18-25 januari 2004
Curator: Hans Koert († 4 sept. 2014)
HIT OF THE WEEK HOOREN IS HIT OF THE WEEK KOOPEN !!
1. Don Voorhees Orchestra- Tip toe through the tulips with me Fox-Trot Dubin Burke
(opgenomen New York City December 1929) (HIT OF THE WEEK 1019)
with Fred "Fuzzy" Farrar tp, (Red Nichols tp), Bill Trone tb-mell, Charlie Butterfield tb, Joe Tarto tu, unknown male vocal
Soms ontstaan goede ideeën bij toeval. Eind jaren twintig van de
vorige eeuw vonden een paar reclamejongens in New York City een gat in
de markt. Hun idee doet nu in 2004 nog steeds modern aan en wordt nog
steeds toegepast. Elke donderdag brachten ze een goedkope
grammofoonplaat op de markt met de laatste "hits van de week" en
verkochten die, exclusief in de krantenkiosk. Voor 15 dollar cent, 20%
van de prijs van een normale breekbare "bakelieten" plaat, kreeg je een
lichte buigzame kartonnen plaat, aan één kant bespeelbaar, maar dankzij
nieuwe "micro-grooves" wèl met tweemaal zoveel muziek. Er werden er
zo'n 350.000 van gemaakt per week, omzetten waar anno 2004 menig artiest
jaloers op zou zijn. Van deze "Hit of the week" platen werden er in
Amerika in totaal zo'n 130 uitgebracht, die bijna allemaal na een half
jaar voor 1 gulden ook in Nederland te koop waren.
HIT OF THE WEEK 1019)
with Fred "Fuzzy" Farrar tp, (Red Nichols tp), Bill Trone tb-mell, Charlie Butterfield tb, Joe Tarto tu, unknown male vocal
During the late 1920s a few advertisement boys in New York City launch a
new idea. An idea that still looks modern in 2004. Every week, on
Tuesday, a new Hit of the week was sold in the newspaper stands of the
city. For US $ 0.15, twenty percent of the price of an ordinary shellac
record, you got a light flexible card board record, playable on one
side, but thanks to the so-called "micro-grooves", with twice the
playing time of an ordinary record. About 350,000 records a week were
produced; a number, that would put every artist's nose out of joint;
even nowadays. About 130 so-called Hit of the week records were sold in
the US. In Holland they had to wait for some months, before these
records were sold for one guilder.
2. Freddie's radio orchestra - It's the girl
{Ella es} Fox Trot Oppenheim Baer (Recorded New York City Aug. 1931) (HIT OF THE WEEK K1)
with ? Tommy Gott tp, Bunny Berigan tp, Tommy Dorsey tb, Charlie
Butterfield tb, Elmer Feldkamp cl as vo, ? Tony Parenti cl as, Cornell
Smelser acc, Joe Venuti v, ? Walter Gross p or Freddie Rich p, Eddie
Lang g, Joe Tarto or Hank Stern tu.
De bands, die de opnamen maakten, waren studio orkesten,
bestaande uit muzikanten, die op dat moment voorhanden waren. Veel
beroemde jazzmusici waren blij met zo'n snelle schnabbel. Studio in -
bladmuziek eenmaal doorspelen en plaat opnemen. Binnen anderhalf uur
weer buiten en contante betaling. De arrangementen kwamen vaak gewoon
rechtstreeks van de gangbare partituren, gebaseerd op een lengte van
drie minuten, de lengte van een gemiddelde grammofoonplaat. Hoe vul je
dan een vijf minutenplaat? De oplossingen waren geniaal: gewoon alles
twee keer achter elkaar, soms één keer met zang en één keer zonder of
een extra kort populair deuntje, waarover geen rechten betaald hoefden
te worden, zoals in het volgende nummer het geval is met "Good Night
Ladies".
{Ella es} Fox Trot Oppenheim Baer
(Recorded New York City Aug. 1931) (HIT OF THE WEEK K1)
with ? Tommy Gott tp, Bunny Berigan tp, Tommy Dorsey tb, Charlie
Butterfield tb, Elmer Feldkamp cl as vo, ? Tony Parenti cl as, Cornell
Smelser acc, Joe Venuti v, ? Walter Gross p or Freddie Rich p, Eddie
Lang g, Joe Tarto or Hank Stern tu.
The bands, that made the recordings, were studio bands, full of
musicians that were in for ready money. Many now wellknown musicians
were glad to make some money - no rehearsals, just playing the notes one
time and record it. Just one-and-a-half hour work and ready money.
Stock arrangements were used as published, mostly with a length of an
ordinary record, a three minutes playing time. What to do with a five
minutes record? The solution was very simple; just play the song two
times (one time with a vocal and one time in an instrumental version) or
give a little extra tune, free of copyrights, like "Good Night Ladies"
in the next sample.
3.Nick Lucas and his troubadours - All of me
4. Nick Lucas and his troubadours - Goodnight Ladies
(Recorded New York City, januari 1932) (HIT OF THE WEEK A4B1)
met o.a. Eddie Lang g, Nick Lucas ? g vo.
Eigenlijk waren de uitgevers van de Hit of the week reclamejongens en dus gebruikten ze het medium
ook voor talloze advertentieplaatjes. Hierover in een andere week meer.
Na een jaar was het nieuwtje er af en gingen andere platen
maatschappijen ook goedkope platen maken. Er verschenen artiesten foto's
op de achterkant of er werden mini grammofoonplaatjes verkocht of
gratis weggegeven om de verkoop te stimuleren. Ook werden er twee hele
nummers op één kant geperst.
(Recorded New York City, januari 1932) (HIT OF THE WEEK A4B1)
met o.a. Eddie Lang g, Nick Lucas ? g vo.
The publisher of the
cardboard Durium record was an advertisement agency, so they used this
unbreakable record for advertisement purposes too. This part of the
story will follow later. In its second year the sales figures lowered
and other record companies made cheap records too. To raise the sales
figures Durium started to print publicity pictures on the back side of
the record and they gave little records, Durium Juniors, for free. Even
two complete tunes (later in Europe they called this "The self-changing
record") were not enough to save the firm.
5. Bolero-Son (Grupo Canario) - ANGEL DE MI QUERER
Ungrateful Manuel Gimenez(Recorded New York City, c Aug-Oct 1932) (DURIUM DISCO 5011)
Durium probeerde d.m.v. export en platen voor andere bevolkingsgroepen
andere markten aan te boren; zoals die van de grote groep Spaans
sprekenden.
In de zomer van 1932 ging de Durium Products Inc. failliet en de enorme
voorraden werden met containers vol naar Europa verscheept. In Engeland
namen ze in 1932 het stokje over en vanaf april 1932 werden er vanuit
een studio bij London wekelijks durium platen uitgebracht voor de
Europese markt. Over de reclameplaatjes en de verovering van Europa
later meer.
Ungrateful Manuel Gimenez(Recorded New York City, c Aug-Oct 1932) (DURIUM DISCO 5011)
Durium started to make records for export and series for the
Latin-American market, hoping to prevent the ship from sinking. In the
summer of 1932 the firm failed and the large stocks were sold and
shipped to Europe. In England an advertisement agency founded the Durium
Products (GB) Ltd. with a factory in Slough, in Greater London. Like
its US precursor they published a weekly Durium card board record. About
the conquest of Europe I'll tell you another time.
Hans Koert
Auteur en uitgever van "The Hit of the week Discography"6+-edition p.o.d.
(2004)
Update mei 2004:
John R.T. Davies 1927 - 2004
this short e-mail to let you know that Ristic died this morning, 25th May just before 8 am. He had a wonderful party for Jo's wedding and to celebrate our 50 years together on the 9th May which has become a sort of advance wake. I think he had really been holding the cancer at bay to be there and play with the band and by this weekend he was really tired and in a lot of pain so the medication had to be raised and some stuff to keep him calm added. Jo and Jess and I were with him. We just want a quiet funeral and I would like to thank all of you who have e-mailed and written over the past month or so for the wonderful things you have said about him - all of which I know are true - he was a great friend as well as a great husband and father. love to you all, Sue Davies
A great man past away.Although I never met him personally I remember him from the few contacts we had, first by letter, later by email. I remember that he bought my "Hit of the week Discography" 4th edition somewhere in the late 1990s and I wondered why HE wanted my discography. I sent him the book and a few days later I got a few lines reading that he couldn't find any of the Hit of the weeks recordings in my book he had haphazard from his collection. First I felt very disappointed, but after a good night's rest I asked him what records he couldn't find. He wrote me back that he couldn't find ANY Hit of the week record in my book.
I told him that he must have made a joke. He answered and taught me that he thought that a good discography should be a description of the text to the letter as it appears on the record label should be entered in a good discography, even with all the "slips of the pen"
With this opinion I understood that he couldn't find any record from his collection in books like Rust's discographies too. I told him that and he agreed and told me that he hadn't found any discography up to now that had listed his discs in a correct way. He promised me to check my complete book and I told my wife, that I expected to hear never from him again.
Ten days later the post man brought me a packet, with my discography, with hundreds of additions and remarks on every page written with a sharp pencil in a small lettering.
Can you imagine how happy I was with these additions made by the master himself.
Thanks John !!
I'll keep the discography with your additions as a great treasure.
The deepest and most sincere condolences go to his wife Sue, and all their family in this most grievous loss.
Hans Koert
Update januari 2015:
Kortgeleden ontving ik van zijn vrouw Corrie per e-mail het droevige bericht dat Hans zelf ook niet meer onder ons is. Op 4 september 2014 bezweek hij aan de gevolgen van longkanker. Hij is begraven in zijn geboortedorp, Hoedekenskerke.
(Zuid-Beveland). Zijn unieke en met zorg gemaakte bijdragen aan deze 52 weken en aan
Vreemde Geluiden gaven de projecten extra glans en betekenis. Op vrijdag 4 mei 2007, werd ik samen met mijn echtgenote bij het echtpaar Koert gastvrij ontvangen. Hans haalde en bracht ons van en naar het treinstation, waarbij hij speciaal omreed om ons trots 'zijn' Zeeland te tonen. Een hele bijzondere man die veel te jong is overleden.
A few weeks ago I recieved and e-mail from his wife Corrie, that Hans too is no longer among us. On september 2014 he died from long cancer. Without his contributions 52weeks and Vreemde Geluiden wouldn't have been the same. I will always remember the day in 2007 we finally met in person. He was so proud to show me and my wife his birth provence Zeeland and his music collection. A very special man who passed away far too young.
