The False Ducks Blahg

   What do you write a blahg about when you’re not sure what to write about?  Does that make sense?  Here it is the first full week of July, 2021, in a heat-wave and I need a brain-wave.  I’ve done the inspirational recently and looked at the world situation until I’m tired of looking at it.  I got my second vaccine last week, Moderna, and had no reaction.  So that story is put to bed.  By the way, get a vaccine.  So what do I want to talk about?  Well you know me, it’s all about the music. 

   This blahg is going to be another of those, “gee, I haven’t even heard of them” blahgs.  At the end of April I published “SOME FORGOTTEN BANDS…WITH A NOD TO LINDA KEENE” and brought to life some information and songs by some long lost bands.  This time I thought I would look at some of the lost singers from around the big band era.  Recently I was cleaning out an email folder and there was this email that I had sent myself with the subject “Kay Foster.”  I don’t know when I sent it to myself or even why.  That was probably the inspiration for this blahg so I’m going to start with her.  This is her obituary from The Washington Post on April 20th, 2002: 

Katherine Peterson

Big Band Singer

Katherine Peterson, 84, who as Kay Foster sang in the 1930s and 1940s with the big bands of Artie Shaw, Tony Pastor, Les Brown and Benny Goodman, died April 14 at her home in Madison Heights, Mich., after a heart attack.

Mrs. Peterson, a soprano, was married to Chuck Peterson, a trumpet player in bands led by Shaw, Pastor, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and Benny Carter.

She made headlines in 1937 when Bruno of Hollywood, the photographer, told reporters Mrs. Peterson had “the best-looking legs of any girl band vocalist in America.”

If you look at Kay Foster’s Discogs entry, you get this: 

		Louisiana Purchase Tony Pastor And His Orchestra – Louisiana Purchase / The Lord Done Fixed Up My Soul ‎(Shellac, 10″)	Bluebird (3)	B-10725	1940
		Georgie Auld And His Orchestra – Angel / I Want My Mama ‎(Shellac, 10″)	Varsity	8152	1940
		On A Simmery Summery Day Tony Pastor And His Orchestra – On A Simmery Summery Day / I Bought A Wooden Whistle ‎(Shellac, 10″)	Bluebird (3)	B-10747	1940
		Imagination and 4 more… Georgie Auld – 1940-1945 ‎(CD, Comp)	Classics (11)	CLASSICS 1322	2003

I know this isn’t complete by any means because I found the following song, “It Never Entered My Mind” that Kay Foster did with Tony Pastor in 1940. 

I wasn’t able to find a location to stream “Louisiana Purchase” or “On A Simmery Summery Day” which Kay Foster also recorded with Tony Pastor.  Moving on to her recordings with Georgie Auld and staying with 1940, I was able to find “Angel”: 

Here we’ll have to rely on a YouTube Audio Video: 

The flip-side of “Angel” was “I Want My Mama”:

Here’s another one that Kay Foster also recorded with Georgie Auld, “Imagination”: 

If you check the limited discography for Kay Foster from Discogs, listed above, “Imagination” is listed with the notation following “and 4 more.”  As far as I can tell, the “4 more” were “With The Wind And The Rain In Your Hair” and “Shake Down The Stars.”  In this case, the “4 more” also included “Angel” and “I Want My Mama.”  So here are the two I haven’t covered from the “4 more”, “With The Wind And Rain In Your Hair” and “Shake Down The Stars”: 

Apparently in 1943, Kay Foster was appearing with Jan Garber and His Orchestra because I found two songs she performed on the Treasury Star Parade radio program in 1943.  They are both on YouTube and they are “May In Mexico” and “I Don’t Want Anybody At All”:

There isn’t much else I could find on Kay Foster and I couldn’t find a picture of Kay Foster showing off her famous legs. From her heyday, however, here’s a nice clipping of her from July of 1940 when she was appearing in Cleveland, Ohio:

  

   Moving on to another forgotten songstress, next up is Ruth McCullough.  Again, we find another obituary from the Washington Post but this time it’s June 18, 2001:

Ruth McCullough Dyer, 80

Ruth McCullough Dyer, 80, a Washington and former Hyattsville resident who under the name Ruth McCullough had been a singer with big bands in the 1940s, died of congestive heart failure June 15 at a hospital in San Diego. She had lived in San Diego since leaving the Washington area in 1995.

Mrs. Dyer, a graduate of Eastern High School and the Washington School for Secretaries, began singing professionally as a teenager. After singing with such local groups as the Rod Raffell band in the 1930s, she went to New York. There, she performed with the Sonny Dunham and Isham Jones bands as well as the Mitchellaires before joining the Tony Pastor Band.

Pastor, himself a novelty singer whose work often highlighted his Italian heritage, led a band until 1959. In the early and mid-1940s, Mrs. Dyer was a leading singer with the band, recording such hits as “Bell Bottom Trousers.” Other songs she recorded with the band included “I’m Beginning to See the Light” and “Walk a Little, Talk a Little.” Another song the band recorded featured Mrs. Dyer and her husband, Richard Dyer, on vocals. He was a singer and trumpet player with the band.

In addition to singing with the Pastor Band, Mrs. Dyer also had opened for her friends the Andrews Sisters on some of their singing engagements. When Mrs. Dyer left the Pastor Band in 1946 to raise a family, she was replaced by two Ohio sisters, Betty and Rosemary Clooney.

Mrs. Dyer was a member of St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Hyattsville.

Her husband, whom she married in 1944, died in 1989.

Survivors include two sons, James and Steven Dyer, both of San Diego; a daughter, Joan Marks of Spotsylvania, Va.; and four grandchildren.

Note that the obituary mentions Ruth McCullough was another singer who had recorded with Tony Pastor.  The main song they mention is “Bell Bottom Trousers”:

“Bell Bottom Trousers” is the only entry that Discogs has for Ruth McCullough despite her obituary mentioning other recordings with Tony Pastor.  The obituary does mention that Ruth McCullough recorded “I’m Beginning To See The Light” with Pastor but I could only find a live version that appeared on an album of live songs released on the Onwards To Yesterday Label.  The album is “Tony Pastor And His Orchestra – (1945-49) Selections Never Before On Record”:

From that album comes “I’m Beginning To See The Light” with an air date of March 13, 1945:

Keeping with Tony Pastor, I found another recording of Ruth McCullough on “Walk A Little, Talk A Little”:

In 1944 Ruth McCullough was performing with Sonny Dunham and his Orchestra.  I do not believe they made any recordings together but there exists a recording of a radio performance that Ruth did with Sonny Dunham from the Hollywood Palladium on August 17th, 1944.  The song is “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” and appears on the album “One Night Stand With Sonny Dunham.”  The majority of the album is devoted to Sonny Dunham’s appearance at the Hotel New Yorker on July 16th, 1945 but the last three tracks on the second side of the album are from the Palladium date.  Here’s Ruth McCullough singing “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City”.  Pay particular attention to that song title because it will surface again in this blahg.

I found another listing for the song “Shoo-Shoo Baby” which Ruth McCullough performed with Mitchell Ayres and His Fashions in Music.  I don’t know the date of this performance, although it appears to be from a live radio show, and I could only find one release containing that version.  It is a CD put out by the Collector’s Choice label appropriate titled “Spotlighting Mitchell Ayres and His Fashions In Music”:

The song can be heard on YouTube:

I could find no other songs related to Ruth McCullough but found this lovely picture of her when she was appearing with Tony Pastor in 1945: 

   

    I mentioned earlier in this blahg that Kay Foster recorded a song called “On A Simmery Summery Day” with Tony Pastor.  I couldn’t find that recording but in my research I turned up a version sung by Sally Richards, the next artist to be featured in this blahg.  Before we get into any information about Sally, here’s her recording of “On A Simmery Summery Day” with Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra from 1940:

Sally Richards recorded a number of sides with Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra.  Below is what I could piece together as a discography of the tunes Richards and Reynolds recorded together.  In this discography, vSR represents a vocal by Sally Richards.

From this discography we can see that Richards performed vocal on 13 songs during her time with Tommy Reynolds.  From her first session, February 28th, 1940, here is “Whispering Grass”: 

From her second session with Reynolds on April 17th, 1940, I’ll offer up “Sierra Sue” and “I Can’t Love You Any More”:

 

From the May 14th, 1940 session that brought “On A Simmery Summery Day” comes “I Love To Watch The Moonlight” followed by a YouTube Audio/Video of “The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes” from June 10th, 1940: 

 

From her final session with the Tommy Reynolds Orchestra are her last two recordings.  The first is a YouTube Audio/Video of “Stop Pretending” followed by the audio for “I’ll Tell It To The Breeze” 

 

So, who was Sally Richards?  Where did she come from?  What happened to her?  I can find very little information about her.  Here’s a quote from a website entry on Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra:  “Sally Richards had taken over as the band’s female vocalist, and Gene Sanders was hired as male singer that June; they were replaced by Mary Ann McCall and Ralph Young, respectively, no later than September.”  I found references to her up in Boston in 1946 appearing at a couple of nightclubs but nothing substantive.  I couldn’t find an obituary nor any photos when she was with Tommy Reynolds.  There was a Sally Richards making the rounds in 1934 and 1935 as a blues singer.  Check out the advertisement to the left from February 12th, 1934 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota.  Sally Richards, Blues Singer, was on the bill at the Breen Hotel Winter Gardens. If anyone knows anything else about Sally Richards, let me know.  For now, we’ll have to leave off with Sally.

  

   Dorothy Claire, my next entry, had more recognition than our previous songbirds.  She even has a Wikpedia entry, although very limited: 

Dorothy Claire (born Marietta Wright, January 5, 1925) is an American former singer on Broadway and with big bands.

Early years

The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Wright, Claire was born in La Porte, Indiana. At age 4, she began singing, joining her sisters to form a trio that performed at parties and on WSBT radio in South Bend, Indiana. She later attended La Porte High School, where she was a cheerleader.[1]
Career

Orchestra leader Ayars Lamar hired Claire as a singer when she was 16, changing her name from Marietta Wright to Dorothy Claire. Two of her sisters later adopted that last name for their own professional work. She debuted professionally when she appeared with Lamar’s orchestra in Indianapolis at the Indiana Roof. She went on to sing for notable band leaders including Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Sonny Dunham, and Bob Crosby. Her rendition of “Perfidia” with Miller’s orchestra sold more than 1 million records.

Breaking away from orchestras, Claire began singing in night clubs in Chicago, including Chez Paree and The Palmer House, then performed at the Copacabana in New York. She sang on Bing Crosby’s radio program and on Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club. She also had her own program on radio station WJZ in New York City and toured in vaudeville. Her work on television included appearances with Jack Carter and Paul Winchell.

On Broadway, Claire performed in Face the Music (1932), Finian’s Rainbow (1947) and Jimmy (1969).

Further research on the Bandchirps.com website added the following:

As the 1950s rolled around, Claire began billing herself as both a singer and a comedienne. She played heavily on the nightclub circuit and in 1950 also began appearing regularly on television’s The Paul Winchell Show. She made guest appearances on many other television programs as well. She continued performing into the 1970s, mainly in nightclubs, also appearing in two films, as a singing prostitute in Cat Ballou (1965) and in the low budget 1970 Lenny Bruce biopic Dirtymouth. Dorothy Claire passed away in 1982, age 62.

On another site there was information from a cousin who added “Dorothy moved back to LaPorte in the late 1970s and opened her own restaurant, “Dorothy Claire’s Place.” She passed away in the mid 1980s. ‘She was a great lady.’ “  The following is a discography that I found at https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/308658/Claire_Dorothy:

Recordings

Company			First Recording Date	Title	Primary Performer	Description	Role
Victor			2/19/1941	A little old church in England	Dorothy Claire ; Ray Eberle ; Glenn Miller Orchestra ; Modernaires	Jazz/dance band, with female-male vocal duet and male vocal quartet	vocalist
Victor			2/19/1941	Perfidia	Dorothy Claire ; Glenn Miller Orchestra ; Modernaires	Jazz/dance band, with female vocal solo and male vocal quartet	vocalist
Victor			2/20/1941	The air minded executive	Tex Beneke ; Dorothy Claire ; Glenn Miller Orchestra	Jazz/dance band, with female-male vocal duet	vocalist
Decca			12/14/1939	Two little doodle bugs	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			12/14/1939	How many times?	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			2/14/1940	Easy does it	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			2/14/1940	Busy as a bee	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			4/2/1940	‘Deed I do	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			4/2/1940	If I could be the dummy on your knee	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			4/2/1940	Slow freight	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			6/24/1940	Can’t get Indiana off my mind	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			6/24/1940	Stop pretending	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			7/19/1940	That’s for me	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			9/4/1940	Take care (of you for me)	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			4/29/1941	Nighty night	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			4/29/1941	I found a million-dollar baby	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			6/18/1941	You started something	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			6/18/1941	Down, down, down	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist
Decca			7/18/1941	It’s you again	Bobby Byrne Orchestra		vocalist

The earliest entry in the discography is from December 14th, 1939 with the Bobby Byrne Orchestra when she recorded “Two Little Doodle Bugs” and “How Many Times.”  Here they are: 

Dorothy Claire continued to record with Bobby Byrne and His Orchestra in 1940 and 1941.  I want to offer up some well known songs performed by Dorothy Claire.  Here are ” ‘Deed I Do” and another version of “Stop Pretending” from YouTube which you can compare to the one I posted above recorded by Sally Richards. 

Here are a couple of her 1941 recordings with Bobby Byrne.  From April 29th, 1941 we have “I Found A Million Dollar Baby”, on which she duets with Stuart Wade, and her last recording with Byrne from July 18, 1941, “It’s You Again.” 

 

    Dorothy Claire’s obituary information mentions her time with Glenn Miller but the discography only details three recordings, “A Little Old Church In England,” “The Air Minded Executive,” and her million copy selling rendition of “Perfidia.”  Here are the three recordings she did with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. 

   There exists a radio recording of Dorothy Claire’s first live appearance with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra on January 11, 1941 from the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan.  In it, Dorothy Claire performs “Swingin’ at the Seance.”  Here it is from YouTube:

   I found the following photo of Dorothy Claire when she was a vocalist with Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra.  I believe that Dorothy was with Raeburn around 1944.

The only recording that I could find of Dorothy Claire with Boyd Raeburn and His Orchestra was a V-Disc she did with his outfit in 1944.  Here’s a YouTube Audio/Video of the song “Who Started Love?” with Dorthy Claire and Boyd Raeburn as well as the flip-side featuring Harry James on “Crazy Rhythm.”

I could not find any other recordings of Dorothy Claire with Boyd Raeburn but I did find that she recorded at least 4 songs around 1947 with Emmett Carls and his Orchestra.  Here are “Love Makes The World Go Round,” “The Coffee Song,” “Sooner Or Later,” and “Does Your Heart Beat For Me?”

 

    

  Dorothy Claire also sang with Sonny Dunham’s band around 1943 and 1944 but the only recordings I could find were issued on a CD on the Circle label, shown at left.  Th e two songs on the CD sung by Dorothy Claire are “Wo Ho” and “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City.”  “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” was presented earlier in this blahg as a live radio transcription of Ruth McCullough singing it with Sonny Dunham.  The band is the same this time but the vocal is by Dorothy Claire.  Luckily someone has uploaded these to YouTube: 

The only information I could find about these two recordings of Dorothy Claire with Sonny Dunham comes from the back of the CD:  “Originally recorded for Lang – Worth Transcription in New York City December 21, 1943.”   This means that Dorothy Claire sang “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” with Sonny Dunham almost eight months before Ruth McCullough warbled it live with Dunham at the Hollywood Palladium in August of 1944.  Other versions of “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” have been recorded by Julie London and Peggy Lee.  Julie London’s version makes you wonder why this blues song has all but disappeared.  Dorothy Claire’s version of “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” is a good note to end off her entry here and move on to another by picking up a thread inspired by the same song.

 

   When I was researching the song “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City,” I came across another version recorded by a singer by the name of “Frantic” Fay Thomas.  Here again is another singer that seems to have been lost to time.  Again, however, she is someone with a limited Wikipedia entry: 

Fannie Crawford (September 14, 1922 – July 5, 1978), known as “Frantic” Fay Thomas, was an American pianist and vocalist. She recorded for Exclusive Records in the 1949.

As a teenager, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Her father Elijah Crawford and her brother Bayless Crawford were cooks. On March 12, 1940, she married George Thomas in Cleveland, Ohio.

Thomas began performing at Detroit’s Four Horsemen Club in 1940. She was discovered by Earl Carroll, who gave her the stage name “Frantic Fay.” Thomas was featured with Earl Carroll’s Vanities in the spring of 1944 and played eight months at Harry’s Show Bar in Detroit. She was managed by Delbridge & Gorrell. Thomas played piano by ear. Billboard magazine described her style as “individual, with a jive touch,” adding that “she is at her very best in an interpretation of the deep blues.” Through the 1940s, she had appearances at hotels and bars around the country.

In 1949, Thomas recorded four songs for Leon René’s Exclusive Records in Los Angeles: “I’m In Town,” “Waga-Waga,” “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey,” and “Lover Man.” Her first single “Waga-Waga” / “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey,” was released in June 1949. Reviewing the single, Billboard wrote: “New thrush-88er packs a dynamite live style with something of Rose Murphy and Nellie Lutcher and plenty of her own. Her piano work is of pro caliber, too. The record “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey” was Cash Box magazine’s Race Disk O’ The Week. They noted that track was a “surefire clickeroo if ever there was one. Jut listen to this gal skim thru the 88’s and gurgle, chuckle, giggle and sing, and make more sounds than you’ve heard in a month of Sundays.” The single did well in local markets, but it did not chart nationally. Her second single, “I’m In Town” / “Lover Man,” was released in September 1949. Later that year, Thomas had another session with Exclusive and recorded four more songs. The single “Thinking Of You” / “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” was released in December. That month, Exclusive declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in January 1950. Thomas never released another record.

In the 1950s, Thomas performed gigs around California. She married Lonnie I. Riggs in 1954. By the 1960s, Thomas had relocated back to Detroit; she performed around the Midwest. She died in Detroit on July 5, 1978. Years after her death, Thomas’ songs were featured in the soundtracks of a few movies. “I’m In Town” was used in the films Men Of Honor (2000), Lonely Hearts (2006), and Trumbo (2015). One of her unreleased Exclusive tracks, “I Only Want You” was used in the films Lovelife (1997) and Second Skin (2000).

I found the following photo of Fay Thomas from the website http://www.uncamarvy.com/FranticFayThomas/franticfaythomas.html

The author of the website, http://www.uncamarvy.com/FranticFayThomas/franticfaythomas.html, Marv Goldman, supplies a little more information about Fay Thomas but even admits there isn’t much out there to draw on.  So, I’m going to focus on the music.  Her Wikipedia entry states that in 1949, “Thomas recorded four songs for Leon René’s Exclusive Records in Los Angeles: “I’m In Town,” “Waga-Waga,” “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey,” and “Lover Man.”  Here are three of those songs:

Unfortunately I could not find a source from which to stream “Lover Man.”  Her later 1940 session at Exclusive Records produced “Thinking of You” and the aforementioned “I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City.”  Here are those two songs: 

The Wikipedia entry for Fay Thomas also mentioned that “one of her unreleased Exclusive tracks, “I Only Want You” was used in the films Lovelife (1997) and Second Skin (2000).”  Here is Faye Thomas’ rendition of “I Only Want You”: 

There isn’t much else to say about Fay Thomas.  Even Marv Goldman from his website ends with these words: 

“I like Fay Thomas’s music; I wish she’d made more recordings (and I really wish she weren’t so difficult to research). There were relatively few documented appearances and sometimes huge amounts of time elapsed between them. (This is really strange because she never seemed to have gotten a negative review.) She must have been working somewhere, else how could she support herself? Frantic Fay Thomas: a true enigma.”

I guess I can’t add anything more. 

 

   Getting back to the female big band vocalists, I want to first offer up the following video.  It is a Soundie that was filmed August 2nd, 1943: 

The band in this short is Johnny Long and His Orchestra and the girl singer is Helen Young.  She will be my final entry in this blahg.  Here’s a nice photo of Helen Young when she was associated with Johnny Long:

Utilizing the https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/351814/Young_Helen website, which is the same resource I used for Dorothy Claire, we find the following discography for Helen Young: 

Recordings

Company	Matrix No.		First Recording Date	Title	Primary Performer
Victor	BS-82519		5/14/1934	I met my Waterloo	Ted Hanson ; Normandie Orchestra ; Helen Young
Victor	BS-82520		5/14/1934	My old flame	Ted Hanson ; Normandie Orchestra ; Helen Young
Decca	68085		9/12/1940	Stars over the campus	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	68086		9/12/1940	Swing me Bach-1	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	68272		10/18/1940	Don’t let it get you down	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	68273		10/18/1940	I give you my word	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	68413		11/29/1940	Yes, my darling daughter	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	68416		11/29/1940	Johnny peddler	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	68721		2/26/1941	Accidently on purpose	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	69119		5/2/1941	Miss Johnson ‘phoned again today	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	69203		5/15/1941	I take to you	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	69465		7/2/1941	The booglie wooglie piggy-1	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	69539		7/21/1941	Kiss the boys goodbye	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	69779		10/3/1941	The time to sing	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	70057		12/15/1941	Dear Arabella	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	70059		12/15/1941	He’s 1-A in the Army and he’s A-1 in my heart	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	70120		12/31/1941	Pretty little busy-body	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	70276		2/3/1942	Hoe down	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	70277		2/3/1942	I’m breathless	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	71086		7/15/1942	Constantly	Johnny Long Orchestra
Decca	71183		7/24/1942	Why don’t you fall in love with me?	Johnny Long Orchestra

The earliest listing here are for two sides she did with Ted Hanson and His Normandie Orchestra in 1934.  Here are those two songs, “I Met My Waterloo” and “My Old Flame”: 

It was difficult to find any biographical information on Helen Young.  I had to start by searching old newspapers and I found an article from the Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Massachusetts, from December 4th, 1935 that provides some good information on the then young singer 

Working ahead, I found the following information from the April 10, 1943 issue of Billboard: 

DAVIES- YOUNG -Cpl. Ogden Davies,
former member of Johnny Long’s ork, to
Helen Young, vocalist with the same
band, last year in New York, it was revealed
last week.

Having now established that she was married to Ogden Davies, I was able to track down Helen Young’s obituary: 

I found that obituary in the September 19, 1966 issue of “Broadcasting – The Business Weekly of Television and Radio.”  Searching a little more, I found a full obituary published in the September 8th, 1966 edition of The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania: 

It is sad that she died so young.  Her longer obituary mentions her singing with the Raymond Scott Orchestra but I could not find any recordings that she did with that band.  Raymond Scott did have a radio program in the fall of 1943 and I found reference to four shows where Helen sang the following songs:  “In my arms,” “You’re Either Too Young or Too Old,” “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” and “Put Your arms Around Me.”  Unfortunately I could not find anywhere to stream these programs. 

   Helen Young’s longest association with any band was with Johnny Long’s Orchestra from 1937 to 1942.  The video I posted earlier in this blahg of Helen Young with Johnny Long’s Orchestra performing “My Girl Loves A Sailor” is only one of a few videos on YouTube attributed to Young and Long.  Here’s another entitled “Daddy”: 

This next video is audio only, another Soundie, this time from October of 1943, with Helen Young and Bob Huston singing “Let’s Get Away From It All” with Johnny Long and his Orchestra: 

According to “The Soundies Book – A Revised and Expanded Guide to the ‘Music Videos’ of the 1940s” by Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, Helen Young appeared in other Soundies with Johnny Long including “Johnny Peddler” March 1941, “Swingin’ at the Seance” from May of 1941 (yes, the same song that Dorothy Claire performed live with Glenn Miller in January of 1941), as well as the aforementioned “Let’s Get Away From It All” and “My Girl Loves A Sailor.”  I could not find a place to stream “Johnny Peddler”or “Swingin’ at the Seance.”

The remainder of the selections I will offer up now are from Helen Young’s recording years with Johnny Long.  From her first session with Long in 1940, here are “Stars Over The Campus” and “Swing Me Bach”: 

From May of 1941 come two selections, “Miss Johnson Phoned Again Today” and “I Take To You”: 

And finally two selections from July of 1942 before Helen Young left Johnny Long’s Orchestra.  Here are “Constantly” and “Why Don’t You Fall In Love With Me?”: 

Helen Young had a pleasant voice but if you look at the titles of her songs, they were mostly novelty tunes with hardly a standard among the songs she recorded with Johnny Long.  There is one exception, her singing on the ballad song “I Give You My Word” of October of 1940 is beautiful.  I just wish she had recorded more of these types of songs. 

In case you’re wondering about the 1934 recordings that Helen Young did with Ted Hanson and His Normandie Orchestra, she would have had to have been 13 or 14 when she recorded those.  Maybe she did or maybe it’s a different Helen Young.  Take it all with a grain of salt. 

   I hope you enjoyed this blahg.  I try to do my best to cobble together information from different sources to provide an enjoyable reading experience.  I learned from my three blahgs on Linda Keene that there is information to be found if you dig for it.  There’s also great music out there if you only look for it.  Check out some of the other recordings of the great singers I’ve presented here.  Time may have forgotten them but in this blahg, at least, I’ve heralded their return.

 

Tags: Dorothy Claire, Fay Thomas, Georgie Auld, helen young, johnny long orchestra, Kay Foster, Ruth MuCullough, sally richards, Scott Henderson, Scott Henderson. False Ducks, Tony Pastor

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