“Smoke Rings”
Harry Leader’s Band
(Vocalion 3290 mx 19334) January 15, 1936
“My Sweetie Went Away”
Harry Leader’s Band; Jessie Robbins vocal
(Vocalion 3290 mx 19335) January 15, 1936
Here are a couple of recordings being added to Radio Dismuke’as playlist of a British band that remained active for many decades after the 1930s.
Much of the Harry Leader band’s 1930s output was on the bargain-priced Eclipse label, eight-inch records sold through the British branch of the F. W. Woolworth stores. In 1935 the band began recording for English Columbia. These sides were issued in the UK on Columbia FB-1357 and in the USA on Vocalion.
“Smoke Rings” was best known as the theme song for the Casa Loma Orchestra and was composed by one of its members, Gene Gifford. Casa Loma recorded the song for Brunswick in 1932 and again for Decca in 1937. Both of the Casa Loma recordings, in my opinion, deserve a place on any list of outstanding recordings of the 1930s decade.
The Harry Leader version is quite different but still enjoyable and features an extended guitar solo by Archie Slavin, a noted guitar player who worked with several British dance bands of the era.
“My Sweetie Went Away” was already an “oldie” when the Leader band recorded this version. The Lou Handman/Roy Turk composition was published in 1923 and many jazz and dance band recordings of it were made that year as well as a blues interpretation by Bessie Smith. Leader’s version is of arrangement updated to a style typical of mid-1930s British dance bands and, I think, is quite nice.
– Dismuke