“Just a Dancing Sweetheart.” Words by Charles Tobias, music by Peter De Rose (1931). Recorded in Chelsea, London on September 4, 1931 by Spike Hughes and His Dance Orchestra (as Arthur Lally and the Million-Airs) with vocals by Elsie Carlisle. Decca F-2510 mx. GB-3182-1.

Personnel: Spike Hughes-sb ldr. Jimmy McCaffer-1 other-t / Lew Davis-tb / Billy Amstell-cl-as / Arthur Lally-cl-as-bar / Buddy Featherstonehaugh-ts / Boris Penker-vn / Claude Ivy-p / Alan Ferguson-g

Spike Hughes and His Dance Orchestra (v. Elsie Carlisle) – “Just a Dancing Sweetheart” (1931)

Successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters Charles Tobias and Peter De Rose are well represented among Elsie Carlisle’s recordings. Tobias, for example, co-wrote “Rose O’Day (The Filla-Ga-Dusha Song)”; De Rose collaborated on “Have You Ever Been Lonely?”; and together they wrote “One More Kiss, Then Goodnight.” Their 1931 “Just a Dancing Sweetheart” is a waltz, still a flourishing genre in popular music at the time. Elsie Carlisle’s version is a dance band arrangement, and because of that format, the instrumentals are long and the vocal refrain brief (at forty-six seconds) — but it does make a powerful impression.

The song is a reflection on the gap between how a person is perceived functionally as part of a social set vs. that person’s inner mental life. The singer describes herself as being perceived merely as a “dancing sweetheart,” and she is the recipient of loving attention that seems more like song lyrics than “real romance.” What is conveyed is less sadness than it is longing for a more authentic relationship. There is a slight paradox in the fact that these ideas take the form of a dance song.

Elsie Carlisle seems the ideal singer to deliver this brief complaint, insofar as she is so good at using the very little time allotted to her to make us feel as if we have encountered a real person who matters. Her voice conveys sincerity, and its appeal stands in for her character’s attractiveness to her dancing partners. Her strong emotion is expressed through a sort of subtle vocal quavering that is such a mark of her singing technique — perfect for the torch songs, but well suited also to this harder-to-categorize waltz.

It might appear that there is some confusion about the identity of the band. The label of the record says “Arthur Lally and the Million-Airs,” one of Decca’s studio bands. Rust and Forbes list the songs recorded at the September 4, 1931 session under Arthur Lally, but Richard J. Johnson, in his 1994 Elsie Carlisle discography, chose to describe the band as Spike Hughes’s band masquerading as Arthur Lally’s, and in fact, not only is Spike Hughes on the personnel list that day, but the other instrumentalists match his usual lineup very closely.¹

Some noteworthy American recordings of “Just a Dancing Sweetheart” in 1931 were by Dick Robertson, Johnny Hamp and His Orchestra (v. Carl Graub), and Fred Rich and His Orchestra (v. Smith Ballew; on Columbia and on Hit of the Week).

British dance bands who recorded “Just a Dancing Sweetheart” in 1931 were Jack Payne and His BBC Dance Orchestra (v. Jack Payne), Harry Hudson’s Melody Men (v. Harry Hudson), the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra (v. Al Bowlly), Maurice Winnick and His Band (v. Harry Bentley), and Jay Wilbur and His Band (v. Betty Bolton). There were also solo recordings by Gracie Fields and Betty Bolton.