Yesterday I posted a list of desert-island songs that I originally shared with JAZZ.FM91's Ross Porter. On my list was Maynard Ferguson's Two Foxes, composed and arranged by Mike Abene. Reader and saxophonist Bill Kirchner sent along the following two Maynard Ferguson clips of the lip-buster...
Even if you're not familiar with the Skyliners, you probably know their hit single, Since I Don't Have You, from 1959. The teenage vocal harmony group began as the Crescents in 1958 in the Allentown area of Pittsburgh and was one of the few to include a female voice. Janet Vogel, who sang soprano, was all of 16 at the time, and later that year she managed to persuade the owner of Pittsburgh's newly formed Calico label to record the group singing Since I Don't Have You, a song they had been singing locally. Calico's owner was wary. Then he heard Vogel sing the first few notes of the song. A string arrangement was written and 18 musicians were contracted for the date in New York in early December. Toward the end of the recording, Vogel unleashed a series of "you-ooo" soprano notes behind lead singer Jimmy Beaumont that sounded like a soaring falsetto. Then she crushed the ending with a vocal line that went up, came down slightly and then shot way up to end the song. They were electrifying notes that capped a perfect recording.
Soon after the single was released, the Skyliners appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand in February 1959 to sing it. By March, the song had peaked at #12 on the Billboard pop chart, and the Skyliners all dropped out of high school to tour. The group had several additional hits that were included on The Skyliners, their first album for Calico, including This I Swear (written by Vogel) and Pennies From Heaven. The Skyliners left Calico in 1961 and released singles on several different labels.
Those wouldn't include Vogel, though, who quit the group in '61 to return to Pittsburgh. Back home, she began a solo career in 1963 as Janet Deane, releasing Another Night I'm Alone. She married Pittsburgh police officer Kerry Rapp (above) and had three children. After reuniting in 1968 with the Skyliners for an oldies concert at Madison Square Garden, Janet Vogel-Rapp and Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners were signed to Capitol for a series of singles. The group also went out on the road.
Unknown to fans and members of the Skyliners was Vogel-Rapp's stormy home life. Her husband was domineering and angry that she was putting her late-stage career ahead of her family. There were jealousy and addiction issues as well. It's unclear whether postpartum issues, a career not fully realized and a bullying husband sent Vogel-Rapp into periods of depression or if her depression was already in place. Scheduled to receive a local award in honor of her work with the Skyliners on February 21, 1980, Vogel-Rapp loaded her car with memorabilia. But for whatever reason, rather than put the car in gear, she decided instead to end her life, attaching a hose to the exhaust. Janet Vogel-Rapp was 37 and was survived by her husband and three children.
A dramatized feature firm was made of the events surrounding Vogel-Rapp's life and death between 1975 and 1990 by her son Garvin. The film was screened in 2011 in Pittsburgh.
JazzWax clips:Here'sSince I Don't Have You (all those high notes at the end are Vogel's)...
Here's Janet Rapp in 1959 singing lead vocal on I Can Dream Can't I...
Here's footage of Vogel hitting or lip-syncing high notes at 1:10 on This I Swear, though this clip is clearly film of the group's appearance on Dick Clark's Beech-Nut Show in New York with the studio single poorly mounted on top rather than the show version...
Here's Janet Vogel as Janet Deane in 1963 singing Another Night Alone...
And here's Since I Don't Have You, during the Skyliners' appearance on the Dick Clark Beech-Nut Show...
I thought we'd do something a little different to start the week. Here are five nifty clips of hip jazz-pop composers playing and singing their own songs [Photo above of Bobby Troup]:
Here's Joe Bushkin with Rosemary Clooney and the Hi-Lo's in 1956 singing Oh Look at Me Now. Dig Rosey's easy-going confidence and beautiful phrasing (and who knew Bushkin could sing this well!)...
Here's Matt Dennis singing Violets for Your Furs on the Rosemary Clooney Show in 1957...
Here's Bobby Troup singing It Happened Once Before in 1956...
Here's Cy Coleman singing The Best Is Yet to Come with Charlie Shavers in 1959...
Here's Antonio Carlos Jobim, with João Donato on piano, singing One Note Samba....
In August 1950, trumpeter Louis Armstrong and alto saxophonist Louis Jordan record two sides together as a duet. Their pairing by Decca producer Milt Gabler was natural, since both superstars were signed to the label at the time. The recordings—Life Is So Peculiar and You Rascal You—are so good, it's a shame they didn't record a dozen more.
Armstrong and Jordan were backed by Jordan's Tympani Five—Aaron Izenhall (tp), Josh Jackson (ts) Bill Doggett (p) Bill Jennings (g) Bob Bushnell (b) and Joe Morris (d)—one of the hottest jump blues ensembles of its day. As Terry Teachout notes in Pops, his marvelous Armstrong biography: "On one memorable occasion, Gabler teamed Armstrong with Louis Jordan's Tympany Five for a hard-swinging duet version of You Rascal You, in which Armstrong ad-libs with colossal gusto, then tosses off three trumpet choruses full of the old-time fireworks. Armstrong's solo is all the more impressive given that his lip was in bad shape that day. 'Louis came to town and his lip had busted on him—had busted all the way down...Finally he says, Let's go, and we went and played it," Jordan recalled. "He even played those high C's and things with his lip busted."
Jordan was hardly a slouch. The two sing, swing and engage in vocal repartee, with Jordan at one point doing an imitation of Armstrong's scatting on Life Is So Peculiar, which was written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. On You Rascal You (written by Sam Theard), Armstrong and Jordan have a knee-slapping time exchanging lyrics. Armstrong blows beautiful harmony lines behind a singing Jordan while Jordan blows cool lines when it's Armstrong's turn to "talk about it for a while." The joy is relentless and infectious.
Interestingly, Armstrong and Jordan first recorded You Rascal You in 1932, when Jordan as in the Armstrong band's sax section. Reuniting with his old boss in '50, Jordan seemed eager to show his stuff and hold his own. And he does, gloriously. In most other hands, these songs today would come off as silly novelty tunes. But Armstrong and Jordan turn these numbers into jumpers of the first order. Busted lip and all.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Life Is So Peculiar and You Rascal You on Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five: 1950-1951here.
Here's Louis Armstrong in 1942 with Velma Middleton...
And here's Jordan in action singing Jack, You're Dead...
About
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
