Boyd Raeburn

Boyd Raeburn is known for his creative and complex band he led in the mid-1940's.  Musicians and critics loved his work, but the public wasn't as excited simply because most of his music wasn't "danceable".  Raeburn's music was more geared for the listener and not the dancer.

It's almost ironic that Raeburn went down this Progressive Jazz path like some other greats of the era including Woody Herman and Stan Kenton.  Because Raeburn entered the scene playing in some VERY commercial, mickey-mouse style bands through the 1930's.  Somewhere along the line his music matured into a much different direction.  

Raeburn is most know for his band that pushed musical boundaries from 1944 to 1947.  His Orchestra's arrangements would sometimes have a classical music "feel" to them and this helped attract many talented musicians to play in the band.  But, like I said earlier, the general public just wasn't ready.  He and the band still managed to build a very nice following that sustained him throughout his career.

Listen to: Tonsillectomy by Boyd Raeburn

In 1946, Raeburn married the band's beautiful vocalist Ginny Powell.  She had also provided some great vocals for Harry James and Gene Krupa through the years.  The couple left the music scene by the mid-1950's and remained married until Powell's death in 1959.  Raeburn moved on to run a furniture store in New Orleans and passed away in 1966 of a heart attack.

Raeburn's music should never be overlooked and you can hear many of his tracks right here on Swing City Radio.

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Some Johnny Long Soundies

Johnny Long and His Orchestra are responsible for eighteen Soundies throughout their career.  Today's clip features three of them in a row. The songs performed are: "It's A Sin to Tell a Lie" (1946), "It Must Be Jelly 'cause Jam Don't Shake Like That" (1946) and "In Old Shanty Town" (1943). They are all shown in their original reverse image and the sound quality is excellent.

A few notes on Johnny Long:

Johnny Long led a pretty good orchestra starting in the mid-1930's and really hit their high point in the early and mid-1940's.  Long was a an established violinist and that's not shown in these Soundies.  He started playing at the age of six, but injured two fingers on his left hand when he was bitten by a pig. He then learned to use his right hand to play the violin, and continued to do so until his death.

In my opinion, he had one of the worst slogan/nicknames in the Big Band Era.  Johnny Long was known as "The Man Who's Long on Music." Pretty tacky for a band that performed some great music.

If you were wondering, the woman dancing in "It Must Be Jelly..." is Doris York.  Enjoy!

Watch: Three Soundies by Johnny Long and His Orchestra.

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Hudson-DeLange Orchestra

The Hudson-DeLange Orchestra was a formed around the basic concept that Will Hudson and Eddie DeLange wrote some very good music together. The band was only around for a few years, but the music they made was excellent.  Hudson would normally compose the music and DeLange would pen the lyrics.  In fact, before creating a band together, the two co-authored "Moonglow" which went on to become a standard of the Big Band era.

In the mid 1930's, DeLange decided to form an orchestra.  He soon figured out that he would need a much deeper catalog to draw from so DeLange offered Hudson a partnership in his new band in exchange for his arranging abilities.  Hudson accepted and the Hudson-DeLange Orchestra was born.

In their limited time together, the Hudson-DeLange Orchestra managed to record a good amount of music for the Brunswick label.  Some of them became hits and many others resurfaced later covered by other big names from the era.  It was decided that DeLange lead the band while Hudson stayed behind the scenes. They played over 200 live dates throughout the Eastern portion of the United States over a two year span.

Listen to: "Definition of Swing" by Hudson-DeLange Orchestra

In early 1938, the band decided to call it quits.  Hudson continued to tour with a group under his own name.  When he later entered the military for World War II, he did some arranging for Glenn Miller's AAF Orchestra.  DeLange, also went on to form his own band and recorded a lot of sides for the Bluebird label.  He suffered from an early death in 1949. 

Even though The Hudson-DeLange Orchestra was around for only a very short time, the band did make it's mark on the era.  You can listen Hudson and DeLange right here on Swing City Radio.

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The Dinning Sisters: Soundies and Snaders

The Dinning Sisters were Capitol Records answer to the The Andrews Sisters who recorded for the Decca Label.  The trio consisted of Lucille Dinning, Jean Dinning and Ginger Dinning. Lucille left the group in 1946 to be replaced by Jayne Bundesen who stayed until 1952.

I chose to feature "Pig Foot Pete" by The Dinning Sisters because it was one of those rare songs that were made into both a Soundie and a Snader Telescription.  The Soundie from the 1940's includes the original line up and the Snader Telescription from the 1950's was recorded with Jayne Bundesen in place of Lucille.

It's interesting to see both side by side to view the comparisons and difference between Soundies and Snader Telescriptions.  Plus, it's a good song and easy to listen to twice. 😀  Take notice of the different production styles and presentation. Enjoy!

Watch: Soundie from the 1940's featuring "Pig Foot Pete" by The Dinning Sisters

Watch: Snader Telescription from the 1950's featuring "Pig Foot Pete" by The Dinning Sisters

Remember:  If you would like access to Bonus Content and Podcast Extras then join our Patreon and become a Hepcat.  It's a great way to support the station.  

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Guy Lombardo

Canadian born bandleader, Guy Lombardo, led the highly successful Royal Canadians for decades.  They were commonly billed as playing "the sweetest music this side of Heaven."  Personally, their music was a little too "sweet" for my taste, but there is simply no denying the popularity Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians enjoyed for a half century.  It's estimated that they sold somewhere between 100 and 300 million records during their careers.

Lombardo was also known as "Mr. New Year's Eve".  In 1929, his Orchestra provided the music for radio's first nationwide New Year's Eve broadcast which popularized the song "Auld Lang Syne" as a staple of the yearly celebration.  Lombardo's performances on radio, and later television, became a large part of New Year's traditions across North America for almost 50 years.  It wasn't until the mid 1970's that the popularity of his New Year's specials began to wane largely to the rise of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" which attracted younger viewers.  

I guess I should have held this post off until New Year's Eve, huh?  Oh well.

Listen to Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians perform  "Auld Lang Syne"

Believe it or not, Lombardo was also an important figure in Hydroplane Racing.  Lombardo just didn't race speed boats as some weekend hobby or mid-life crisis. He was the reigning U.S. national champion from 1946 to 1949.  Before his retirement from the Hydroplane Racing in the late 1950s, he had won every major trophy in the field.  When you listen to his sweet and mellow style of music, it's almost hard to imagine Lombardo traveling across the water at speeds of over 200 miles per hour.

You can hear many songs by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians right here on Swing City Radio.

Remember:  If you would like access to Bonus Content and Podcast Extras then join our Patreon and become a Hepcat.  It's a great way to support the station.  

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Snader Telescriptions

If you are a regular listener to "The Big Band and Swing Podcast" you are quite familiar with Soundies.  I enjoy playing the audio tracks from those great little films because they captured some fantastic footage from the Big Band Era.  Another outlet that provided that type of historical footage was Snader Telescriptions.  These "films" were recorded about a decade after Soundies and are frequently lumped in under the category "Soundies".  I've been guilty of that as well.  So I guess it's time to set the record straight.

Snader Telescriptions were produced in the early 1950's and they were made for Television broadcast.

Soundies were filmed in the early to mid 1940's and distributed through a national network of Panorams which were a type of visual jukebox.

They were both produced in a similar manner so it's easy to be confused.  They were made on extremely low budgets but they featured some great artist and performers of the day.  I've included a very informative short video documentary below that chronicles the history behind Snader Telescriptions.  It's really quite good.  Also, if you want to dig deeper about Snader Telescriptions, there is a fantastic article about the subject found on the Peggy Lee Discography website written by Iván Santiago-Mercado.  Click here to read that article.

When you get down to it, each provides some very entertaining footage of the music we love!  Here's that documentary I mentioned:

Watch: Short Video Documentary about Snader Telescriptions

Remember, you can hear the audio tracks of some of this great footage on "The Big Band and Swing Podcast."

Remember:  If you would like access to Bonus Content and Podcast Extras then join our Patreon and become a Hepcat.  It's a great way to support the station.  

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Irene Daye

Irene Daye had one of the more memorable voices of the Big Band Era.  She got her start at the age of 17 with Jan Murphy's band while still attending high school.  She eventually left school and joined Mal Hallett's outfit for a short time before entering the limelight with Gene Krupa's Orchestra.

Daye sang for Krupa from 1938 to 1941 and added her vocals to over 60 songs.  Her biggest hit was "Drum Boogie" which was recorded in the last session she did with Krupa's Orchestra.  She left shortly after to marry Corky Cornelius from the Casa Loma Orchestra and briefly retired from music to focus on family life and raising her daughter.

Listen to Irene Daye's vocals in "Drum Boogie" by Gene Krupa.

In late 1943, Cornelius died suddenly of kidney failure and Irene Daye decided to resume her singing career. In 1944, Daye landed with another big name from the era, Charlie Spivak.  She sang with Charlie Spivak's Orchestra for about six years then married Charlie in 1950.  She later retired from performing and focused on managing her husband's band until her death in 1971.

You can hear many of the songs Irene sang right here on Swing City Radio. 

Remember:  If you would like access to Bonus Content and Podcast Extras then join our Patreon and become a Hepcat.  It's a great way to support the station.  

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Soundies: Got To Be This Or That

This week's Soundie is "Got To Be This Or That" performed by Emil Coleman and His Orchestra with June Barton handling the vocals.

June Barton wasn't one of the biggest name female vocalists of the era, but she did spend some time in the bands of Ted Weems, Jan Garber and Xavier Cugat.

Emil Coleman was the leader of one of the most popular dance bands of the 1920's and even had a few hits in the early 30's.  By the time this Soundie was filmed in the early 1940's, Coleman's popularity had faded.

Watch the Soundie: "Got To Be This Or That"

To sum this Soundie up, these weren't marquee names of the time, but still an entertaining performance of this classic song.  Also, take note that the film is shown in reverse.  The key giveaway is the logo on the drum set.  The original Soundies were put on film in a reversed image due to the functionality of the Panoram machine that would play the Soundies.  A system of mirrors flashed the image from the lower half of the cabinet where the projector was onto a front-facing screen in the top half.  The images would appear normal to viewers after passing through the series of mirrors.

Remember:  If you would like access to Bonus Content and Podcast Extras then join our Patreon and become a Hepcat.  It's a great way to support the station.  

Check it out at: SupportSwing.com

Swing City Radio: Playing Your Big Band and Swing Music Favorites from the 1930's, 40's and Today! - Big Band Radio Station Streaming Online from King of Prussia, PA. Commercial Free!

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