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Ambrose

Her Majesty the Baby

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On April 15, 1896, Elsie Carlisle was baptized in the parish of St. James’, Collyhurst, in Greater Manchester. The parish registry gives the date of the baptism and lists her birth as having occurred earlier in the same year, on January 28. Her parents’ names were James and Mary Ellen. They lived at 7 Whitehead St., and her father was described as a greengrocer.

The baptismal font in use in St. James', Collyhurst in 1971
The baptismal font in use in St. James’, Collyhurst in 1971

And now, for a semi-topical musical interlude:

“His Majesty the Baby.” Music by Mabel Wayne, words by Neville Fleeson and Arthur Terker (1935). Recorded by Elsie Carlisle with Ambrose and His Orchestra on January 11, 1935. Decca F. 5379.

His Majesty The Baby. Ambrose & His Orchestra. 1935.

Video by 85scampi (YouTube)

Elsie recorded the song again the next day without Ambrose. Other versions made the very same month were by Henry Hall, Billy Merrin, the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, Lou Preager, Harry Roy, Jay Wilbur, and Eddie Wood.

Jay Wilbur

“She Had Those Dark and Dreamy Eyes”

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Clive Hooley has given us quite a treat: an Elsie Carlisle song recorded 73 years ago that was not previously on the Internet and is on no vinyl album or CD that I have ever seen. It is a wartime tune on the flip side of the album with the famous “Hut Sut Song.” Copyrighted in 1941, “She Had Those Dark and Dreamy Eyes” appears to have its roots in older sea shanties, and recurs in a truly filthy form in the doggerel of WWII airmen.1

“She Had Those Dark and Dreamy Eyes.” Music and words by Jimmy Hughes and Ted Douglas (1941). Recorded by Elise Carlisle on July 4, 1941. Rex 10021.

She Had Those Dark and Dreamy Eyes, Elsie Carlisle, 1941

Notes:

  1. Cray, Ed.  The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs.  Champaign, Illinois, 1992, 9 ↩
Sam Browne

A Limerick from “Radio Magazine” (June, 1934)

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A limerick about Elsie Carlisle and Sam Browne:

A crooner named Elsie Carlisle
Is a girl with a very nice stisle;
But the cheek that she gets
From Sam Browne in duets —
Now how can this chap be so visle?”

– B. C. Hilliam, the “Mr. Flotsam” of the musical comedy duo “Flotsam and Jetsam”

Ambrose & His Orchestra (w. Sam Browne & Elsie Carlisle) – “I’m Gonna Wash My Hands of You” (1934)

Ambrose

Elsie Carlisle in “Pennies from Heaven”

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I wonder how many people first encountered Elsie Carlisle’s music through the 1978 Dennis Potter BBC television series Pennies from Heaven (or through the 1981 movie based on it)?

This clip has Cheryl Campbell miming “You’ve Got Me Crying Again”:

Dennis Potter’s ‘Pennies From Heaven’ – ‘You’ve Got Me Crying Again’

Video from songanddanceman1234 (YouTube)

And here is Bob Hoskins miming “The Clouds Will Soon Roll By” (the Ambrose version):

Dennis Potter’s ‘Pennies From Heaven’ – ‘The Clouds Will Soon Roll By’

Video from songanddanceman1234 (YouTube)

Ambrose, Sam Browne

“Ambrose’s Jubilee Cavalcade” Side 2 (1935)

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“Ambrose’s Jubilee Cavalcade” continues on side two with Elsie Carlisle singing Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do?” There are also other songs of the ’20s and ’30s sung by Sam Browne and the Rhythm Sisters.

Ambrose’s Jubilee Cavalcade, Continued – Embassy Club, London

Video by Gernot Klawunn (YouTube)

"The Idol of the Radio." British dance band singer of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.