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. Do you know who this fellow is?  He’s Eric Coates, British composer of light music and his tune “Calling All Workers” will end the Labor Day segment and this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records. In other segments...

 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 Wendell Hall, known as “The Red-Headed Music Maker” and his is one of four birthdays we’ll be celebrating on this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records. The others are Grace Ha...

 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. We have just one birthday salute on this week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records, that of Joe Garland, composer of “In The Mood.”  You’ll hear the premiere recording of the tune in the first segment of the show, alon...

 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 dapper gentleman is?  He’s vocalist Harold Van Embergh ahe starts off the third segment of this week’s four segment edition of Rapidly Rotating Records, a birthday salute to composer Bernice Petkere...

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. Yet another playlist post not featuring a photograph of a composer, songwriter, performer or record label! This week’s edition of Rapidly Rotating Records starts off with a trio of records about mules. Mules have been us...

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 fellow playing the guitar is? He’s American folk singer, composer and radio entertainer Bradley Kincaid. I have no idea of the back story for this photograph but it was taken in the kitchen of the She...

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 pianist Cliff Jackson shown here at New York City’s Cafe Society in 1947. You’ll hear him earlier in his musical career as piano roll artist, classic blues accompanist and bandlead...

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. You are probably familiar with the song “Orange Blossom Special,” the unofficial anthem of bluegrass.  You may be less familiar with the passenger train of the same name.  In the last segment of this week’s edition of 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 lady is? She’s 1930s nightclub singer Adelaide Moffett and you’ll hear three of her recordings with three different orchestras in the fourth segment of this week’s edition of the show. You’ll also fi...

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. In putting together the “wobbly” second segment of this week’s show, I included “The Wobbly Walk” by Charles W. Hamp, known as the “California Blue Boy.” When I realized his birthday was last week, I reworked the playlis...

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 what this venue is? Residents of a certain age in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire will recognize it as the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, seen here in its better days. You’ll find out all about the hotel and t...

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...