At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

 

1949 Part One – The 7″ Mix

2024 has been the year of my 45th birthday (yes, still so young, I know) and the number has set me thinking about the importance of the 45RPM 7” single in my life. I’ve been playing them as long as I can remember, receiving packages of remaindered singles in the 1980s, buying a few every week at Magpie Records in Worcester in the mid-90, traveling with me in a big stripy box as I moved around, and now there they sit on my shelves still, though I don’t have a functioning stereo system now. My LPs, undoubtedly worth more, were left in the locked room of a friend in Southampton nearly 20 years ago and never recovered, it’s annoying, but not something I lose sleep about, the singles are much more important. Beside all the memories, there’s something about the format that seems kind of perfect. Small enough to comfortably carry around, each side just containing a few minutes of music, there’s something at once unfussy and potentially extravagant about both form and content. Singles like the one you see in the picture here often have larger holes, indicating their use in a jukebox, this little disc adaptable enough to be used as a replicable part in any number of mass produced machines. And that of course means b-sides, a chance for the act to try out something new without the risk of a negative reaction, and in many cases the disc would be flipped by a dj, and the b-side could be the hit that changed everything.

In short, the 7” vinyl single is one of the most important inventions of the 21st century, and it all started in 1949, when RCA released their new format, replacing the larger, more brittle shellac discs with a new compound – polyvinyl chloride. As when most new formats are introduced, RCA were engaged in a war with a competitor, Columbia’s 12” vinyl LP – only in this case the two formats had very different niches, and could (after a couple of years) be played by the same equipment, so both survived.

The original 7” single wasn’t in exactly the standard form we know today. The larger, jukebox-sized hole in the centre came as standard, as did coloured vinyl. The idea was that each genre would have its own colour, with red for pop music, green for country, yellow for children’s records, and a confusion of other shades for jazz, R&B, classical and so on. As should be clear to anyone listening to this mix, the differences between these genres were particularly muddy in 1949, and the idea was soon dropped.

The change was not, of course, immediate. Most of the music in this mix was still issued on 78RPM shellac discs, and they would continue to be manufactured all the way through the 50s, and in some countries even into the 70s. But the time was certainly ripe for a cheap, portable, harder to shatter format, and even if rock and roll had not already begun in all but name, early 1950s pop music would also suit it well. We are three years away from the introduction of the UK singles chart, and the 7” record’s abilities and limitations would do a great deal to set the parameters of popular music as we know it.

Track list

Intro

(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr) 0:00:03 RCA Victor Orchestra – South Pacific Overture (Clip from NBC News) 0:00:33 Jnan Prakash Ghose – Tabla Instrumental

January

(Clip from 1949 Year In Review) (Background from Pierre Schaeffer – Vagotte) (Clip from Dragnet) (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:04:00 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five – Saturday Night Fish Fry 0:06:58 Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs – Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 0:09:58 Tennessee Ernie Ford – Cry Of The Wild Goose (Clip from Harry S Truman Inauguration) 0:13:50 Doris Day – Again (Clips from Harry S Truman Inauguration) 0:16:55 Machito and His Afro-Cuban Salseros – Babarabatiri (Clip from Harry S Truman Inauguration) 0:20:31 Babs Gonzales – Prelude to a Nightmare (Clip from interview with Albert Glenny) 0:22:56 Dizzy Gillespie – Jump-Did-Le-Ba (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:25:26 Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly – New York, New York (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) 0:28:39 Charlie Ventura – East Of The Sun (Clip from So Much For So Little) 0:31:50 Evelyn Knight And The Stardusters – A Little Bird Told Me

February

(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 0:34:36 The Angelic Gospel Singers – Touch Me, Lord Jesus (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 0:36:39 Ruth Brown – I’ll Get Along Somehow (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:40:11 Fats Domino – The Fat Man (Clip from Dragnet) (Clip from So Much For So Little) 0:42:49 Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 1 (Clip from The Heiress) 0:44:41 Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 2 (Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts) 0:46:00 Jerry Byrd – Steel Guitar Rag (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr) 0:48:56 George Lewis & His New Orleans Music – Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula (Clip from interview with Alphonse Picou and Paul Dominguez, Jr.) 0:51:51 Brew Moore – Gold Rush 0:54:55 Lead Belly – Sugared The Beer 0:55:46 Lead Belly – Salty Dog (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)

March

(Clip from NBC TV News) 0:59:11 Hank Williams – I Just Don’t Like This Kind Of Living (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:02:07 Goree Carter – Back Home Blues (Clip from Jack Benny Show) (Clip from Fred Allen Show) 1:04:10 Myrta Silva & Sonora Matancera – La Tremenduca (Clip from Suspense) (Clip from NBC TV News) 1:07:30 Takamine Hideko – Ginza Kankan Musume (Clip from You Bet Your Life) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) 1:09:06 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – I’m Going Back to Old Kentucky 1:09:22 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – Blue Grass Stomp (Clip from White Heat) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:11:17 Professor Longhair – Mardi Gras In New Orleans (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:14:27 Bull Moose Jackson – Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:16:17 Betty Hutton – Hamlet (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr) 1:19:27 Noro Morales & His Orchestra – 110th Street And 5th Avenue (Clip from Jack Benny Show)

April

(Clip from Review of News From The Year 1949) (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:22:36 Firehouse Five Plus Two – Everybody Loves My Baby (Clip from Review of News From The Year 1949) 1:25:45 A. Rahman & Columbia Orchestra – Oh, Juita Ku (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:27:46 Elton Britt & The Skytoppers – Candy Kisses (Clip from The Shadow) 1:29:55 Dinah Washington – Baby Get Lost (Clip from The Jack Benny Show) (Radio jingle for Lipton Tea) 1:32:54 South Pacific Original Broadway Cast – I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair 1:36:19 South Pacific Original Broadway Cast – Happy Talk (Clip from Jim & Judy in Teleland) 1:39:49 Todd Duncan and Chorus – A Bird of Passage, Thousands of Miles (Reprise) (Clip from Jour de feté) 1:41:41 Charles Trenet – Mes jeunes années (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) (Clip from So Much For So Little) 1:43:51 Texas Slim – Devil’s Jump (Clip from So Much For So Little) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:45:53 Doris Day – I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed By Anyone But You

May

(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:49:02 Marlene Dietrich – Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (Clips from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines / Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:53:01 Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) – You’re Gonna Miss Me (Clips from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines / Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:56:00 Roberto Firpo – Instrumental – De Mi Arrabal (Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 1:58:14 Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra – I Loves You Porgy (Clip from Review of News for The Year 1949) 2:01:31 Arsenio Rodriguez Y Su Conjunto – Dundunbanza (Clip from Late Spring) 2:03:19 Sanjou Machiko – Karisome no Koi (Clips from Late Spring) 2:08:14 Ichi no Maru – Shamisen Boogie Woogie (Clips from Late Spring) 2:10:25 Jerry Byrd – Steelin’ The Blues (voc. Rex Allen) (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) 2:13:26 The Five Scamps – Red Hot (Clip from White Hot) 2:15:60 TJ Fowler – Tj Boogie (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)

June

(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 2:18:29 Nathan Abshire – Pine Grove Blues (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 2:21:31 Jewel King – 3 x 7 = 21 (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 2:23:33 Big Joe Turner – Jumpin’ at the Jubilee (Clip from A Warning To Travelers) 2:25:13 Noro Morales – Serenata Ritmica (Clip from A Warning To Travelers) 2:28:15 Sugar Chile Robinson – Numbers Boogie (Clip from A Warning To Travelers) 2:30:57 Evelyn Knight – Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) (Clip from The Shadow) 2:33:25 Frank Floorshow Culley – Central Avenue Breakdown 2:34:37 Carl Stalling – Variations on Johann Strauss (Clip from So Much For So Little) 2:34:45 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Ida Red Likes the Boogie (Clip from You Bet Your Life) (Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts) 2:37:30 Hank Williams – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Outro

(Clip from Suspense) (Clip from White Heat) (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) 2:41:05 The Robins – If It’s So Baby (Clip from The Shadow) (Clip from NBC News) (Clip from Le Silence De La Mer) 2:44:35 RCA Victor Orchestra – South Pacific Overture (Clip from The Hitchhiker)

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Tracks

0:00:00 Jeff Alexander & Alfred Hitchcock – Music to Be Murdered By (1958) 0:01:36 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You (1956) 0:04:00 Clip from Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956) 0:04:22 Bert Convy – The Monster Hop (1958) 0:06:47 Clip from Diabolique (1955) 0:06:48 Tony & The Monstrosities – Igor’s Party (1959) 0:09:02 Clip from The Fly (1958) 0:09:13 The Hollywood Flames – Frankenstein’s Den (1958) 0:11:18 Clip from Them! (1954) 0:11:35 The Swinging Phillies – Frankenstein’s Party (1957) 0:14:10 Nelson Olmstead – Excerpt from The Mummy’s Foot by Theophile Gautier (1956) 0:14:35 Bob McFadden & Dor – The Mummy (1959) 0:16:32 Clip from Horror Of Dracula Trailer (1958) 0:16:58 The Duponts – Screamin Ball (At Dracula Hall) (1958) 0:19:12 Clip from Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) 0:19:17 Calypso Carnival featuring King Flash – Zombie Jamboree (Back To Back) (1956) 0:21:46 Clip from House on Haunted Hill (1959) 0:22:05 Jack Rivers – Haunted House Boogie (1951) 0:24:47 Clip from The Thing (1951) 0:25:02 The Five Blobs – The Blob (1958) 0:27:29 Clip from Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) 0:27:43 Sheb Wooley – The Purple People Eater (1958) 0:29:53 Nelson Olmstead – Excerpt from The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson (1956) 0:30:05 The Poets – Dead (1958) 0:31:57 Clip from Night of The Demon (1957) 0:32:12 Eartha Kitt – I Want To Be Evil (1953) 0:35:41 Clip from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 0:35:55 Howlin’ Wolf – Evil Is Goin’ On (1954) 0:38:43 Clip from The Quatermass Xmeriment (1955) 0:39:04 Paul J Smith – The Monster! (From 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) (1954) 0:40:15 Clip from Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) 0:40:25 Akira Ifukube – Horror in the Water Tank (1954) 0:40:40 Clip from The Headless Ghost (1959) 0:41:02 Nightmares – The Headless Ghost (1959) 0:42:41 Clip from Bell, Book and Candle (1958) 0:42:59 Kip Tyler – She’s My Witch (1958) 0:45:13 Clip from Bell, Book and Candle (1958) 0:45:26 Frank Sinatra – Witchcraft (1957) 0:48:09 Clip from The Night of the Hunter (1955) 0:48:16 Gene Vincent – Race With The Devil (1956) 0:50:16 Clip from The Thing That Couldn’t Die Trailer (1958) 0:50:30 The Calvanes – Horror Pictures (1958) 0:52:30 Clip from Horror Of Dracula (1958) 0:53:27 Archie King – The Vampires (1959) 0:55:44 Clip from The Creature With The Atom Brain (1955) 0:56:00 The Zanies – The Mad Scientist (1958) 0:57:50 Einer Nielsen – Phantom Stimmen (1950) 0:58:07 Bobby Christian With The Allen Sisters – The Spider & The Fly (1958) 1:00:09 Clip from House of Wax (1953) 1:00:23 The Revels – Dead Mans’ Stroll (1959) 1:02:48 Dick Jacobs and his Orchestra – Main Title from The Horror of Dracula (1958)

This time James Errington is joined by John Ashlin to explore the music of 1916. While Europe lies devastated in the midst of the darkest year of the first world war, America is hotting up, with the birth of jazz and blues music imminent, while the old world of Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley is struggling to adapt.

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At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

 

1948 Part Two – Move

In part one we saw how tape technology was transforming the sound of the world in 1948. In part two we’ll take a cue from another new development – the long playing record. When I first heard that the LP had been less than twenty years old when Sgt Pepper was released – or just eleven years old when Kind of Blue was released, it seemed hard to believe. I was so accustomed to thinking of music as naturally fitting in this format – two sides of around 20-25 minutes each. But until now, nobody was experiencing music like that. There were “albums” it’s true – there had been since the Edwardian age – but these were “albums” in the “photo album” sense. Booklets of perhaps eight double-sided shellac discs, with sides numbered under the assumption that they would be played as a stack on top of a record player (side one matched with side eight maybe.) These cumbersome things were meant for classical music, and not anything as disposable as jazz. But jazz was one step ahead already. By now of course we have this wave of Be Bop artists, often playing improvised music for hours on end, also very much unsuited to a short side of shellac.

Columbia’s new long playing discs (and RCA Victor’s new 7” singles) do not make up a substantial proportion of this mix, but where last time everything was a tape cut up, this time we’re more in the realm of the sometimes meandering, sometimes slow groove building world made possible by this new medium. This is less of a mix to pay attention to, and more a mix to sit back and enjoy. Which is the way forward? We’ll just have to see. The decade is almost over, we’ve come a long way, but there’s one last shock for us before we reach the heart of the century.

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Tracklist

Intro

(Clip from Naked City) 0:00:00 John Cage & Jay Gottlieb – Dream (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from Truth or Consequences) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) 0:00:54 Brother Bones And His Shadows – Sweet Georgia Brown (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:03:51 Cold Storage Rhythm – Skokiaan (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:06:24 Blue Ridge Quartet – Hard Times Will Soon Be Over

Part One – Rock

(Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:09:02 Wynonie Harris – Good Rockin’ Tonight (Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:11:45 Bill Moore – We’re Gonna Rock (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:14:23 Jimmy Liggins – Cadillac Boogie (Clip from This is Bing Crosby) 0:16:28 Wild Bill Moore – Rock and Roll (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:19:17 Amos Milburn – Chicken-Shack Boogie (Clip from interview with Vera Hall)

Part Two – Move

0:21:23 Crown Price Waterford – Move Your Hand, Baby (Clip from Spike Jones Show) 0:23:06 Milt Jackson & Thelonious Monk – Misterioso (Clip from Exploding Cigarettes Prank) (Clip of Symphony Syd introducing Miles Davis Band) 0:27:26 Miles Davis – Move 0:30:36 Charlie Parker – Relaxin’ at the Camarillo 0:32:54 Hazel Scott – Love Will Find A Way (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948)

Part Three – Mist

0:35:07 Pee Wee King – Bull Fiddle Boogie (Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:37:43 Rip Ramsey – Wanderers Swing (Clip from interview with Vera Hall) (Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God) 0:40:24 Kenny Clarke – Algerian Cynicism (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:43:12 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Lady Of The Lavender Mist 0:46:27 Thelonious Monk – Evonce (Clip of Helen Keller speaking)

Part Four – Size

(Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:49:33 Nellie Lutcher – Fine Brown Frame (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:52:30 Julia Lee – King Size Papa (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:55:09 John Lee Hooker – Boogie Chillen (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:58:03 Big Jay McNeeley’s Blue Jays – The Deacon’s Hop (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) 1:00:52 Joe Swift – That’s Your Last Boogie

Part Five – Twist

(Clip from interview with Vera Hall) 1:03:54 Dizzy Gillespie – Prince Albert (Clip from The Treasure of The Sierra Madre) 1:08:43 Paul Williams Sextette – The Twister Pt. 1 1:10:08 Paul Williams Sextette – The Twister Pt. 2 (Clip from Believe It Or Not) 1:11:16 Tuareg Women of Adrar des Iforas – Air de Kel Ajjer (Rhythme Ellehelleh) (Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God) 1:12:53 Pablo Casals – Manel Sarerra Puigferrer Dubte

Part Six – Run

(Clip of Edward R Murrow) 1:15:39 Louis Jordan – Run Joe (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:17:52 Machito and His Afro-Cuban Salseros – Asia Minor 1:19:50 Henry Salvador – Maladie D’amour (Clip from Red River) 1:22:05 Nellie Lutcher and Her Rhythm – There’s Another Mule In Your Stall (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:24:53 Roy Brown – Mighty, Mighty Man

Part Seven – Rope

(Clip from Bicycle Thieves) 1:27:35 Howard McGhee Sextet with Milt Jackson – Merry Lee (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:29:43 Lonnie Johnson – Tomorrow Night (Clip from Kraft Music Hall) 1:32:48 Charles Trenet – Une Noix (Clip from Rope) 1:34:56 John Cage & Jay Gottlieb – Dream 1:37:23 The Trumpeteers – Milky White Way

Part Eight – Hate

(Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God) 1:39:34 The Pilgrim Travelers – I Want My Crown (Clip from Drunken Angel) 1:42:48 Thelonious Monk – Suburban Eyes (Clip from Key Largo) 1:45:54 Milt Jackson & Thelonious Monk – Epistrophy (Clip from Key Largo) (Clip from Spike Jones Show) 1:49:31 Pee Wee Crayton – Texas Hop (Clip from Brighton Rock) 1:52:13 Victor Silvester – Golden Earrings (Clip from Brighton Rock)

Part Nine – Love

1:54:39 The Orioles – It’s Too Soon To Know (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) 1:57:32 Paula Watson – A Little Bird Told Me 2:00:08 Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Little Boy, How Old Are You? (Clip from interview with Vera Hall) 2:02:38 Ella Fitzgerald – Robbin’s Nest (Clip from interview with Carmen Miranda) 2:05:55 Line Renaud – Etoile Des Neiges

Part Ten – Mirth

(Clip from Hamlet (Gielgud – BBC Radio)) 2:08:46 Tadd Dameron Sextet – The Squirrel (Clips from Hamlet (Olivier – Film)) 2:12:48 Miles Davis – Budo (Hallucinations) (Clip from Hamlet (Olivier – Film)) 2:17:06 Sonny Thompson – Long Gone, Part 2 (Clip from Macbeth (Welles – Film)) 2:19:59 Wynonie Harris – Blow Your Brains Out (Clip from Macbeth (Welles – Film)) 2:23:43 Charlie Parker – Embraceable You

Part Eleven – Stew

(Clip from The Jack Benny Program) 2:26:31 Hal Singer Sextette – Beef Stew (Clip from The Spike Jones Show) 2:30:13 Camille Howard – X-Temperaneous Boogie (Clip from The Jack Benny Program) 2:32:15 Erskine Hawkins – Corn Bread (CLip from The Jack Benny Program) 2:34:33 Tommy Sargent – Steel Guitar Boogie (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 2:37:31 Hazel Scott – Dancing On A Ceiling (Clip from Germany Year Zero)

Ending

(Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) (Clip from Calvacade of 1948) 2:40:25 Nat King Cole – Nature Boy (Clip from Calvacade of 1948) (Clip from The Phil Harris & Alice Faye Christmas Show) 2:43:05 Peggy Lee – Don’t Smoke In Bed (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 2:46:14 Russ Morgan – So Tired (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Germany Year Zero)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

 

1948 Part One – Something Big Out Of Something Little

It started with Bing Crosby wanting to improve his golf. Bing was a big golfer (in fact he would die on a golf course three decades later) but it was difficult to find the time for it when he was spending four days a week recording radio shows – and because of the time differences he’d often have to perform the whole show twice. Pre-recording had been suggested, but the quality of a half-hour disc side was not up to scratch. (LPs would also be introduced in 1948, but we’re not in 1948 yet) and the radio stations just would not accept it. So for 18 months, there was an impasse. But luckily there was a way out.

At the end of the second world war, Jack Mullin, a member of the US Signal Corps, had been tasked with finding out about German electronics. One day at the headquarters of Radio Frankfurt, he made a discovery. Magnetic recording had been around for nearly half a century at this point, but it always gave a distorted, inadequate sound. Not here. The AEG ‘Magnetophon’ was capable of recording and reproducing sounds to a fidelity completely unheard of before. You could even speed up or slow down tapes without any significant loss. Mullin took two of these machines back to the USA and spent the next couple of years trying to convince anyone that they were of use, until finally Murdo MacKenzie, an assistant to Crosby, was impressed enough to try them out. Within a few months, he was able to record shows in bulk, edit them at his leisure, and spend more of his time playing golf.

A studio musician often used by Crosby was one Les Paul, these days of course better known for his development of the electric guitar, but in the mid 40s more of a jobbing session guitarist. Paul had played a major role in Crosby’s 1945 number one “It’s Been a Long, Long Time,” for example. Crosby showed the new tape-recording devices to Paul and encouraged him to build a studio, where he experimented with the first multitrack tape recordings. Until this point, of course, every record you hear is in essence a live recording. A minor quirk here perhaps is that the two apparently multitracked selections (“Lover” and “What Is This Thing Called Love?”) actually date from before he successfully constructed his multitrack studio, instead they were constructed by recording and altering the speed of acetate discs – on “Lover” for example, that’s eight different Les Pauls playing along at different speeds.

Les Paul wasn’t the only person experimenting with tape recording, of course. In France we also have Pierre Schaeffer, the father of Musique Concrète. Cutting up, rearranging and juxtaposing sounds was not a new idea (is there ever really a new idea?) as you will perhaps remember from the Dziga Vertov sound collages used in the 1925 mix. But Schaeffer’s experiments do mark the start of a movement, and one which will be important to these mixes from now on, starting from this one.

Listening to this mix, you will likely find it noticeably different from those before, and there’s a reason. In this half, inspired by Les Paul, Pierre Schaeffer and even Bing Crosby, as well as the new popular, advertising-supported media, we have a quick-moving cut-up style. This includes all of the year’s news. Next time we’ll be taking a break from all of that in any case.

 

Tracklist

0:00:00 Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette (Clip from The Red Shoes) (Clip from Edward R Murrow – I Can Hear It Now) (Clip from Unknown Radio show) 0:01:01 Les Paul – Lover (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from NBC Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from The Life of Riley) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial)

January

(Clip from The Jack Benny Program) 0:04:44 Texas Ruby & Curley Fox – Come Here Soon (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from US propaganda film) 0:07:44 Charlie Parker’s All Stars – Constellation (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from US propaganda film) 0:10:16 Raj Kapoor – Solah Baras Ki Bhayee Umariya (Clip from NBC Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clips from NBC News of The World) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from NBC News of The World) (Clip of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from NBC News of The World)

February

(Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from The Life of Riley) 0:16:12 Woody Herman And His Orchestra – Sabre Dance (Clips from CBC – John Fisher on Post-War Europe) (Clips of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette) 0:19:43 Muddy Waters – I Feel Like Going Home (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) 0:23:22 Willy Walden & Piet Muyselaar – Jantje Is Gaan Voetballen (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Pepsodent TV Commercial) (Clip from BBC Archive)

March

(Clip from CBC – The Atom Bomb) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) 0:25:06 Youkoui Bamileké – Ngwop (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from The Life of Riley) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) 0:27:14 Mado Robin – Air De La Reine De La Nuit (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) 0:28:59 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Ill Barkio (Clip from The Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from US Propaganda Film) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette)

April

(Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 0:32:30 Rose Murphy – Cecilia (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clips from BBC Archive – Budget Day) 0:36:35 Red Ingle & The Natural Seven – Cigareetes, Whuskey, And Wild, Wild Women (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from The Jack Benny Programme) (Clip from US Propaganda Film) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 0:39:45 Astor Piazzolla – Villeguita (Clip from Nederlands In Zeven Lessen)

May

(Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Dennis Day) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from The Life of Riley) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) 0:42:29 Peggy Lee – Why Don’t You Do Right? (Clips from NBC Dewey-Stassen Debate) 0:46:39 Sotiría Béllou & Vasílis Tsitsánis – Péfteis Se Láthi (Clips from NBC Clifton Utley commentary on Palestine) (Clip from newsreel – Haganah Troops Occupy Jaffa) (Clip from Edward M Murrow – I Can Hear It Now) 0:50:30 Dalila Rochdi – Haragli Guelbi, Pt. 1 (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip of Peter Lorre on Spike Jones Show) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech)

June

(Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip of guest appearance by Frank Sinatra) (Clip from Jack Benny Show) 0:54:13 Mukesh & Shamshad Begum – Raat Ko Jee Chamke Taare Aag (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip of Harry S Truman describing the blockade of Berlin) 0:57:55 Elder A. Johnson – God Don’t Like It (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:00:21 Willie Gumede & His Concertina Band – U Gumede (1948 TV Commercial) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from The Life of Riley)

July

(Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clips from BBC Archive) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:04:17 Arthur Smith – Guitar Boogie (Clips from Clement Atlee – The New Social Services and The Citizen) (Clips from National Health Service Story) 1:09:51 Les Paul – What Is This Thing Called Love? (Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from Alastair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:14:07 Roy Hogsed – Cocaine Blues (Clips from BBC – Last German POWs leave the UK) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon)

August

(Clip from Strom Thurmond’s Swimming Pool Speech) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Strom Thurmond’s Swimming Pool Speech) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) 1:18:32 Tex Williams – Drop Dead (Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) 1:20:07 Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique (Clip from What is Television?) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) 1:20:57 Ann Miller – Shakin’ The Blues Away (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clips from BBC Archive) (Clip from 1948 TV Commercial)

September

(Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) 1:24:15 Dave Brubeck – How High The Moon (Clips from BBC Archive) 1:29:32 The Sauceman Brothers – Hallelujah We Shall Rise (Clip from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not) (Clip from What is a Television?) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) 1:31:04 Standard Radio Sound Effect – Canadian Geese (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review)

October

(Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:33:32 John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson – Stop Breaking Down (Clip from The Jack Benny Program) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Truman Address in St Louis) 1:36:22 Dick Wellstood – So in Love (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from Peter Lorre on Spike Jones Show) 1:40:41 Charles Mingus – Mingus Fingus (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique)

November

(Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Decision) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from Newsreel – Results of the 1948 US Presidential Election are Revealed) (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from NBC Election Night 1948) (Clip from Newsreel – Results of the 1948 US Presidential Election are Revealed) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clips from NBC Election Night 1948) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from US Propaganda Film) 1:49:46 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France – Just For Fun (Clips from BBC Archive) 1:53:02 Chet Atkins – Dizzy Strings (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:56:15 ????????? ?????????? , ??????? ??????? – ????????????? ??????? (Clip from BBC – Birth of Prince Charles) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) 2:00:03 Lightnin’ Hopkins – Down Baby (Clip from Commercial for Mum Deodorant) (Clip from Commercial for Nestle Quik) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) 2:03:51 Red Ingle – Pearly Maude (Clip from Kraft Music Hall) (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique)

December

(Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) 2:07:08 Julia Lee – Do You Want It? (Clip from Contact Lenses) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique) (Clip from Banta Trance Speech) 2:11:19 Shona – Shuga (Clips from BBC Archive) 2:14:23 Kasagi Shizuko – Sakura Boogie Woogie (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show) 2:17:42 Shamshad Begum – Kaahe Koyal Shor Machaye (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from What Is Television?) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) (Clip from Bob Hope in Berlin) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from Bob Hope in Berlin) 2:20:45 Flatt & Scruggs – Farewell Blues (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Bob Hope in Berlin) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby)

Ending

(Clip of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) 2:24:14 Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra – Oop-Pap-A-Da (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from Edward R Murrow – I Can Hear It Now) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) 2:29:41 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – None But The Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from Kraft Music Hall) (Clip from NBC Utley Commentary on Palestine) (Clip from Interview with Carmen Miranda)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

 

 

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

 

1947 Part Two – Boptamism

A baby boom – a notable increase in babies born – may indicate many socio-economic factors at play, but most of these factors are refractions of hope. Hope that there will be a good world for your children to become adults in, hope that you will be able to provide everything they need, hope that the path of your new family will not be littered with traps and nasty surprises. As I write this in 2024, birth rates in western countries have been in decline for decades, but in 1947 we were just on the spike of the “baby boom” which was so notable it gave its name to a generation. Is this then a time of hope? Will this mix sound optimistic and hopeful?

There was an idea at one point that these mixes would provide some sort of historical narrative into the years in question. Was it an idea that I had, or was it thrust on me by the war? It’s truthfully hard to say, I was already arranging things (not music) month by month back in 1939, maybe it’s a habit I’ve slipped into. In any case the arrangement has now become fairly meaningless (with a couple of exceptions I’ll come to in a moment), just a way to break up years into more manageable chunks or chapters, for example October is fairly bop-heavy and December is winding down for the Christmas section.

That’s the second exception in this mix, the first is the independence of India and Pakistan, a large public event with newsreels and speeches to sample, but whose ramifications wouldn’t be as easy to capture. In China the civil war turned a corner, with the Nationalists increasingly looking doomed. Communists also officially took power in Poland. The spread of communism triggered The Truman Doctrine, as good a date as any for the start of The Cold War. Is any of this evident from this mix? Well no, not at all. This of course does not mean that these things are unimportant, it just means that they haven’t yet impacted the cultural record, or at least my cultural record.

The people – the musicians – here were interested in exploring their art, they were interested in entertaining, they were interested in making people dance, they were interested in making something new. All art is in some sense political, and their stretching out in this freedom to create and share tells you something about their mood. The prospect of nuclear war, even of the Korean War, were not yet in the air. So to answer my own question, yes, we are still in the brief window of hope, but we can grasp this from the absence. There are other things to write about than existential dread.

If you want to chat as listen, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/5a7f6wqjcJ

Tracklist

0:00:00 George Melachrino Strings – Serenade (Drigo) (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) (Clip from ITMA – Royal Command Performance) 0:01:20 Dizzy Gillespie – Cubana Bop

July

0:04:24 Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents 0:05:15 Forrest Sykes – Tonky Boogie (Clip from ITMA – Royal Command Performance) 0:08:33 Jo Stafford & Red Ingle – Temptation (Clip from Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents) 0:11:40 Spike Jones – I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (Clip from High-Diving Hare) 0:14:19 Jack Mcvea’s All Stars – Open The Door Richard (Clip from Home Record of a Birthday Party) 0:17:14 Hank Williams – I’m A Long Gone Daddy (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 0:20:01 Utah Smith – I Got Two Wings 0:23:09 Bama – How I Got In The Penitentiary (Interview) 0:23:52 Bama – Stackerlee 0:26:02 Vladimir Horowitz – Variations On A Theme From Bizet’s Carmen (Clip from Dark Passage) 0:28:25 Kenneth Anger – Spoken introduction from ‘Fireworks’ 0:29:21 Barry Ulanov’s All Star Metronome Jazzmen – 52nd Street Theme (Clip from Easy To Get) 0:31:02 Amos Milburn – Down The Road A Piece (Clip from The Walgreen Show with Bob Hope)

August

(Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 0:34:07 Harmonicats – Peg O’ My Heart (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 0:36:45 Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar – Gaud Malhar (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) (Clip from Nehru Speech) (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 0:40:51 Sonny Thompson W. The Sharps & Flats – Long Gone (Clip from Shy Guy) 0:43:57 Tampa Red – Let’s Try It Again (Clip from British Movietone Review of The Year) 0:47:01 Dodo Marmarosa – Dodo’s Dance (Clip from British Movietone Review of The Year) 0:50:37 Roy Acuff – Freight Train Blues (Clip from British Movietone Review of The Year) 0:53:16 Signe Flatin – Skuldalsbruri 0:54:45 Kiko Kids – Tom Tom (Clip from Slick Hare) 0:57:43 The Big Three Trio – Signifying Monkey (Clip from Slick Hare) 1:00:47 Louis Jordan – Barnyard Boogie (Clip from The Walgreen Show with Bob Hope) 1:03:40 Tex Williams – Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) (Clip from Shy Guy)

September

(Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) 1:06:41 The Bopland Boys – Cherokee (Jeronimo) (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:12:04 Julia Lee – Snatch And Grab It (Clip from Easy To Get) 1:14:03 Bull Moose Jackson – I Want A Bowlegged Woman (Clip from Dark Passage) 1:17:16 Todd Rhodes Orchestra – Blues For The Red Boy (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) 1:19:57 Les Baxter – Mist O´the Moon (Clip from Black Narcissus) 1:22:51 Spade Cooley – Oklahoma Stomp (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 1:25:38 Wynonie Harris – Good Rockin’ Tonight (Clip from How To Discipline Children) 1:28:09 Bill Harris All Stars – A Knight In The Village (Clip from Out Of The Past) 1:32:34 Xavier Cugat – Miami Beach Rhumba 1:34:26 Chano Pozo Y Su Ritmo De Tambores – Tambombarana (Clip from Speech to the Berlin Philharmonic) 1:36:55 Astor Piazzolla – Se Armó

October

(Clip from It’s That Man Again) 1:38:46 Wayne Raney – Lost John Boogie 1:41:22 Dizzy Gillespie – Emanon / Things To Come (Clip from Shy Guy) 1:44:51 Dexter Gordon – The Duel (Clip from Out Of The Past) 1:47:16 Lionel Hampton – Mingus Fingers (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:50:33 Dodo Marmarosa Trio – Bopmatism (Clip from Easy To Get) 1:53:49 Charlie Parker All Stars – Chasin’ The Bird (Clip from The Jazz Singer – Radio Play) 1:56:37 Thelonious Monk – ‘Round Midnight 1:59:14 Billie Holiday – Solitude 2:02:16 Frank Sinatra – Try A Little Tenderness (Clip from Dark Passage) 2:05:25 The Trenier Twins – Hey Sister Lucy

November

(Clip from British Movietone Review of the Year) 2:07:56 Stella Haskil – Bir Allah (Clip from British Movietone Review of the Year) 2:09:52 Kasagi Shizuko – Airei Kawaii Ya (Clip from Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents) 2:12:24 Sarah Vaughan – I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself a Letter (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 2:14:53 Maddox Brothers & Rose – Milk Cow Blues (Clip from Crowing Pains) 2:18:09 Bill Monroe And The Bluegrass Boys – Blue Grass Breakdown (Clip from Shy Guy) 2:20:50 Roy Brown – Lolly Pop Mama (Clip from Easy To Get) 2:23:08 Jimmy Liggins – Cadillac Boogie (Clip from Easy To Get) 2:25:45 Walter Brown & Jay Mcshann Quartet – W. B. Blues 2:28:11 Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings – Swanee River Boogie 2:30:40 T-Bone Walker – Bobby Sox Blues (Clip from Home Record of a Birthday Party) 2:33:27 Leadbelly – Laura

December

(Clip from Odd Man Out) 2:35:30 Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – That’s All Right (Clip from It’s That Man Again) 2:36:36 Tiny Bradshaw – Take The Hands Off The Clock (Clip from Tweety Pie) 2:39:13 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – I Kiss Your Hand Madame (Clip from It’s That Man Again) 2:41:14 Watanabe Hamako – Tokyo No Yoru (Clip from Shanghai) 2:43:13 The Barton Brothers – Cockeyed Jenny 2:44:40 Abbott & Costello – Christmas Tree 2:47:31 Frankie Laine – That’s My Desire (Clip from The Bishop’s Wife) 2:50:49 Sarah Vaughan – The Lord’s Prayer (Clip from Miracle on 34th Street) 2:53:39 Sister Rosetta Tharpe And Marie Knight – Beams Of Heaven (Clip from Miracle on 34th Street) 2:56:19 Nat King Cole Trio – For Sentimental Reasons (Clip from Life of Riley) 2:58:25 Jacob Do Bandolim – Flamengo (Clip from Truth or Concequences)

Ending

3:00:21 Miles Davis – Out Of Nowhere (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 3:04:35 Nat King Cole Trio – There I’ve Said It Again (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 3:07:45 Cecil Gant – Special Delivery (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) (Clip from Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

 

 

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

 

1947 Part One – Cubana Bop

From time to time in music there are sparks which briefly spring to life, then almost immediately fizzle out again, but not without leaving long-lasting reverberations. One of these moments began in the summer of 1947, when 32-year-old dancer, bodyguard, shoeshiner and noted percussionist Chano Pozo arrived in New York on a passenger ship from the rich man’s playground of Havana. Raised in one of the most dangerous slums in Cuba, Pozo had found himself in reform school at the age of 13, only having had three years of education. His crime may have been the accidental killing of an American tourist. While there he learned not only literacy and the Afro-Caribbean religion Santería, but also to play a range of percussion instruments. On release he became a “rumbero” – the beating heart of a musical/dance troop at carnival, and after only a few years he had had become perhaps the most famous one in Cuba. He may have achieved fame, but there was no fortune to be found in working-class Cuba, and in 1947 he decided to move to the USA, where a nascent Cuban music industry was already in place. Band leader Mario Bauza, who already had a good deal of success, arranged a series of recording sessions for Pozo, and at a party at Harlem in September introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie, who was already interested in Cuban music, and who immediately invited him to join his band. Before the end of the month they would be on stage together at Carnegie Hall.

The music that Gillespie and Pozo made together in the next 15 months is so arresting that it’s astonishing that it isn’t better-known. Perhaps the musicianship on display prevented anyone else from easily borrowing. In any case the 75 years since have done nothing to blunt its power. Taking all the unpredictable, stimulatingly jarring musical shapes from be bop and fusing them to this driving, complex Cuban rhythm is nothing short of magical.

The collaboration was cut short prematurely when Pozo was murdered by another Cuban expat outside a Harlem bar, but by that point Pozo and Gillespie had collaborated on Cubana Be, Cubana Bop, Tin Tin Deo and Manteca, all to be featured prominently in these two mixes.

There’s been a bit too much history in Centuries of Sound of late, too many events taking place. This is supposed to be a celebration and exploration of sound. Sure, 1947 traditionally marks the start of the Cold War – and there is one large international event which we’ll get to in part two – but I’m pleased to say there’s little sign of it here. When I listen back to the records (and the sounds) here the joy in experimentation is the biggest takeaway. I hope it is for you too.

If you want to chat as listen, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/5a7f6wqjcJ

 

Tracklist

0:00:00 Unknown Birds – Birdsong (from Louis Kaufman – Vivaldi Four Seasons intro) (Clip from You Bet Your Life – Secret Word ‘Air’) 0:00:36 Dizzy Gillespie – Cubana Be (Clips from Are You Popular?) (Clip from Easy To Get) 0:02:59 Amos Milburn – Chicken Shack Boogie

January

0:05:25 Charlie Parker Quintet – Bird Of Paradise (Clip from Alastair Cooke – Letter From America – New Year 1947) (Clip from Are You Popular?) 0:08:31 Maddox Brothers & Rose – Honky Tonkin’ (Clip from The Walgreen Show – Groucho Marx/Bob Hope) 0:11:01 Ella Fitzgerald – How High The Moon (Clip from Are You Popular?) 0:14:23 Wild Bill Moore – We’re Gonna Rock 0:16:11 Frank Sinatra & Jimmy Durante – From The Heart 0:20:47 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – William Tell Overture 0:23:54 Sonny Boy Williamson II – Shake That Boogie (Clip from You Bet Your Life – Secret Word ‘Air’) 0:26:53 Sister Rosetta Tharpe And Marie Knight – Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 0:29:19 Julia Lee – Tell Me, Daddy (Clip from Easy To Get) 0:32:18 Little Brother Montgomery Quintet – El Ritmo (Clip from Home Record of a Birthday Party) 0:35:21 Tadd Dameron Sextet – The Chase

February

(Clip from Bob Hope & Bing Crosby – The Road To Hollywood) 0:38:26 Chet Atkins – Canned Heat (Clip from Dark Passage) 0:41:51 Hank Williams – Move It On Over (Clip from Montreal By Night) 0:44:45 Chano Pozo Y Su Orquestra – Rumba En Swing 0:47:18 Dizzy Gillespie – Manteca (Clip from Human Reproduction) 0:50:20 Manhattan Paul & Paul Bascomb Orchestra – Rock And Roll (Clip from Alan Lomax – What Makes A Work Song Leader?) 0:53:18 ’22’ With Little Red, Tangle Eye, & Hard Hair – Early In The Mornin’ (Clip from Alan Lomax – What Makes A Work Song Leader?) 0:55:39 Tangle Eye – Tangle Eye Blues (Clip from Black Narcissus) 0:58:00 John Cage, Maro Ajemian, William Masselos – Three Dances for Two Pianos (Clip from Marlon Brando – Screen Test for Rebel Without A Cause) 0:59:48 Nellie Lutcher – He’s A Real Gone Guy (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) 1:02:51 Vladimir Horowitz – The Hut On Fowl’s Legs (Clip from The Postman Always Rings Twice) (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) (Clip from The Postman Always Rings Twice) 1:06:15 Charlie Parker Quintet – Superman (The Hymn)

March

(Clip from British Movietone Review of the Year) 1:08:48 Band Of The Gold Coast Police – Dagomba (NBC in Chicago ident) 1:11:41 Muddy Waters – I Feel Like Going Home (Clip from Out of the Past) 1:15:01 Betty Hutton – I Wish I Didn’t Love You So 1:17:41 Henry Red Allen – Indiana (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 1:21:34 Ivory Joe Hunter – I Like It (Clip from Oor Willie – The Man With Many Voices) 1:24:13 Johnny Doran – My Love Is In America (Clip from Oor Willie – The Man With Many Voices) 1:27:01 Pete Seeger – Come All Fair Maids (Clip from Don’t Be A Sucker) 1:29:48 Robert Mitchum – Foolish Pride (CLip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:32:59 The Four Aces Of Western Swing – Yodel Your Blues Away (Clip from Lux Radio Theatre – The Jazz Singer) 1:35:46 Freddy Martin & His Orchestra – Managua, Nicaragua (Clip from Lux Radio Theatre – The Jazz Singer) 1:37:12 Edmundo Ros – Manana

April

1:39:10 Ella Logan & Donald Richards – Look To The Rainbow (Introduction) 1:39:27 Annie Laurie – Since I Fell For You (Clip from Black Narcissus) 1:42:21 Thelonious Monk – Who Knows? (Clip from Dark Passage) 1:45:03 Ichimaru – Samisen Boogie (Clip from Shanghai) 1:47:05 Yukie Kubo – Shin Shin Tankoubushi (Coalminer’s Tale) (Clip from Shanghai) 1:49:06 Tabata Yoshiro – Machi No Dateotoko (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:51:59 Gatemouth Moore – Did You Ever Try To Cry (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 1:54:10 Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker – Dizzy Atmosphere (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 1:57:16 Bill Harris And Charlie Ventura – High On An Open Mike (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 2:02:03 Stan Kenton – Peanut Vendor (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 2:06:51 Ted Weems & His Orchestra – Heartaches

May

(Clip from Are You Popular?) 2:09:34 Ray Noble & His Orchestra – Linda (Clip from Shy Guy) 2:13:00 Ernest Tubb – Have You Ever Been Lonely? (Clip from Shy Guy) 2:15:48 Big Maybelle – Sad And Disappointed Girl (Clip from DDT – So Safe You Can Eat It) 2:18:25 Mamica – Nwomboko (Clip from DDT – So Safe You Can Eat It) 2:19:36 Woody Herman – Sabre Dance (Clip from Along Came Daffy) 2:22:10 Cab Calloway – Everybody Eats When They Come To My House (Clip from Along Came Daffy) 2:25:02 Spike Jones – Popcorn Sack (Clip from Easy To Get) 2:27:39 Stick Mcghee – Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee (Clip from Crowing Pains) 2:29:46 The Sons Of The Pioneers & Roy Rogers – Cool Water (Clip from Bob Hope & Bing Crosby – The Road To Hollywood) 2:31:58 Sons Of The Pioneers – Tumbling Tumbleweeds (Clip from The Humpbacked Horse) 2:33:36 Joe Morris – The Applejack

June

(Clip from Don’t Be A Sucker) 2:35:15 Mahalia Jackson – Amazing Grace (Clip from Don’t Be A Sucker) 2:38:24 Louis Kaufman – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Clip from Odd Man Out) 2:41:57 Louis Jordan – Run Joe (Clips from Montreal By Night) 2:45:19 Les Baxter – Radar Blues (Clip from Montreal By Night) 2:48:18 Ernie Harper – Chicago Boogie (Clip from Out of the Past) 2:51:15 Merle Travis – Sixteen Tons (Clip of Albert Camus reading L’etranger) 2:54:12 Line Renaud – Ma Cabane Au Canada (Clip of Albert Camus reading L’etranger) 2:56:40 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France – Diminishing 2:57:36 The Stanley Brothers – Standing In The Need Of Prayer 2:59:23 Jimpson With Men Chopping Trees – No More, My Lord (Clip from Odd Man Out) 3:00:59 Sister Rosetta Tharpe – How Far From God

Ending

(Clip from Odd Man Out) 3:03:15 Ethel Waters – A Hundred Years From Today (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 3:06:13 Big Maceo Merriweather – My Own Troubles (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux)

Previously at Centuries of Sound:

Christmas 1902-1924: Deep Magic From Before The Dawn Of Time A Holiday Between The Wars, Christmas Records 1926-1938 A Wartime Christmas 1939-1945

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The period between the end of the Second World War and the Rock & Roll craze of 1954 may be strangely absent from popular memory on the whole, but when it comes to the Christmas season everything is suddenly reversed. The age of It’s A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, of Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song, The Andrews Sisters’ Winter Wonderland, the hit version of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, and of course Baby, It’s Cold Outside – these all seem to have been set in amber as the prototypical classic American Christmas experience. But meanwhile, of course, Rhythm & Blues, Western Swing, Mambo and Be-Bop are all at their peak, so don’t expect an entirely mainstream Christmas here.

Tracklist

0:00:00 Red Skelton – Clip from Raleigh-Kool Radio Program – Christmas Stories (1946) 0:00:04 Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) (1946) 0:03:11 Jimmy Stewart – Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) 0:03:50 Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter Orchestra – White Christmas (1947) 0:06:43 Burns & Allen – Clip from Christmas Presents (1946) 0:07:31 Guy Lombardo & The Andrews Sisters – Winter Wonderland (1946) 0:10:09 Abbott & Costello – Clip from Christmas Show (1947) 0:11:24 Frankie Carle & His Orchestra with Majorie Hughes – Little Jack Frost Get Lost (1947) 0:14:02 Gene Lockhart – Clip from Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 0:14:32 Gene Autry – Here Comes Santa Claus (1947) 0:17:02 Life of Riley – Clip from Family Christmas Present (1947) 0:17:05 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) (1948) 0:20:12 Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show – Clip from Christmas Present (1948) 0:20:23 Andrews Sisters & Danny Kaye – Merry Christmas At Grandmother’s House (1948) 0:22:38 David Niven – Clip from The Bishop’s Wife (1947) 0:23:01 Kay Starr – December (1949) 0:26:21 Unknown – Radio Commercial for Eggnog (1949) 0:26:36 Louis Jordan & Ella Fitzgerald – Baby, It’s Cold Outside (1949) 0:29:15 Much Binding In The Marsh – Clip from Christmas Programme (1948) 0:29:28 Amos Milburn – Let’s Make Christmas Merry, Baby (1949) 0:32:18 Dragnet – Clip from 22 Calibre Rifle for Christmas (1950) 0:32:23 Lionel Hampton Orchestra – Boogie Woogie, Santa Claus (1950) 0:35:04 Matinee with Bob and Ray – Clip from Christmas Season Program (1949) 0:35:08 Henry Jerome and His Orchestra – Sleigh Ride (1950) 0:36:47 Stars Over Hollywood – Clip from A Christmas Carol (1951) 0:36:57 Sauter-Finegan Orchestra – Midnight Sleighride (1952) 0:39:13 Suspense – Clip from The Night Before Christmas (1951) 0:39:35 Weekend Hyttens Kor And Orkester – Bjaldeklang (Jingle Bells) (1951) 0:41:53 Jack Benny Program – Clip from Christmas Shopping (1951) 0:42:26 Jan Garber And His Orchestra – Frosty The Snowman (1951) 0:45:01 Let’s Pretend – Clip from ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1952) 0:45:23 Les Brown Orchestra – Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (1952) 0:47:46 Billy May and His Orchestra – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo (1954) 0:50:20 Bing Crosby with The Rhythmaires – Sleigh Ride / Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1953) 0:55:30 John Payne – Clip from Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 0:55:54 Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby (1953) 0:59:13 Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet – Clip from The Lost Christmas Gift (1953) 0:59:16 Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters – White Christmas (1954) 1:01:53 Truth or Consequences – Clip from Christmas Show (1947)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

 

 

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

 

1946 Part Two – That’s All Right For You

In the popular imagination the late 1940s is poorly represented. In the 1930s there’s the great depression (which is also somehow the golden age of Hollywood), then WWII takes place, then [SCENE MISSING], then there’s the 1950s, rock & roll, teenagers, fashion, Hollywood glamour, the beat poets, Rosa Parks, the golden age of TV, and you know I could keep on just listing themes here but I’ll stop. These signifiers make the decade easy to get a grip on, and have been constantly revisited on TV, in films and – of course – in music ever since. For anyone under the age of 66 or so, this mythologised version of the fifties is the only fifties you’ve ever known. The late 40s on the other hand have had no such treatment – I can think of only a handful of films set in the period, all fairly obscure.

How can we begin to transition from one era to another then? The soldiers arrive back from the second world war, everyone settles down to keep quiet and do nothing for five years, then BOOM here we are in the modern age? Well, of course that’s not how it’s going to be. Those cultural threads spread out wide, and as our main concern here is music, the headline here is that the musical movements associated with that later era are not being anticipated in 1946, they aren’t starting to get underway, they are in fact already in full bloom. The headline could even be “1946 – The Year Rock & Roll Started!” – but for reasons I will surely go into later, there is no easy start date.

Though the majority of this mix is rock & roll in all but name, plenty does not fit that pattern. Some is in fact quite traditional pop music, but with artistry and production seemingly years ahead of its time. Jazz selections have been picked with a general feel of bubbling excitement. These songs are not so concerned with dreaming or looking into the future as in part one, but they push into the future by being (for the first time in a long time) fully able to immerse into the now. Most of this mix is dance music, though there are also plenty of calmer breaks.

One final thought before I say “just listen” – the reason many of these performers disappeared in the rock & roll era (as we know it) is that many were simply not around anymore. Big Maceo Merriweather had a severe stroke in 1946, and died in 1953. Sonny Boy Williamson I would be killed in a robbery in 1948. Albert Ammons would survive to play Truman’s inauguration in 1949, but then died later that year. Cecil Gant made it no further than 1951. A disappointing truth is that these are still very tough years, and this small sampling of joy tells just one story from many. I could say the same for any mix, of course, but it seems more important to point it out here.

Ok, so if I haven’t ruined it, just listen. And if you want to chat as you do so, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/jw5vZcN8

 

Tracklist

0:00:00 Charles Mingus and his Orchestra – Shuffle Bass Boogie (Clip from Notorious) (Clip from Wacky Weed – Andy Panda)

July

(Clip from Television Is Here Again) 0:03:10 Sonny Boy Williamson I – Shake The Boogie 0:05:53 Big Maceo – Chicago Breakdown (Clip from The Story of Menstruation) 0:08:48 June Christy – Willow Weep For Me 0:11:43 Dizzy Gillespie Big Band – ‘Round Midnight 0:15:25 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Fat Boy Rag (Clip from The Big Sleep) 0:18:41 Cousin Joe – Weddin’ Day Blues 0:20:42 Albert Ammons – Jammin’ The Boogie 0:24:39 Dylan Thomas – On The Marriage of a Virgin 0:26:07 Johnny Guarnieri Quartet – Temptation 0:27:00 Lennie Tristano Trio – I Can’t Get Started (Clip from La Belle et la Bête) 0:29:48 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra with Django Reinhardt – Improvisation #2 0:30:47 T-Bone Walker With Jack McVea’s All Stars – Bobby Sox Blues

August

(Clip from Pathe – Very early mobile phone prototype) 0:33:53 Sister Rosetta Tharpe ft. Sam Price Trio – This Train (Clip from A Gruesome Twosome) 0:37:12 Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra – How Big Can You Get, Little Man? (Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 0:40:00 Cecil Gant – Nashville Jumps (Clip from Hair-Raising Hare) 0:42:49 Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – That’s All Right, Mama (Advertisement for Squibb Dental Cream) 0:44:44 Louis Jordan – Reet Petite And Gone 0:47:17 Freddie Slack & Ella Mae Morse – Pig Foot Pete 0:50:05 Big Joe Turner – Rebecca (Clip from Baseball Bugs) 0:52:54 Roosevelt Sykes – Date Bait 0:55:51 Barry Moral Y Su Orquesta De Jazz – El Boogie Woogie De Artie Shaw 0:58:58 Philip Larkin – Wedding Wind 1:00:10 Charlie Parker Septet – I’ve Always Got The Blues (Clip from Adam Hats) 1:01:49 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Rhapsody From Hunger(y)

September

(Clip from Television Is Here Again) 1:04:02 Tex Ritter – Trouble In Mind 1:06:48 Moon Mullican – New Pretty Blond (New Jole Blon) (Clip from La Belle et la Bête) 1:09:53 Django Reinhardt – Django’s Tiger (Clip from La Belle et la Bête) 1:10:37 Velma Nelson – If I Were A Itty Bitty Girl, Part 1 (Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 1:13:34 Don Byas – How High The Moon 1:16:03 Dizzy Gillespie – Salt Peanuts 1:17:58 Luke Jones – Shufflin Boogie (Clip from The Great Piggy Bank Robbery) 1:20:09 Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson – Juice Head Baby (Clip from Notorious) 1:12:15 Tampa Red & Big Maceo – Crying Won’t Help You (Clip from Interview With Somerset Maugham) 1:25:25 Louis Jordan – Choo Choo Ch’boogie 1:28:06 Pat Flowers – Googie Woogie

October

1:30:55 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 2 (Clip from Final Judgement Read at Nuremberg Trials) 1:35:36 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 2 (Clips of judge sentencing Goering and Hess at Nuremberg) 1:36:55 Duke Ellington – Transblucency 1:39:10 Út Trà Ôn, Hu?, Th?y – Tôn T?n Gi? ?iên (Vietnam) 1:42:32 Tshamumania Anastasie And Singers – Ndumba Wakumi Diekde Dikasa (Luba-Kasai; Congo) 1:45:17 Francisco Canaro & Nelly Omar – Rosa De Otoño (Clip from The Killers) 1:48:19 Les Brown (Vocal – Doris Day) – All Through The Day 1:49:43 The Ink Spots – I Never Had A Dream Come True 1:52:27 Freddie Slack & Ella Mae Morse – Your Conscience Tells You So (Clip from The Big Sleep) 1:55:22 Ella Fitzgerald – I’m Just A Lucky So And So 1:58:13 Lester Young – D.B. (Detention Barracks) Blues (Clip from Hair-Raising Hare) 2:01:21 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli – Coquette

November

(Clip from Notorious) 2:04:19 Jack McVea & His Band – Open The Door, Richard 2:07:07 Amos Milburn – Amos’ Blues 2:09:29 Big Maceo Merriweather – Maceo’s 32-20 2:12:16 Joe Turner – My Gal’s A Jockey 2:15:24 Lionel Hampton – Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop 2:18:41 Jay Mcshann – Voodoo Woman Blues 2:22:16 Roy Milton – R.M. Blues 2:24:09 Nat King Cole – You Call It Madness 2:27:05 Charlie Parker – Ornithology 2:28:36 Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson – Mr Cleanhead Steps Out 2:30:00 Lucky Millinder And His Orchestra – Shorty’s Got To Go

December

(Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 2:33:31 Merle Travis – Pigmeat Stomp 2:34:45 Delmore Brothers – Freight Train Boogie 2:37:24 Jazz Gillum – Look On Yonder Wall (Clip from Casey Crime Photographer) 2:39:19 Pixinguinha, Benedito Lacerda – 1 X 0 (Clip from Baseball Bugs) 2:40:12 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Hawaiian War Chant (Clip from Baseball Bugs) 2:42:21 Lester Young and his Band – Lover, Come Back To Me 2:44:54 Joe Liggins – Got A Right To Cry 2:48:08 Dan Burley Skiffle Boys – South Side Shake (Clip from Casey Crime Photographer) 2:51:04 Coleman Hawkins – I Mean You 2:52:40 Lionel Hampton – Hamp’s Salty Blues 2:55:48 Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra – Hamp’s Boogie Woogie

Ending

3:02:53 Charlie Parker – Lover Man (Clip from My Darling Clementine) 3:06:17 Charles Trenet – La Mer (Clip from The Killers) (Clip from Baseball Bugs)

This Halloween special was first broadcast in 2022 and features music from 1927 to 1938 and also features my son Milan. To get full downloads and a host of extras, and help the show survive, come to http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

When we think of the great depression of the 1930s, the images which may spring to mind – The Grapes of Wrath, the dustbowl songs of Woody Guthrie – are generally from the 1940s. Popular entertainment of the thirties leaned not on realism, but on escapism. This is the golden age, not only of Hollywood musicals, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers, Busby Berkley routines and screwball comedy, but also of horror movies. Aside from the film clips, we naturally have plenty of novelty recordings, original sound effect records, hot jazz, and to close a suite of particularly morbid blues records.

This Centuries of Sound mix comes courtesy of my supporters at patreon.com/centuriesofsound – join them for as little as $5 per month and get a full archive and a host of bonus material.

 

 

The 1940s was a scary time, but not really in a way that we can comfortably celebrate at Halloween. Nevertheless there were still a few horror movies being made, and it’s from these that I’ve largely drawn for this mix (the best are of course the works of Val Lewton, a shame there aren’t more.) The most traditionally Halloween-themed musical numbers here are from Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, and along with the lack of Universal Horror monsters except in semi-parody retreads, this seems to indicate that 40s audiences were in no mood to be frightened. If it isn’t already obvious, I’ll leave it to Al Bowlly to explain why.

Tracklist:

(Clip from The Hitchhiker) 0:00:06 Bing Crosby & The Rhythmaires - Headless Horsemen (1947) (Clip from Inner Sanctum - Death Is A Joker) 0:03:17 Carl Stalling - Ghost Wanted (1940) (Clips from House of Dracula) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 0:07:17 Louis Armstrong - You've Got Me Voodoo'd (1940) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 0:10:09 Charles Mingus Sextette (Vocal by Claude Trinier) - Weird Nightmare (1946) (Clip from Cat People) 0:13:34 Delta Rhythm Boys - Dry Bones (1941) (Clip from Suspense Theatre - Donovan's Brain) 0:16:39 Una Mae Carlisle - Oh I'm Evil (1941) (Clip from Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man) 0:19:13 Louis Jordan - Somebody Don Hoodooed The Hoodoo Man (1940) (Clip from I Walked With A Zombie) 0:22:05 Spike Jones & His City Slickers - My Old Flame (1947) (Clip from Inner Sanctum - Death Is A Joker) 0:26:06 Josh White - Evil Hearted Man (1944) (Clip from Ivan The Terrible) 0:29:10 Kai Winding Sextet - A Night on Bop Mountain (1949) (Clip from Suspicion) 0:33:08 Washboard Sam - Evil Blues (1941) (Clip from Bedlam) 0:36:26 Bob Wills - The Devil Ain't Lazy (1947) (Clip from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) 0:39:16 Wayne Raney - Jole Blon's Ghost (1948) (Clip from Notorious) 0:41:50 Lionel Hampton Sextet & Dinah Washington - Evil Gal Blues (1943) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 0:44:55 Pee Wee King & His Golden West Cowboys - The Ghost and Honest Joe (1949) (Clip from The Hitchhiker) 0:48:06 Stan Jones And The Death Valley Rangers- Ghost Riders In The Sky (1948) (Clip from Inner Sanctum - No Coffin For The Dead) 0:51:09 Jay Mcshann - Voodoo Woman Blues (1946) (Clip from Inner Sanctum - No Coffin For The Dead) 0:54:15 Charlie Shavers - Zooming At The Zombie (1940) (Clip from Cat People) 0:57:00 Lena Horne - Haunted Town (1941) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 1:00:21 Texas Slim - Devil's Jump (1949) (Clip from And Then There Were None) 1:03:19 Fred Astaire - Me And The Ghost Upstairs (1940) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 1:05:48 Al Bowlly & Jimmy Mesene - When That Man Is Dead And Gone (1941) (Clip from The Hitchhiker) 1:08:50 Kay Starr - The Headless Horseman (1948) (Clip from Isle Of The Dead) (Clip from Inner Sanctum - The Man Who Couldn't Die)