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With 51 songs on two CDs and running for over two and a half hours, Together and Alone is a landmark retrospective of two of Broadway's brightest stars ever, Nora
Bayes and Jack Norworth. This ambitious collection boasts some of the most
classic songs in American history, performed by the pair that brought them
to the stage. In addition to a 32-page booklet with extensive illustrations
and notes co-authored by Allen G. Debus, the CD includes three never-before
released tracks: two by Nora Bayes from 1917 and one by Jack Norworth from
ca. 1950-a home recording of Bayes and Norworth's biggest hit, "Shine
On, Harvest Moon."
Act 1: Vaudeville Days
Our 2-CD set might be seen as a play in four acts with an epilogue. Act 1
begins with the "Together" period of Bayes and Norworth, who billed
themselves as "America's Happiest Couple." They were married in 1908,
when each was already a big hit in vaudeville. As a couple they were headliners
in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1908 and 1909. Then came enormous success
in Lew Fields' The Jolly Bachelors, and this is where our collection
starts out. Nora sings her imported (and rewritten) hit, "Has
Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" and Jack responds with his very clever "College
Medley." As a duo, the pair sang "Come Along, My Mandy" and "Rosa
Rosetta" and a year later returned with "Turn
Off Your Light, Mr. Moon Man" from the show Little Miss Fix-It.
But the "together" stage is about more than just the three duets
issued by Bayes and Norworth. They wrote most of their own material together,
and on the first 14 tracks on this collection, you can sense their infectious
stage presence and even see a glimpse of their interplay. Jack's "For
Months and Months and Months" is a humorous, often autobiographical romp
through its protagonist's misadventures. And Nora displays her ragtime chops
with "That Lovin' Rag" (a
song popularized by Sophie Tucker), and she shows herself master of dialect
comedy in "What Good Is Water,
When You're Dry?"
Act 2: Nora Solo
All good things must end, and so did the Bayes-Norworth marriage and stage
act. After a three-year hiatus from the studio, Bayes returned in style in
1914 with "Harmony Baby" and
the anti-war anthem, "We Take Our Hats Off to You, Mr. Wilson." She
slows down the pace a bit with the unusual "Sunbeam Sal" and picks
it up again with the risqué "I
Work Eight Hours, Sleep Eight Hours, That Leaves Eight Hours for Love." During
all this time, Nora was a major hit in vaudeville, and she toured the world
as well.
Act 3: Jack in England
Nora took another break from recording just as 1914 was ending, and now Jack
Norworth, equally a star attraction in vaudeville, left for a sustained period
in England. He starred in Hullo Tango and recorded some of the show's
hits, such as "Kitty, the Telephone Girl" for the Columbia Company
of England. But Jack's real success came from singing tongue-twisters, such
as "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts
for Soldiers," a song that became an international phenomenon. Because
Britain was in the midst of the Great War, several of Norworth's comic songs
have a war theme, including "Molly McCarthy" and "Cassidy."
With Gertrude Lang, Jack starred in J. M. Barrie's only musical, Rosy
Rapture (1915), and the recordings the pair made from the show feature
dialogue along with singing, so you feel like you're watching the musical
live. "Sally from Calais," by Norworth and Lang, is a play on "Sally
in Our Alley," and the pair's "Safe
in Our Wardrobe for Two," is an infectious number on the flipside
of the 12-inch disc with "Sally." Jack Norworth's recordings from
England are exceedingly scarce today, even in Great Britain, and we are happy
to present 11 of these gems on Together and Alone.
Act 4: Nora Scores with War Songs
Bayes returned to recording in 1916 with a great number, "Homesickness
Blues." Her songs were now featured on double-sided discs, so the
flipside was "The Greatest Battle Song of All," a comic war song
in which "Here Comes the Bride" is the greatest battle song, beating
out all other nationalist anthems. "Are You Prepared for the Summer" and "For
Dixie and Uncle Sam" also deal with American preparedness, as U.S. entry
into the European war looked more certain every day. The former is a humorous
song, while the latter is a serious look at the issue of enlistment.
Many of Nora Bayes' songs of this period are lighthearted, including the very
famous "Hello, Hawaii, How Are
You?" about long-distance telephoning, and "When
John McCormack Sings a Song," an affectionate ode to one of Miss Bayes'
most popular label-mates. "Daniel in
the Lion's Den" is Nora's last effort at dialect singing in this set,
which is punctuated by her definitive reading of George M. Cohan's "Over
There."
Epilogue: Rare Tracks and a Fond Farewell
Heard here for the first time on compact disc are two pieces by Bayes that
were rejected for issue in 1917. "My Little Motor Car" is a monologue,
a hilarious talk Nora gives to her car that she featured in her vaudeville
show to much acclaim. "Our Bungalow" has Bayes singing with Irving
Fisher, the only person other than Jack Norworth that we can hear Nora singing
with. Finally, our set fast-forwards on the last track to about 1950, with
Jack reminiscing to recording industry historian Jim Walsh about Bayes and
Norworth's biggest hit, "Shine On, Harvest Moon," never having been
issued. Jack tries to correct the record by performing it with his own piano
accompaniment, and what a Christmas treat he gives us with this gem!
Ninety-six years after Bayes and Norworth broke onto the entertainment scene,
they have not been forgotten, and their music lives on. Archeophone is proud
to present this stunning collection of these musical geniuses whose time in
the spotlight has come again!
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