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LET THERE BE MUSIC
by Neil Stevens

 

Legendary B roadway showman, Florenz Flo Ziegfeld had eyes for gorgeous spectacular, but if truth be told not much of an ear for music. All the same great to have at hand a compilation: The Ziegfeld Follies (CD AJA 5619) 25 original mono recordings dating from 1910 to 1945.

Some of the other hundreds of songs not included here must remain in music vaults, destined to stay put for all time. Having said that a favourite Verbon Duke song What is There to Say, and his truly immortal: I Can?t Get Started (1936) are not included. Pity, never mind, we'll look for those for future outings.
 

Best enjoy what there is, a 1927 medley includes shimmering, syncopated, Shakin' The Blues Away, the Irving Berlin stunner introduced by gently-voiced Ruth Etting.  Given further fame on later occasions by long-legged Ann Miller (Easter Parade) and Doris Day in the Ruth Etting biopic: Love Me or Leave Me.

Ms. Etting here recalls a 1908 Nora Bayes success Shine On Harvest Moon, while Ms. Bayes herself in full fine form turns in an American version of the song Florrie Forde made all her very own: Has Anybody Here Seen Kelty?
 

Mention of Irving Berlin reminds that he captured feminine glorification with his sensational: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody.  Thankfully it?s included, so too another of his popular hits. Mandy, performed for years by coy, cute. carefree Eddie Cantor. Here he gives full vigour to Berlin's You?d Be Surprised, included too his own much loved speciality: If You Knew Susie.
 

Magical, original Funny Lady, Fanny Brice, first in the Follies in 1910  reprises her greatest heart-rending achievements, still as singable as ever:  My Man and Second Hand Rose.

The big orchestral sound of the full Paul Whiteman orchestra is on Harry Warren?s So This is Venice; many of us know this in a later 1940s version from Harry James and his Orchestra-named Carnival in Venice. Another Follies favourite chanteuse Helen Morgan sounds somewhat mournful on What Wouldn't I do for That Man? - not in the class of Bill which she introduced in the Ziegfeld production Showboat.
 

As the song says. You Can't Have Everything, but they've not forgotten famous French matinee idol, Maurice Chevalier, going Gallic on Valentine. Jaunty japes come from W.C. Fields, Will Rogers and Leon En-oil, but the musical twosome I adore here, still sounding great after all these years, captivating, Ed Gallagher and Al Shean, in the song by Ernest Ball, the vaudevillians made their own: Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean. Rhyming couplets are supreme - listen and makeup your own. I think TV's latest twosome: Ant and Dec could adapt same for their many appearances. Just think it could become the irrepressible hit it was in 1928!
 

Music for Pleasure
40 years ago the logo MFP came into our record lives, this summer MFP relaunched, look out for the Music for Pleasure logo in record shops and libraries. We are promised a full set of their output in months to come.
 

Several stalwart voices from the not too distant part are readily available for a second spin. In their Very Best series, great British artists: Ronnie Hilton, Michael Holliday and Danny Williams.

Many of us will recall their Top Ten hits, their claims to fame so to say, British balladeers flying the musical flag full tilt. And so they do on many standards:  Ronnie Hilton is marvellous on Frank Loesser's A Woman in Love, and just magic on the vocal version of Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto: The World Outside, just right for his supreme soaring voice.
 

Neil Stevens