SPECIAL RECORD: ONE ALONE, THE DESERT SONG

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A Ford 1
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SPECIAL RECORD: ONE ALONE, THE DESERT SONG

Post by A Ford 1 »

I have a record that has the happy and sad theater masks at the top the label lists DESERT SONG above the hole on both sides and under the hole SPECIAL RECORD below that the titles and (Romberg, Harbach, and Hammerstein); BAR HARBOR SOCIETY ORCH.; 1001-P on first and second sides. I think it may have been purchased at the performance or something like that. Does any one have input about such records.
Additionally, it has the patd in USAJan.21,13 and RE.16588 above the top DESERT SONG.
Allen

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gramophone-georg
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Re: SPECIAL RECORD: ONE ALONE, THE DESERT SONG

Post by gramophone-georg »

A Ford 1 wrote:I have a record that has the happy and sad theater masks at the top the label lists DESERT SONG above the hole on both sides and under the hole SPECIAL RECORD below that the titles and (Romberg, Harbach, and Hammerstein); BAR HARBOR SOCIETY ORCH.; 1001-P on first and second sides. I think it may have been purchased at the performance or something like that. Does any one have input about such records.
Additionally, it has the patd in USAJan.21,13 and RE.16588 above the top DESERT SONG.
Allen
Hi Allen:

Those are Columbia Personal (hence the "P" suffix) pressings and are quite interesting. Yes, these particular ones were available for purchase in the lobby at premier showings. I'm curious... did you get that one from me in the Trader about a year or so ago? I had two copies and sold one.

Columbia also pressed an MGM label (not affiliated with the yellow/ black 1940s records)in the late 1920s, as well as labels like "Ward's Trail Blazer" and the other "Personal" series discs. They are quite interesting and scant info is available. I have amassed a small collection of these over the years, and the Columbia Personal pressings from the mid 20s to about early 1931 are many times top dance bands under pseudonyms. Sam Lanin, Guy Lombardo, Ben Selvin, etc., and often alternate takes from the "commercial" recordings. Most of them seem to use the Columbia "budget" label pseudonyms (Bar Harbor Society Orch., The Astorites, Frank Auburn, etc.) but some do not, and some have completely different pseudonyms like "The Capitolians (Lanin) on MGM. Earlier personal Columbia pressings from the first two decades of the twentieth century seem to have far more obscure content, mostly regional ethnic.

Like the Harmony and Velvet- Tone budget labels, most of these seem to be recorded in "high fidelity acoustic" but some have the circled "W" indicating the Western Electric recording process.

Rudy Vallee actually made his recording debut on a Columbia personal record- as Bolton and Cipriano's Orchestra. This one (thankfully) is electric and it's "You'll Do It Someday (so Why Not Now)" and is quite "hot".

If I get a chance and I can remember, I'll go through my collection and get some photos.
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jmad7474
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Re: SPECIAL RECORD: ONE ALONE, THE DESERT SONG

Post by jmad7474 »

This record was recorded in 1926 (the same year that The Desert Song was written) and its purpose was to help promote the then-new show in concert venues, record shops and theaters. Columbia must have been the prime label on which to release specialty recordings, since I encounter them quite frequently in my neck of the woods and they are always interesting to listen to. I own a copy of this record, and while "One Alone" makes for a bouncy fox trot, I think it sounds best when performed lento:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr_snuxkNp0 (by the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnH1rGfA7Bg (by a certain member of this forum)

A Ford 1
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Re: SPECIAL RECORD: ONE ALONE, THE DESERT SONG

Post by A Ford 1 »

The record collection of a Dr. Weightman Zinn of Baltimore was given to me some 33 years a go by a Mr. Lou Miller when he and his wife moved. He had taken them off the hands of the Doctor's son some time after the Doctor's death. I will have to look at some of the albums for more. Most of the records in the albums had been broken in transport before I received them.
Allen

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