“Just One More.” Words by Stanley Lupino, music by Noel Gay. Composed for the film Sleepless Nights (1932). Recorded by Stanley Lupino and Elsie Carlisle in London on December 1, 1932. Decca F. 3319 mx. GB5275-3.
“Just One More” is the flip side of “I Don’t Want to Go to Bed” and is another Stanley Lupino/Noel Gay collaboration for the musical comedy Sleepless Nights. This Decca recording has Stanley Lupino singing a duet with Elsie Carlisle (who did not appear in the movie) and involves some remarkable spoken banter:
– “Hello, Elsie! How did you get on this side of the record?”
– “I came through the hole in the label!”
– “Wonderful! Lovely! Gorgeous!”
– “To what are you referring?”
– “You.”
– “You don’t mean that.”
– “I do!”
– “Oh, you haven’t seen me in the morning!”
– “Oh, may I???”
– “Oh, Mr. Lupino!”
– “I love that curl on the back of your neck.”
– “Do you?”
– “Yes. May I kiss it?”
– “Oh, no.”
– “Ah, yes!
– “Oh, no!”
– “Ah, yes!”
– “Oh, no…”
– “I shall!”
– “You have!“
There is a sound at end of the recording that is especially precious. Listen for it, and Happy New Year!
“I Don’t Want to Go to Bed.” Words by Stanley Lupino, music by Noel Gay (1932). Recorded by Stanley Lupino and Elsie Carlisle on December 1, 1932. Decca F. 3319 mx. GB5274-3.
An anthem praising the nightlife and its frolicking “nightbird company,” “I Don’t Want to Go to Bed” is part of the score of the 1932 movie Sleepless Nights. Its lyrics were penned by comic actor Stanley Lupino (father of Ida Lupino), who was also the star of the film. Elsie Carlisle joins him in a vocal duet in this Decca recording of the song — she did not act in the movie — and while she only sings for fifteen seconds, hers is a memorable contribution. Particularly funny is her perky comment in the debate as to whether the merrymakers will go home or not:
“I appeal to you, Miss Carlisle!”
“Not to me! Tonight, I’m one of the boys!”
“Home, James, and Don’t Spare the Horses.” Words and music by Fred Hillebrand (1934). Recorded by Ambrose and His Orchestra with Elsie Carlisle as vocalist on December 11, 1934. Decca F. 5371 mx. GB6806-2 (also F. 6926; Brunswick A. 81929).
Personnel: Bert Ambrose dir. Max Goldberg-t-mel / Harry Owen-t / t / Ted Heath-Tony Thorpe-tb / Danny Polo-Sid Phillips-Billy Amstell-reeds / Joe Jeannette-as / Ernie Lewis-Reg Pursglove- others?-vn / Bert Barnes-p / Joe Brannelly-g / Dick Ball-sb / Max Bacon-d
“Home, James, and Don’t Spare the Horses” is an expression of pressing urgency that goes back to the mid-nineteenth century, but the statistics on its recorded use skyrocket around the time that Elsie Carlisle recorded the song with Ambrose and His Orchestra. Like the other comedy waltz “No! No! A Thousand Times No!” that Elsie had recorded the previous month (in November 1934), this song is set in the nineteenth century and is rather cartoonish. In it Elsie tells a funny story about a classy lady rebuffing a lover who has paid too much attention to other women. “Home, James, and Don’t Spare the Horses!” she declares at various points in the story as she dashes off in anger. Elsie’s recitative is delivered in an exaggerated upper-crust accent with many a trilled “r” as she describes the heroine and her footman kicking the penurious former lover’s posterior. Elsie would record other such comic songs about high society in the following year, such as Cole Porter’s “Thank You So Much Mrs. Lowsborough-Goodby” and “Algernon Whifflesnoop John.”
The popularity of “Home, James” is attested to by its being mentioned as particularly successful on the backs of 1934 and 1935 cigarette cards. Elsie would issue a record of medleys in late 1937 that featured “Home, James” along with its comedy waltz partner “No, No, a Thousand Times No!” (HMV BD 476).
Other versions of “Home, James” were recorded in Britain in late 1934 and early 1935 by Jay Wilbur and His Band (with vocalist Bertha Willmott), Charlie Kunz’s Casani Club Orchestra, Jack Jackson and His Orchestra, the Debroy Somers Band (with vocals by Bertha Willmott), Billy Cotton and His Band (with Alan Breeze as vocalist), and Harry Roy and His Orchestra (with singing by Bill Currie and chorus).
I discuss this song in greater detail in my article “Elsie Carlisle’s Top Hits, Then and Now” in the December 2014 issue of the Discographer Magazine.
A photograph of Elsie Carlisle, signed “Home, James – Elsie Carlisle”
"The Idol of the Radio." British dance band singer of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
