Whew! I'm glad I finally got out of that box I've been living in for the last few years! I say that because this 2-CD set is supposed to have come out in 1991, but I just discovered it. (When I bought it, the store's scanner picked it up as The Best of Glenn Miller. So much for inventory control. Guess it will be a long time before it gets reordered at that store.)  Check out these titles:
Palesteena (Frank Crumit),
The Sheik of Araby (Rudy Wiedoeft's Californians),
Barney Google (Billy Jones and Ernest Hare),
Old King Tut (Sophie Tucker),
The Okeh Laughing Record,
Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight (Jones & Hare again),
Poor Papa ("Whispering" Jack Smith),
Chloe (Austin Young with Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orchestra),
Send for Our Free Booklet (Harry Reser's Six Jumping Jacks),
Tiptoe Through the Tulips (Nick Lucas),
Someone to Watch Over Me (George Gershwin),
Kitten on the Keys (Zez Confrey),
Ain't We Got Fun (Gus Van & Joe Schenck),
and on and on. 42 great 78s on 2 CDs for under $20! Shall I list some more?
Wabash Blues (Isham Jones and his Orchestra, with Louis Panico, laughing cornet),
It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' (Wendall Hall),
Yes! We Have No Bananas (Billy Jones),
Don't Bring Lulu (Billy Murray),
Get Out and Get Under the Moon (Helen Kane),
Charleston (Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra).
    I LOVE this set! It is presented in a sort-of chronological order, which means all the acoustic records are done with in the first half of the first disc. (Remember, the 20s was the decade when artists switched from shouting down a giant horn to gently caressing a microphone.) But if you hate the sound of acoustically-recorded records as much as I do, there is even better news than that. David Lennick has equalized the sound of those old records so that they sound marvelous!  No, you won't think they were recorded yesterday, but for the most part the one-note "honk" of the acoustic process is gone and some are really good: Zez Confrey's piano sounds like a real piano, and Billy Jones and Ernie Hare sound like they were in the same room as the recording equipment (that's high praise considering some reissues I've heard!).  This set was obviously done with collector's records, not with pristine masters from the archives of the original record companies, so you will hear varying amounts of record noise. But there is
no phony stereo or added echo (Hooray!). I don't know where else you can find a collection remotely like this, much less in any better sound. The liner notes, also by David Lennick, are not very informative, opting for a "timeline" approach for putting the records in perspective. This could be entertaining, if the writing were a bit clearer (does he mean to say it is Bing Crosby singing on Chloe?). But the music, and the programming, are top-notch.  This, to me, is the sound of the 20s. Listen to the unbridled optimism of The Blue Room, At Sundown, My Blue Heaven, and Good News (found in that order on Disc 2). Then there is the silliness and fun in such records as Paul Whiteman's version of Chloe, or Nick Lucas' Tiptoe Through the Tulips (and I thought Tiny Tim's falsetto rendition was a product of his own sense
of humor; little did I know until now that he was only slightly exaggerating the sound of Nick Lucas). Some of these have become clichés for the sound of the 20s (Whispering, Makin' Whoopee, Bye Bye Blackbird), while others span the years with ease (Sophie Tucker's Old King Tut would make a nice pairing with Steve Martin's King Tut from fifty-five years later; Send For Our Free Booklet is still a very funny song).  Any two of the original records would cost you more than the whole Intersound set, so if you have any interest in these recordings, find it! Grab it! Buy it! If all else fails, write to Intersound
at 11810 Wills Rd., Box 1724, Roswell Georgia 30077. (By the way, Intersound also has several other 2-CD boxes devoted to Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and others, plus you can find these recordings repackaged in many different ways, so keep your eyes open for them.)

      Kimba W. Lion
from 1994 issues of The Off-Center Record newsletter
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