Elsie Carlisle

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“You’re in My Arms” (1941)

July 26, 2014 by A. G. Kozak

“You’re in My Arms.” Words by Jack Popplewell, music by Michael Carr (1941). Recorded by Elsie Carlisle on December 19, 1941. Rex 10092 mx. R-6581-2.

“You’re in My Arms” – Elsie Carlisle (1941)

“You’re in My Arms (and a Million Miles Away)” is a beguine from the 1941 musical “Get a Load of This,” written by playwright and lyricist Jack Popplewell and composer Michael Carr. The song was introduced by 17-year-old Celia Lipton (daughter of bandleader Sidney Lipton) and saw treatments in 1941 by Jay Wilbur and His Band (with vocalist Pat O’Regan), Ambrose and His Orchestra (with Anne Shelton), Joe Loss and His Band (Chick Henderson, vocalist), Harry Roy and His Band (with Marjorie Kingsley – though Regal Zonophone rejected the take), and Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Orpheans (with Anne Lenner). Vera Lynn was to record a version the next year.

Lyrics

“Mean to Me” (1929)

July 24, 2014 by A. G. Kozak

“Mean to Me.” Words by Roy Turk, music by Fred E. Ahlert (1929). Recorded by Elsie Carlisle, accompanied by Jay Wilbur and His Orchestra (uncredited) c. late June 1929. Dominion A-168 mx. 1362-3.

Personnel: Laurie Payne-Jimmy Gordon-cl-as-bar / George Clarkson-cl-as-ts / Norman Cole-vn / vn / vn / Billy Thorburn-p /Dave Thomas or Bert Thomas-bj-g /Harry Evans-sb / Jack Kosky-d

Elsie Carlisle – “Mean to Me”
Transfer by Mick Johnson (YouTube)

The torch song “Mean to Me” is perhaps the most familiar of the many pieces resulting from the collaboration of composer Fred E. Ahlert and lyricist Roy Turk. Whereas many dance bands’ versions of this comparatively morose song are paradoxically upbeat, Elsie Carlisle’s version is marked by considerable pathos and fidelity to the sentiments of the lyrics. As is often the case with Elsie’s renditions of popular music, there is a dramatic element present in her “Mean to Me” that sets it aside from other recordings.

“Mean to Me” was recorded in America in 1929 by Annette Hanshaw, Vaughn de Leath (as Betty Brown), Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, Seger Ellis, Phil Napoleon’s Emperors, Helen Richards, and the Charlie Davis Orchestra (with vocalist Louis Lowe). Isabelle Washington sang “Mean to Me” in an August 1929 Vitaphone Film, accompanied by “Dave Apollon and His Russian Stars,” who were, according to Ross Laird, a group of “Filipinos in Scotch kilts playing American jazz.”

By mid-1929, “Mean to Me” had become a common anthem of the British dance bands, with recordings by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra (vocalist Sam Browne), Ambrose and His Orchestra, Alfredo’s Band (vocalist Eddie Collis), Nat Star and His Dance Orchestra (as Eugene Brockman’s Dance Orchestra), Harry Bidgood’s Manhattan Melody Makers (with vocals by Mabel Mann), Carroll Gibbons and His Playmates (with vocalist Alma Vane), Tommy Kinsman’s Florida Club Dance Band, Jay Wilbur and His Orchestra (Lou Abelardo, vocalist), Jim Kelleher’s Picadilly Band (vocalist Fred Douglas), Hal Swain’s Café Royal Band (with vocals by Hal Swain himself, Jimmy Redmond, and Cecil Woods), Bidgood’s Broadcasters (as the Midnight Merrymakers, with Tom Barratt singing), Bert and John Firman’s Arcadians Dance Orchestra (with vocals by Maurice Elwin), and Cecil and Leslie Norman’s Savoy Plaza Band (with vocals by Cavan O’Connor).

“Mean to Me” notably appears in the 1932 Betty Boop cartoon Minnie the Moocher (listen for it at 2:53, although be sure not to skip Cab Calloway’s remarkable dancing at the beginning of the short).

Jay Wilbur

“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (1940)

July 18, 2014 by A. G. Kozak

“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” Words by Eric Maschwitz, music by Manning Sherwin (1940). Recorded by Elsie Carlisle under the musical direction of Jay Wilbur on April 11, 1940. Rex 9816 mx. R-4799-1.

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square – Elsie Carlisle
Video by Brian’s 78’s (YouTube)

“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” is a simple, sentimental love song that recounts the circumstances of the first meeting of two lovers in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, London, which happens to be only five blocks from where Elsie Carlisle lived for decades. On April 11, 1940 she recorded this atmospheric composition for the Rex label to the accompaniment of an electric organ. Hers remains one of the memorable early versions of the piece, which continues to see treatments by popular artists to this day.

First performed in the musical revue New Faces by Judy Campbell, the song was popular with British dance bands in June and July of 1940: there were versions by Carrol Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans (with Anne Lenner singing), Ambrose and His Orchestra (with Anne Shelton as vocalist), Geraldo and His Orchestra (with Dorothy Carless), Billy Cotton and His Band (Alan Breeze, vocalist), and Joe Loss and His Band (with Paula Greene singing). It was included in medleys by Jay Wilbur and His Band (Sam Browne, vocalist) and by Joe Loss. Other than Elsie Carlisle’s, the most notable solo recording that year was by Vera Lynn, who is unusual in having sung the first stanza, which is traditionally omitted.

“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” was popular in America that fall and was recorded by Gene Krupa and His Orchestra (with vocalist Howard Dulaney), Ray Noble and His Orchestra (Larry Stewart, vocalist), and Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (with singer Ray Eberle). Kate Smith would make a notable solo recording of the song (like Vera Lynn, she sings the first stanza).

Sadly, German bombs would fall on Berkeley Square only months after Elsie Carlisle made her recording.