Lud Gluskin - Ice Cream

Some enterprising souls have posted a flotilla of Lud Gluskin records to YouTube, and here's one of our very favorites - the original source of the phrase "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream," still uttered today by people who are clueless that its origin lies in this once-popular tune. Other versions were recorded by Harry Reser, Fred Waring, Chris Barber and there's also a piano roll of it done by one Alex Taylor.

(Not to mention the great scene in Down By Law with Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits, and John Lurie.)

Gluskin, born in Russia in 1898, recorded over 700 songs in the 1920s and 1930s. He went on to be the musical director for CBS television. He retired in the 1960s, after directing incidental musical scores for TV shows such as The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, and Perry Mason.

Lud Gluskin - Ice Cream (YouTube)

Ho Mei Fan - China Night

According to this site:

When I first arrived in Korea I was told the most popular song there was "China Night". This was a Japanese song that was picked up by the GI's on R&R and brought back to Korea. All you hear on this site is the melody. The words, in japanese sound like: "she has no yoyo". When I moved to Japan a year later it was still popular. I found this music on a Japanese site of old popular songs. It was titled as: "The Night of China" or in japanese: "Shina No Yoru". The japanese character for the letter "r" is pronounced not as we would but has a softer sound so the word "yoru" does sound a bit like yoyo.

The original provider of this track to the Internet Archive didn't know the vocalist, but a commenter on the post positively identified it as Ho Mei Fan and the Columbia Orchestra and also provided the lyrics:

Minato no akari murasaki no yo ni
Noboru Junk no yume no fune
Ah-ah wasurare nu kokyu no ne-e
Shina no yoru yume no koru

Shina no yoru Shina no yoru yo
Yanagi no madoni rantan yurete
Aka torikago Shina Musume
Ah-ah yarusenai-i ai no utah
Shina no yora yume no yoru

Shina no yoru Shina no yoru yo
Kimi matsu yoi wa obashima no ame ani
Hana mo chiru chiru beni mo chiru
Ah-ah wakarete mo wasuraryoh ka
Shina no yoru yume no yoru

Ho Mei Fan - China Night (mp3)

Vassar Girls Quartet - Kentucky Babe

Composed by Adam Geibel and Richard Henry Buck in 1896, this obscure tune was recorded by the Vassar Girls Quartet on an Edison Cylinder in 1907. To the novice ear, its melody may sound nebulous and impenetrably cornball - and, well, it really sort of is - but stay with it for the duration of the recording and see if its haunting ethereal tones don't reach you on some level. I can still hear it in my head hours after listening to it, and how often can you say that about a cylinder recording?

Vassar Girls Quartet - Kentucky Babe (mp3)

The New Orleans Owls - Meat On The Table

According to Wikipedia:

The New Orleans Owls (active 1922-29) were an early jazz band from New Orleans that descended from The Invincibles String band and recorded 18 sides for Gennett Records and 23 sides for Columbia Records from 1925 to 1927 on 78 rpm Gramophone record. They are reportedly the first group to record by the electric system operating from a mobile recording van. They played principally for the dancers in the ballroom of the Hotel Roosevelt (also Roosevelt Hotel) in New Orleans. Little is known about the members, which included Bill Padron (very much in the Paul Mares school) (ct), Benjie White (cl,as,leader), Lester Smith (ts), Mose Farrar (p), Rene Gelpi (bjo,g), Dan LeBlanc (tu), Earl Crumb (d), Frank Netto (tb), Pinky Vidacovitch (cl,as) and Sigfre Christensen (p).

The New Orleans Owls - Meat On The Table (mp3)

Seven Gallon Jug Band - Wipe 'em Off

One of Clarence Williams' many projects, the Seven Gallon Jug Band did this daffy ditty back in 1929 in New York City.

Seven Gallon Jug Band - Wipe 'em Off (mp3)

Ferdinand Himmelreich - "Lucia" Sextet

There's little information about Ferdinand Himmelreich online, although I did find something that mentions a "brief biography" of him in the October 1989 issue of In The Groove magazine.

Though Himmelreich is a mystery, the piece he chose for this recording is not. It's from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. Though the opera premiered on September 26, 1835 in Naples, it languished in relative obscurity until the 20th century, when Enrico Caruso recorded a popular version (in 1908), Walt Disney used it in his animated Make Mine Music! (in 1946), and Maria Callas instigated a full-scale revival of it (in 1952). Himmelreich's recording is from the 1920s.

The Three Stooges, or someone on their production team, must have loved the piece - it's used in two of their films (Micro-Phonies and Squareheads of the Round Table).


Ferdinand Himmelreich - Lucia Sextet (mp3)

Matson's Creole Serenaders - 'Taint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do

According to Red Hot Jazz: "Charles A. Matson was an African-American pianist and arranger who was very active in New York during the mid-twenties. He accompanied various blues singers as a pianist, including Mamie Smith and Clara Smith. Besides these two songs on the Edison label his other records were released under the names of Matson's Lucky Seven which was recorded for the Paramount label in January of 1924 and Ted Claire's Snappy Bits Band for Gennett in January of 1923."

Matson's Creole Serenaders - 'Taint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do (mp3)