“Me And The Boyfriend”
Broadway Players
(Silvertone 2423-A) September 9, 1924
“My Best Girl”
Broadway Players
(Silvertone 2423-B) September 7, 1924
Here is a Silvertone record from the Edward Michell collection with two songs that were popular in 1924.
Both songs were recorded by a number of artists for various record labels. Nick Lucas, in particular, had great success with “My Best Girl,” which was the first of several hit recordings he made for Brunswick.
Silvertone was an in-house brand introduced by Sears, Roebuck & Company in 1916 for its line of phonographs and records. Sears stopped using the Silvertone name on records in 1928 in favor of its other in-house labels, such as Supertone, Challenge, and Conqueror. But the Silvertone name continued to appear on phonographs, radios, musical instruments and eventually television sets through 1972. (Sears briefly revived the Silvertone label in 1940).
When these recordings were made in late 1924, Sears was still strictly a mail-order house. But the following year, the company opened the first of its retail stores, which would become the company’s dominant and, eventually, only sales channel.
Sears did not record or manufacture any of its records and sourced them from various record labels. The two sides for this record were recorded by the Regal Record Company. But Sears also, at different times, used material from Columbia, Brunswick, Emerson, Gennett, New York Recording Laboratories, and others.
This record is also a great example of the often convoluted recording pseudonyms that record labels commonly used between 1920 and 1935.
Both of these recordings were credited on Silvertone as being by the “Broadway Players.” But there was no such actual band. Nor was that pseudonym consistently used for recordings by any particular band.
On one side of this record, the actual band is Ben Selvin And His Orchestra, with the other side being by Sam Lanin and His Orchestra. But other recordings issued on Silvertone as the Broadway Players were made by the Nathan Glantz and Fred Rich orchestras.
To add an extra level of complexity, because there was no arrangement for the recordings that Sears contracted from other companies for use on its in-house labels to be exclusive to Sears, virtually every recording that was issued on the Silvertone label was also issued on one or more other record labels, often under a completely different pseudonym for the artists’ credit.
This September 9, 1924 recording of “Me And The Boyfriend” was made by Ben Selvin And His Orchestra. However, it was issued on Regal credited as Bar Harbor Society Orchestra. On Banner it was credited as Newport Society Orchestra, on Domino as Clarence Sherman’s Orchestra, on Oriole as Imperial Dance Band and on the Pathe Actuelle and Perfect labels as Southampton Society Orchestra.
“My Best Girl” was recorded two days earlier by Sam Lanin and His Orchestra. On Regal, it is credited as being by the Lanin orchestra. But on Banner it was credited as Roseland Dance Orchestra, on Bell as Golden Gate Orchestra, on Domino as Rialto Dance Orchestra, and on Oriole as Billy James’ Dance Orchestra.
Needless to say, this can make things a bit confusing when sorting through a stack of records for sale to know whether a recording of a particular song one is fond of is or is not identical to a recording one already has of that song on a different label. I have more than once come home excited about a 78 rpm I acquired, only to discover upon listening to it that I already had one or both sides of it on a different label.