Dismuke.

[Wild Root]

Well, in this thread, I'd like to share a piece of sheet music that I found the other day. The bummer to this is that some dumb person took the cover and pasted it to a wood board to hang on the wall. I really wish that it was whole because I'd love to know the words. I have never seen or heard of this Crosby song! He recorded many in the 30's that are not known today.

I'm some what aiming this thread to Dismuke who knows plenty about early Bing Crosby. Have you seen this sheet music cover before Dismuke?

Any way, if any of you guys or gals know of this song or know the lyrics, please let me know!

Thanks and enjoy!

=WR=

 

[WetDog]

Great find! I'd love to see the music and lyrics too, as I haven't heard of it. I'll do some digging through my old music books and see if I can find a copy.

Richard

 

[Wild Root]

Cool!

Yeah, I have never heard of this song before! I know most of Bing's early work but this song might be a very rare gem!

Good luck friend!

=WR=

 

[Miss Neecerie]

not the lyrics, but...

interesting nonetheless is a mini bio of the song author (or one of the two) and publisher.


http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_home_page.asp?exhibitId=209

920 South Hobart is in an area of LA that still has many walk up brick apartment buildings and so forth. Its quite residential in nature, so perhaps the address on there was someones home one. I know things change in time, but I doubt that all of the flats built there were built after that era.

 

[WetDog]

No luck. I can't even find a record of that song anywhere. Musn't have been real popular. I have one last resource of old sheetmusic, but its in a box somewhere in the garage. Sigh. I was gonna have to dig it out sooner or later anyway.

Richard

 

[Wild Root]

I can't even find a record of that song anywhere. Musn't have been real popular. Richard

Yes, I haven?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t been able to find a copy of it any where! I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m going to have to try and find it on a Bing Crosby CD compilation at the record shop; they have some box sets that may have that song.

As to the song being popular, it could have been that it wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t a #1 hit for Bing but, it might have been all the rage and then dropped off into obscurity over the last 70 years. In 1930-1936 Bing Crosby was what we would consider today an American Idol! Boyfriends and Husbands the US over were jealous of the crooner?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s power with song! They didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t like Bing for one reason; their girl friends or wives would just sit and melt by the radio and dream to Bing?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s music.

So, this song might have been a hit, but since 1931 or so, it, like most old songs and movies just seam to just fade away and the ones we have today are lucky to have survived.

Thanks for all your help guys!

=WR=

 

[Dismuke]

I just checked my copy of The Complete Entertainment Discography by noted discographer Brian Rust which provides a complete listing of all known commercial recordings (including unissued rejected takes) by Bing from his first recording as an unknown vocalist in a 1926 Los Angeles recording session with Don Clark and His Los Angeles Biltmore Orchestra through his years as a vocalist with the Paul Whiteman and Gus Arnheim bands and up to July 1942. Unfortunately, he never made a recording of the song for any record label.

I found a listing of the sheet music on a website about Bing Crosby sheet music at: http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/pennvalley/Biology/lewis/crosby/sheetmusic.htm It says that the sheet music was from 1932 (would you verify that is the copyright date on your copy?) and that there were two versions published, one with Bing wearing a black tie as is the case with your copy and another with the tie colored orange.

My STRONG guess is that "featured by Bing Crosby" means that Bing probably performed it on one of his radio broadcasts. If so, then the performance is probably lost forever as all early 1930s network radio broadcasts were performed live and, prior to 1935, it was rare for copies of such broadcasts to be made and even rarer for them to survive.

(As an aside, interestingly enough, it was Bing Crosby who pioneered pre-recorded network radio programming in the mid 1940s. Prior to that time, "canned" radio programs, which were transcribed to 16 inch 33 rpm discs, were considered by the major networks to be inferior and were mostly relegated to syndicated programs carried by independent stations not affiliated with a network. When the Allied forces invaded Germany and took over the Nazi radio stations, they discovered that the Germans had developed a new technology: the tape recorder. Also in the early 1940s, the US government ordered the breakup of the NBC radio network on anti-trust grounds. NBC was allowed to keep its flagship Red Network which was subsequently known simply as NBC. But it was forced to give up its Blue Network which was renamed ABC. When one of the early German tape recorders was brought over the USA, it somehow came to the attention of Bing Crosby who immediately saw its potential. Unlike the old recording technology, the new tape recorders did not have the sort of surface noise that was inherent in the old transcription discs. At the time, Bing was the host of NBC's popular Kraft Music Hall. One of the things that Bing disliked about radio was the need to be at the studio at a specific time for the broadcast. Being able to pre-record a broadcast at his convenience would allow him to have a flexible schedule. Bing approached NBC executives about the idea and they would have absolutely nothing to do with the notion of offering "canned" programs. Upstart ABC, however, was much more open minded towards such things, especially if it would attract a big name star such as Bing Crosby. So, as a result, in 1946 Bing jumped from NBC's Kraft Music Hall where had had been for 10 years and moved to Philco Radio Time on ABC which was pre-recorded using the new technology.)

In the early 1930s, Bing was also appearing in a number of movies for Paramount. However, I kind of doubt that he performed that song in any of those movies as, if he did, the song would be much better known.

There is a Bing performance that I really enjoy - "Music Hath Charms" which he performed in the opening credits on the 1930s film King of Jazz back when he was still one of Paul Whiteman's Three Rhythm Boys. Commercial 78 rpm recordings were made by Bing and the Whiteman band of most of the songs featured in the film - but, for whatever reason, none were made of "Music Hath Charms" which I think is a really cool song that is.....well, downright charming! You can hear a not-so-great quality Real Audio soundclip of Bing's performance in the film's opening credits at this link: http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/Whiteman/musichms.ram

 

[WetDog]

Didn't find it. I did, however, find the old box of xmas decorations that I thought I had lost last year. At least my wife'll be happy.

Richard