'Me and my shadow'--Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra.

[Viva-Tonal]

This is the A side of Victor 20675, a copy of which was the first scroll label Victor record I ever saw, in 1974. That record was given to me, and unfortunately was broken shortly afterward in a freak accident. It wasn't until 2002 when I found another copy via a Nauction, that I luckily won, that I finally got a replacement.

Johnny Marvin sings the vocal refrain, and I expect that's him who's playing rhythm ukulele while he's singing.

The hot bass level is the way the recording was balanced, not something I wrought from EQing.

In transferring this record I got the sense the two sides of this record straddled whatever point in time they decided to begin cutting masters closer to 78 rpm than they generally had been doing. The other side of this record was recorded on 31 January 1927, and sounded fine transferred at 76.5 rpm. This side was recorded on 12 May 1927, and sounded a little flat at that speed.

Here it is, presented at 77.75 rpm: http://www.box.net/shared/913z2kidux

[richardh]

Now, I thought this was a tune from the 1960's...I never knew it dated back this far!! Great redition and WoW what bass! Bet that would sound great on a vintage radiogram where they really boost the bass anyways!

Great disk, bet you were glad to find another copy of it.

Interesting to hear this Victor disk suffering from the "whilstling" characteristic of some cheaper brand records....you can hear it particularly during the last 30 seconds or so of the recording. Anyone know what causes it?

RJ

[Viva-Tonal]

'Cutter whistle' it's called. It happened quite a bit on a number of Victors around 1928 for some reason. It's due to the wax becoming so cooled off by then that the cutting stylus is 'violining' somewhat whilst cutting. (You'll also hear it at the end of the other side of this record too!)

[WDC]

Just working myself through the posts of the last week. That's indeed a great one, Nat Shilkret did have some real good arrangements recorded.