Pioneers–Bing, Lennie, et al
Staying in the year 1931, we have two more Bing Crosby songs that give us great insight into the popular and Broadway music of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. This was an incredible period of time, where many forms of American music were being recorded. In Country music, the Carter Family was laying down tracks that would echo over the decades and influence other singers. Ragtime and then Blues music was being published and recorded. Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and other fine American composers were writing songs that eventually would make their way into the American Songbook.
So, the interplay between music recordings and Broadway needs to be better understood. This is especially true in the 1930’s as Broadway composers and orchestrators headed west to create music departments within the major Hollywood studios. Sound stages became the bedrock of musical preservation. We went through this in the last few years, showing name after name of orchestrators and music directors who were struggling on Broadway but suddenly blossomed in the Southern California sun.
We are going to try to use our first song, “I’m Through With Love,” as an example of the integrated nature of musical genres. Two jazz musicians, Matty Malneck and Joseph Anthony (Fud) Livingston, wrote the music, to which Gus Kahn added some remarkable lyrics. One of the first recordings was made by Bing Crosby in the Brunswick recording studio and then on the air. We have the Brunswick recording and will play it for you shortly; however, the “rest of the story” is even more important.
Steve Sullivan has written an epic Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. We found this work as we unsuccessfully searched for the sidemen used in the Brunswick recording. In his book Sullivan said:
“Less than three months after he recorded it in the studio [Brunswick], Crosby delivered his greatest rendition of ‘I’m Through with Love’ on the September 2, 1931 debut broadcast of ‘Fifteen Minutes with Bing Crosby,’ the CBS program that provided his first exposure over a nationwide radio hookup. He was nervous at first as heard on his first couple of numbers, but had warmed up by this concluding selection, accompanied by his regular guitarist Eddie Lang and violinist Joe Venuti.”
Now, we can start to unravel some of the musical connections. My Father had had a small band in NY and his piano player was a high school friend named Lennie Hayton. Lennie and Dad went to Harlem late at night with a lot of the musicians from the Broadway pit orchestras, such as Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Red Nichols, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, etc. Lennie jammed with one of the great stride piano players, Willie “the Lion” Smith. Lennie was a proven talent and had a recognized name around New York.
One day, Lennie got a call from Charley Previn who conducted the CBS radio band/orchestra; they had just signed a new singer named Bing Crosby to perform during a key fifteen minute spot in their radio lineup. Would Lennie do the arrangements? Regular work was hard to get; so it did not take long for Lennie to agree. And Dad was able to watch Lennie work. More on that another time.
Before we go any further, for some of our younger visitors, we need to explain the concept of “key time slots” on the radio. In 1930, there were records, but they cost money and could only be played on something like the Victrola player. Most people did not have a player or could not afford to buy new records, and so they opted for buying a radio, where the music was free. All around the country, each station had local programming and something called nationwide hookups, which allowed them to rebroadcast New York broadcasts through connections or hookups with a national network, like CBS.
Singers and bands fought to get on the air during the critical fifteen-minute time slots when families would be preparing or eating dinner. Benny Goodman was able to get more time with the Dance Hour but the slot was late at night. Tommy Dorsey had Frank Sinatra, before Frank went out on his own. Russ Columbo and Rudy Vallee were big draws. This type of competition assured the audience of getting new songs performed by some of the best musicians and singers around. Families ate in hushed silence when their favorite singer was on the air.
No wonder Bing Crosby was little nervous in his debut performance. But let’s understand why he might be a little nervous. New songs meant new arrangements. Bing may have seen the music very shortly before he went on the air. As the saying went, the ink may not have fully dried on the orchestra parts being handed out to the band members and the singer, but these musicians had two great qualities: they could sight read and get the right style and rhythm in one rehearsal that night; and they could “accompany” the singer, meaning that they could adjust their playing to accommodate the vocalist.
Bing had friends, like Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti, who I have talked about before. But he also had Lennie in his corner; and Lennie could play the vocal part during commercial breaks as the band got ready for the next on-air performance. Bing could “sing in his sleep” they said, because he was a fun-loving guy who sometimes drank his lunch. There were guys who knew his favorite bars and would be responsible for getting Bing to the mike.
Bing was as good as gold with his friends, and recorded “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” in 1932 with Lennie Hayton and His Orchestra on Brunswick. He brought Eddie and Lennie onto the set during the shooting of The Big Broadcast in 1932, a full length movie. When we show the clip you will briefly see Lennie at the piano and Eddie playing the guitar. They recorded “Please” in the movie, and that helped to jumpstart the era of the Hollywood musical. Lennie would later go back and capture the transition from silent movies to the “talkies” in the great musical Singing in the Rain. But some of that music was used previously in the 1933 movie, Going Hollywood, Lennie’s first opportunity to arrange the music of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed.
Lennie and Bing would record “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You” in 1933, with the Brunswick Studio Orchestra. Lennie was playing the piano and was able to direct Bing through the song. But Bing stayed at Paramount, and Lennie went to MGM, so much of that collaboration ended in the mid-1930’s. Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti stayed in New York, for the most part. When I was growing to like jazz, Eddie had a club on 57th Street and brought in a lot of the old time greats to sit in on sessions. But rock and roll changed the need for jazz musicians in the studio. End of one era and the beginning of the next one.
Now that you know more of the “story,” let’s listen to “I’m Through with Love.” (BTW, anyone remember Marilyn Monroe reviving the song in the movie, Some Like It Hot?”)