The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here is my transfer of the controversial song sung by Patricia Norman and Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra. Controversial because many people think she drops the F-Bomb a number of times. It was even banned in the UK. I have to say after transferring it (and hearing it too many times) and making a YouTube video of it I am fairly confident the phrase is actually Buck, Buck, Bucket. But, to each his own and a little controversy never hurt anyone. It made this record sell 170,000 copies because of all the publicity! So I doubt those involved ever actually tried to dispel the rumors. And, who knows... perhaps she did actually drop the F-Bomb.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to watch the video on YouTube in HD.)

https://youtu.be/VvHsoApvLJ8


Here is the other side which is also sung by Patricia Norman. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to watch the video on YouTube in HD.)

https://youtu.be/TzMQykAkE94

Wonderful record. I love Duchin but miss the piano being a big part of the music. Still it has a real driving sound which is hard to beat. As to F or B Its a bit hard to say. Sometime she seems to use the F followed by the B, but probably no one will every figure it out for sure.

Larry

larryh wrote:Wonderful record. I love Duchin but miss the piano being a big part of the music. Still it has a real driving sound which is hard to beat. As to F or B Its a bit hard to say. Sometime she seems to use the F followed by the B, but probably no one will every figure it out for sure.

Larry

Right up there with "Did Joe Venuti actually sing 'Barnacle Bill The Sh!thead'?"

Several years ago, a friend and I actually made a Cylinder record (through the wonderful works of Vulcan Cylinder) of a super clean copy of this record. Its a four-minute format and turned out stunning. I think there may be one left if anyone has interest.

Contact me at [email protected] if you are interested.

Would be interesting to see the uncited source of the Discogs-given sales figure of 170,000.

Unfortunately Discogs, Wikipedia and other sites are loaded with unproven and excessive sales figures to I guess amaze the masses.

Paul Whiteman and Enrico Caruso seem to be the most misquoted sales figures

Paul77 wrote:Paul Whiteman and Enrico Caruso seem to be the most misquoted sales figures

I don't know exact numbers but Enrico Caruso became a multi-millionaire from his 50 cents per record sold contract with Victor. So, certainly his records sold millions. And, as virtually every antique store in the country has multiple Caruso records, it is not at all hard to believe. This is obviously true for John McCormack and probably also for Paul Whiteman. So, I don't exactly know what you are getting at.

larryh wrote:Wonderful record. I love Duchin but miss the piano being a big part of the music. Still it has a real driving sound which is hard to beat. As to F or B Its a bit hard to say. Sometime she seems to use the F followed by the B, but probably no one will every figure it out for sure.

Larry

Indeed, it's a really nice hard-driving tune (very un-Duchin-ish) during the verses. It's that section that I often have stuck in my head, and has caused me to wear out my copy. The loping chorus with the cussing and chicken voice, however, is kinda goofy.

Thanks for the upload, it sounds great!