Search - Blue Barron :: Blue Barron & His Orchestra

A Decent Sampling Of The Blue Barron Style - But That's All

04/24/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Blue Barron, born Harry Friedland in Cleveland on March 22, 1911, headed a "sweet band" very much in the style of one of his contemporaries, Guy Lombardo, but whereas Lombardo & His Royal Canadians would post hundreds of hits and sell in excess of 100 million records for one label (Decca), Blue Barron's commercial success was measured in more modest terms. To be precise, exactly 11 hit singles registered from 1938 to 1951 for two different labels (Bluebird and MGM).



And what we have available on CD, 4 releases including this one (two more come from Hindsight Records totaling 33 tracks, and one from Circle with 23 tracks), present a grand total of 68 cuts - AND NOT ONE OF THEM WAS ONE OF HIS HIT SINGLES!



His first came in March 1938 when At A Perfume Counter reached # 13, followed almost two years later by his second hit, Darn That Dream, a # 14 from the Broadway musical Swingin' The Dream. And virtually another full year would go by before registering his third hit, You Walk By, which peaked at # 7 in February 1941. All three were on the Bluebird label, and all featured vocalist Russ Carlyle (in that same period Lombardo had 27 hits). All were billed Music Of Yesterday And Today Styled The Blue Barron Way.



While he then served in the military during WW II, his orchestra continued under the direction of Tommy Ryan, although no further hits ensured until May of 1947 when, now with MGM, his version of Chi Baba, Chi Baba finished at # 14, well back of the # 1 by Perry Como. Another full year would then pass before he entered the charts again, this time with You Were Only Fooling, a # 9 in summer 1948 with vocal by Clyde Burke. Late that year, Burke was joined by female vocalist Dolores Hopkins and took A Strawberry Moon (In A Blueberry Sky) to # 20.



He then struck big-time paydirt when his version of the multi-recorded Cruising Down The River (there were 8 hit versions) got to # 1 and stayed there for seven weeks (the only other # 1 was by Russ Morgan) early in 1949, while the B-side, Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!) also charted at # 18, with members of the band doing the vocals on both sides. That summer, Whose Girl Are You? peaked at # 25, again with the "ensemble" handling the vocals.



In April 1950 he dipped into the oldies list to cover the Vaughn Deleath hit from 1927, Are You Lonesome Tonight and, with vocals handled by Bobby Beers and The Blue Notes, and narration by DJ John McCormick, it scored at # 19. Nine years later Jaye P. Morgan would take it to # 65, and in 1960 Elvis Presley to # 1. A Year later he would have his last hit when Let Me In finished at # 26 with vocals by Johnny Goodfellow & The Blue Notes.



A 20-track volume containing these hits plus the uncharted B-sides would be a welcome sight by collectors of hit singles everywhere, I'm sure. In the meantime, this release is as good as any if you merely want a sampling of his style of Big Band music. The sound quality is excellent. They just weren't among his best."