This is a 10-inch Wilcox Gay Recordio Disc. The above picture is the b-side which at first I thought was just dirty but actually was rusty bare metal. I assumed then that the laminate had flaked off... but then why is there a label? I can only assume that somehow, somewhere there was a supplier of one-sided transcription blanks. The A-side has a blank label: no date no name. This disc spins at 78 rpm and starts at the outer edge. it's in decent shape considering the oxidation. It had some unfix-able skips because of collapsed groove walls.
It's a live radio recording. At about 2:00 you can hear the announcer cut in with a quick plug. The song is "Because of You, " a standard sun by everyone from Sammy Davis Jr. to Kelly Clarkson. It was most famously sung my Tony Bennett (1951) and also by Connie Francis (1961). But that's not this version. It was written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson in 1940. This resembles the Jan Garber Version if it is, it would have been sung by Lee Bennett.
Garber certainly performed on a great number of stations, but was a regular on WGN-AM. If that's the case the announcer may be Pierre Andre who nicknamed Garber the "Idol of The Airlanes." But it could just as easily be one of their NBC broadcasts from the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Tomy Tucker also did an early version of the song. There is a second song that starts at the end.. but I have yet to identify it. My best guess on it's age is the early 1940s.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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