Starter of this subject: Rich
Last post in this subject: 9/14/2000
Messages in this subject: 4
| Rich | 9/14/2000 4 replies |
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Reading back through these posts (I'm new here), I saw one about the theme to the Chase & Sanborn Hour being the Civil War song "Year of Jubilo." Someone else posted that the show's theme was Jerome Kern's "The Big Show," and someone else identified it as a song called "Doodletown Fifers." I don't know about the themes used prior to about 1942 or after 1948, but during the Chase & Sanborn years of the early to late '40s, the tune that led us into Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy's show was definitely "Year of Jubilo." I've got a CD of Civil War-era songs. The two melodies are identical. Different themes were used prior to about 1942 and after 1948. Maybe the other two songs were used as a theme in those years.
Rich P.S. So I'm NOT the only person in the world who remembers Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sunday Barbeque!" (My dad was a big Tennessee Ernie fan. Before I realized the "Jubilo" melody had been borrowed for "Barbeque," I was really puzzled about why Bergen would use a song called "Sunday Barbeque" as his theme.
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| Jim Stokes | 9/18/2000 3 replies |
Specifically, the theme of the Chase and Sanborn (coffee) Show WAS the Spencer/Hagen Orchestra ARRANGEMENT of the "The Year of Jubilo." HOWEVER, the Spencer/Hagen Ork's VERSION IS CALLED, "Doodletown Fifers." That should clear up any ambiguities.  In a previous post, I should have bowed to the original source, which is "The Year of Jubilo."
Note that the Spencer/Hagen Orchestra gave it a jazz-like spin. BTW, Herbert Spencer went on the be an orchestrator for film music. And I am especially fond of his orchestration for the movie, "The Best of Everything." Great movie about New York! Jim Stokes |
| Jim Stokes | 9/19/2000 2 replies |
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Come to think of it, that old melody comes up again, if I am not mistaken, in "The Arkansas Traveler," a folk tune.
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| Rich | 9/20/2000 1 replies |
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Thanks, Jim. That clears up a lot. I'd still like to know which theme was Kern's "The Big Show," though.
It's interesting to listen to Ray Noble's orchestra play "Doodletown Fifers" over the years that theme was used. Early on, it was done at a very measured tempo. By late 1948, though, the orchestra was racing through it at breakneck speed. Rich |
| Jim Stokes | 9/20/2000 0 replies |
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Rich -- The orchestra surely generated excitement. Come to think of it, that frantic orchesta pace was also on The Jack Benny Show and the Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show. I liked the combined arrangement of I'm A Yankee Doodle Dandy with Love In Bloom on Jack's show. And also the fast-paced, spirited version of Sunday. I think that's the name of the show theme. Anyway, the lyrics go something like, "I sigh all day Monday, I cry all day Tuesday...Till Sunday --that's my day with you." Various vocalists had records of it. Frank Sinatra was one. Those were back in the days when you could understand all the words to the songs. Funny how now there are a zillion channels of mono available in multi-track recordings, and still the lyrics are hard to understand! Before a gadzillion tracks of mono, there were monaural records. Imagine that! The sound mixer may have had five channels on his mixing board, but the result was very clear sound of the lyrics.
Oh, and add to the fast-paced theme music back in the greatest days of radio, Robert Armbruster's Orchestra playing the Your Hit Parade theme, (This is my) Luck |