Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra – 1928

Here are two selections from a 1928 Columbia so-called “potato head” record.  These records featured a colorful picture label with a potato-shaped caricature of bandleader Paul Whiteman (seen above in a colorized photograph from 1929, posing with his new Cord L-29 automobile in front of the MacDonald-Dodson Tire Co. in Los Angeles), whom Columbia had successfully wooed from its larger arch-rival Victor earlier that year.   This was considered a major coup for Columbia, as Whiteman was by far the best-known bandleader in the United States and Victor’s top-selling artist.

The special label was part of a major publicity campaign that Columbia launched to announce Whiteman’s defection, and continued to be used until he returned to Victor in September 1930.

Columbia also issued picture labels for other artists such as Ted Lewis and Rudy Vallee, but none were as colorful or elaborate as the Paul Whiteman label.

What buyers of the record featured here, Columbia 1465-D, would not have been aware of was that, despite the label credits, the actual Paul Whiteman orchestra only appeared on one of the sides, “I’m On The Crest of a Wave.”

Both songs were introduced by Harry Richman in the 1928 edition of George White’s Scandals.   The Whiteman record of the songs outsold Harry Richman’s own recordings, which were issued on Brunswick 4008, with his Scandals co-star Francis Williams joining him on the “What D’ya Say?” side.

Though he was not credited on the label, a young Bing Crosby provides the vocal on “I’m On The Crest of a Wave.” At the time, Crosby worked for Paul Whiteman as part of  The Rhythm Boys, a vocal trio that also included Al Rinker and Harry Barris.  The vocal trio that accompanied Crosby on this recording was composed of Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, and Austin Young.

This recording of “What D’ya Say?,” while credited to Whiteman, was, in fact, a Columbia studio band led by its music director, Ben Selvin.  Because the recording was made using the Whiteman band’s own arrangement, which had been provided for the occasion, record buyers were none the wiser.

Selvin substituted for the Whiteman band on three other recordings, “Pickin’ Cotton” from the same July 2 recording session as “What D’ya Say?,” as well as “If You Don’t Love Me” and “Sorry For Me” recorded during a July 20 session.

The “Sorry For Me” recording was not issued. The other two, as with “What D’ya Say?,” were issued coupled with recordings by the actual Paul Whiteman band on the flip side.

I was not able to learn the exact reason for the substitution.  However, the Whiteman band had a fairly heavy out-of-town touring schedule during the summer of 1928, so my guess is they either ran out of time to record them during the three days of Whiteman recording sessions held between June 17-19, or Columbia made a last-minute decision to issue Whiteman recordings of those songs.   The Whiteman band did not return to the recording studio until September 4.