“Song Of Shanghai”
Jack Denny And His Orchestra
(Brunswick 3400-B) December 15, 1926
One of the cultural fads in the West during the 1910s and 1920s was a fascination with things perceived as foreign and exotic, especially with regard to ancient and traditional cultures of the Middle East and Asia. This had a big influence on the era’s architecture, design, and fashion.
In the world of popular music, Tin Pan Alley music publishers happily fed and further fueled the fad with countless “Oriental fox trot” and “Indian intermezzo” compositions. Probably the best-remembered song of this genre is the 1921 hit “The Shiek of Araby,” which was written in response to the enormous success of the Rudolf Valentino film The Sheik.
“Song of Shanghai” is a 1926 composition by Raymond B Egan, Vincent Rose, and Richard A. Whiting. Other recordings of it besides Jack Denny’s were made by the Ben Selvin Orchestra (as the Radiolites), Ernie Golden’s Hotel McAlpin Orchestra (as the WMCA Broadcasters), and the Duke Yellman Orchestra.
American-born Jack Denny’s band was based out of Canada during the 1920s and became known to American audiences through radio broadcasts from Montreal’s Mount Royal Hotel over CBS. In 1931, the band relocated to New York City to accept a high-profile job as the resident house band at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. During this period, the band had a unique sound as it included no brass instruments.
Unfortunately for Denny, jealousy got the best of him and resulted in a career setback. When the hotel brought in Xavier Cugat’s rumba band as an opening act, the audience’s response to its hot Latin rhythms was so enthusiastic that Denny delivered an ultimatum to hotel management: they must get rid of Cugat or else he would quit. Management took him up on his offer to quit, and the Xavier Cugat Orchestra became the Waldorf-Astoria’s house band for the next sixteen years.
The recording on the flip side of this record, also by Jack Denny’s band, “I Love The Moonlight,” has been in Radio Dismuke’s playlist for quite a while. I am not sure how and why I somehow omitted “Song of Shanghai,” as I think it is the most interesting and unusual of the two. It is a rather pretty song, and Denny’s version sounds more like something one would expect to hear from a popular concert orchestra rather than a typical 1926 dance band.