Today we go back in time and listen to recordings made in the 1920s to the mid 1930s, from the US and the UK. We hear the first recording made by Sidney Bechet in 1923, still as lively as it was 100 years ago. Billie Holiday joins us with her first recording made one decade later, in 1933. Our visit to the UK brings us songs from Al Bowlly, Jack Halton and Ray Noble, and back in the US, we enjoy Fats Waller, as fun as ever, as well as Mildred Bailey and a young Lena Horne. And we conclude with Fred Astaire and an Irving Berlin classic, “Top Hat, White Tie And Tails”. Enjoy our trip in time to some lovely early music!!
Artist Year Song Time
1 Ben Selvin 1929 Happy Days Are Here Again 2:42
2 Sidney Bechet 1923 Wild Cat Blues 3:00
3 George Olsen 1925 Who? 3:22
4 Fletcher Henderson 1932 Underneath The Harlem Moon 3:17
5 Jack Hylton 1928 That’s My Weakness Now 3:21
6 Al Bowlly 1928 If I Had You 2:49
7 New Mayfair Orchestra 1933 One Morning in May 2:41
8 Maurice Chevalier 1929 Louise 3:19
9 Billie Holiday 1933 Your Mother’s Son In Law 2:48
10 Lena Horne & Noble Sissle 1936 That’s What Love Did To Me 3:07
11 Mildred Bailey 1936 It Can Happen To You 3:12
12 Fats Waller 1935 Lulu’s Back In Town 2:40
13 Alice Faye 1935 Speaking Confidentially 2:49
14 Fred Astaire 1935 Top Hat, White Tie And Tails 2:41