Publisher’s Desk

Ring Out The Old — Ring In The Old

By Ed Shanaphy

Everything old seems to be getting hot again. Witness such television series as Mad Men, set in the turbulent advertising world of 1960s, Pan Am, a series melodrama about the airline that once ruled the skies that is also set in the 1960s, and the critically acclaimed Boardwalk Empire, a Prohibition Era series which, in addition to winning numerous Emmy Awards, has just been nominated for a Grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) for its soundtrack compilations. The multi-talented Vince Giordano with his Nighthawks big band, which specializes in the music of that era, can be heard throughout the series contributing the high-octane music of the Roaring 1920s and 1930s, reproducing the authentic orchestrations and arrangements from Giordano’s vast personal collection, exactly as played by the bands and orchestras of the time. This issue (page 00) contains a seldom heard Irving Berlin song used on the soundtrack, “After You Get What You Want (You Don’t Want It).”  The song is also included on the CD, Boardwalk Empire, Volume I, The Music from the HBO Series. Vince sells those CDs directly and does something Amazon does not do, he can autograph them for Sheet Music subscribers. Write or call him: (718) 376-3489, 1316 Elm Street, Brooklyn, NY 11230 

SONG HIGHLIGHTS

After You Get What You Want (You Don’t Want It)

This ditty was written in 1920. By that time, Irving Berlin, its composer and lyricist, was thirty-two and had written approximately 150 of his more than 1200 songs. By 1920 he had already been re-shaping American music with hits like “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “I Love A Piano,” and “Play A Simple Melody.” “After You Get What You Want (You Don’t Want It)” was first recorded by the popular vaudeville team of Van & Schenk, Gus Van and Joe Schenk. Through the miracle of youtube.com, Van & Schenk can be heard performing it. For a startling contrast Marilyn Monroe can also be seen on youtube.com performing it at a nightclub setting in the 1954 movie, There’s No Business Like Show Business. With more arm gestures than Oswald the Octopus, Ms. Monroe, at her shapely and campy best, does what she was hired to do as only she could do it. For our money, the best rendition available on youtube, or perhaps anywhere, is from the soundtrack of Boardwalk Empire, featuring Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks with vocalist Kathy Brier. (Simply search in youtube.com by the song title for all of these gems. It’s on Vince’s Boardwalk Empire CD as well.)

On The Boardwalk In Atlantic City

This is the song most associated with the famous seaside stroll in America. It epitomized the dream of many a romantic young person who envisioned visiting the famous seaside resort, renting one of its fabled rolling chairs and, as the lyric goes, “rolling right into his (or her) arms.”  The storied boardwalk was first built in 1870, not for its appeal as a tourist attraction, but for the very practical reason that it would keep sand out of the ritzy hotels that lined the beach. By the early 1900s, the boardwalk had replaced the ocean as Atlantic City’s prime attraction, with its strollers, rolling chairs, bathers and lovers, lavish hotels, enormous marquees, amusement piers, stunts, shows, big band music, the original Miss America contest, and a permanent position as a very valuable piece of property in the game, Monopoly. In 1929, the New York Times called it “magnificent proof of America’s newfound wealth and leisure. It is an iridescent bubble on the surface of our fabulous prosperity.” In 1929, no less, the Times wrote that. Then—kaboom.

The Lady In Red

Music publisher Fred Ahlert, Jr. used to enjoy walking up to the piano player in any given establishment with a request: “Play some Allie Wrubel tunes.” Allie Who? Wrubel only wrote over 200 songs including “Gone With The Wind,” “Music, Maestro, Please,” “Zip-A-Dee_Doo-Dah,” and this issue’s “The Lady In Red.” A pioneer of Latin American dance music, Xavier Cugat was the irresistible force behind this rhumba’s immense popularity. Cugat popularized the tango, cha cha, mambo and rhumba. Members of his band included Desi Arnaz, Miguelito Valdes, Tito Rodriguez, Luis del Campo, the amazing vocalist Yma Sumac, his third wife, the mega-talented and beautiful Abbe Lane, and his fourth wife, the flamboyant Flamenco guitarist, Charo. Born in Spain, Cugat emigrated to Cuba as a child and was trained as a classical violinist. He came to the U.S. around 1915, and after a few semi-successful stints with dance bands, he became a cartoonist for the LA Times. He founded his own group in 1920 and played LA’s famous Coconut Grove. He was hired by NY’s Waldorf Astoria, and became a fixture there, continuing for sixteen years. His personality and Latin good looks brought him cameo roles in several films. He is known to have said: “I would rather play ‘Chiquita Banana’ and have my swimming pool, than play Bach and starve.” 

Manhattan Serenade

Composer Louis Alter, a classically trained musician and graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, saw his work accepted for Broadway, for film, and by orchestras around the world. He was in demand as an accompanist and toured the U.S. and Europe with Nora Bayes for four years. He appeared as a soloist twice with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Among his many hit tunes were “Nina Never Knew”, and “Sand in My Shoes”. His “Manhattan Serenade”, written in 1928 as an instrumental, became the theme for the long-running (1930 – 1945) radio comedy series, Easy Aces, played by an in-studio organist, and later in the run, by a small quartet of organ, celeste, and two string instruments. It was also the theme for the screwball film comedy My Man Godfrey. In a London interview with Robert Musel, Alter admitted to finding some of contemporary music, even rock, as having merit: “There’s only one yardstick and it was as valid in Beethoven’s time as it was in the era of the Beatles. Music is good music or it’s bad music.” Of “Manhattan Serenade”, the composer recalled that having been asked by Paul Whiteman to create a tone poem, “Infatuated with New York, I walked around for six months absorbing the sights and sounds. Then suddenly it came to me. Once I plunged into it, I finished it in two hours”. The lyricist of “Manhattan Serenade”, who added his lyrics to the composition years after it was first published, was Harold Adamson who originally planned a career as an actor, but when one of his early songwriting efforts, “Time On My Hands” (with Vincent Youmans and Mack Gordon) became a mega-hit, chose to continue as a songwriter. Adamson’s list of successes is long, including “Everything I Have Is Yours”. and “This Is A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening”. His first Oscar nomination came for “Did I Remember?,” sung by Cary Grant in the film, Suzy.

I’m In The Market For You

Here’s a song more appropriate than ever, dealing with the unpredictability of the stock market as opposed to taking stock in the one you love. Not only appropriate, it’s a great tune! In 1930, Louis Armstrong, already an up and coming jazz musician, headed to Southern California, where he found work fronting the Les Hite Orchestra, renamed The Louis Armstrong and Sebastian Cotton Club Orchestra. Hordes of jazz fans flocked to Culver City to hear them play (a young Lionel Hampton was on drums and vibes) and this issue’s song, “I’m In The Market For You,” was a favorite that Armstrong recorded that same year. Listen to his delightful take on youtube. The song, with music by James F. Hanley and lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, was a hit that defied the times. Written for the Fox picture, High Society Blues, starring Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, and Hedda Hopper, filmed in early 1929 during the stock market peak, (the movie opened just shortly before the Crash of ’29), the song came on the scene just as the financial doldrums were setting in. Despite the odds, “I’m In The Market For You,” with its swing beat and clever lyrics, became a hit. The composer, James F. Hanley, was a mid-westerner, who also wrote the lovely and sentimental “Back Home in Indiana,” “Rose of Washington Square,” “Secondhand Rose,” and Judy Garland’s unforgettable “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart.” The lyricist, Joseph McCarthy, had been a singer in Boston cafes before joining the Tin Pan Alley firm of Feist & Co. He went on to write the lyrics for Broadway’s Irene. Based on Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu, he fashioned “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” and also wrote “Alice Blue Gown” and “You Made Me Love You.” He served as a Director of ASCAP from 1921 to 1929, and his son, Joseph Allen McCarthy, husband of actress Veronica Lake, was also a lyricist and wrote with Cy Coleman the lovely Frank Sinatra ballads “I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life,” and “Why Try To Change Me Now.”