• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

who likes 1920 and 30s 40s music

Love 20s 30s music. I remember The Temperance Seven had a hit in 1961 with Pasadena. I've been to see Brandyn Shaw many times because he does a great Al Bowlly act.
 
Last edited:
Earlier I posted On the Trail by Ferde Grofé on the classical music thread. This is probably one for John from Staffs if he sees this thread because it is Ferde Grofé and his Orchestra playing Temptation recorded in 1933, two years after he wrote the more serious Grand Canyon Suite. The orchestra is OK and the vocalist, who I have never heard of, is a big improvement on Donald Peers, though that wouldn't be difficult. :)

Maurice :cool:
 
An attempt to redeem poor old Bertini, with a little potted history of the band, but another vocalist who wasn’t much better.


What we mustn’t lose sight of is that the Woolworths Eclipse records cost all of sixpence, that is, two and a half decimalised pence, so you can’t really expect much. I’m not sure whether they were double sided though.

But in an attempt to redeem myself, a visit to the quality end. Ambrose and Sam Browne, what could be better?

 
Last edited:
Yes, John, Bertini sounds of like the worse of the Serbian brass bands, and some are quite listenable & entertaining, and the vocalist sounds as though someone is strangling a certain part of his anatomy. Whereas Ambrose is, as always, smooth and polished.

Maurice :cool:
 
British female vocalists of the period, not much to say until Anne Shelton, but American women,




Annette Hanshaw. Need I say more?

Oh yes, sorry I forgot, “That’s all!”
 
Last edited:
This is all getting very serious.....


The words of this just crack me up, rhyming “sawmill proprietor” with “winked his glass eye at her” - priceless!
 
Last edited:
Maurice, I finally got round to listening to “Temptation” and quite enjoyed it, agree with you on the vocalist though. Grofe did the orchestration of Rhapsody in Blue for Whiteman, amongst others, I think one of the attractions of this era is the trouble taken properly to present the music, even if for popular consumption.

So now, to Nottingham and Billy Merrin.


Played on a Garrard 401.

However, there is a superior version, I think this is about the most romantic song ever written.
Roy Fox/Denny Dennis

 
Last edited:
John,

Yes, I was aware of the Whiteman orchestration. I don't rate the Billy Merrin track, especially the vocal, but the Roy Fox track is his usual polished performance and the vocal quite acceptable. Both recorded in the same year and such an amazing difference.

Does the name Lou Simmons mean anything to you? He had a band in London before the war and later moved to Bournemouth, but I didn't meet him until the late 1960s. At the time when I knew him he was blind, though I don't think he was born blind. There is this little snippet:-
https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/5353932.musicians-played-on-as-german-bombs-fell/ and there used to be a Wiki entry, but that has long since gone. When I knew him he used to have a quartet in the rather oldfashioned Trouville Hotel with himself on drums, though I wouldn't call him a drummer. I never knew the Peter Green in the article, but ironically the manager of the hotel at that time was a Peter Green, but well into his sixties, whereas the Peter Green in the article was 81 in 2005, so definitely not the same guy. The hotel has since been bought by a chain and been thoroughly modernised. Peter Green, the hotel manager, was connected to the Green's Cake Mix & Custard Company.

Maurice :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top