It was warm outside, and it was hot in the studio as Al Jolson laid down almost a score of tracks during the month of June. Here they are for your enjoyment!
The Columbia Recordings
04 Jun 1913: Pullman Porter's Parade - With this recording of an Irving Berlin - Maurice Abraham number, Al Jolson began his career with the Columbia Record Company. With an orchestra directed by Charles Prince on this day's session, this song reached #5 on the Billboard charts, remaining on the charts for four weeks.
04 Jun 1913: You Made Me Love You - One of Al Jolson's musical idioms, this song was interpolated into the show The Honeymoon Express. In this recording, which was #1 on the Billboard charts for seven of the thirteen weeks it was listed, Jolson sang the original lyric, "the brand of kisses," changing it to "the kind of kisses" later in his career. It was also during this song that he may have first used a technique he saw Blossom Seeley employ a year earlier: dropping to one knee and singing to the heavens full blast. Seeley may have done it first, but it was Jolson who raised the gesture to high art.
04 Jun 1913: That Little German Band - This is typical of the bouncy novelty songs that Jolson loved to sing. You can just see him playing it for chorus after chorus with the audience during his run in The Honeymoon Express. They must have loved it, as it reached the fifth position on the Billboard charts, being listed for four weeks.
04 Jun 1913: Everybody Snap Your Fingers With Me - Here's another bouncy novelty number that Al Jolson sounds like he's having a great time with. One can just see him strolling through the audience, singing to the folks and engaging them in this song.
06 Jun 1916: I'm Saving Up The Means To Get To New Orleans - Robinson Crusoe, Jr. closed at the Winter Garden the day after this song was recorded, to begin a tour of the country later in the summer. Whether Jolie interpolated this song into the show is not known, but it stay on the charts for four weeks, peaking at number 3.
12 Jun 1923: Waitin' For The Evening Mail - Bombo, the show that contained so many of Jolie's hits, closed at the Winter Garden three days before this song was recorded, to begin a tour of the country in the fall. Whether Jolie interpolated this song into the show is not known. Listen for the line about the seventy year sentence, which would expire in the distant future - 1993!
The Brunswick Recordings
01 Jun 1926: When The Red, Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along - Five months after this recording was made, Al Jolson would have a great time singing this song in his first talkie, A Plantation Act. The public must have loved it as well, it was number 1 for two of the eight weeks it stayed on the Billboard charts.
01 Jun 1926: Here I Am - Recorded on the same day as the bouncy "Red Robin," this poignant ballad allowed Al Jolson to show us the flip side of his singing ability. Whether he interpolated this song into Big Boy, running at the time, is not known, but it would have brought down the house!
The Decca Recordings
09 Jun 1947: Back In Your Own Backyard - He sang it in the movie Say It With Songs, and had recorded it previously in 1928, but it may not have been until the servicemen overseas heard the lyrics of this song, many for the first time, that it was truly taken to heart.
09 Jun 1947: I'm Sittin' On Top Of The World - A key or so lower than when he sang it on the 1925 Brunswick recording, or three years later in The Singing Fool, this bouncy number is another one that has been recorded by many, but remained Jolie's own.
09 Jun 1947: Where The Black-Eyed Susans Grow - Al Jolson introduced this song in the show Robinson Crusoe, Jr., but didn't record it until over thirty years later. So, unless you caught the one time on the radio, this song was quite a novelty.
09 Jun 1947: Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo'Bye) - One of the most requested of Jolson songs, it was in The Jazz Singer, Rose of Washington Square, The Jolson Story, and Jolson Sings Again, along with many radio shows and who knows how many guest appearances.
11 Jun 1947: Carolina In The Morning - My favorite story about this song is from the 1951 movie, I'll See You In My Dreams, starring Danny Thomas as Gus Kahn. When challenged as to what kind of lyrics "in the mo-o-orn-ing" were, he replied, "It fits the no-o-o-otes!" "Give it to Jolson," was the rejoinder, and so it was.
11 Jun 1947: Liza - Of course, we all remember the story about Ruby Keeler in Flo Ziegfeld's Showgirl, with Jolson singing this song from the audience. Fact or fiction, Jolson loved the story and the song, and so do we.
11 Jun 1947: For Me And My Gal - Here's a great song, rarely really associated with Al Jolson. But he did it so well! I know you'll enjoy this recording.
18 Jun 1947: About A Quarter To Nine - From Go Into Your Dance, the movie he made with his wife, Ruby Keeler, here is the wonderful Decca recording of one of the hit songs of the movie.
18 Jun 1947: Waiting For The Robert E. Lee - Another song closely identified with Jolson, it was also not recorded until the Decca series surfaced in the late 1940s. So closely was this song identified with Jolson that when Eddie Cantor recorded his version, he included a tribute to the World's Greatest Entertainer!
18 Jun 1947: Golden Gate - This song was popularized by The Singing Fool, and used as an introduction during a season of the Shell Chateau radio show. It's another California song with a great rhythm.
18 Jun 1947: When You Were Sweet Sixteen - In The Jolson Story, it was with this song that many of us heard Al Jolson's voice for the first time. Sung acapella in the movie, this version is a bit fuller, but still shows that beautiful Jolson tone.
Unless otherwise noted, transcriptions on this page are from the personal collection of the webmaster.
