paul Weston, Nelson Riddle, and Andre Kostelanetz. The above disc contains five of the man’s own compositions – Rudolf Friml’s classic Donkey Serenade, Vincent Youman’s captivating The Carioca and the Viennese operetta composer, Robert Stolz’s intriguing Persian Nocturne.

My special favorite here was Farnon’s wistful How Beautiful is Night; judging from the number of yts presenting this song, it seems to have been very popular. One of the posts is a 1971 rare 45 featuring Tony Bennett, with Farnon conducting, that is recommended listening.

My own copy of the record has the stamp of the long gone Waterville store, A.W. Larsen’s, where I bought a number of records as a beginning collector back in the early-to-mid ‘60s and remember the owner, Al Larsen, as a very nice and helpful gentleman.

Thomas Tallis

Lamentation of Jeremiah
William Byrd: Mass for 3 Voices; Pro Cantione Antiqua, conducted by Bruno Turner; Archiv 2533 113, 12-inch vinyl stereo LP, recorded 1972.

The Pro Cantione Antiqua is a vocal group consisting of nine men, ranging from bass to a very high countertenor. It was founded in 1968, specializing in 15th and 16th century music written for the male voice by English and European composers and have performed in concerts and on recordings umpteen times.

Both of the above works by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) and his pupil/colleague William Byrd (1543-1623) are eloquent examples of what is known as Tudor church music, sung most movingly on this recording. Since the two men lived out most of their working lives under the Tudor monarchy, they experienced the ominously shifting winds of the Protestant Reformation and had to toe the line on English versus Latin texts – Henry VIII’s blood-laden move of spiritual obeisance from the Church of Rome to his own creation of the Church of England; and his own eldest daughter, Bloody Mary, with her terroristic return to Rome. Only with Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1558 and her granting of favor to Tallis, Byrd and other gifted composers were they able to breathe reasonably freely.

An interesting postscript. The conductor Bruno Turner made millions in the wallpapering business after World War II due to the inevitable construction boom, courtesy of the German Luftwaffe.

Vinyl

The Wacky World of Record Collecting
produced by Allen Zweig; released 2000, approximately 2 hours.

Since I own a record collection consisting of over 50,000 items, I was definitely interested in viewing this documentary. I was especially hoping for collectors to share their own specific interest areas, state the specific qualities of a performer or genre that moved them and provide some interesting records to check out.

This would not be the case! Instead Zweig indulges one main obsession rooted in his own habits as a collector – why has he spent so much money, time and energy accumulating thousands of records instead of getting a life, so to speak. He talks about wanting to find a wife, get married and maybe at least having a daughter so he can put together a bicycle for her enjoyment. He is even honest enough to state that he would happily give up all of his records for a family.

Then he does a series of interviews with other collectors – a better term for most of them would be hoarders. One very seemingly calm individual speaks of his desire to own a record of every song written, regardless of language.

Another has gathered every different US release of all Elvis Presley recordings. Using the G.I. Blues album as an example- he would have bought the single 45s, 45 extended play albums (two songs per side), mono LP, stereo LP, four track tape, eight track tape, reel to reel tape, cassette, any anthology containing at least one song from the release, compact disc, video cassette of the movie, laser disc, DVD, Blue ray and any other edition with a different cover, liner notes and photographs. As for releases in foreign countries, he is practical with his money and wants to use common sense. Therefore it would have to contain, again, a different cover, notes, photos and mastering.

Still another hardly plays any records because he lacks the will to move from his chair. Finally, one individual decided one day to get rid of his collection but refused to sell or give it away because he was horrified at the thought of others hearing and owning his records. Instead, he personally threw every record into a dumpster. Afterwards, he felt more relaxed than he had in years.

I should state here that there are “normal’ individuals who have similarly-sized collections (Of course, I am not trying to imply anything with regard to myself – LOL!) .

All in all, the film was both interesting but at times perturbing, to put it politely!