“My Beer Is Rheingold, The Dry Beer” jingle [c1952]

My topic for my research and writing course for this semester has been given initial approval by my professor. Inspired more than anything by an internal report on the marketing of the innovative new Rheingold “Chug-a-Mug” beer bottle in 1961 (meant for exactly what it says), I will be writing a paper on the “crisis” of beer bottling in the 1950s and 1960s. Faced with increasing competition from aluminum cans and with the shift from returnable bottles (to get one’s deposit back) to no-return (“one-way”) glass bottles, the beverage bottling industry needed innovative designs and marketing to prove that bottles were still the superior form from which to consume beer. I will be digging through industry literature from the period to write a short history. To celebrate having a topic, above is posted Rheingold’s famous jingle and a period advertisement (1953). If you’re age 50+ and grew up in New York City, you’ll probably know it by heart.

8 1/2” x 11”, full page ad. New York: Paillard Products, Inc. (1953). (via)

(via)

Chug-a-Mug… somehow did not become a staple on college campuses.

“Lilac Wine (Dance with Me)” by Eartha Kitt [1953]

To many listeners “Lilac Wine” is only a song on Jeff Buckley’s sublime 1994 album Grace (his version). The song, however, had been written 44 years earlier for an obscure musical revue. In 1953 Eartha Kitt became the first major pop artist to record and release the song. It was included that year on her first 12” LP, That Bad Eartha, the album that cemented her sex kitten persona. (“Santa Baby” had been recorded at the same sessions and became her biggest hit when it was released in December.)

“Christmas Island” by The Andrews Sisters [1946]

Here’s a fun little tune by the Andrews Sisters about spending Christmas on tropical Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean. With cold weather nowhere in sight in much of the U.S., it almost feels like a tropical Christmas. I’m home in Minnesota and I will only need a sweater on this sunny Christmas Eve day. (This song came back in a big way when Bob Dylan covered it on his infamous Christmas in the Heart in 2009.)

Merry Christmas wherever you are!

“La Vague” by Nana Mouskouri [1979]

Yesterday I asked who stands as the best-selling solo female singer in the history of popular music. We received many respectable answers, from popular Americans (like Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald) to foreign women (such as Asha Bhosle, Edith Piaf and Fairuz) and a few not so great answers (the Rebecca Black response made me laugh cry).

Honestly, due to the distribution of releases across dozens of labels—some now defunct—and differing measurement techniques (or none at all), reliable sales figures for such popular artists are nearly impossible to come by. A definitive answer may never be known. It is safe to say, however, that one of the three following women has outsold all others: Madonna, Celine Dion or Nana Mouskouri. 

What? You’ve never heard of the best-selling woman of all time? I hadn’t either until last week when about 40 of her CDs came into the used bookstore/record shop I work at. So I did some research into the woman who looks mysteriously like Tina Fey and discovered that she is actually quite remarkable.

A native of Greece, Mouskouri has released records in a dozen languages, with (singing) fluency in Greek, French, German, English, Spanish, and Portuguese (at least). Her repertoire has ranged from traditional Greek music to 60s pop to opera arias and folk. Bob Dylan even wrote a song specifically for her. Worldwide her sales total somewhere around 300 million, or roughly the same as Madonna. 

Mouskouri first broke internationally in France in 1967 and that nation remained her most loyal foreign market. For that reason I chose a good French song from her 1979 album Vivre Au Soleil for today’s Music History track. A touching song about the experience of an ocean wave from Italy (really), “La Vague” had been in her French repertoire since at least ‘71.

The more I’ve listened the more I’ve come to terms with the fact that she is simply a great singer. Whatever your taste, if you come across a cheap Nana Mouskouri CD somewhere, don’t hesitate to pick it up; it will be above average at worst.

“Always True to You in My Fashion” by Peggy Lee & George Shearing Sextet [1959]

Much like Tony Bennett’s 1952 recording of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Peggy Lee and George Shearing took a traditional musical number and Latinized it. Where Bennett’s version offered a twist on the famous habanera rhythm, Lee and Shearing turned what began as straight Cole Porter pop into a swinging mambo. Compare this version to the original Broadway recording performed by Lisa Kirk. 

Though the music for Lee and Shearing’s 1959 album Beauty and the Beat! was recorded in studio, Capitol Records decided to market the album as a live performance, which explains the poorly-overdubbed applause at the end of the track. Still, it’s another phenomenal record.

“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Tony Bennett [1952]

“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was written by talented composer Harry Warren and his longtime songwriting partner Al Dubin for the 1934 film Moulin Rouge. Compared to that forgettable film, however, the song will always hold a stronger connection to Tony Bennett. The singer’s demo recording of “Boulevard”—accompanied only by piano—impressed Mitch Miller enough to earn him an initial contract with Miller’s Columbia Records.

With Miller at the helm, Bennett recorded four songs at his first “professional” session, including “Boulevard,” this time backed by strings. (I can’t find a full clip anywhere online, but you can hear a sample on Amazon.) From the four tracks, “Boulevard” was selected to be Bennett’s first single. It sold over 500,000 copies and instantly made Bennett a minor star.

Two years later, Bennett re-recorded “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” backed by a Latin-styled orchestra. While at first listen it sounds a bit forced, I think this recording stands among Bennett’s best. Ever. I love it. 

“I Won’t Mention It Again” by Ray Price [1971]

Country music met traditional pop in Nashville in about 1957. They formed a lasting relationship that, though it has evolved, is still strong. By the time former honky-tonker Ray Price cut “I Won’t Mention It Again” in 1971, the music was “country” only in the past of its performer. Still, the song topped the country chart for three weeks in May. Notably, “I Won’t Mention It Again” also held a Top 5 spot on the Adult Contemporary chart, the BIllboard publication that came to exemplify the soft rock sound during the ’70s. Ray Price and other Nashville pop stars formed one of main feeder groups to the popular “lite” music of that decade, often crossing over to the pop and AC charts.

“Medium Dance” by Fred Astaire and Oscar Peterson Sextet [1952]

It’s not every day you hear Oscar Peterson and Barney Kessel trade solos with a tap dancer. In the early 1950s, Norman Granz, creator of the Jazz at the Philharmonic series, had the brilliant idea of pairing film/song/dance star Fred Astaire with some of his JATP musicians for a career retrospective. Mixed in with dozens of vocal performances were three improvised tap showcases, each at a different speed (fast, medium, and slow). While one might miss the visual aspect of tap, a recording puts more focus on the complex rhythms human feet can produce.

So, for the record, hipsters, tap as an instrument on a popular record happened 50 years before Tilly and the Wall.

See also: “I Won’t Dance” from the same 4 LP set.

“Nagasaki” by Quintette du Hot Club de France [1936]

I don’t have much time to write so here is everyone’s favorite French jazz troupe performing an American novelty hit about a popular tourist city in Japan. Quite international for music of the ’30s, no? And I don’t think I need to mention what happened to the title city nine years later…

musichistory:

“Oh, But I Do” by Margaret Whiting [1946]

Random Music History Song of the Day

Margaret Whiting died on Monday. I posted this in October, 2009, but as the rest of the original post explains, timeless music is timeless. That is true even after the performer passes away.

Margaret Whiting’s success was almost assured, being as she was the daughter of Richard Whiting (writer of “Ain’t We Got Fun” and “On the Good Ship Lollipop” among other songs) and a young acquaintance of her fathers’ friend Johnny Mercer, the founder of Capitol Records. Mercer signed young Margaret Whiting to his fresh new label without delay in 1942. In 1946, Margaret Whiting had only recently begun recording as a solo artist after spending the later War years as the featured female singer for a number of big bands.

Before the 1960s, when the trend of folk and rock musicians writing their own songs took off, pop artists searched for well-written songs in any number of places. Among the most important source pop singers looked to for music to record was musical theater (be it Broadway, Hollywood, or elsewhere). Margaret Whiting boosted her fledgling solo career when she recorded “Oh, But I Do,” a song taken from the 1946 Warner Brothers backstage musical film The Time, The Place and the Girl. Although the run-of-the-mill plot kept the film from becoming a classic, the Arthur Schwartz (music) / Leo Robin (lyrics) score held two superb songs: this and “A Rainy Night in Rio.”

Now I realize that for many people in my generation worthwhile pop music begins with either 50s rock & roll or the British Invasion (or maybe even punk or later). Although the style was quite different, there is a treasure trove of great music from the first half of the 20th century that is worth looking into. Arthur Schwartz as a songwriter and Margaret Whiting as a singer are both highly recommended!