A V-Disc Christmas

This post gathers all the Christmas V-Disc releases I could find - with the exception of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra's material, which is available elsewhere.

V-Discs were produced by the US government for distribution to its troops during World War II. Their contents were taken from commercial recordings, radio transcriptions and even special V-Disc recording dates - all of which are represented below.

The artists we hear include Richard Crooks, Marian Anderson, Claude Thornhill, Andre Kostelanetz, Charlie Spivak, Dick Haymes, Eileen Farrell, Jan Peerce, Nelson Eddy and Dinah Shore.

Christmas V-Discs for the most part used the red and green color motif seen above, although the early issues came out with the standard red and blue regalia.

This set contains 25 cuts, presented in order of their release on V-Disc, except for the final number.

The first Christmas V-Disc came out in 1941, and was a reprint of a commercial recording that the tenor John McCormack had made fifteen years earlier. That recording of "Adeste Fideles" can be found in a McCormack Christmas compendium I put together a few years ago.

Richard Crooks

Our first entry in this collection comes from another tenor, Richard Crooks, who is not as well remembered as McCormack. Crooks come from a time when a popular Metropolitan Opera star - which he was - could also be a favorite on the radio. His performance of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" was taken from a 1941 commercial recording. Here is an article on this fine artist.

Marian Anderson, 1946

Another singer who achieved great popular and artistic success was the distinguished contralto Marian Anderson. Her recording of the "Ave Maria" setting associated with Schubert was done at a special V-Disc session in late 1941. Anderson's first Christmas LP - less well known than her later album - is available here, newly remastered.

Claude Thornhill

I believe bandleader Claude Thornhill recorded his lovely theme "Snowfall" a number of times, starting in 1941. The version on V-Disc comes from a Lang-Worth transcription recorded that same year.

Andre Kostelanetz

The "Christmas Medley" from maestro Andre Kostelanetz is derived from a 1943 broadcast of The Pause That Refreshes on the Air, a title that was taken from Pepsi-Cola's slogan of the time. Baritone Leonard Warren of the Met soloed in "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."

The other side of Kostelanetz' V-Disc presented the Army Air Force Training Command Band with another "Christmas Medley," featuring the sonorous soloist Bob Carroll, then an Army corporal. He has appeared on my other blog a few times, including a recording of "White Christmas" with Gordon Jenkins. This side has a brief introduction by Shirley Temple. These recordings came from a special 1944 Christmas broadcast of For the Record that was later excerpted for V-Discs.

Charlie Spivak

The popular band of trumpeter Charlie Spivak made a set of World Transcriptions that included "White Christmas," later issued on V-Disc. The vocal is by Garry Stevens.

Dick Haymes

Dick Haymes makes his first of two appearances, in company with the Travis Johnson Singers and organist Jesse Crawford. Dick sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem," the Singers take over for "Deck the Hall," and Haymes returns for "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." These are also from World Transcriptions.

Eileen Farrell

The other side of Haymes' V-Disc has greetings to the troops from Brig. Gen. Joseph Byron, the Ben Yost Choir with "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and the marvelous young soprano Eileen Farrell with "O Come, All Ye Faithful." She was then on radio; later she would become an opera star. These were taken from the same For the Record broadcast noted above.

Jan Peerce

Also from that session, but issued on a separate V-Disc, Farrell was heard in the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria" and "O Holy Night." They were coupled with the Met's Jan Peerce presenting a Bizet setting of "Agnus Dei."

Nelson Eddy

A December 1945 edition of radio's Electric Hour yielded several songs with Nelson Eddy, a choral group and Robert Armbruster's orchestra. First we have the inescapable and interminable "Twelve Days of Christmas," a greeting from Eddy himself, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" from the choir, "Gathering Clouds" from Eddy, "Silent Night" from the choir, and the "Hallelujah Chorus" from one and all.

Dick Haymes then returns with a spoken greeting, "Silent Night" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful," backed by Gordon Jenkins' orchestra.

Dinah Shore

To complete the package, I've added a song that is really more suggestive of the season that truly a part of it, simply because I like both the tune and the singer. This is Dinah Shore's 1944 version of "Sleigh Ride in July" with Al Sack's orchestra. It's a Burke and Van Heusen song that V-Disc took from Dinah's commercial recording.

LINK

Ezio Pinza Sings and Sells

After a career on the opera stage, bass Ezio Pinza (1892-1957) moved on to films, Broadway and the recording studio in the postwar years. Today's post is devoted to that late period in his career. We have five LPs - an expanded version of Ezio Pinza Sings "Enchanted Melodies", a promotional record for Magnavox from about 1956, and remastered versions of Ezio Pinza in Opera, Broadway and Hollywood and the LPs from Pinza's films Mr. Imperium and Tonight We Sing.

Ezio Pinza Sings "Enchanted Melodies"

I first posted this 10-inch record 15 years ago, but decided that it warranted a new transfer. My pithy comments back then were that the LP makes reference to Pinza's big hit "Some Enchanted Evening" in its title without actually including the song. Instead this 1950 album resurrects some items that Pinza had recorded for Columbia at various times in the 1940s.

I wrote, "In truth, it makes an attractive if not enchanted program, and gives the singer ample opportunity to display all his best qualities. The cover is by Alex Steinweiss, who thought that Pinza would look good with green skin and teeth."

Nor were the reviewers back then entirely enchanted by the program. One called the Fleger and Holmès songs "hardy veterans of the women's club recital circuit." But the opera excerpts were met with acclaim: regarding the Rossini aria, one reviewer gushed "at no time that I can remember was he more subtle in conveying the meaning of the words" and "The voice is mellow, round and luscious." The accompanist in the songs is Gibner King, who worked with Pinza for many years.

Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in South Pacific

In addition to the eight selections on the LP, I have added six additional songs from the same period - including "Just a Kiss Apart" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and "Bali Ha'i," which Pinza did not sing in South Pacific, but which Columbia had him record anyway. He did of course sing "Some Enchanted Evening," and I have made up for Columbia's oversight in compiling the Enchanted Melodies album by including it in this augmented package.

The LP is from my collection; the extras are courtesy of Internet Archive. The sound is very good in ambient stereo.

LINK to new transfer and bonuses

"I Hear Music . . . " (Magnavox Promo)

In late 1955 or early 1956, the Magnavox high-fidelity people hired Pinza to narrate a record of selections from the RCA Victor catalog while touting the many virtues of the equipment. The excerpts included orchestral works conducted by Toscanini, Reiner, Fiedler and Stokowski, and opera arias with Cellini and Perlea accompanying leading voices of the time. The Stoky selection is his peculiar Beethoven Pastoral Symphony with actual sounds of nature added to the orchestral effects the composer had written.

Florence Henderson and Ezio Pinza - opening night of Fanny

Pinza himself is heard in his solo from the Broadway musical Fanny (music and lyrics by Harold Rome), which ran from late 1954 to late 1956. It certainly is not the best thing Pinza ever sang; the music is unremarkable and the lyrics were perhaps suggested by Goodnight Moon, which was published several years earlier. Well, at least Pinza's last act was a great success.

In addition to the record, which was provided to buyers of Magnavox equipment, Pinza appeared at magazine ads for both the company's hi-fi sets and its televisions. The example below is from late 1955.

About two-thirds of the way through the record, either RCA ran out of excerpts or Pinza ran out of things to say. He then turns things over to George Melachrino and his strings, who play five selections without commentary. 

Back in 1954, RCA had inaugurated its LPM series of 12-inch popular LPs by releasing seven Melachrino albums, all but one with the title beginning "Music for ...", including such gems as "Music for Faith and Inner Calm" and "Music for Courage and Confidence." The series culminated in "Music to Help You Sleep," which sums up the soporific effect of the Melachrino manner. The Magnavox selections are drawn from this series.

Some of the Melachrino LPs were expanded versions of previously released 10-inch albums. I suspect that the Magnavox promo itself was originally intended to be a 10-incher, then was inflated to 12 inches at the last minute, necessitating including the "Music for" excerpts.

This curiosity is from my collection. It was apparently owned by someone who couldn't afford another record after buying the pricey Magnavox console, and so played it so much it became remarkably noisy. I've managed to remove 99 percent of the crackle, so the sound is now reasonably good. This comes from my collection.

LINK to Magnavox promo LP

Ezio Pinza in Opera, Broadway and Hollywood 

RCA Victor took over Pinza's recording contract from Columbia in 1950 or 1951, and this LP is among the first fruits of that new partnership. I posted it in 2011, noting that the bass's career as a Hollywood leading man began with Strictly Dishonorable, where he plays to type as an amorous opera star.

"There is no soundtrack album from Strictly Dishonorable," I wrote, "but this RCA Victor 10-inch LP from 1951 includes an aria from Gounod's Faust that Pinza sings in the film, although this is not the same version. Otherwise, the LP is split down the middle between Pinza's operatic repertoire and pop songs. He is in fine voice for all, but is more comfortable with the operatic material. His phrasing in the pop songs is foursquare, and he sounds under rehearsed. Only in 'The Way You Look Tonight' does he go below the surface, and in that he captures some of the ardor that made him so magnetic in South Pacific."

I've now remastered the LP in ambient stereo, and edited the original article to include a few photos of Pinza in Faust and The Marriage of Figaro.

LINK to original post

Mr. Imperium

Pinza's second film was Mr. Imperium: "Once again playing to type, Pinza is a playboy prince who becomes romantically entangled with singer Lana Turner," I wrote in 2011.

The songs from the film include a few by Harold Arlen and Dorothy Fields - "My Love and My Mule" is not their best work, I'd say. But then there is Augustin Lara's wonderful "You Belong to My Heart," so that helps matters.

On the LP, the Turner numbers are taken by RCA contractee Fran Warren, although Trudy Erwin dubbed them for the film. You can hear Erwin's work in the recent comprehensive post devoted to her, including a song that I strongly suspect was slated for the film but not used.

The original post of Mr. Imperium also has been augmented with new photos, with the sound thoroughly overhauled and now in ambient stereo.

LINK to original post

Tonight We Sing

Pinza's final film was 1952's Tonight We Sing. Here's how I described the proceedings when I first wrote about in in 2010: "The film is a biopic on impresario Sol Hurok. Why anyone would want to watch a movie about a concert promoter is beyond me - I guess it was just a way to string together musical sequences featuring Hurok's attractions such as Ezio Pinza and Roberta Peters. That's them acknowledging the unseen audience on the cover above as Jan Peerce looks on from the prompter's box. (Poor Peerce didn't actually get into the film, although his voice did.)"

Pinza as Chaliapin, mink and all 

This LP does include the songs directly from the soundtrack, which include Gounod and Puccini arias, along with some Mussorgsky, necessary because Pinza was playing his basso predecessor Feodor Chaliapin, who specialized in Boris Godunov. Back in 2010 I commented that the film made the bass look like a blustering fool. Someone wrote in to point out that Chaliapin was, in fact, a blustering fool. 

You don't have to wade through the film, of course, to enjoy the singing on this effective LP. Once again, the sound has been completely updated and is now in ambient stereo.

LINK to original post

Tonight We Sing

The latest in our series of mainly obscure musicals on 10" LPs is Tonight We Sing from 1953.

The film is a biopic on impresario Sol Hurok. Why anyone would want to watch a movie about a concert promoter is beyond me - I guess it was just a way to string together musical sequences featuring Hurok's attractions such as Ezio Pinza and Roberta Peters. That's them acknowledging the unseen audience on the cover above as Jan Peece looks on from the prompter's box. (Poor Peerce didn't actually get into the film, although his voice did. Pinza and Peters were more lucky, if you can call it that.)

Tonight We Sing is available on Hulu so I sampled some of it, and was amazed to find that Fox had cast David Wayne as the Ukrainian immigrant Hurok. Pinza played Chaliapin. (Wayne couldn't have been more miscast if they had cast him as Chaliapin.) The segment I saw showed Chaliapin (depicted as a blustering buffoon) only agreeing to leave Russia for an American tour when the Bolsheviks set off a bomb outside his window. Then he shows up in New York unexpectedly and Hurok goes to fetch him for what appeared to be an instant tour, leaving his wife (Anne Bancroft!) miffed because it means once again postponing their long-delayed honeymoon. This rift apparently supplied whatever tension the movie had.

Ezio Pinza and Roberta Peters

So the film isn't that great (what I saw of it) but the music is surprisingly good. The LP starts off with Peerce and Peters in a love duet from Madama Butterfly, presented in a extroverted, crowd pleasing manner. The rest of the program - Pinza in Boris Godunov scenes and a Russian folk song, various combinations in Gounod and more Puccini - is on a similar high level. Leading the Fox orchestra is Alfred Newman, who keeps things moving along. The band plays well, as far as I can tell - the voices are well to the fore. Balance aside, the sound is good.

Below is a 1953 Billboard ad that touts not only this flick but The Jazz Singer and The Desert Song - both of which are available here, for those interested.

Note (June 2024): This soundtrack has now been remastered in ambient stereo, and has much better sound.

LINK