Soundie: My Lost Horizon

Today's Soundie features Les Brown and His Band Renown along with a 16 year old Doris Day handling the vocals.  "My Lost Horizon" was filmed in April of 1941.  Les Brown also filmed two other Soundies that month: "Once Over Lightly" and "Is It Love or Conscription?".

As far as I know, this was Doris Day's first film appearance of any kind.  About a decade later she would go to have a successful movie career.

Enjoy!

Watch: "My Lost Horizon" by Les Brown featuring Doris Day.

Read More

Soundie: "Anvil Chorus"

Today's Soundie is "Anvil Chorus" by Al Donahue and His Orchestra.  This was filmed and released in 1943.  Donahue and his boys do some nice work in this one and it features some pretty good solos.  I'm not sure if Al got the memo that he was being filmed.  Throughout the majority of the Soundie he is facing the band and rarely acknowledges or interacts with the camera.

Enjoy!

Watch the Soundie: "Anvil Chorus" by Al Donahue and His Orchestra from 1943

Read More

Playlist Additions - Sep 2024

I hope everyone is doing well.  Over the past week I've added some more songs to the Swing City Radio regular rotation.  Here are some of the highlights:

Songs from The Carnation Contented Hour - Melody Hour (AFRS)

The Carnation Contented Hour was a radio music series that aired on various networks from 1931 to 1951 and was sponsored by the Carnation Milk Company.  In the 1940's, it was also called The Melody Hour when it was distributed to the troops via the Armed Forces Radio Service.  The show had many great hosts through the years and a boatload of talent performed on this show.  I've only begun to scratch the surface.  In this batch of additions I've added songs by Jo Stafford, Buddy Clark and Dick Haymes.

Listen to: Jo Stafford sing "I Got the Sun in the Morning" from September 1950

Benny Goodman Swing School

These tracks are from broadcasts that took place in July and August of 1937.  They feature one of the most classic lineups that Goodman ever assembled.  Some of the titles included are: "Sing, Sing, Sing (Part 2)", "Mother Goose Marches On", "Lullaby In Rhythm" and "Clarinet Marmalade".  Great stuff! 

Also added to the Playlist

Tracks by Bing Crosby from October of 1952 and selected songs from a July 1945 performance by Lucky Millinder on the show "One Night Stand".  I had to really work with the audio quality but I got it sounding pretty good.

Enjoy!

Read More