Thanks for the recommendation. I couldn't get the You Can Depend On Me LP or CD anywhere, but I managed to get that 'Jazz Collector' CD reissue of it on eBay for only £2 inc P&P! I'm still buying Peggy records & CDs. My recent buys have included: A better copy of the 'Songs in an Intimate Style' 10", this one is mostly in nice condition, it plays through but 2 tracks on side 2 have a loud hiss for a few seconds. It's annoying and ruins the atmosphere, but it'll have to do as it's a very old and rare record, possibly her rarest album. I absolutely love this. The Tavern is one of my fave Peggy songs. Travelin' Light on CD I Go To Sleep on 45 with non album B-side - found at a local outdoor flea market in nice condition & orig sleeve. A double Best of CD on 'Music Club' with a lot of tracks I don't otherwise have. Make It With You LP Norma Deloris Egstrom LP (I really enjoyed this) If I Could Be With You - Jasmine LP with 2 radio shows. Great! Got That Magic / A Doodlin' Song 45 I'm in the middle of a house move - it's never easy with the amount of records & CDs I have! When I'm done I'll post a list of the Peggy records & CDs I have and which issues.
Groove damage. My copy of the Miss Wonderful LP has that loud hiss throughout "Mr. Wonderful" in one channel. Whoever owned my copy must've loved that song and played it until the grooves worn out. But it's a great album, so I set the arm down on the second band until I find a replacement copy for a good price. You have great taste - "The Tavern" is a hidden gem.
It's bad groove damage, it's a deep spiral scratch that hits the end of one track and the start of the next, as well as hisses in between them. The record jumped several times because of this scratch when I got it but I managed to get rid of the jumps. No more than 10 seconds of the record is affected and the rest of it plays very well, with very little crackle or wear, which is surprising considering the scratch must have been caused by a stylus from hell! I'm looking for a better copy of this as well as My Best To You in better condition, but both are very scarce so I probably will have to accept what I have. For some reason those 50s 10 inch albums are almost always crackly and worn when I get them, with loud clicks. I also have ones by Chris Connor & Lita Rosa (very good and very rare UK album, not dissimilar to Chris & Peggy) with annoying faults on them. My copy of Miss Wonderful isn't in wonderful condition too, it's been played a lot by it's previous owner and rightly so! The sleeve has seen better days too. But it's OK. Aside from those three my Peggy albums are all in excellent condition, with many being near perfect.
Great. Looking forward to checking it out sometime in the future. Moving with a large record collection can result in some trial and tribulation ... Then again, maybe, in the process, you will chance upon records that you bought so long ago that you didn't even remember you had. Also, the sight of old records may bring nice memories. Neat to be able to grab the original sleeve, too. Talking about memories ... I still remember when I found that 45. I was spending the summer at Kennebunkport, Maine (US East Coast) and came across it at a very unpromising mini-mall where we had gone to buy some groceries. That was both an unexpected and exciting find, because I had never listened to the non-album side before. For the duration of that summer, I remained totally taken with the song, and with Peggy's performance of it. "A Doodlin' Song" was something of a hit for Peggy -- though not a charting one. She sang it more than once on TV. The following comment is meant for those of us who have the musical documentary Fever -- The Music of Peggy Lee. An interesting detail about the DVD is that its "Doodlin' Song" segment is missing one half: the original documentary gave us not one but two duet versions of the song, one with Bing Crosby, the other with Dean Martin. The segment segued from one duet to the other (a great, inspired ideas, on multiple fronts). That "dual duet" is what we saw on the PBS TV show, when this program debuted. Unfortunately, the Dean Martin estate and/or the owners of Dean's TV series objected to the inclusion of his part on the DVD, and it thus had to be excised. It's a generous program -- 50 tracks. The set combines Capitol, Decca and Columbia studio recordings with radio transcriptions from three differences companies. One of the those three companies is MacGregor, the outfit about which we were talking on the previous page of this thread. The Norma Deloris album is almost universally admired and loved by Peggy fans. The reaction to the other, earlier album has always been more mixed, but I for one feel that it has plenty to recommend. The first radio show is, in particular, great to listen to, because you are getting to hear it just as it was broadcast (minus commercials). The second show is, on the other hand, more along the lines of the majority of 1940s-1950s radio show that have made it on CD: it's not the original broadcast but a rebroadcast prepared by (and for) the Armed Forces Radio Service. Those AFRS re-broadcasts are heavily edited versions of the original, sometimes with significant insertions as well. Very glad that you too feel that Songs in an Intimate Style is great. (Since not too many people have listened to it, I've never been too sure if I like it a whole lot more than most everybody else would.) If the first two songs of the album's second side are the ones that show damage, and if the damage is partly the result of too much playing, then you might be witnessing the tragic traces of a former album owner with a sad case of the blues. (S)he must have had it bad. Real bad. I mean, the two songs are "A Woman Alone with the Blues" and "Where Can I Go without You." "The Tavern" keeps acquiring more and more fans! Both are definitely very rare, but, online, copies do show up from time to time. I still have a screen grab from a mint copy of My Best to You that was on auction at eBay about a year ago. I think the seller said that it had not been even played! Your vinyl collection is probably in better shape that mine. Am guessing that you might be referring to Chris' 10" albums on Bethelehem -- the "Lullabys" or self-titled ones. (In the UK, the releasing label might have been London, though.) They are very hard to find, and usually quite expensive. I actually have a fair amount of Lita Roza in my record collection, mostly on CD, some on 12" LP. (Nothing on 10" LP, though; it would be nearly a miracle to come across one of those here in the US.) For my taste, her best album is the following one, which I originally got on LP and, just a few months ago, ordered on CD (with many bonus tracks):
Thanks for the lengthy reply. Very much appreciated. The Lita Roza 10" is Listening In The Afterhours on Decca. It's extremely rare and goes for over £100 in excellent condition. The Chris Conner one is 'This Is Chris'. It's the UK issue on London. I got the Lita Roza 10" in a charity shop for 50p. I almost left it, I'd never heard of her! I actually left the shop without it, but it didn't seem right, so I went back 10 mins later and got it. It's crackly but a great album. Rather than focussing on the faults, I should consider myself lucky to have playable copies of these records that are over 60 years old. They aren't trashed.
Thanks, as always, .crystalized., for commenting on sound. I'm always curious to know how each of us feel about the quality of any relevant audio clip. I'm in complete agreement with you about the rendition in question. Those are the two reasons why I picked it. (The sound quality was not quite as good in any of the other "MacGregor clips" that I sampled in YouTube.) Peggy's MacGregor version of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea": yes, I've been fortunate to be able to hear it. It's a fairly short version, and she takes the song at a relatively fast clip. She also recorded "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" in the 1950s, in a longer & slower version that is far easier to find. (At YouTube, an uploader had wrongly misidentified the 1950s version, wrongly giving it the 1940s date that belongs instead to this hard-to-find MacGregor transcription.) At that price, the Jazz Collector Laserlight CD is totally worth having. I should let you know in advance about one shortcoming, though: these performances need pitch correction. Oftentimes, Peggy's voice sounds slightly more girlish than usual, and her singing pace slightly fast. To me, it's not an obstacle; I still enjoy the selections. I am not sure if the problem has been corrected in any other CD out there. Even if has been, I don't believe that any other CD includes so many of her MacGregor cuts. The only exception is the disc pictured below, which I don't have. But there is no point in getting it, because I believe it to have the exact same contents and digital transfer as the Laserlight CD: Of course, this CD has the advantage of also featuring Nat King Cole, which means that you get a double dosage of great artistry. However, the Nat numbers can easily be found on other CDs as well. While I'm at it, let me post another YouTube clip with a MacGregor selection. It looks like this one was transferred from the You Can Depend on Me LP: (Re: your preceding message. You are very welcome. I have a CD version of Listening in the After Hours, on Vocalion Records -- actually, a twofer. Haven't played it in a while, but I too remember it as being a nice album.)
PEGGY LEE'S RECORDINGS FOR THE CAPITOL TRANSCRIPTION SERVICE Peggy recorded for three radio transcription services. We have already discussed the 17 cuts that she made for the C. P. MacGregor service in January of 1945. Next up are her 72 transcriptions for Capitol, recorded between 1946 and 1949. As most of us already know, Capitol was a major music company that had started out in 1942 and primarily dedicated itself to the business of record production for commercial sale at record stores. However, Capitol also embarked in many secondary enterprises, and one of them was the set up of a radio transcription service. It began operating in April 0f 1945. Naturally, artists that formed part of Capitol's 1940s roster signed to participate in this enterprise, which involved the recording of numbers for radio airplay only (not for sale). Above, you can see one of the discs in which such transcription numbers were received by the radio stations. That one is from 1946. And here is the audio of one of the cuts on that transcription disc: From the 1940s to the 1980s, Peggy's Capitol transcriptions remained barely known to the record buying public. Only one of them, "Love Is Just Around the Corner," managed to sneak out: it showed up in Hindsight Records' mid-1980s album The Uncollected Peggy Lee. In 1990, the appearance of the following mail-order cassette increased to 10 the total number of commercially issued Capitol transcriptions: Finally, in 1998, Mosaic Records gave us this boxed set: As with many other sets from that great jazz collectors' label, this one is currently out of print. But you can still find copies on auction online, some at okay prices, some with price tags well past $100. (I forgot how much it was when it came out. Probably around $90.) The set was well received by both fans and critics. It is still well regarded; many of us here in the forum remain fans of Mosaic items such as this one. Here is Ere's message, for instance: (The only non-positive thing that I would say about the set is that it might be too much of a good thing. Because of the recourse to a similar musical backing throughout, it's best to not listen to so many of these songs one after the other, lest your mind begins to lose sight of all subtleties, and everything starts to sound too similar.) In the post-1998 period, many Public Domain labels have appropriated tracks from the set, and released them on their own Peggy Lee compilations. Capitol itself released an one-disc sampler of sorts (to be further discussed below). Then there was the Spanish label Disconforme which, in 2001, outrageously released a CD package containing two thirds of the Mosaic transcriptions, thereby directly competing with Mosaic for sales. It contains 15 of her 72 transcription numbers. Nearly all 15 picks come from the last year on which Peggy recorded for the service (1949). That's a good thing. Those 1949 numbers are, in my opinion, her very best ones of the whole bunch. There is also the following British Public Domain CD, which contains 22 of the 72 numbers. Most of the choices are the same 1949 ones that can be found in the Capitol Jazz CD, but there is also a handful of tracks from 1946. This 50-track set also includes Capitol transcriptions, but not too many -- four or five. Up next: Peggy's recordings for the third and final radio transcription service.
Even if it was public domain, I think a complete Peggy radio transcriptions box would be wonderful. Of course, I'd prefer it if Capitol or a good legitimate reissue label released it with great packaging and sleevenotes, but that's highly unlikely now.
PEGGY LEE'S RECORDINGS FOR THE WORLD TRANSCRIPTION SERVICE The third and last transcription label for which Peggy Lee recorded was the World Transcription Service, which had been in business since the 1920s. It was not until the first half of the 1950s, however, that Peggy did a total of 49 numbers for this outfit. All of them were probably recorded while she was also under contract with Decca Records. Here is a typical World transcription disc from that period: And here is one of the songs on that disc: The release history of this particular batch of transcriptions is a rather mixed affair: about half of the numbers has been widely disseminated in Public Domain items, while the other half still remains obscure and barely available. Any fan with a modicum of Peggy PD CDs will be familiar with numbers such as "Let There Be Love," "I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues," or "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning." Yes, all of those are World selections of hers. On the other hand, many Lee fans will draw a blank if they are asked whether they are familiar with her versions of "Autumn in New York," "Button Up your Overcoat," or "We Kiss in a Shadow." Should you pick the following two CDs, you will own 41 of the 49 transcriptions: The first CD contains most of the tracks that are easy to find in many of her PD compilations, too. The second CD has many tracks that are unavailable in any other commercial release. (Sound quality is just so-so, though. More on that topic later on.) Also, this widely available 12-track compilation features mostly World transcriptions as well. Three of them are not found on either of the above-shown CDs: (Available not only on CD but also on cassette and vinyl since the 1980s, this Uncollected Peggy Lee album was the source from which most Public Domain CDs appropriated her World transcriptions.) Sound quality. The above-shown CDs are from Public Domain companies. Their sound quality is just alright. All of them have clear and unobtrusive sound, but the mastering of the first two CDs, in particular, is lacking in vibrancy and nuance. Sonically, the following item (also PD) is, to my ears, a bit of an improvement ("a bit" being the primary phrase in my assessment): The set gives you 18 of the World transcriptions that are also found in the first CD above (Peggy Lee Sings for You), along with 22 tracks taken from television and radio broadcasts. That would be, "oh, so very nice." Such a boxed set would consist of 17 MacGregor transcriptions (3 of them previously hard to find) 73 Capitol transcriptions (1 missing from the Mosaic set & from any other commercial release) 49 World transcriptions (many of them rarities) for a total of 139 transcriptions. And maybe the rarer World transcriptions (currently available only on the above-shown Taking a Chance on Love) would have improved sound? For me, some of the numbers on that CD are among the best, or at least the most interesting and unusual -- of the bunch. "My Future Just Passed." "Button Up your Overcoat." "We Kiss in a Shadow." "Too Marvelous for Words." As Peggy Lee sang elsewhere, "I Can Dream, Can't I?"
Thanks for this. I've just ordered that Dejavu Retro Collection 2CD for 1p from Amazon! It's nice to know which of the CDs that look cheap are worth getting.
That's enough material to fill 5 discs. That would be a nice collection. Incidentally, do we know how many discs it would take to issue everything Capitol of Peggy before her switch to Decca? I'm guessing about the same ... 5 discs?
Another set I'd love to see released. The Decca era onwards is mostly quite easy to get hold of and have some kind of structure, but the radio transcriptions and pre Decca material seems all over the place and confusing. Only the Benny Goodman material has been well compiled as far as I'm aware.
Agreed. There's rare cuts from Peggy's first Capitol period, including some that were singles. The official releases (Miss Peggy Lee, The Singles Collection, The Lost '40s and '50s Capitol Masters) cause overlap. How nice it would be to have everything together in one box, and chronologically.
Since I didn't have the MCA collection on CD of Black Coffee and Other Delights 1994, I found the 1997 pressing for Jazz Heritage. The mastering was done by Erick Labson at MCA Music Media Studios. I loved the sound of River, River from 1952.
A brilliant arrangement that reminds me of Bedřich Smetana's Vltava. Perhaps the simulation of moving water that is heard in River, River was inspired by this piece.
Good to hear, Dale. I think that I once read another message from you, indicating that you also already have the complementary CD set, Classics and Collectibles. So, your new message would mean that you own the two most comprehensive and relevant anthologies from Peggy's Decca years. In my opinion, the Jazz Heritage pressing is a perfectly fine alternative to the MCA Decca original. One of the posts above has already made mention of its only shortcoming. The booklet doesn't have the photos found in the 1994 edition: but I do not think that this omission should be a deal breaker. These days, almost all of those pics can be found on the web. Ultimately, what matters the most to all of us is the sound quality. These 1997 Jazz Heritage discs are exact transfers of the 1994 MCA Decca ones. Their mastering is pretty good. (Granted: Mr. Labson's work has received mixed reviews in this forum. I myself have some CDs of his that are not entirely to my liking. But in the case of this Peggy Lee anthology, I feel that he did a very satisfactory job ... If anyone cares to disagree, do feel entirely free to do so. All assessments are welcome.) For what is worth, this song was co-written by Bob Russell, whose various other well-known lyrics include "Blue Gardenia," "Dance Ballerina Dance," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me," "I Didn't Know About You," "Crazy He Calls Me," "Brazil," "Frenesí," and more ... but "No More" of this long list. Meanwhile, vaudeville/Broadway pianist and composer Ben Okland did not have a whole lot of well-known tunes under his belt. But those that he did have are memorable standards: "I'll Take Romance," "If I Love Again," and "Java Jive." (Peggy actually recorded two of his more playful commercial tunes, "Summer Vacation" and "I'll Dance at your Wedding.") .Crystalised., that's an interesting venue of exploration, -- i.e., connections to classical music. When it comes to this topic, I imagine that Gordon Jenkins would be a particularly suitable subject to pursue, at least when compared to a Nelson Riddle or a Billy May. All of them must have doubtlessly known their fair share of classical pieces. But, judging from Jenkis' association with strings and penchant for writing so-called suites, I can only assume that he was especially attuned to the classics ...
My thoughts, too. Many of Jenkins' arrangements recall the sound of classical music, particularly of the romantic period. I would not be surprised if such music served to inspire (or at least influence) Jenkins' work. There's probably other classical suites that simulate the sound of rushing water, but Vltava is the piece that comes to mind (although the river effect is announced by the winds instead of the strings and harp, as otherwise heard in River River).
PEGGY LEE'S TELESCRIPTIONS We recently finished talking about the transcription services for which Peggy Lee recorded in the 1940s and 1950s. Let's move on, now, from Peggy's transcriptions to her telescriptions. These are essentially music videos of the 1950s. Here is one of my favorites: Filmed music clips were by no means a new thing in the 1950s. In the 1930s and 1940s, they had been produced by several companies (Soundies being perhaps the most prolific and notable). The novelty of these later installments from the early 1950s is that they were intended for a then-new medium: television. A real estate developer named Louis Snader came up with the idea in 1949. He checked with the local TV stations that he knew, and found out that there were takers. The company that he co-founded for this enterprise started producing telescriptions in mid-1950; Louis Hampton, the famous vibraphonist, was probably the first artist to film a batch of them. By the end of that year, over 200 Snader telescriptions had already been filmed, with more than 500 to come within the next two years. Naturally, the filmed artists came from every genre (pop, jazz, country, rhythm & blues; you name it) and were signed to different record labels (including Capitol, with the likes of Nat King Cole and June Christy making lots of these videos). In September 1950, Peggy Lee recorded a total of 10 Snaders, all of them with her husband Dave Barbour and a small combo. The songstress' batch of telescriptions combines standards ("I Cover the Waterfront") with self-penned tunes ("You Was Right Baby"), favorites of hers ("While We're Young") and staples from her repertoire ("Why Don't You Do Right"). More details (as well as links to YouTube clips) can be found in this page of Peggy Lee's discography. In the mid-1960s, a company called Camay Records released the audio of these telescriptions on one LP ... or rather, on several versions of the same LP. Some such versions include the audio of all 10 telescriptions, while other versions have only seven. Here is one of the versions: And below is another version. Buyer beware, though: I am not recommending them. Their aural quality is utterly atrocious. They sound as if they had been recorded from an old TV set in somebody's living room -- and for all we know, they might have been! By the way, this album made it to MP3, but bypassed the CD format. In short, you are better off watching the telescriptions on VHS or DVD -- lots of those out there. For fans who still would want to own separated audio, you are better off recording it by yourself, from VHS/DVD, rather than trying to acquire the Camay vinyl or MP3. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Just wanted to say that I am not ignoring this interesting discussion, nor have I forgotten about it. I'm just waiting till we start talking about Peggy's early work on Capitol, to come back to it. (That shall happen soon ... These few last days, I've been trying to cover all non-Capitol odds and ends, before we get into the more sizable trove of recordings on that big label.)
Is there an online resource that catalogues all of the Snader telescriptions or provides a list of all the artists who were filmed? I'd like to know if some of Peggy's other label mates shot Snaders (Margaret Whiting, Kay Starr, Ella Mae Morse).
There used to be a site that listed a vey large quantity of them (both artists and the song titles). I just looked it up ... No luck. Oh well. (No traces. Granted, I can't remember what it was called.) I don't believe that Margaret, Kay, or Ella Mae made any telescriptions, though. Of course, I could be wrong, since the total number of Snader videos is enormous, and there is no handy list for me to check 'em ... But I'd think that I'd remember any Kay videos, at least. Carlos Gastel might have been the bridge connecting Capitol with Snader. He managed and/or was good friends with the Capitol acts who made these videos. As far as I know, he did not manage Ella Mae, Kay, nor Maggie. The total number of Snader telescriptions is said to be 754. In its early months, the company used to film 10 videos per day, of which five were by the same artist, and the other five by a second artist. Most folks seem to have made just a handful of them. A few acts made between 10 and 12. I think that Nat King Cole beat them all, though: he made at least 15 telescriptions. As already mentioned, Peggy made 10; I already posted a clip of one of them. Here is another one:
I've just got this one, the UK Ace of Hearts issue. A local record shop, which always has a good Peggy vinyl section, has the 'Official' label 80s pressing in stock, but I opted for the UK original as I've never heard of the Official label. A shame, as I like the photo of Peggy on the Official version. My records are still mostly boxed up and my main stereo isn't set up yet after a house move. I'm currently playing The Fabulous Peggy Lee on the 60s Dansette in my avatar. It's an impressive album. I do want to get a copy of the 'Lover' album too but that didn't get a UK release so it could be tricky, especially as I don't want any rechannelled fake stereo rubbish!
I happen to have both of them. If I had to choose, I would have gone with the Ace of Hearts LP, too, if only because it's the true official label out of these two, insofar as it comes from the label that first issued The Fabulous Peggy Lee (i.e., Decca/Brunswick). That's not to say, though, that the LP from the Dutch label sounds bad. To me, it sounds very good. And add me to those who like that photo on the Official LP ... even if many other people seem to prefer the original Decca/Ace of Hearts pic, it seems. Official was a nice reissue label. I understand that it was actually a Public Domain label. If so, it was no five-and-ten-cent-store PD outfit. They cared. In addition to using nice artwork, the sound quality was good, and the liner notes could be worthwhile. Some of them were written by European music critics, and are quite extensive. Here are a few other albums on the Official label. Glad you liked it, too -- and good that you always have the Dansette available!
If it's the same as every other Jazz Heritage and Musical Heritage (same group's classical arm) CD that I own, it is a bit-for-bit clone of the existing (in this case) MCA/UMe/Decca version (assumedly the 1994 release).
It does look like they put out some good stuff. I wish they'd released 'Lover' as well as 'The Fabulous...' or instead though. I still haven't set my stereo up! I'm doing it last. I haven't heard a vinyl album in hi-fi or even stereo for weeks! I've bought some good ones since too.
