Ben Bagley's 'Revisited' Series- Page 2

[allofmylife]

Posted: 4/7/08 at 12:22am

Ben was a real character, all right. Some of his records are great. Some are... need I mention Blossom Dearie?

[Scripps2]

Posted: 4/7/08 at 3:55am

I seem to remember Blossom Dearie and Bibi Osterwald being quite amusing in a song called A Lady Must Live, but I can't remember which recording it was on.

"No one has mentioned the great album cover art by composer Harvey Schmidt."

I did, but then deleted my post due to the attitude on the "Rhett Butlers charms" thread.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 4/7/08 at 10:33am

Schmidt's artwork is a ver valid reason to try and collect them all on LP.

There was a calendar produced some years ago called "Fabulous Femmes" that featured a baker's dozen of Harvey's wonderful ladies, taken from the cover art. Well worth seeking out.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 4/7/08 at 12:29pm

You have to get them just to have recordings of some fabulous performers who didn't have any or very many solo recordings of their own. Bibi Osterwald, Dorothy Loudon and Kaye Ballard to name a few.

As for those Harvey Schmidt covers, well, I'm in my forties and some of those still make me blush. I would never have brought the Kurt Weill covers into the house while my mother was alive. She'd have taken a magic marker to them!

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 4/7/08 at 8:08pm

Though the Bagley albums salute the rarities of American popular songs of Broadway & Hollywood songwriters, nearly all of Schmidt's covers are drawn copies of photos of 1920s French chorus girls illustrated in LES FOLIES DU MUSIC HALL - A History of the Paris Music-Hall from 1914 to the Present Day by Jacques Damase (with a foreward by Noel Coward) published in 1962.

I got the book some years ago and thought..."My, these girls look awfully familiar..."

Updated On: 4/7/08 at 08:08 PM

[allofmylife]

Posted: 4/8/08 at 2:07am

I was trying to be polite, but seriously, some of Ben Bagley's records are okay - one or two are great but many are just plain terrible. I was forced one night to listen to a tape of Blossom - her name should be Dreary - songs and I spent the evening cringing.

I understand Bagley's versions may be the only ones extant for many obscure shows, but come on.... those shows may be better off unrecorded.

Updated On: 4/8/08 at 02:07 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 12:22am

Someone reminded me this evening that the Irving Berlin album included Dorothy Loudon singing "Sadie Salome, Go Home."

http://fscottivers.tumblr.com/post/90124536889/dorothy-loudon-sings-irvin-berlins-sadie-salome