Search - Billy Eckstine :: Jukebox Hits 1943-1953

Mr. B Was THE Most Distinctive Baritone Of Them All

03/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Collectors of Golden Oldie hits will be delighted with Acrobat Music & Media Ltd. and their Jukebox Hits series of individual artists and multi-artist compilations focusing on these greats of R&B and Jazz: Lucky Millinder, The Clovers, Erskine Hawkins, Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy, Ivory Joe Hunter, Johnny Otis, Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (2 volumes), Buddy Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Jimmie Lunceford, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Ruth Brown, Count Basie, Muddy Waters, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Nat "King" Cole. There are also multi-artist R&B compilations dealing with the years 1942 to 1956.



This one provides 21 of the 37 hit singles registered by probably the most distinctive baritone voices ever to be put to record, the man they called simply Mr. B, born William Eckstine on July 8, 1914 in Pittsburgh. From 1939 to 1943 he was the featured vocalist with Earl "Fatha" Hines And His Orchestra, and in late 1942 produced the # 1 R&B hit (the charts just introduced by Billboard and called, at the time, The Harlem Hit Parade) - and # 23 Pop - Stormy Monday Blues, the first song presented here. That was released on Bluebird 11567.



After leaving Hines he formed his own orchestra which, over time, would include some of the greats of Jazz such as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Theodore "Fats" Navarro, saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, drummer Art Blakey, tenor saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Bud Johnson and Gene Ammons, and trombonist Trummy Young (Billy also played trombone). Handling the vocals with Billy was none other than Sarah Vaughan. With this kind of talent coming in at various times he registered his first hit single in September 1944 under the billing Billy Eckstine with Deluxe All Star Band as I Stay In The Mood For You hit # 3 R&B b/w Good Jelly Blues on DeLuxe 2000. Unfortunately, neither side is here.



Later in October 1945, and now with National Records billed as Billy Eckstine & His Orchestra, Last Night (And Now Tonight Again) also made it to # 3 R&B b/w Lonesome Lover Blues (# 4) on which Billy's trombone work can be heard. That was quickly followed by the huge breakthrough hit, and now classic, A Cottage For Sale. which peaked at # 3 R&B and # 8 on the more lucrative Pop charts. Early in 1946 he then returned to the Pop charts (# 12) with I'm In The Mood For Love from the movie Every Night At Eight, and in April/May his version of Prisoner Of Love, first a hit for Russ Columbo in 1932, made it to # 3 R&B and # 10 Pop. A few months later another cover of a Columbo hit from 1931, You Call It Madness But I Call It Love, again peaked at # 3 R&B as well as # 13 Pop.



By late 1947/early 1948, his own band dispersed and now a solo vocalist with MGM Records, Billy was backed by the Hugo Winterhalter orchestra on three hits not included here: The Wildest Gal In Town (# 22 Pop), True (# 22 Pop), and Intrigue (# 27 Pop from the film of the same name). Then, in the summer of 1948, National released a 1946 cut, Sophisticated Lady, which topped out at # 24 Pop, and on that you can hear the trumpet of Miles Davis. That fall, the MGM release, Everything I Have Is Yours from the film Dancing Lady, got to # 11 R&B and # 30 Pop with the backing of the Sonny Burke orchestra.



1949 proved to be a banner year, as he started it off with the two-sided hit Fools Rush In, a cover of a 1940 Glenn Miller smash, which made it to # 6 R&B b/w Blue Moon, first a hit for Glen Gray in 1935, which reached # 12 R&B and # 21 Pop, both with the backing of the Winterhalter orchestra. The same band also backed him on Bewildered, a 1938 hit for Tommy Dorsey, which peaked at # 4 R&B/# 27 Pop in February, and Caravan, a 1937 Duke Ellington hit, which topped out at # 14 R&B/# 27 Pop in May. They skip over Crying here, a # 12 R&B/# 27 Pop in August, but do give you the flip, Temptation, a # 7 R&B. Once more he's backed by the Winterhalter orchestra, as he is on Somehow, a # 15 R&B/# 25 Pop in September.



They then omit his next three MGM hits, the legendary Body And Soul (# 27 Pop in September from the musical Three's A Crowd), Fool's Paradise (# 24 Pop in December) - both backed by the Buddy Baker orchestra - and Sitting by The Window (# 6 R&B/# 23 Pop in February 1950 with The Quartones and the Russ Case orchestra). Case also backs on My Foolish Heart, his highest Pop charter to date at # 6 in April 1950, and I Wanna Be Lobed (# 7 Pop that summer. They leave out his versions of the multi-recorded If (# 10 Pop in February 1951), Be My Love (# 26 Pop in March), and Kiss Of Fire (# 16 Pop in May), but do include the classic I Apologize (# 4 R&B/# 6 Pop with the Pete Rugulo orchestra).



Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra and The Lee Gordon Singers back Billy on Coquette, a # 26 Pop in April 1953, and on the July 1953 # 25 Pop Send My Baby Back To Me it's Riddle with The Textor Singers (the flip, the # 29 Pop, I Laugh To Keep From Crying, is left out here, and they finish with St. Louis Blues, a # 24 Pop in September 1953 backed by The Metronome All-Stars, which include Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Kai Winding on trombone, tenor saxophonist Lester Young, pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Max Roach. Billy, whose son Ed would become President of Mercury Records, died at age 78 on March 8, 1993.



Excellent sound quality is augmented by several pages of informative liner notes.



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