TCOB
(7 downloads)Friday, Dec 21, 2007
Earl and Bell seem to have been popular enough to have made a handful of film appearances. I think they recorded an early version of “I’m Looking over a Four Leaf Clover” (if not the first). Unfortunately, I’m having trouble digging up much info on these guys. They were a vocal duo that used a lot of Hawaiian style guitar for accompaniment, or ukulele on a few recordings. Cool sounding old novelty pop with a tendency toward the exotic. But sorry, I don’t have much else to report on Earl and Bell.For this song, “Who Takes Care of the Caretaker's Daughter?” on the other hand, I can provide a couple more notes. This was a number that was included in the George and Ira Gershwin musical comedy, “Lady Be Good” from 1923, but the song was written by Chick Endor and Paul Specht. The Gershwins probably hired or licensed this song from Endor and Specht as an expedient for its situation in the drama (or maybe somebody just liked it), this isn't unusual for musicals from this era. "Lady Be Good" also featured the popular Gershwin brothers originals: title song “Lady Be Good”, and “Fascinating Rhythm”. Not to mention, the original cast starred brother and sister, Fred and Adele Astaire. Besides this 1925 recording from Earl and Bell, popular versions of this song were also performed by Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards (also in 1925) and Bobby Darrin.
Ukulele Ike (1895-1971) is known for developing the vocal technique of “effin” in which the performer imitates the sound of a kazoo (or muted trumpet) with his voice. This is considered by some to be an early relative to ‘scat’ singing. In 1940 Ike was also the voice for Jiminy Cricket in the Disney animated feature “Pinocchio” for which he won an Oscar for his performance of “When You Wish upon a Star”.
Check out a great early jazz website for more on Ukulele Ike including sound files:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/cliffedwards.html
Vocalion 15041, 1925