Rapidly Rotating Records

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Who doesn’t LOVE fresh, piping hot, flaky buttermilk biscuits right out of the oven.  You can almost smell those gorgeous fluffy biscuits right on the screen. But why in the world is there a picture of biscuits for this...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? Before Spike Jones, there was Freddie “Schnickelfritz” Fisher, who gets his own birthday segment for this first time on this week’s show. Tune in to find out why he was called “Schnickelfr...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. So why in the world am I showing you a photograph of a grave marker?  Well, this is the headstone for the Baxter family in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On this week’s show you’ll find out about the patriarch of the family, Al...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? He’s composer, conductor and musical director Robert Hood Bowers. A couple of years ago he had his own birthday segment in which we played three of his compositions. This time, in addition...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? He’s Benjamin Samberg, aka Benny Bell, among a number of other pseudonyms. Fans of the Dr. Demento show will know him from his “mind rhyme” songs “Shaving Cream” and “The Automobile Song,”...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? Here he’s in a costume for an acting role, but he’s Al Shean, one half of the vaudeville team of Gallagher and Shean. In 1922 they had a smash hit with their sketch “Mr. Gallagher and Mr....

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who these fellows are? They’re the Savoy Quartet, an important transitional group between ragtime and jazz. They produce a *lot* of sound for just the four of them as you’ll hear in the final segment of this...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. National Barbershop Quartet Day was last month on April 11, so I decided to have a different secular black male vocal group start off each segment of this week’s show, with the subject of their song be the segment topic....

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this adorable little boy is? He’s Wilfred Glenn, who would grow up to be the founder of the male close harmony vocal quartet The Revelers. He last had his own birthday segment in 2018 when we played three...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? He’s French jazz pianist and bandleader Ray Ventura and he starts off this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records with three records not heard on the show before. We’ll also be celebra...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. The subject of the fourth segment of this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records is not a composer, lyricist, musician or singer, but the bell, popularly known as Big Ben in the clock tower at Westminster in London,...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this lovely lady is? She’s Scottish vocalist Mary Lee who passed away March 13 at age 100.  She sang with the bands of Roy Fox, Ambrose, Jack Payne, Jack Jackson and Harry Roy. She was born August 13, 192...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this gentleman is? He’s violinist and pianist Paul Specht. He was also a bandleader and you’ll hear three of his recordings in the second segment of this week’s edition of the show. We’ll also be celebrat...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. It was common for vintage sheet music to have photographs of orchestra leaders or vocalists associated with the tune on the cover. In this case, the cover refers to a recording of the tune “Slippery Hank” written by Fran...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? His birth name is Arthur Murray Hainer, but you may know him better as composer, arranger and big band leader Will Hudson.  He starts off this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records wi...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. The record above was supposed to be played on last week’s All-Ukraine show, but we ran out of time, so it will wrap up this week’s show. We’ll start off the show by celebrating Nancy Green’s birthday. We’ll hear some tun...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. This week’s show is a bit different from our usual lineup of dance bands, hot bands, novelty tunes, blues and jazz.  In order to show support for the people of Ukraine, tonight’s show will consist entirely of records having to do with Ukraine, but there will ...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Among the records on this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records is the one above, “Among My Souvenirs” by the male vocal close harmony group The Revelers. In fact, it starts off the show in a segment honoring Lawren...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who the gentleman is above? He’s bandleader and composer Earl Burtnett, and his is one of four birthdays we’ll be celebrating on this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records. The others? Henry Lodge, Henry...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. The Southern Rag-A-Jazz Band was formed by six University of Nebraska students with Gayle Grubb directing and playing piano. In 1921 they traveled to Europe and one of venues they played was Rector’s Cafe and above is a...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? He’s Swedish composer and bandleader Fred Winter, whose real name is Sten Arvid Vilhel, Njurling. No wonder he changed it for the foreign market! You’ll hear three of Winter’s many records...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. On this week’s show, two composers are getting their own segments for the first time. John W. Bratton starts things off and Jack LeSoir gets not one, but TWO segments! We’ll also experience a trio of stampedes and for th...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this lovely couple is? They are Evelyn Silverman Hiller and Joe Hiller and they were both songwriters. You’ll hear all about them and hear examples of their work in the first segment of this week’s editio...

Welcome to Glenn Robison’s Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who this fellow is? He’s one of my favorite bandleaders, Athos C. Brigode, better known as “Ace.” He’s been featured on the show before, but for this birthday segment we’ve got some new information about him...

Welcome to the first Rapidly Rotating Records show of 2022, bringing you vintage music to which you can’t *not* tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and ’30s. Do you know who the fellow is pictured above?  He’s pianist and bandleader Vincent Lopez. He’s heard regularly on the show, but this week gets his own birthday segment, along with banjoist Fred Van Eps and tenor J...