Today's hit: March 25: "Cow-Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" — The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald (1 week) - DECCA 18587
This is the first hit collaboration between The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald - though I'm not sure if it's their first collaboration at all (I imagine it might be?). Also a post-ban recording, not that that stopped The Ink Spots before, who could just record as a non-unionized vocal group.
"Cow Cow Boogie" was a cover - or, perhaps more accurately, a remake - of the first hit single in the history of Capitol Records. Capitol 102 was recorded on May 21, 1942 by Freddie Slack and His Orchestra with vocal by Ella Mae Morse. It made the top 10 of the pop charts in August 1942, during the ban, so no one else could cover it at that time. Ella and the Ink Spots recorded it on November 3, 1943.
today's hit, another pre-ban Duke Ellington cut: April 1: "Main Stem" — Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra (4 weeks)* - VICTOR 20-1556
Looked it up for ya', found this nice entry: Broadway has also been known as the "Main Stem." The term (used mostly in the 1920s and 1930s) is now historical. (Oxford English Dictionary) main stem, n. Chiefly N. Amer. colloq. a. The main line of a railway. b. The main course of a river. c. The principal street of a town (now the usual sense); spec. Broadway, New York. 1832 Amer. Railroad Jrnl. 1 804/2 The western fork..connects it with the main stem. 1854 Debow's Rev. July 19 The main stem, besides throwing off large boyous [sc. bayous], divides with the Northeast and Southeast Passes. 1869 Bradshaw's Railway Man. XXI. 426 Assets. Main Stem..Lebanon Branch extension..Richmond Branch. 1869 Debow's Rev. May 360 It [sc. the Illinois Central Railroad] has its main stem, and its branches of twelve hundred miles. 1900 'J. FLYNT' & 'F. WALTON' Powers that Prey x. 250 Investigations that have been begun in 'the main stem'. 1907 J. LONDON Road vii. 160 The kids began 'battering' the 'main-stem'. 1927 W. WINCHELL Primer Broadway Slang in Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 27 Nov. 134/4 Broadway is known as 'The Main Stem'. 6 March 1922, Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, WI), pg. 10: So there is night life in New York yet. The old main stem of Broadway may seem to be making forced motions on the flaccid inspiration of strawberry soda when first observed by the visitor from west of the Jersey shore. 29 September 1926, Variety, pg. ?: At first thought, this premise packs a punch but, as Joe Lee, the erudite Oriental philosopher, interprets it, "Broadway" will make the hicks expect the worst and their reaction upon being disappointed and finding themselves unmolested and treated civilly, will prove a boost for the Main Stem.
"Main Stem" was recorded June 26, 1942, at RCA's Hollywood recording studio, at the same session as its B-side, "Johnny Come Lately."
Branch-stem melds the railway theme. In a 70s a number by Commander Cody and the LPA called Down to Seeds and Stems suggested smoking, so I wondered whether in the 1940s there could have been a Weed allusion
Not much about this track easily found through an internet search. It's Decca, so probably a post-ban recording, which is consistent with the sound of the thing - an upbeat bluesy vocal big band cut, the sort that's been trending through the war but that we've been hard pressed for recordings of due to the ban. The singer, Ella Johnson, is Buddy's sister.
That's a great jazzy-blues number, and clearly war-inspired. I see on You Tube that these were the performers who first recorded the standard Since I Fell For You.
Numerically, "When My Man Comes Home" came immediately after the aforementioned "Ration Blues" by Louis Jordan, which was from one of Decca's first post-ban sessions. Musically, though, the Johnson 78 and its flip side, "I'll Always Be with You," were pre-ban recordings, as both were waxed on July 30, 1942. These were the last of the Decca backlog in the "Sepia Series"; every issued number after this was recorded after Decca settled with the AFM.
Today's hit (sorry for my irregular schedule lately!): April 29: "Straighten Up and Fly Right" — The Nat King Cole Trio (10 weeks)* - CAPITOL 154
At last, the King Cole Trio makes its "proper" Capitol debut. (The earlier "All for You" was a leased master from a small indie label, Excelsior.) Between "All for You" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right," the Trio did two other sessions, once again for small labels. They recorded four more songs for Excelsior on March 1, 1943 that were never released by Capitol, though all are on the Mosaic box set of the complete Capitol recordings of the King Cole Trio (18 CDs or 27 LPs). They are "Pitchin' Up a Boogie"/"I'm Lost" (Excelsior 105) and "Beautiful Moons Ago"/"Let's Spring One" (Excelsior 106). Had Capitol not settled with the AFM when it did, these might have become the Trio's follow-ups to "All for You." On November 2, 1943, the Trio was back in the studio for another session for a different small label, Premier. They must not yet have signed with Capitol, though that time was only a couple weeks away. Once again, the four songs from this session are on the Mosaic box despite not being issued by Capitol. The songs were "My Lips Remember Your Kisses"/"F.S.T." (Premier 100) and "Let's Pretend"/"Got a Penny" (Premier 103). In 1944, Premier changed its name to Atlas, which used the slogan "The World on Records." Atlas reissued both Trio 78s in 1944 on Atlas 100 and 102, respectively. Only four weeks later, on November 30, 1943, the Trio was in the C.P. MacGregor Studios in Los Angeles for its first Capitol session. "Straighten Up and Fly Right" was one of four songs recorded that day and the first to be released. Unusually, Nat Cole co-wrote the song, based on his memory of a sermon his father gave at the Baptist church in which the elder Coles preached. "Straighten Up and Fly Right" also made the top 10 of the pop charts, and the phrase entered popular culture as a hip synonym for "get your act together." It also hit #1 on the nascent Country & Western chart! I think the next time a record hit the top of both the R&B and C&W charts was in 1956, "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis Presley. When the Capitol Collector's Series CD was compiled in 1990, the producers wanted to go back to the original metal parts and/or lacquers for the pre-tape era, rather than using 1950s tape copies, in order to get the best possible sound. They got a surprise when they found the sources from the November 30, 1943 session. Because of wartime shortages of virtually everything used in the recording process at the time, the original master of "Straighten Up and Fly Right" was etched on a two-foot-in-diameter disc made of black glass!
Still truckin'... today's hit: July 15: "G.I. Jive" — Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five (6 weeks)* - DECCA 8659
The title seems very familiar but I don't think I've ever heard it before. But it's easy to see why it was a hit!
So far, this is the "newest" recording, as it was waxed on March 15, 1944. It was a cover of a Johnny Mercer song that was issued on Capitol 141. The flip side of the Jordan 78 was "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby)," which was a pretty big hit in its own right, peaking at #3 R&B, #2 pop and #1 country. No single by a black artist would hit the top of the C&W chart again until Charley Pride's "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" in 1969, 25 years later.
Today's hit has a promising name... September 2: "Hamp's Boogie Woogie" — Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra (6 weeks)* - DECCA 18613
