NRR Project: Hank Williams sings 'Lovesick Blues' (Dec. 22, 1948)

 

NRR Project: “Lovesick Blues”

Music by Cliff Friend; lyrics by Irving Mills

Performed by Hank Williams with his Drifting Cowboys

Recorded Dec. 22, 1948

Released Feb. 11, 1949

2:45

Read Susan Masino’s excellent explanatory essay here at the National Recording Registry!

Who can account for the hellacious splendiferousness of Hank Williams? His songs were imprinted on my soul by my mother, who played him constantly. We went and saw the 1964 biopic “Your Cheatin’ Heart” with George Hamilton as Williams. He was revered in our home like a saint. 

A born songwriter. A beautiful voice. And a huge pain in the neck.

.Born in 1923 in Alabama, Williams learned the guitar as a kid. He began performing country music in bars, schoolhouses, theaters, and at tiny radio stations. He finally got a record contract in 1944. He joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. Then he performed this song.

It was not a country song. It was not his own song. “Lovesick Blues” was a Tin Pan Alley song, written by Cliff Friend and Irving Mills in 1922. Emmett Miller recorded it in 1925 and 1928. Country singer Rex Griffin put his spin on it in 1939. Williams, who had heard Miller and Griffin’s renditions, decided to imitate Griffin’s approach. He played it on the Hayride show. The crowd went wild.

They recorded it. It went to Number One and stayed there for 16 weeks. Williams made it to the Grand Ole Opry on June 11, 1949; he was instantly a superstar.

He deserved it. He had a magical ability to telegraph whatever he was singing at the heart of the listener. He wrote and sang “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “I Saw the Light,” “Honky Tonkin’” and “Jambalaya,” “Hey, Good Lookin’” and “Cold Cold Heart.” He even did gospel – his narrative performances as Luke the Drifter are worth seeking out, as are his radio transcriptions.

And he had a tremendous problem with a alcohol and drugs. He was in chronic pain from a case of spina bifida. He became a stumbling wreck; he grew notoriously unreliable and out of it. He married and had a child, but he did not stop destroying himself as fast as he possibly could. He died in the back seat of a car on the way to a gig. He was 29.

Touched with genius and madness, Hank Williams’ life is a cautionary tale. His art is eternal, deeply influentials, and at its best poignantly heart-breaking. He was heartbreak personified.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’.

NRR Project: 'The Little Engine That Could" (1949)

 

NRR Project: “The Little Engine That Could”

Narrated by Paul Wing

Recorded 1949

13:44

This children’s classic receives its definitive oral rendition here. The story, narrated by Paul Wing, is written about by Roy E.Plotnick here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Hank Williams plays Lovesick Blues.

NRR Project: 'Kiss Me, Kate' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “Kiss Me, Kate”

Words and music by Cole Porter

Original Broadway cast album

Released Feb. 15, 1949

54:44

Cole Porter (1891-1964) was one of America’s songwriting geniuses. Along with Irving Berlin and Frank Loesser, he wrote both his music and his lyrics – a standalone talent.

Coming from a wealthy background, Porter attended elite schools, traveled widely, and lived well. His precocious talents meant that he was a prolific writer of songs, although he did not gain recognition until age 36. However, once he caught on he became highly celebrated. His work appeared in a number of successful musicials, with many of his hit songs becoming American standards. These include “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Let’s Do It,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and “You’re the Top.”

Porter came from an older songwriting tradition – one in which the songs did not relate intrinsically to the narrative material around them. Songs were plugged into librettos willy-nilly. This all changed with the success of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! in 1943. Now songs were integrated into a musical’s plot, used to advance the action or to illustrate character.

Porter met this challenge with Kiss Me, Kate, a backstage musical about a warring couple of performers who are starring in a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. (Producer Arnold Saint-Subber was inspired for the musical’s concept by observing the fractious relationship of famous actors/couple Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne in their 1935 production of Shrew.) Porter wrote some of his best work for the show – “So in Love,” “Too Darn Hot,” “From This Moment On,” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.”

The cast album came on on 78 r.p.m. records and, for the first time, on a brand-new technology -- a 33 1/3 r.p.m. “long-playing” record.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Little Engine That Could.

NRR Project: 'The Jazz Scene' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “The Jazz Scene”

Various artists

Produced by Norman Granz

Recorded 1949

2 hrs., 33 min.

Wow! I had heard pieces of this before, but I had no idea this album existed. It’s a jazz masterpiece, consisting of many talents contributing to a view of American jazz in the year 1954. Giants perform on this recording, and they play not their hits but new, challenging work that stretches the listeners’ sense of what the genre could accomplish.

Read Tad Hershorn’s epic, exhaustive essay on this album. The man to make this happen was the legendary producer Norman Granz (1918-2001), who supported the jazz community and worked for civil rights as well. Here he corrals great artists into doing whatever they want on record, going with the takes the artists approved of.

You must listen to this album! It carries a wide spectrum of performances, including: Charlie Parker. Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Nat ‘King’ Cole (on piano), , Buddy Rich, Bud Powell, and Billy Strayhorn. Here is Coleman Hawkins’ immortal solo piece, “Picasso,” and Machito’s hypnotic, stellar “Tanga,” bursting with horn blasts like shafts of light.

And so much more. Granz released the album in a set of only 5,000; he priced them at the then-astronomical $25. The album contained extensive liner notes, and photographs of the performers as well. It was truly a luxury object. This is America's classical music.

The extended version, gifted with some alternate takes, is over two hours of sonic bliss. I am listening to it again, all the way through.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Kiss Me, Kate’.

NRR Project: Flatt and Scruggs play 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown' (Dec. 11, 1949)

 

NRR Project: “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”

Written by Earl Scruggs

Performed by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs

Recorded Dec. 11, 1949

2:20

Wow. This iconic musical selection is interpreted by not one, but two expert essayists – Thomas Goldsmith and Brian Bader. Read their pieces!

Flatt and Scruggs were the first musicians to defect from playing for the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe. IT was evidently not a pleasant divergence. Such was the case with a myriad of musicians who played for Bill for a while and then moved on. Earl Scruggs was perhaps the most accomplished banjo player of all time; it certainly sounds like that on this recording.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘The Jazz Scene’.

NRR Project: Harry Truman’s speech at the Democratic National Convention (July 15, 1948)

 

NRR Project: Harry Truman’s speech at the Democratic National Convention

Delivered July 15, 1948

It was the first presidential nomination acceptance speech to be broadcast on TV. To really understand the effectiveness of this speech, one must understand the circumstances preceding it. To do so, read David Pietrusza’sessay on it at the National Recording Registry.

It was delivered at close to 2 in the morning, almost four hours late. The party was deeply divided. Truman was unpopular, and could not get the legislation he wanted through the Republican Congress. No one thought he would win the election.

He came up with a feisty little address, retailing the sins of the Republican Party. “ . . . the people know that the Democratic Party is the people's party, and the Republican Party is the Party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be,” he said. That he managed to rouse and unify the crowd that stood unsteadily after a long day of nominating is remarkable. He veered away from political rhetoric and spoke plainly. He illustrated his character with his words. And damned if he didn’t win the election!

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Flatt and Scruggs play ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown.’.

NRR Project: The Jack Benny Program, “Jack Is Robbed of Ronald Colman’s Oscar” (March 28, 1948)

NRR Project: The Jack Benny Program

“Jack Is Robbed of Ronald Colman’s Oscar”

Performed by Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, “Rochester” (Eddie Anderson), Don Wilson, et al

Performed March 28, 1948

28:59

It was the best comedy show on radio, hands down. It lasted from May 2, 1932 to May 22, 1955, one of the longest-running and most successful shows in the history of media. What made it so great?

Benny didn’t have the improvisational wit of Fred Allen, nor the cracked logic of Burns and Allen, nor the folksy tones of Vic ‘n’ Sade, Fibber McGee and Molly, Lum and Abner, and, yes, even Amos and Andy. What he had were killer writers who slowly transformed it from a variety show to a character-based situation comedy that featured its star as an inspired straight man.

The writers deserve mention – over the years Harry Conn, Al Boasberg, Howard Snyder, Hugh Wedlock Jr., Bill Morrow, Ed Beloin, Sam Perrin, Milt Josefsberg, George Balzer, and John Tackaberry all contributed to the Benny mythos.

He gathered top-notch performing talent who took what was essentially his direction of the show and made it really perc. He was a master of timing and reaction. Most importantly, he let his compatriots on the air get the laughs. He set them up with a deeply flawed persona – “Jack Benny” was vain, cheap, shrimpy, and balding, a petty smart-aleck who was almost always wrong. He played a schlub.

There are many sources of information about this show, such was its importance. You can read the explanatory essay by Kathy Fuller-Seeley at the National Recording Registry. The greatest capsule explication of The Jack Benny Show is in John Dunning’s On the Air, pgs. 355-363. You can also check out Benny’s and daughter’s memoir, Sundays Nights at Seven, and show writer Milt Josefberg’s The Jack Benny Show.

He started off cracking wise about New York, from whence the show originally came. This morphed into him doing parodies in between orchestra numbers for dancing. Benny started to banter with his fellow performers. Gradually, the gags about his pretended attributes turned into sources of endless jokes. He was so stingy he kept his money in his sock, his mattress, a secret bank vault under his house. He saw himself as a leading man. No one else did. He and his hair often got separated. He had himself driven, slowly, around town in a car made in 1925.

He moved the show to Hollywood in 1935. His announcer beginning in 1934, Don Wilson, was a jolly man mocked for his weight, who could deliver the integrated wisecracking commercials Benny and company snuck into the show. Benny’s wife Sadye Marks became Mary Livingstone, at first a daffy poet and singer and eventually a sharp-tongued deflater of Jack’s pretensions.

In 1935, he hired a talented tenor, Kenny Baker, to play a numskull version of himself. In 1936, he hired bandleader Phil Harris, who started off subdued and soon became a bragging, vain hipster with his mind on women and booze, a real ignoramus. In 1937, he brought on Eddie Anderson, who morphed into Benny’s put-upon butler, valet, chauffeur, and manservant, Rochester. He was the most beloved character; audiences cheered his entrances.

In 1939, Baker quit and Dennis Day became the new dopey tenor. Now the cast was complete. The show changed. Instead of spoofs of current movies, the show focused on Jack’s foibles – his lousy dates, his efforts to make and save a dollar, his disastrous encounters with studio executives. The show became about the creation of the show,  a “backstage” comedy, meta ahead of its time.

The great film actor Ronald Colman and his wife Benita first guest-starred on the show in December of 1945. Playing his next-door neighbors, these proper English were driven mad by Benny, who was always borrowing something, inviting himself to their parties, and generally being a pest.

The thrust of this episode consists of Jack selfishly asking to borrow Colman’s recently won Oscar to show to Rochester. Colman reluctantly consents, and Jack walks back to his house. A robber stops him in the street, and says, “Your money or your life!” Pause. “Look, bud, I said your money or your life!” “I’m thinking it over!” Jack replies. This is often cited as the biggest laugh Benny ever got – although the famous “Drear Pooson” gag of 1950 was more convulsive.

Benny made the transition to television in 1955, and continued for another decade. He continued to work until his death in 1974, making him one of the longest-lived comedians in American history.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Truman speaks at the Democratic National Convention, 1948.