David Allyn's 'Face the Music' LP - and Much More

Our journey through the recorded legacy of the great vocalist David Allyn today takes us to his fine World Pacific release of 1958, Let's Face the Music and Dance.

This was the singer's second LP for the label, following his Jerome Kern release A Sure Thing, which recently appeared here.

For today's album, we have two different versions - the original World Pacific release and a reissue from the 1970s, which switched the title to Yours Sincerely and reputedly comprised alternate takes from those on the original pressing. In any case, the differences are not remarkable, but I suspect they will be of interest to completists.

Please note that this set of songs was never issued in stereo, to my knowledge.

Let me also mention that this post includes another of the American Popular Music radio shows from the 1970s. with Allyn singing the works of Harold Arlen. As always, the program featured songwriter Alec Wilder and composer-pianist Loonis McGlohon.

Appropriately, the LP below begins with an Arlen song.

Let's Face the Music and Dance

The less said about this cover, the better

Unlike A Sure Thing, the second World Pacific LP had three arrangers - Johnny Mandel, who helmed the earlier album, Bill Holman, and Jimmy Rowles, who was also the pianist heard on the sessions. The band for the dates was called "the Bill Holman Orchestra."

Holman was a tenor saxophonist who joined Stan Kenton's band in the early 50s and soon was to become one of Kenton's primary arrangers. The arrangements here are in all ways supportive and the musicianship is excellent. Sorry but there is no information available about who is playing on the selections, nor who arranged which items.

Bill Holman with Stan Kenton

Allyn, Holman and the arrangers came up with a nice mix of excellent songs that aren't overly familiar, with a few exceptions. 

The LP begins with one of the lesser-heard Harold Arlen standards, "Hooray for Love," which he wrote with Leo Robin. The song was introduced by old friend Tony Martin in the 1948 film Casbah, which had an excellent score, including "For Every Man There's a Woman" and "What's Good About Goodbye."

Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie DeLange wrote "Shake Down the Stars" in 1940. Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey had a hit with it.

Vernon Duke and Yip Harburg wrote "I Like the Likes of You" for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934

"You Send Me" is not the Same Cooke song that had been on the singles charts in 1957, but rather a Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson number written for the 1944 musical Four Jills in a Jeep. Dick Haymes sang it therein with the Dorsey band. This is a good example of a worthwhile song that isn't often heard these days.

Steve Allen's second best-known song is probably "Impossible," which David handles wonderfully. Teddi King's single version is available here.

"Can't Help It" was a new song that Allyn was apparently the first to record. It's a nice piece that doesn't deserve its obscurity. The authors were Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal.

Not the Mississippi Sheiks' version

"I'm Sitting on Top of the World" is a great title that spawned two songs - one by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatman of the Mississippi Sheiks, the other by Ray Henderson, Joe Young and Sam Lewis, the latter made popular by Al Jolson. David chose the second song and did well by it.

The Gershwins wrote "They All Laughed" for Shall We Dance, the Astaire-Rogers hit of 1937, where Ginger was the vocalist. Fred's commercial recording is here.

A terrific Rodgers and Hart song that isn't often heard is "Yours Sincerely," which comes from 1929 and the show Spring Is Here. David's sincerity is on full display in this one.

One song that is still performed today - although not as much as decades ago - is "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries." DeSylva, Brown and Henderson penned it for 1931's George White's Scandals and the young Ethel Merman.

La Merman also introduced "I've Got the Sun in the Morning" in Irving Berlin's huge 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun.

Finally, the LP's title tune, which is another number from the Astaire-Rogers catalog. This one is by Irving Berlin and comes from 1936's Follow the Fleet. Fred's commercial recording is here.

LINK to Let's Face the Music and Dance

Yours Sincerely

For those of you who didn't read the introductory paragraphs, let me mention again that this is the same album as the one above, only reissued under a different name and cover in the 1970s - and reputedly with alternate takes.

I will tell you that the processing of this version was not all that good. The sound from vinyl was screechy and muddy, which I've adjusted. It now sounds as good as the original above.

LINK to Yours Sincerely

Harold Arlen: American Popular Song with Alec Wilder

Alec Wilder

In 1976, National Public Radio sponsored a series on the great American songwriters with the noted songwriter and author Alec Wilder (1907-80). The show's title was derived from Wilder's influential 1972 book American Popular Song: the Great Innovators, 1900-1950. The host and musical accompanist was pianist Loonis McGlohon (1921-2002).

Each episode of the program featured a notable vocalist. We recently heard David Allyn in the works of Jerome Kern. This second 1976 show is devoted to Harold Arlen.

Allyn conveniently starts his selections with "Hooray for Love," which also began the LP above. He follows this with "This Time the Dream's on Me," which Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote for the film Blues in the Night. Wilder surprisingly professes to be unfamiliar with the piece, which is strange because it's hardly obscure. More to the point, it's a fantastic song, here most affectionately sung by Allyn.

"Let's Fall in Love" comes from the 1933 film of the same name, where it was sung by Art Jarrett. The composer himself recorded it at the time. (If you are interested as Arlen as a vocalist, I posted a set of 13 songs by him a few years ago.) Ted Koehler did the lyrics for this number.

Loonis McGlohon with Charles Kuralt

As mentioned on the show, "Last Night When We Were Young" is associated with Judy Garland. But it was introduced on records in 1936 by Lawrence Tibbett. He had been slated to sing it in the film Metropolitan, but it was unused. Yip Harburg wrote the words.

Garland did introduce "The Man Who Got Away" (here "The Gal That Got Away"), in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born. It's one of the great songs (and performances). Allyn does it well. Ira Gershwin was the lyricist.

Arlen and Harburg wrote "Down with Love" for the 1937 Ed Wynn show Hooray for What! David mentions that he recorded it years ago for an unreleased album. This LP was to be issued in 1979 as In the Blue of Evening, and it is coming up next in this series. Allyn's performance here is over-emphatic.

No, Priscilla Lane did not sing 'Blues in the Night'

The famed "Blues in the Night" comes from the 1941 film of the same name, where it was sung by William Gillespie and later reprised instrumentally. Johnny Mercer was the lyricist.

Mercer also worked on "Out of This World," the title song of an Eddie Bracken film of 1944. That's the one where Eddie is a messenger who can sing like Bing - and is dubbed by Crosby himself. It's a great song for sure, but David is a little unsteady here.

Wilder praises "My Shining Hour" to the heavens, and rightfully so. David includes the seldom heard verse, always welcome. This is one of the many songs introduced by Fred Astaire, in this case in the film The Sky's the Limit - where it's actually co-star Joan Leslie who sings the complete version of the song. Mercer was again the lyricist.

The program concludes with a Wilder-McGlohon number called "Saturday's Child," a nice song indeed.

As before, this program has been remastered and is completely tracked.

LINK to Harold Arlen: American Popular Song with Alec Wilder

David Allyn Sings Jerome Kern

The singer David Allyn (1919-2012) has appeared several times on this blog, in posts devoted to his early recordings (1940-45 and 1946-49) and to his 1959 Warner Bros. LP I Only Have Eyes for You.

Today we'll feature what may be his best LP, A Sure Thing: David Allyn Sings Jerome Kern, from 1957. As a bonus we have a 1976 appearance on Alec Wilder's NPR radio series American Popular Song, which also is devoted to Kern.

A Sure Thing: David Allyn Sings Jerome Kern

Allyn's Jerome Kern LP was a watershed in his career. He had spent several years addicted to drugs, even serving a prison sentence for forging prescriptions. But Richard Bock and the Pacific Jazz/World Pacific label was receptive to the rehabilitated singer's idea of devoting a songbook to the works of Kern.

Allyn had some formidable help: the backings were to be done by Johnny Mandel, whom the vocalist knew from his big band days. And the notes were to be written by Sammy Davis, Jr., fresh from his triumph on Broadway in Mr. Wonderful.

Johnny Mandel

The record is an unalloyed success. Allyn is in superb voice and Mandel's arrangements provide a supportive framework for him. Davis' words are generalized but apt: "I think after you hear this album you will feel as I felt - that this is an almost perfect wedding of musical ability and good taste." Sam makes oblique reference to Allyn's absence from the scene as well: "For David, the wait has been a long and very troubled one. You need only to take this album home and play it to know that he has been worth waiting for."

Sammy Davis and David Allyn

The LP is in stereo, and its contents may supply a clue to its genesis. Two of the songs - "Lovely to Look At" and "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" - have the voice in a different acoustic, panned far to the right with guitar and celesta accompaniment. On the left channel there is a flute obbligato. I'm going to guess that the voice and guitar/celesta were recorded first in mono. These may have been demos for Richard Bock, with Mandel adding the flute later. For the stereo LP, they were mastered in very wide stereo, which I've narrowed into a more natural perspective.

This LP also came out in mono, and the 1980s reissue was in mono as well. I auditioned the sound of the reissued mono LP and the stereo is much better.

Here are the songs, the lyricists and when and how each number was introduced.

• "Sure Thing": Ira Gershwin, 1944, in the film Cover Girl, sung by Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Martha Mears)

• "Dearly Beloved": Johnny Mercer, 1941, in the film You Were Never Lovelier, sung by Fred Astaire

• "I'm Old Fashioned": Johnny Mercer, 1941, in the film You Were Never Lovelier, sung by Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Nan Wynn)

• "Lovely to Look At": Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, 1935, for the film version of Roberta. sung by Irene Dunne and then by Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers (sort of)

• "The Way You Look Tonight": Dorothy Fields, 1936, in the film Swing Time, sung by Fred Astaire

Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern

• "The Folks Who Live on the Hill": Oscar Hammerstein, 1937, in the film High, Wide and Handsome, sung by Irene Dunne

• "Long Ago and Far Away": Ira Gershwin, 1944, in the film Cover Girl, sung by Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Martha Mears)

• "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star": Oscar Hammerstein, 1932, in the musical Music in the Air, sung by Walter Slezak and Katherine Carrington

• "All in Fun": Oscar Hammerstein, 1939, in the musical Very Warm for May, sung by Frances Mercer and Jack Whiting

• "In Love in Vain": Leo Robin, 1946, in the film Centennial Summer, sung by Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Louanne Hogan) and William Eythe (dubbed by David Street). This was Kern's final score.

You may have noticed that Allyn's name is spelling "Allen" on the LP's cover. David went back and forth on the spelling of his stage name during his career. His birth name was Albert DiLella.

LINK to A Sure Thing

Jerome Kern: American Popular Song with Alec Wilder

Alec Wilder in 1976

In 1976, National Public Radio sponsored a series on the great American songwriters with the noted songwriter and author Alec Wilder (1907-80). The show's title was derived from Wilder's influential 1972 book American Popular Song: the Great Innovators, 1900-1950.

Each episode of the program featured a notable vocalist, including Allyn for a show devoted to Jerome Kern. The host and musical accompanist for the show was pianist Loonis McGlohon (1921-2002), whose genial charm and North Carolina accent contrasted nicely with Wilder's commentary.

Loonis McGlohon

The Kern program allowed the participants to revisit many of the items on the LP above in new, live versions, complete with commentary on the songs and anecdotes. Allyn is disarmingly unpretentious, even allowing the program to make use of a breakdown take on "I'm Old Fashioned."

Allyn's fine voice is drier than it was 20 years before, and his pitch a bit variable. But his interpretations retain the warmth and insight of the earlier versions.

Beside "I'm Old Fashioned," he sings "Sure Thing," "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star," "Long Ago and Far Away," "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" and "All in Fun," which also appeared on the 1957 album. He includes the following new items The notes below again identify the lyricists and when and how each number was introduced:

• "I Won't Dance": Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach, 1934, in the short-lived London musical Three Sisters, sung by Adele Dixon

• "She Didn't Say Yes": Otto Harbach, 1931, in the musical The Cat and the Fiddle, sung by Bettina Hall

Also on the show, Allyn included a song in tribute to Johnny Mandel, the latter's "Don't Look Back" (lyricist Kaye Lawrence Dunham), which is the title number from David's 1975 LP on the Xanadu label.

Finally, each guest on the show also sang one of Wilder's songs. David chose "Soft as Spring," which he had recorded with Jack Teagarden in 1941. That early effort - both words and music by Wilder - can be found in the 1940-45 Allyn compilation I mentioned above.

The file below is completely tracked and tagged.

LINK to Jerome Kern radio program

The Margaret Whiting Holiday Collection

The distinguished vocalist Margaret Whiting (1924-2011) made records for 50 years but never produced an complete album of holiday songs. This post collects the ones she did make, dating from 1947-93. By using a broad (very broad) definition of seasonal music, I've been able to corral 19 items in all.

Whiting was born into a musical family. Her father was the songwriter Richard Whiting, who wrote the music for many standards in his short life (he died when Maggie was 14) - including "Beyond the Blue Horizon," "My Future Just Passed," "She's Funny That Way," "Till We Meet Again," "Too Marvelous for Words" and "You're an Old Smoothie."

With Johnny Mercer

Maggie became a professional singer at a young age, and quickly showed that she had great talent - excellent intonation, clear diction, sensitivity to lyrics, lovely tone, and so on.

Her father's former co-writer, Johnny Mercer, brought her into the studios the day before her 18th birthday for a Capitol recording date that included her father's "My Ideal." It was the beginning of regular Capitol sessions, but it wasn't until five years later that Maggie set down a holiday song - and that's where our chronological review begins.

The 1940s

Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" was new when Whiting recorded it in May 1947. Hers was the first recording of this standard, and it's a good one, with backing by her frequent collaborator, bandleader Frank De Vol. Loesser did not intend his song to be a seasonal item - he pictured it being sung earlier in the year - but no one else seems to agree. This collection includes both Capitol's originally-issued take and an alternate.

With Frank De Vol

These days, "While the Angelus Was Ringing" is better known by its original title, "The Three Bells." It is a Swiss-French song, first a hit for Édith Piaf and Les Compagnons de la chansons as "Les trois cloches." In the US, "Angelus" was originally more popular than the competing "The Three Bells," but that was to change, particularly following the Browns' 1959 hit under the latter title.

In common with many other American artists, Whiting recorded "Angelus" in 1948. (On the record label, Capitol managed to mangle the title into "When the Angelus Is Ringing.") Under any name, the song's simplicity and sincerity make it well suited to the season. Whiting herself was to record "The Three Bells" years later - we'll get to that below.

Maggie set down another new Frank Loesser song in 1949, this one definitely seasonal - "Baby, It's Cold Outside," here in a duet with Johnny Mercer. Paul Weston conducted. It's a good, professional version; I prefer a little more nuance, a la the Pearl Bailey-Hot Lips Page rendition.

Later in the year, Whiting was to go to work on several seasonal songs, along with a special Capitol promotional record.

First is "(It Happened at) The Festival of Roses," which is a nice song but only the most generous of judges would consider it a holiday item. Fortunately I am just such a benevolent character. The song is by Al Goodheart and Dick Manning, the latter of whom also wrote the words for "While the Angelus Was Ringing."

Whiting's big Christmas coupling for 1949 was "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" along with the "Mistletoe Kiss Polka." The former, a Martin and Blane classic, came from the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. Maggie is suitably sensitive. For the contrasting latter number, she is appropriately bouncy. Polkas were popular in the late 40s - this entry is unexpectedly by the Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, working with Constance Palmer. De Vol again is the bandleader, with the Mellomen as supporting vocalists.

"Season's Greetings from Capitol" was a fun promotional record from 1949 aimed at the jukebox operators of the nation. I first posted it last year; you can read more about it here.

The 1950s

Also in 1949, Whiting had begun recording with singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely. They were successful right out of the gate with a cover of Floyd Tillman's honky-tonk anthem "Slipping Around." The next year, Capitol decided to have them attempt some seasonal fare, and again the results were pleasing. One side was a cover of Livingston and Evans' "Silver Bells," which was written for the Bob Hope epic The Lemon Drop Kid. The Bing Crosby-Carol Richards recording of the song became a hit in 1950, well before the film's 1951 release.

Vocally, Whiting and the unassuming Wakely were well matched, and their "Silver Bells" is nicely sung. The backing is by yet another singing cowboy, Foy Willing, and his ensemble. It lacks impact and has little holiday flavor so the record was never a threat to Bing's disk.

Willing, Wakely and Jack Kenney collaborated on writing the flip side, "Christmas Candy," which is more lively. Musically, the song is strongly reminiscent of 1947's "Here Comes Santa Claus."

Whiting was to remain at Capitol for several more years, but no more Christmas songs were forthcoming from that label. However, let me add another "bells" number - 1952's "Singing Bells" by George Wyle and Eddie Pola, who were responsible for the Christmas classic "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." "Singing Bells" is sort of a clog dance, which you can do around your Christmas tree if you so choose. Lou Busch - then Whiting's husband - leads the band.

On the radio

Also from this period we have an aircheck of Maggie doing "It's Christmas Time Again," a very good song by Sonny Burke, Jack Elliott and James Harwood that was introduced by Peggy Lee in 1953. The Whiting edition likely comes from a 1953 or 1954 Bob Hope Show - she performed it both years.

Let's zoom ahead to 1959 and Maggie's new home at Dot records. There, she remade two of the songs discussed above. First was a version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with studio vocalist Bill Lee, a member of the Mellomen group that assisted on the "Mistletoe Kiss Polka." Lee was a talented singer, but he is too bland for this song. This cut comes from the LP Margaret Whiting's Great Hits. It's one of those early stereo affairs with extreme separation of the two voices. At one point, they change sides, which I imagine is supposed to suggest Bill Lee pursuing Maggie. Russ Garcia conducts.

Circa 1960

Next we revisit "The Three Bells," recorded in the wake of the Browns' chart success. The Whiting version, which comes from the LP Ten Top Hits, includes the tolling bells vocal backing ("bum, bum, bum, bum") identical to the Browns and similar to Les Compagnons de la chanson on the original. Milt Rogers was arranger and conductor.

Later Recordings

Maggie was to produce no more seasonal records for another 20 years. For her 1982 album Come a Little Closer she included the obscure (and depressing) "After the Holidays," where she implores her mate to stay with her for one more season. As a downer, it is right down there with Gordon Jenkins' "Happy New Year."

Circa 1980s

Whiting contributed two numbers to pianist Loonis McGlohon's 1990 album We Wish You a Merry Christmas - "White Christmas" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." McGlohon was an excellent musician and these are accomplished readings, although Maggie's voice is not as fresh as it once was.

Loonis McGlohon

McGlohon's follow-up was 1992's A Christmas Memory. Whiting is heard on a remake of "Silver Bells," thankfully without Foy Willing.

The following year, Maggie recorded "The Christmas Waltz" for the album A Cabaret Christmas. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote the piece for Frank Sinatra. Whiting's rendition includes a bridge that sounds improvised; the entire performance is quite free, interestingly so. Her music director, Tex Arnold, is the pianist.

That's all we have from Maggie's sporadic holiday output. It's a shame there was no seasonal album from such an accomplished artist. This collection was assembled from a variety of sources, including Internet Archive and my collection. The sound is generally very good.

LINK