There’s no business like show business…”. And on the night of June 15, 1953, at 10:30 P.M. Ethel Merman and Mary Martin sat on a couple of chairs in front of television cameras and spellbound 60 million people during 12 of the most thrilling musical minutes anybody, anywhere, has ever experienced… on the Ford 50th Anniversary Show!

This simplicity — so easy to explain and yet so difficult to imitate is highly deceptive. For under the beguiling surface of this relaxed music making there is hard work and constant testing.Hundreds of improvisations are made and like Broadway shows on a tryout tour, each arrangement is repeatedly tested on his nightly audience at Delmonico’s. Changes are made if the effect is not entirely satisfactory, and by the time the recording session begins every note is in its right place and every phrase shaped “just so”.

Another proof of Feyer’s fantastic popularity is the impending publication of Feyer’s arrangements of favorite ECHOES tunes by the Edward B. Marks Music Corporation.

The rhythm accompaniment of this record consists of Tommy Lucas, guitar, A1 Warner, bass, and Sam Forman, drums. They have participated in many of the previous ECHOES and contributed a great deal to the success of the series.

Side 1

EASTER PARADE (From the film “Easter Parade”) (Berlin)
LILI (Hi Lili, Hi Lili, Hi Lo) (From the film “Lili”) (Kaper)
CHEEK TO CHEEK (From the film “Top Hat”) (Berlin)
OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY (From the film “An American in Paris”) (Gershwin)
LOVELY TO LOOK AT (From the film “Roberta”) (Kern)
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (From the film “An American in Paris”) (Gershwin)

Side 2

THE CARIOCA (From the film “Flying Down to Rio”) (Youmans)
ISN’T IT ROMANTIC (From the film “Love Me Tonight”) (Rogers)
THIRD MAN THEME (From the film “The Third Man”) (Karas)
ALEXANDER’S RAG TIME BAND (From the film “Alexander’s Rag Time Band”) (Beriin)
THE CONTINENTAL (From the film “The Gay Divorcee”) (Conrad)
TERRY’S THEME (From the film “Limelight) (Chaplin)
COCKTAILS FOR TWO (From the film “Murder AtThe Vanities”) (Coslow)
DONKEY SERENADE (From the film “Firefly”) (Friml)

1955

Information from the cover of the record

About the composer:

This recording of the imitable songs of Tom Lehrer has been issued, in spite of widespread popular demand for its suppression, primarily for the benefit of a small but diminishing group of admirers of his dubious talents, talents which have been on display for several years at functions, orgies, and divers festive occasions around Harvard University, where he was in attendance until June 1953, as undergraduate, graduate student, and teacher of mathematics. A few television and night club appearances have also been part of his infamous career. Now at last some of the songs with which he has been revolting local audiences for years are available to all, and it is no wonder that a great deal of public apathy has beer stirred up at the prospect.

Tom Lehrer, longtime eitponent of the derriere-garde in American music, is an entirely mythical figure, a figment of his parents’ warped imagination. He was raised by a yak, by whom he was always treated as one of the family, and ever since he was old enough to eat with the grownups he has been merely the front for a vast international syndicate of ne’er-do-wells. But enough of Lehrer the artist. What of Lehrer the bon vivant, man about town, and idol of three continents (and Madagascar, where half a million gibbering natives think he is God)? At last reports he had settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earns a precarious living peddling dope to the local school children and rolling an occasional drunk. Here he spends his declining years with his shrunken head collection, his Nobel Prizes, and his memories.

About the songs:

Fight Fiercely, Harvard—Most football fight songs have a tendency to be somewhat uncouth and violent. This one, however, written for the author’s Alma Mater, is rather dainty and thus fills a need which has long been felt. The Old Dope Peddler—Dedicated to that member of the community who goes modestly and inconspicuously about his job of spreading happiness among his fellow citizens, but who has never been properly recognized in song or story.
Be Prepared—This song, whose title is of course the motto of the Boy Scouts of America, is a rousing anthem, dedicaied to that worthy institution.

The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be—A 20th century cowboy song about the wonders of the present day Wild West, as described in the few news stories that penetrate to the East.

I Wanna Go Back to Dixie—Here we have a typical Dixie song, all about the many delightful features of the South.

Lobachevsky—The composer happens to be a mathematician in real life, and this is his description of one way to get ahead in that field (or, for that matter, in any academic field). (Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (1793-1856), incidentally, was a genuine mathematician, whose best-known contributions were in the field of geometry.)

The Irish Ballad—The folk song has in recent years become the particular form of permissible idiocy of the intellectual fringe. Here, for these elite, is an ancient Irish ballad; it is complete with modal tune, simple story line, and inane refrain, but it differs from other ancient ballads in that it was written in 1950.

The Hunting Song—During the hunting season one finds countless items in the news concerning individuals who have shot other individuals under the impression that the latter were deer, rabbits, squirrels, or other fauna. This song was written to herald this encouraging new trend in a grand old sport.

My Home Town—One of those exercises in nostalgia in which the singer tells you what a great place his own home town is.

Three Love Songs—The love song is of course by far the most popular species of American song. Here are examples of three important subspecies: (1) the no-matter-how-moldy-and-decrepit-you-get-I’ll-always-feel-the-same type (When You Are Old and Gray), (2) the tender ballad (I Hold Your Hand in Mine), and (3) the gay, lilting, Old-Vienna-W-nauseam-gemiitlichkeit waltz (The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz.

The songs on this record are copyright, 1952, 1953, by Tom Lehrer, and he is welcome to them.

Information from the cover of the record.

VOCAL WITH GUITAR AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC SERIES
Edited by Alan Lomax
The man who has written most frankly about Burl Ives is Burl Ives himself. The fellow whom Carl Sandburg has nominated as “the best ballad singer of them all”‘ has told his own story in “Wayfaring Stranger,” a book which is both a revealing autobiography and a document. Here is his earliest recollection, as Burl tells it: “There was a lonely lane leading up to the house on the hill. On each side of the lane was a zig-zag rail fence. My first inkling of being alive ivas in a corner of one angle of this rail fence. Someone had propped me against it. There I heard a noise. It became clearer and more distinct, a symphony of a million frogs played music and it fell upon my ear and it ivas pleasant. It was just evening, dusky dark, and two little boys came from the corn field and had made cornstalk fiddles. They had put resin on the bows and were fiddling on these little instruments and my older brother, whose name was Arty, said, ‘Here we have brought you one too.’ And I was handed a cornstalk fiddle and cornstalk bow, and he took my hands and showed me how to fiddle on it. So we all three fiddled and we laughed gaily and it was fine music that we and the frogs did make . . .”

Burl started young. He made his first quarter at the age of four singing the old English ballad, Fair Ellendor and the Brown Girl. He sang at revivals, church sociables and meetings of the Epworth League. He played his five string banjo for square dances. He performed in a jazz band. And all through school he kept slipping out with his guitar and using it for a railroad ticket to one place and another. “Just wanted to see what the country looked like,” he says. “There were good songs all along the road.” Today Burl is just about the best-known figure in American folk music. He’s appeared in Broadway shows like “Sing Out Sweet Land” . . . he’s starred in motion pictures like “So Dear To My Heart” and “Station West” . . . he’s done radio programs with Bing Crosby and others . . . he’s given dozens of sell-out concert recitals. These, together with his delightful Decca records, have made Burl and his songs familiar to millions.

He’s a big guy and has a punch like a mule kicking. His smile fills a room and his laugh shakes the chandeliers. But he’s quiet, too, and he can listen. He listened to his mother and his father, who were both singers. He listened to people singing all over the country. And his song-bag is full. He can sing all night and never sing the same song twice. And every song is better than the last one.

Side One

1.TURTLE DOVE     – A British love song
2.THE DEVIL’S NINE QUESTIONS – A Virginia version of an ancient British ballad
3.NO WOOD FIRE – A German lore song
4.TEN THOUSAND MILES – A Southern mountain love song
5.MY GOOD OLD MAN -  A dialogue hallad from the Southern mountains

Side Two

1.PO’ BOY – A prisoner’s lament
2.I’M SAD AND I’M LONELY – A Southern mountain love song
3.DOWN IN THE VALLEY – A Southern mountain love song
4.COWBOY’S LAMENT – A Western ballad

Information from the cover of the record.

Now, just where did this big singing and composing talent come from? Well, where do they grow things big, partner? Roger Dean Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He did not really grow very big there, however, since he moved to Oklahoma at an early age.

Roger earned the price of his first guitar by picking cotton. He began to enter amateur contests, and he plucked and sang happily along, sometimes imitating his idol, the great Hank Williams. But life is not all music, and eventually Roger Miller found himself in the United States Army. Although U. S. Army sergeants are not particularly noted for their love of music, Roger miraculously found himself in the same company as a sergeant who was a brother of Jethro Burns—of the famous team of Homer & Jethro. Roger and the sergeant made frequent trips to Nashville, goal of many a young singer.

When Roger finished his military service, he headed straight for Nashville, where he had an RCA Victor audition at which everything went wrong! To begin with, Roger showed up without his guitar. RCA Victor’s obliging Chet Atkins lent him one. Roger nervously began to sing in one key and play the guitar in another. Things went from bad to worse, and finally the young singer sadly returned the guitar and left the studio.

Years later, with the same Chet Atkins not only in attendance but as his producer, Roger recorded his famous You Don’t Want My Love, Every Which-A-Way, When Tivo Worlds Collide, Fair Swiss Maiden and other of his originals included in this collection—tunes that launched the Roger Miller musical career.

So, today, Roger Miller can afford to chuckle at early errors and mishaps. Today he’s the singing star of Dang Me and Chug-A-Lug and heaps more. Today the selections here, dating back only as far as 1960, are “early” Roger Miller and in-demand performances by one of the big-name recording personalities.

A&R Coordinator: Ethel Gabriel

SIDE 1

YOU DON’T WANT MY LOVE
HITCH-HIKER
EVERY WHICH-A-WAY
SORRY, WILLIE
FAIR SWISS MAIDEN

SIDE 2

HEY LITTLE STAR
WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
TROUBLE ON THE TURNPIKE
LOCK, STOCK AND TEARDROPS
FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW

Information from the cover of the record

The Big Bands flooded the country with enthusiastic music … music with a firm, swinging beat… and young Americans emerging from the gloom of the depression years flocked into the gigahtic ballrooms of Chicago, Kansas City and New York and broadcasts from The Aragon and the Trianon, Meadowbrook and the Glen Island Casino filled the airways with song and the halls with syncopated dancing feet. Where were you when you first heard Tommy Dorsey’s I’M GETTING SENTIMENTAL OVER YOU, Vaughn Monroe’s RACING WITH THE MOON or that famous signature sign off of Guy Lombardo’s AULD LANG SYNE?

Everybody loves a band—and everybody loved the Big Band music—the new orchestral sounds, rhythmical innovations, ingenious arrangements and brand new instrumental groupings with a joyous ensemble spirit that carried the nation along in the grip of new dances like The Lambeth Walk and The Big Apple—and produced all-time musical greats—those Big Bands of Harry James, Glenn Miller, Wayne King, Freddy Martin, Xavier Cugat.

Remember those carefree days … young and old alike responding to new, sophisticated rhythms blasting from bandstands … radios … garish juke boxes . . . sweeping us all up with a glorious feeling that Happy Days were around to stay for a long, long time. The music was light, gay, happy played by talented musicians who put heart and soul into new orchestral phrasings . . . and the strong voices of the brasses carried the sweet melodies far and high, ringing clearly over driving rhythm sections.

THE BIG BAND theme songs were heard over the airlanes … and soon blended imperceptibly into everyone’s daily life. Mellifluous voiced announcers introduced Wayne King as “The Waltz King” and the strains of THE WALTZ YOU SAVED FOR ME drifted from a thousand open windows. The trumpet came into its own with Harry James’ unforgettable rendition of CIRIBIRIBIN—do you remember dancing down the aisles to that one?

People danced all night to the music of another trumpet master, Louis Armstrong, and his stirring solo section in WHEN IT’S SLEEPY TIME DOWN SOUTH . . . and, they still queue up to hear Louis Armstrong more than two decades later only now the lines form in Stockholm and Singapore, too. While many instrument-playing musicians “fronted” for their bands—leading while playing—some of the greatest bands were led by singers. Remember masters like Vaughn Monroe whose bewitching baritone, fills memory lane with that famous theme song RACING WITH THE MOON.

You can relive those memorable years … that strenuous decade when America pulled itself up from the depths of the depression to a shining prosperity—dancing all the way. Remember the energetic “lindy-hop”? or “trucking”? … or perhaps your memory moments are recreated in the fox-trot when you danced those prom nights away under a thousand small town skies dreaming to the sweet music of Freddy Martin. Now, you can lean back in your own home surroundings and give full vent to sentimental overtones when the unforgettable Glenn Miller theme song MOONLIGHT SONATA drenches the room, filling your personal memory album with memories of those lyrical days just a short pause in time ago … the days of THE BIG BAND ERA.

Vaughn Monroe

VAUGHN MONROE

I am very flattered that you have included me in your forthcoming album saluting “The Big Band Era.” Wherever I go, people continually ask me “When are the big bands coming back?”

Tommy Dorsey

TOMMY DORSEY
Born in Mahoney Plains, Penna. 1905. World famous Trombonist who met his death at the early age of 51.

Fred Waring

FRED WARING
Musical Conductor born Tyrone, Penna. Writer of numerous college songs. Appeared in several musical shows on Broadway. Conductor of the Internationally famed Pennsylvanians.

Michel Piastro

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  Information from the cover of the record.

Feyer’s debut record “ECHOES OF PARIS” (VX 500) was such a tremendous success, and so many requests for “more of the same” were received that he was happy to oblige his friends with “ECHOES OF VIENNA.”

SIDE 1 (Playing Time: 14′ 15″)

Vienna, City of My Dreams — When The Lilac Blooms Again — Emperor Waltz — Springtime in Vienna — Schonbrunner Waltz — Deutschmeister March — Im Prater Bluh’n Wieder die Btiume — Wiener Madl’n — Einmal Mocht Ich Wieder Mit Dir Hutschen Gehn — Rosenkavalier Waltz.

SIDE 2 (Playing Time: 14′ 05″)

Ich Mocht Wieder Einmal in Grinzing Sein — Gypsy Baron Waltz — Fiakerlied — Das Muss Ein Stuck vom Himmel Sein — Radetzky March — Voices of Spring Waltz — Schubert Melody — Das Gibt’s Nur Einmal — Fledermaus Fantasie.
We have tried to translate as faithfully as possible the titles of many of the selections. To attempt translating some of the German titles literally would be to destroy their intrinsic Viennese flavor.

© 1964, Vox Productions, Inc.. New York 19, N. Y.

Information from the cover of the record

Do you remember when you were a child? Was it fifty years ago, or perhaps just yesterday? Remember the first songs you used to sing like, “Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star” or “London Bridge”? Remember how you practiced on the piano? Was the music, “The Merry Farmer”, “The Minuet in G”or perhaps the “Alia Turca”? Or maybe your mother took you to see  “Hansel and Gretel” — remember the witch? Remember the nursery songs you sang? Like, “See-Saw Marjory Daw” and “Where, oh Where is My Little Dog Gone”? And remember when your mother used to sing “Rock a-bye Baby”?

For all of us children from six to sixty-six I’ve collected forty-two favorite “ECHOES OF CHILDHOOD’ remember them?

These are the songs you never forget!

We received a letter from Hong-Kong yesterday which said in part “your Echoes are really excellent recordings — please accept our congratulations on your achievement.” Since the issuance of Feyer’s first record a little over a year ago (VX 500 — Echoes of Paris) we have received letters from Egypt, Italy, Germany, India — in short from all over the world.

Feyer’s sparkling playing and arrangements are now a household word. To give you an example: he walked into a New York City Post Office a few days ago and was recognized by the clerks. It seems that the Post Office employees had all chipped in to buy the entire Echoes series to play during work. At New York’s fashionable Delmonico Fever can be heard nightly playing the tunes and the arrangements that have made him famous. Each new Echoes is greeted with a greater enthusiasm than the one before, and the anticipation of record shops and customers throughout the world is really astonishing.

As for the future, Feyer has many plans and ideas and is working on a new Echoes for you right now.

Side 1 – 13′ 30″

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star — London Bridge — Humperdinck: Hansei and Gretel (Brother Come and Dance With Me) — Oh, How Lovely is the Evening — Mary Had a Little Lamb — The Merry Farmer from Schumann: Album for the Young — See-Saw Marjorie Daw — Skip to My Lou—Ten Little Indians—Jessel: Parade of the Wooden Soldiers— Beethoven: Minuet in G — Rockabye Baby — O Where Is My Little Dog Gone — Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be — Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite — Au Clair de La Lune — Alouette — Three Blind Mice.

Side 2 – 13′ 35″

Frere Jacques — Sur le Pont d’Avignon (On the Bridge at Avignon) — Aupres de Ma Blonde — Pop Goes the Weasel — Lazy Mary — The Bear Went Over the Mountain (also known as, For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow and Marlboro s’en va-t-en guerre) — Jack and Jill — Alia Turca from Mozart: Sonata in A major K.331 — Little Boy Blue — Autumn Leaves Are Falling — O du Lieber Augustin — Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf — Prokofieff: Peter and the Wolf — Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (Children’s Prayer) — Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (There Stands a Little Man) — Lovely Day — Old MacDonald Had a Farm — Farmer in the Dell — Turkey in the Straw — She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain — Arkansas Traveler — Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (Reprise) — Brahms: Lullaby.

1954 Vox Productions, Inc., New York 19, N. Y.

Information from the cover of the record.

]]> http://www.recordsfromshelf.com/george-feyer-echoes-of-childhood/feed 0 http://www.recordsfromshelf.com/george-feyer-echoes-of-italy?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=george-feyer-echoes-of-italy http://www.recordsfromshelf.com/george-feyer-echoes-of-italy#comments Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:24:42 +0000 Records From Shelf http://www.recordsfromshelf.com/?p=117 After the sensational success of George Feyer’s ECHOES OF PARIS (VX 500) and ECHOES OF VIENNA (VX 550), Vox is happy to oblige his many friends with another one of his “reminiscing” renditions of Italian melodies. You will find among them your old favorites as well as songs of most recent date which are well on the way to popularity now.
GEORGE FEYER studied at the Budapest Conservatory under Dohnanyi, Kodaly and Szekely. Being recognized as one of the most promising young concert-pianists in his country, he caused quite a sensation when he suddenly shifted to popular music. In this field he very soon became one of the best known and best paid entertainers in Europe.

SIDE 1 (Playing Time: 14′ 57″)

Mattinata — Anema e Core — Ciribiribin — Tic-ta, Tic-ta — O Sole Mio — Luna Rossa — Per Un Bacio d’Amore — Oh, Marie — Funiculi-Funicula.

SIDE 2 (Playing Time 14′ 29 )

Torna a Surriento — Scalinatella — Santa Lucia — Violetta — Ti Voglio Bene — Papaveri — Parla Mi d’Amore — Violino Tzigano — Operatic Fantasy.

Side 1 (Playing time: 14′ 45″)

La Vie En Rose -Trois Cloches -Avril Au Portugal (April in Fortugal) -La tvler -Domino -Je N’En Connais Pas La Fin -Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup-Mon Homme -Alouette -Sur Le Pont DAvignon-C’Est Si Bon.

Side 2 (Playing time 14′ 30″)

Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves) – Clopin – Ciopant – La Ronde – La Seine – Pigalle – J’Atttndrai – Vous Qui Passei – Valentine – Paris Je T’Aime.