The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Inspired by the other thread about 78s you always find... not all Deccas, red label Columbias, or post scroll Victor/ RCA Victor records are eye rolling junk.

Here are some of my favorites. Feel free to add to the list.

Red Columbias
Benny Goodman:
Honeysuckle Rose
Why Don't You Do Right
Let's Dance
Mission To Moscow
Anything else with Peggy Lee

Woody Herman
Atlanta, G.A.

Count Basie
Ride On / It's Sand, Man!

Harry James
All Or Nothing At All (1950s reissue- good luck finding an original 1939 "Jazz Masterworks pressing!)
I've Heard That Song Before
Prince Charming
Who told you I cared? (Sinatra- usually found as '50s reissue)

Decca

Jimmy Dorsey
Perfidia
Tangerine
They're Either Too Young Or Too Old

Guy Lombardo
Managua, Nicaragua

Charlie Barnet
Skyliner

Glenn Miller
Moonlight Bay- this was reissued in the black label era

Woody Herman
Laughing Boy Blues
Blues In The Night

Bob Crosby
The "Shakespeare in Swing" sides are quite interesting, issued as a 2 record set

Bluebird
Many 1920s Victor 38000 "Race" series reissues

Artie Shaw
Any Old Time w/ Billie Holiday. Early issues state "Art" Shaw and "Billy" Holiday. Earliest are on Staff label

Glenn Miller
In The Mood (of course!)

Kay Kyser
Collegiate Fanny

Charlie Barnet
"Cherokee"
"The Wrong Idea" (hilarious spoof on Sammy Kaye as "Swing and Sweat with Charlie Barnet", supposedly Kaye wanted to "kill" Barnet over it)

OKeh (purple label)

Benny Goodman:
Jersey Bounce
All others with Peggy Lee

Victor

Benny Goodman
Just about any- even RCA reissues- these were Benny's "breakout" sides, lots with Fletcher Henderson arrangements, and are quite good!

Tommy Dorsey
I've Got a Note
Satan Takes A Holiday
Jammin'
Josephine/ If the Man In The Moon Were A Coon (racist lyrics and Jack Leonard sounds a little embarrassed, but a great arrangement with mercifully short vocal. Knowing Tommy's feelings about racist BS I'm surprised he recorded it!)
Swing Time Up In Harlem/ Swing High
Will You Still Be Mine? (Connie Haines)
Yes, Indeed! (Jo Stafford and Sy Oliver vocal- great record and pushes the contemporary racial "envelope" with a black guy singing with a white girl! Radical for 1941)
All sides with Sinatra. Though later ones with the added string section can be sappy, it's still Frank!
Well, Git It!
Opus One
At The Fat Man's (w/ Charlie Shavers)
Sweet Eileen
I Ought To Know More About You

Artie Shaw
April In Paris
Alone Together
King For A Day
Who's Excited
What Is There To Say?
Don't Fall Asleep
Gloomy Sunday
Cross Your Heart/ Summit Ridge Drive
I Can't Get Started
A Foggy Day

That's all I can think of off the top of my head on short notice.

Who else wants to play?

I like Gene Krupa Orchestra records on Red Columbia or Okeh, especially those with Anita O'Day on vocal. Very common. What's the commonest ? Probably Let Me Off Uptown. But most of them are good.

A real common Artie Shaw Bluebird is Stardust / Back Bay Shuffle.

Wolfe wrote:I like Gene Krupa Orchestra records on Red Columbia or Okeh, especially those with Anita O'Day on vocal. Very common. What's the commonest ? Probably Let Me Off Uptown. But most of them are good.

A real common Artie Shaw Bluebird is Stardust / Back Bay Shuffle.

I always liked Krupa's "Boogie Blues", now that you mention it.

Just don't play "Gloomy Sunday" if you are depressed or lonely... it's the Hungarian Suicide Song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55FP1LfkkVQ

Sunday is gloomy
My hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows
I live with are numberless
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coach
Of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thoughts
Of ever returning you
Would they be angry
If I thought of joining you
Gloomy Sunday
Gloomy is Sunday
With shadows I spend it all
My heart and I
Have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be candles
And prayers that are said I know
Let them not weep
Let them know that I'm glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death I'm caressin' you
With the last breath of my soul
I'll be blessin' you
Gloomy Sunday
Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart here
Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is tellin' you
How much I wanted you
Gloomy Sunday

I am so depressed i am going to collect MP3 files now!.....gloomy pixels...

Vinrage_mania wrote:I am so depressed i am going to collect MP3 files now!.....gloomy pixels...

LMAO!

I would add Artie Shaw's Traffic Jam (really hot swing), and his Lady Be Good.
His Concerto for Clarinet is good too on 12". I like Ellington's jazz symphony Black, Brown, and Beige on two 12" Victors. For Charlie Barnet, besides Cherokee Redskin Rhumba is a must. For Woody Herman, I like his Ebony Concerto by Stravinsky on Everest LP, or probably a Columbia 78 12".

Curt A wrote:Just don't play "Gloomy Sunday" if you are depressed or lonely... it's the Hungarian Suicide Song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55FP1LfkkVQ

Sunday is gloomy
My hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows
I live with are numberless
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coach
Of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thoughts
Of ever returning you
Would they be angry
If I thought of joining you
Gloomy Sunday
Gloomy is Sunday
With shadows I spend it all
My heart and I
Have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be candles
And prayers that are said I know
Let them not weep
Let them know that I'm glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death I'm caressin' you
With the last breath of my soul
I'll be blessin' you
Gloomy Sunday
Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart here
Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is tellin' you
How much I wanted you
Gloomy Sunday

I have the Charlie Barnet version of that one. Wasn’t fun getting the masking tape somebody decided to use a price tag off the record grooves.

I would add Bunny Berigan to this list, and while nowhere near as common as Bing, Bob Crosby.

And in this era at least, unlike today's music, I wouldn't automatically throw something out just because it's "Country" without listening to it first.

marcapra wrote:I would add Artie Shaw's Traffic Jam (really hot swing), and his Lady Be Good.
His Concerto for Clarinet is good too on 12". I like Ellington's jazz symphony Black, Brown, and Beige on two 12" Victors. For Charlie Barnet, besides Cherokee Redskin Rhumba is a must. For Woody Herman, I like his Ebony Concerto by Stravinsky on Everest LP, or probably a Columbia 78 12".

Yes, forgot about Traffic Jam. Good one! The flip side, "Serenade To A Savage" is no slouch, either.