Sometimes compared with
Claude Thornhill and Reginald Forsythe,
Larry Clinton devised danceable swing music for big band, some of it pleasantly quirky enough to compare favorably with the work of
Raymond Scott. He also led a modestly popular dance orchestra that featured warm and personable vocalist
Bea Wain. Prior to the time period represented on this compilation (1937-1949),
Clinton wrote arrangements and hit songs for
Tommy Dorsey like "Satan Takes a Holiday" and the ultra-popular "Dipsy Doodle."
Dorsey, whose reputation as a conscienceless cut-throat businessman is legendary, actually pulled strings at RCA Victor to suppress
Clinton's own recording (of his own song!) so that
Dorsey could rake in maximum profits on his band's version. Among
Clinton's best-remembered instrumental compositions, "A Study in Brown" was a hit for
Glen Gray & the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1937. In addition to
Clinton's own 1949 recording of that opus, this compilation is dotted with sequel studies in "Blue," "Green," "Red" and "Scarlet," as well as "Strictly for the Persians" and
Clinton's theme song, "The Big Dipper." The instrumentals are interspersed with several rather self-conscious vocals by
Ford Leary, one by "Canadian Crosby"
Dick Todd, and 14 by
Bea Wain, a charming chanteuse who left
Clinton's band in 1939 to succeed first as a pop singer and then as a radio personality with her husband
Andre Baruch as "Mr. and Mrs. Music" on WMCA in New York.
Wain handles "Our Love Is Here to Stay" beautifully; she even brings passion and eloquence to
Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart and Soul," a simple melody destined to be crucified by generations of small children on out-of-tune pianos in long-suffering households throughout the nation. As if to offer an alternative to
Judy Garland's multiple borderline drug psychosis versions of "Over the Rainbow,"
Clinton and
Wain gave the world a reassuringly swinging, down-to-earth rendition of this wistful song which composer
Harold Arlen admitted originally sounded more suitable for
Nelson Eddy than for little teenaged
Judy Garland. This Living Era tribute to
Clinton and
Wain also contains several Classical Crossover pieces: "My Reverie" by
Claude Debussy,
Albert Ketèlbey's 1920 intermezzo "In a Persian Market" and "Ah, So Pure!" from
Friedrich Von Flotow's 1947 opera Martha (see also
Fats Waller's gorgeous solo piano version of 1939). It's worth noting that in addition to composing, arranging and directing his orchestra,
Larry Clinton played trumpet, trombone and vibraphone. Note also the presence in his band of reedmen
Babe Russin and
John Van Eps, son of ragtime banjoist
Fred and brother of guitarist
George Van Eps.