Three Tune Tuesday - Alternative Labels

Welcome to another edition of Three Tune Tuesday - TTT - originated by @ablaze. Three Tune Tuesday is intended to share music that one enjoys and spread the joy that is music of all types.

I have been live broadcasting my own entry into Three Tune Tuesday at noon EDT every Tuesday. Tune in and check it out! Details at the bottom of the post.

My songs all stem from the beginnings of music recorded onto 78 rpm shellac records in the 1910's and 1920's. These are records recorded before the advent of electric amplification and are played on wind-up, spring powered phonographs. And yes, I stream this live.

This week I'm sharing three songs from "off brand" labels. The major record labels - in the US, at least - in the 10's and 20's were Victor and Columbia. Even at this early age of music, however, it was easily recognised as a viable business, and so when the opportunity presented itself (meaning, when patents began to expire) other companies formed their own record labels and began selling music. This week we're enjoying three songs from three of these labels.

First up is a fox-trot entitled The Sheik, on the Grey Gull label. Grey Gull was based in Boston until 1930 when it closed operations. This particular song was performed by a popular band of the time, the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, who also recorded songs on other labels. They were the primary house band for the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

(Incidentally, one of the old geezers in The Muppets, "Waldorf," was named for the Waldorf-Astoria).

The second song I have to share this week was distributed on the Silvertone label. Silvertone was a brand owned by Sears Roebuck and was used for mail order from recordings from other labels.

Silvertone's The Whistler and the Brook was remarkable for the fact that the song's feature is a whistler. Literally. Whistling. Considering that this was recorded well before electrical amplification was able this is no small feat. Those are some powerful lips!

And, speaking of lips, I'm led into my last song for the week: Hot Lips. This is another fox trot distributed on the Vocalion label. Fox trots were very common recordings of the era as they could be recorded with a small band with loud instruments and, hence, were easier to get sound from.

Vocalion was an Aeolian company, which was a manufacturer of pianos and accordions. Moving into the music recording industry must have seemed like a good fit. The Vocalion label imprint was eventually bought by Brunswick, then Decca, and finally in the 50's saw a small rebirth as the label Coral.

Hope you enjoy the songs! If you'd like to hear them live, tune in every Tuesday as 12:00pm noon, EDT (04:00pm UTC) in one of two locations:

1. Online at https://blindskeleton.one/radio/
2. Discord at The Castle

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(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe

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About Me

Sometimes photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd. 
General all around problem-solver and creative type.

Creator of What I Learned Today Hive community: https://peakd.com/c/hive-131257/created

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Blind Skeleton

Online Radio: https://blindskeleton.one/radio/
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