“Lonely Lane”
Roy Fox And His Band; Peggy Dell, vocal
(Decca F 3880 mx GB6520) February 4, 1934
One of the more popular British dance bands during the 1930s was led by an American, Roy Fox. Also known as “The Whispering Cornetist,” Fox worked in the US during the 1920s with the Abe Lyman, Art Hickman and Gus Arnheim bands. For a period he had his own band which recorded sides for Brunswick as Roy Fox and His Montmartre Orchestra. Fox also worked in motion pictures supervising the musical production department of the coincidentally named Fox Studios.
In 1929 his band was invited to London where it remained through late 1930 when the band members returned to America while Fox remained and started a new band with British musicians. Fox’s British bands included some of that country’s top musicians of the era and, for a while, included vocalist Al Bowlly.
The vocal on this recording is by Irish singer Peggy Dell, credited on the label merely as “with vocal refrain” as was common during this period. Decades later, in the 1970s, Dell’s career enjoyed a revival as a result of her own successful series on Irish television.
“Lonely Lane” is a Sammy Fein/Irving Kahel composition introduced by Dick Powell in the 1933 Warner Brothers film College Coach which also starred Ann Dvorak. The film was distributed in the United Kingdom under the title Football Coach, which is credited accordingly on the record’s label.
The label also makes note of the fact that, at the time of the record’s release, Fox and his band were enjoying an extended engagement at London’s famous Kit-Cat Restaurant.