Were Those Songs Really That Old? Vol III Quiz

Answer: Are You Lonesome Tonight?

The song was composed in late 1926 by the well respected team of Lou Handman and Roy Turk. Vaughn De Leath and Henry Burr recorded the hit versions in 1927 while Elvis Presley topped the charts for six weeks with his cover in 1960.

Almost forgotten today, Vaughn De Leath (nee Leonore Vonderleath) was regarded as the "First Lady of Radio" for a couple of reasons: 1) she was the first woman to make a live performance on the airwaves in 1920, and 2) she was a permanent radio staple for a dozen years making over 2,000 radio broadcasts. She recorded plenty of songs as well using several pseudonyms but only 13 managed to make appearances on the charts of the day. Her two biggest hits were this one at Number Four and the Number Six "Ukulele Lady", both of which can be viewed on YouTube. For some unexplained reason, De Leath suddenly abandoned her career in 1932. She died at the age of 48 in 1943, an alcoholic pauper.

Henry Burr's career turned out considerably better. The Canadian native, by his own estimate, churned out approximately 12,000 recordings from 1903 to the early days of the 1930s. He recorded solo, in duets with Albert Campbell, as part of the Sterling Trio and as the lead tenor with the Peerless Quartet. The Presley of the acoustic era, he had 16 solo Number One hits and that number rises to 31 when his collaborations with others are accounted for. His formal and stiff balladeer style of singing fell out of favor in the late 1920s when the crooners like Bing Crosby and Gene Austin became vogue. His release of this song topped out at Number 10 and it was his second last chart entry in an exemplary recording career. He continued to perform in concerts and on radio until the early 1940s. He succumbed to throat cancer in 1941 at the age of 59.

I think most people are familiar with Presley's body of work and his record speaks for itself. I thought that the spoken "soliloquy" in this song was unique to Presley's version but I thought wrong. In 1950, Blue Barron also covered this song taking it to Number 19. It was his version that introduced the Inkspots influenced spoken verse. One memorable line of that verse was "You know someone said that the world's a stage and each must play a part." Well, that someone was Shakespeare and the line is paraphrased from "As You Like It". I just love finding this stuff out! Grandma liked it (the Presley factor), Grandpa somewhat opposed (jealousy)!

Answer: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

I hope you focused in on the "blowing a note" and "reveille" part of the lyric that should have cued you into the "Bugle Boy". The "Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar" distracter comes from a similar style song written by the same folks, Don Raye and Hughie Prince, but it refers to a honky tonk piano player from Texas. Both songs were sung by The Andrews Sisters.

Laverne, (contralto - b. 1912), Maxene (soprano - b. 1916) and Patty (mezzo-soprano - b. 1918) were born in Minneapolis, the daughters of a Greek immigrant father and a Norwegian immigrant mother. They started as a group circa 1932 with Patty taking the lead singer role. By the middle of the decade, they were on vaudeville tours emulating their predecessors, The Boswell Sisters. Their break came in 1938 when "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" became their first Number One hit. They would follow that with five more Number Ones (two more with recordings done with Bing Crosby) over a 15 year span before they temporarily broke up when Patty chose to embark on a solo career. Although they reformed in 1956 following a three year hiatus and continued to perform and record together, no big hits would ensue. Laverne died in 1967 of cancer and the remaining sisters chose solo careers thereafter. Maxene passed away in 1995 following a heart attack while Patty went into semi-retirement shortly thereafter.

The 1973 cover was recorded by Bette Midler becoming her first top ten release. Both grandpa and grandma were okay with this version. Born in New Jersey in 1945, she was raised in Hawaii where her father worked at an air force base. She moved to New York in 1965 and worked steadily as an actress, on and off Broadway. She started her singing career in 1970 at The Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse that included an entertainment center that has featured many top-flight acts since opening in 1968. It was there she met Barry Manilow who was her back-up pianist. He produced her first album, "The Divine Miss M", which included this hit and a couple of others. Since then, she has successfully balanced her recording and movie acting careers although the latter appears to have gained ascendency in recent times. She probably reached her musical zenith with her Number One recording in 1989, the Grammy award winning "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Answer: Love Letters in the Sand

The song was composed in 1931 by John Frederick Coots, the lyrics written by Charles and Nick Kenny. The Kenny's were infrequent lyricists, this being their biggest hit by far. Coots is credited with writing over 700 musical pieces and this was his second most famous hit. I'd say that "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" was bigger. Otherwise, almost all of his other compositions are largely forgotten. But that puts him well ahead of Ted Black who recorded the song with his orchestra and was the featured vocalist. He had a total of five charting songs over a 12 month period in 1931/2 and that was it. Apparently, he formed his band in 1929 and it was of "the sweet music" variety, a la Guy Lombardo, Wayne King or Lawrence Welk. It seems that he toured quite a bit and did some radio work but if he did more recording, no other hits ensued. His band, consisting largely of the same musicians he started with, disbanded in 1942 or 1943. Nothing could be found regarding his birth date, place of birth or any details of his death although a few of his recordings are available on YouTube. I find this anonymity rather strange. A number of other renditions of the song were recorded at the time, most notably by Lee Morse and Gene Austin but only Black's version scored on the charts.

Altogether, it's been covered at least 27 times on record and amazingly enough, the only other time it charted was in 1957 by Pat Boone. I guess the song saved up all its good karma for this release; it hovered in the Hot 100 for 34 weeks, seven of them at Number One. Having studied music charts quite extensively over the years, believe me when I say that for a song to chart for seven weeks peaking at only Number Six, then remain forgotten for over 40 years before achieving the lofty chart numbers it did is most unusual indeed. The grandparents may not have heard this song during its original release but they both thought highly of the clean cut Boone. Two thumbs up!

Answer: Heart and Soul

Over the years, "Heart and Soul", a Hoagy Carmichael/Frank Loesser composition, has been recorded countless times and if you think you've never heard of it, think again. The musical arrangement by Carmichael has been taught to piano students for decades as a duet... just like "Chopsticks". Pop over to YouTube for a demonstration then go "Doh".

In 1938, there were probably at least a dozen recorded versions of this song vying for chart position. Larry Clinton, with Bea Wain handling the vocals, emerged the victor as their Number One hit would attest. Eddy Duchin's version came in at Number 12 while Al Donohue took it to Number 16.

The Cleftones were a vocal doo-wop quintet from Queens and their 1961 cover was their highest charting success at Number 18. If you consider a "true hit" to be Top 40, then they were one hit wonders. Four other releases between 1956 and 1962 squeezed onto the Hot 100 ranging in position from Number 57 to 95. After nine years together, they disbanded in 1964. Since both rock versions were only so-so hits, maybe the lesson here was that certain soft, sentimental numbers designed for slow dancing and romancing are better off left that way. Granny and gramps would agree with that!

Answer: Deep Purple

"Deep Purple" was another big hit for Larry Clinton, in fact his biggest, topping the charts for nine weeks early in 1939. He knocked off significant competition for the honor too. Jimmy Dorsey, Guy Lombardo, Bing Crosby and Artie Shaw all had charting versions ranging from Number Two to Number 17 that year. The music was originally composed in 1934 as a piano solo by Peter de Rose who also wrote such hits as "Wagon Wheels" and "On a Little Street in Singapore". Paul Whiteman used it in one of his revues and it became a popular sheet music seller, so much so that Mitchell Parrish added the lyrics in 1938. Parrish was quite noted as a lyricist with such songs as "Stardust", "Sleigh Ride", "Sophisticated Lady" and the English lyrics to "Volare" among his accomplishments.

Paul Weston produced the original cover version in 1949 which stalled at Number 20 on the charts. That was also the chart position achieved by Billy Ward and His Dominoes in 1957 with their cover, one that was perhaps slightly slower in tempo. Speaking of tempo, Nino Tempo and April Stevens recorded their version in 1963 that was Number One for a week. In it, they introduce a spoken component when, for a couple of verses, April would speak a line then Nino would repeat it singing. The Number 14 version by Donnie and Marie Osmond in 1974 repeated this innovation by Tempo and Stevens thus becoming a legitimate "cover" of a "cover". Both these versions were just slightly up-tempo from the original but not distressingly so, at least in the opinion of the grandparents who liked every recorded version of this song, an interesting testament in itself.

Answer: Porgy and Bess by George & Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward

DuBose Heyward wrote his novel "Porgy" in 1925 then, with his spouse as co-author, wrote a stage play with the same title. George Gershwin first conceived of using the play as the basis for an opera in 1933 and took 20 months to write the score for what would become the folk opera "Porgy and Bess". It was first performed in the autumn of 1935 in New York City. At first it wasn't deemed to be conventional opera but when it was performed by The Houston Grand Opera Company in 1976, the notion that it wasn't "true" opera was shattered. The Met in New York City first performed it in 1985 reinforcing forever its status as a legitimate operatic work.

It certainly is odd that "Summertime", truly a magnificent piece of music, hasn't performed well on the charts. The only pre-R&R recording to place was Billie Holiday's rendition which peaked at Number 12 in 1936. Post 1955 recordings that made Hot 100 appearances were released by Sam Cooke in 1957 (Number 81), The Marcels in 1961 (Number 78), Rick Nelson in 1962 (Number 89) and The Chris Columbo Quintet in 1963 (Number 93). Then there must have been 100s of other versions that never charted at all. Finally, in 1966, Billy Stewart released a rather unusual interpretation of the song that peaked at Number 10. Neither granny nor gramps recognized the song when they heard that cover... needless to say, they weren't impressed! Almost all of Stewart's recordings were rather radical for the era and were earmarked for the Black and Chicano markets. He was killed in a car crash in 1970, aged 32.

Answer: Heartaches

In Joel Whitburn's reference book "Pop Memories 1890-1954", the Ted Weems' version of "Heartaches" is listed as being a vocal recording. I have that version (Victor 2175) on the Time-Life "Your Hit Parade" disc from 1947 and played it while preparing this question. Nary a word is sung on that recording! Either Whitburn is in error, which I truly doubt, or Weems recorded two versions of the song for release in 1947. To further roil the already muddy waters, the song doesn't have a 1947 "sound" to it and no wonder why. It was originally recorded in 1933 and re-released in 1947. Nothing like clearing out the shelves of old forgotten stuff then selling two million copies with it! Weems was one of the more enduring musical entities of the era. His recording career spanned a quarter of a century from 1922 to 1948 and outside of the huge success he had with this number, he may be best remembered for discovering Perry Como and utilizing his talents as his featured vocalist in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

No controversy regarding The Marcels rendition of the song. Much like their reading of "Blue Moon" earlier in 1961, "Heartaches" was a distinctly "doo-wop" take on the song and indeed, featured all six lines of the lyric. The old folks couldn't quite come to grips with doo-wop versions of their old favorites. They gave it a 2 out of 10.

Answer: Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Glenn Miller had the big hit with "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and it was something of an oddity that his was the only charting version in the early 1940s. Normally, whenever a hot song like this was churned out of Tin-Pan Alley, bands lined up to record it and the chart race was on. Other bands recorded this one too; Cab Calloway, Claude Thornhill and Ray McKinley to name three. Clearly, Miller's was the definitive version if it could shut out the others from even making an appearance on the charts. No wonder it sold over a million copies earning that first gold record in the process. It was the third biggest hit of the Miller catalogue after "In the Mood", 12 weeks at Number One and "Moonlight Cocktail", a 10 week chart topper.

The four versions that charted during the rock era were led by Ernie Fields' recording that peaked at Number 54 in early 1960. Late in 1959, Fields' first charting release was a cover of Miller's "In the Mood" which soared to Number Four on the Hot 100 so this release must have been something of a disappointment. Fields played these songs in a fairly traditional manner although they were modernized with a wailing sax, typical of the rock era, dominating the score. Floyd Cramer's piano version stalled at Number 36 in 1962 then Harper's Bizarre reached Number 45 in 1967 with a typical, for them, soft rock rendition. The final cover to chart at Number 32 in 1978 was by a studio group named Tuxedo Junction. Theirs was a disco version and the only charting hit they would have. The grandparents weren't much into disco but were okay with the other versions.

The song was composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Mack Gordon and working as a tandem, they had more hits than most song writers would have in their career. Four of their better known collaborations were "At Last", Etta James' signature song, "There Will Never Be Another You" and "The More I See You", popularized in the 1960s by Chris Montez and the Harry James standard, "I Can't Begin to Tell You". Among the 800 songs that Warren is credited with writing were "I Only Have Eyes For You" (featured in a previous quiz), "42nd Street", "We're In the Money" (AKA "The Gold Diggers Song"), "Lullabye of Broadway", "Jeepers Creepers" and "That's Amore". That's a lotta music! He passed away in 1981 at the age of 87 and was composing music right to the end. Gordon wasn't quite as prolific but he didn't quite have Warren's longevity, passing away in 1959 at the age of 54. Among his other notable credits were "Mam'selle", "I Had the Craziest Dream" and "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo". Both are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Answer: Willow Weep For Me

"Yesterday's Gone" was also recorded by Chad and Jeremy but that was their initial and fourth biggest hit of their career together. The other two choices were songs by Peter and Gordon, another British duo from that era.

"Willow Weep For Me" was written entirely, it is believed, by Ann Ronell. She wasn't a major influence in the industry, doing some work on Broadway and for the movies before seemingly retiring from show business sometime in the 1950s. Now I say "it is believed" that she wrote this piece since there has been some speculation that it was actually written by George Gershwin. Ronell and Gershwin were linked romantically at the time, briefly, and because of the style of the song, some believe that he wrote it and gave it to her as a present. Nothing conclusive was ever proven either way.

The recording act to first have charting success with the song was Ted Fio Rito who recorded it a few weeks prior to Whiteman. It peaked at Number 17 on the charts of the day. Whiteman's vocalist for this hit was Irene Taylor who replaced Mildred Bailey after she quit the band over salary issues. This was the only Whiteman recording that charted with her as vocalist and she was replaced herself shortly thereafter. Later, she wed bandleader Seger Ellis, sang with his group briefly then apparently retired in the 1940s. With all this said, if you should ever hear this song on radio today on some specialty station, it will likely be a rendition by Billie Holiday that you're listening to from her "Lady Sings the Blues" album. Granny liked all versions of the song more than grandpa, and once, in a particularly curmudgeonly mood, he was heard muttering something about the "those English guys needing a haircut".

Chad and Jeremy, those "English guys", had a decent career together although their 11 charting hits were compressed into a two year span between 1964 and 1966. Over the years since then, they would do some recording and touring, separate for a while to do other things, then get back together again to repeat the process. Those other things for Chad Stuart meant production work for other musical acts while for Jeremy Clyde, he would do some acting both on the stage and on films. They remained active into the 21st Century.

Answer: Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

Back in 1923 when they were kids, granny and gramps would do The Charleston to Paul Whiteman's recording of this song. In 1960, if lumbago didn't slow down the old fellow, they'd do their Benny Goodman swing style dancing to Freddy Cannon's cover. It's kind of neat that the song was versatile that way.

The song was composed by the African-American partnership of John Turner Layton, Jr. and Henry Creamer and along with "After You've Gone", popularized by Sophie Tucker, it would be their most remembered composition. Actually, it first charted in December, 1922 for the Henry Burr led Peerless Quartet, the third last charting hit that renowned group would have before dissolving in 1928. The famed vaudeville performer Blossom Seeley also recorded the song in 1923 and both her version and Whiteman's peaked at Number Five. Prior to Cannon resurrecting it in 1960, Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford gave it a turn in 1953. Back in those days, charts only listed 30 hits and theirs peaked for one week at Number 26.

Ultimately, none of these versions could hold a candle to Cannon's Number Three hit. When rock & roll first hit the scene in 1954-5, the kids said it would never die but by 1960, it really was in its death throes. I'm talking about the "real" rock and roll popularized by the likes of Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and that ilk. By 1960, it had become pretty sanitized and if you scan the Number One songs of that year, there wasn't one that could be labeled a "rock" song. But Cannon rocked and although I haven't listened to every song he's ever done, I'll bet there ain't one ballad among them. That's why he was labeled "Boom Boom". Now 71 years old as of this writing, he still performs now and then on the oldies circuit and still rocks on!