Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians - LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1929)

[551batesroad]

I absolutely love this song. I'm twenty but I love these kind of oldies.

[JCJasion]

My introduction to this group was on a Bluebird from about 1937-38 vintage, recorded by "The Dixie Swingsters", a group who I've never been able to identify elsewhere, but listening years later, appears to have been the Caceres Brothers small swing orchestra emanating out of Texas. That was a few years before Ernie joined Glenn Miller's band.

[bsgs98]

@JCJasion There is a reissue of the Dixieland Swingsters on CD with this song, but none of the web sites have 30 second sound samples. I read that Chet Atkins was briefly with a group with the same name in the early 1940s on a Knoxville radio station.

[JCJasion]

@bsgs98 - Wow! Did they give the personnel of that recording on the reissue CD?

Incidentally, the flip side of that Bluebird recording was a song called Fiddleobia. Even as a 16-year-old I could tell it was an early fusion of Small band Chicago style jazz and "Hillbilly" or country music. Most of the instruments were playing straight-on Jazz, but the fiddler, while nimble, was really playing in a style in keeping with square dance music... but executed really cleanly!!

[bsgs98]

@JCJasion According to Rust's Jazz Discography it was Buck Houghins, reeds and violin / Jerry Collins , piano / Larry Dowing, guitar / Cliff Stein, string bass. Sessions were recorded in Charlotte, NC which is not too far from Knoxville, so it's likely it is the same band that Chet Atkins played with in the 1940s. I've never heard the group but might it be classified as "western swing?"

[bsgs98]

@JCJasion I missed another performer on that recording: Dave Durham , tenor sax.

[JCJasion]

@bsgs98 - He also played clarinet on "Love Me Or Leave Me" - And he sounded a lot like Ernie Caceres. The Caceres brothers were also active with their small group out in Texas at the time, and sported a front line violin as well. I guess they were all experimenting with thinking out of the box where musical genres were concerned. Great Music!!!

Seriously, the music sounded like a perfect hybrid that walked the tightrope of small band swing and the budding 'western swing' style.

[peterschleger]

@JCJasion Not sure you refer to Guy Lombardo as this group. He is an American (and Canadian!) institution.

[DinamitaCienfuegos]

Ahhh muy bonito video...mmmm , muy bien hecho bsgs98 * u *.

[2reeler]

Wow, great old classic tune! It has just now jogged my memory as a teenager back in the early 70s. I had a victrola and a few Guy Lombardo 78s of my grandfathers, so when Lombardos band came to play a date at the big 1925 era Sacramento Mem. Auditorium, I went! I remember seeing Carmen and the trio singing BooHoo especially, as the crowd clapped loudest for that one. It was great to see so many older couples fox trotting out on the floor! Thank you for all your great Lombardo songs!~

[bsgs98]

@2reeler Back in the 1960's actor/comedian Tony Randall used to do a vocal recreation of some of the old 20s and 30s tunes on the Johnny Carson Show and he did a great version of "Boo Hoo" even imitating Carmen's vibrato. It was such a success that Carson later invited the Lombardo Brothers on the show and Carmen sang "Boo Hoo" and "Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore." I wonder if a tape of that program exists?

[vrobbie53]

Nice video and great rendition! I also enjoy Bing's work form the early thirties with Guy Lombardo on Brunswick.

[NoelGuyALfan]

Real classy rendition,years before their well documented success.

No wonder Guy and the band still had another 40 odd years still ahead of them.

Today's manufactured overnight "finds" on all these "find/make a star" TV shows would not understand what it takes to "find" success like this Guy....

An era sadly long gone.. Auld Lang Syne indeed.

[NYVoice]

I'll cheer you up Noel. I live in a little town called Freeport on Long Island-home of one Guy Lombardo. There is a street named after him (formerly Grove Ave) and he used to race his boat all over the south bay near here until his death in 1977. His house on the canal is no longer there. I have a lovely 8x10 shot of Guy with my parents from around 1972 when he staged some show at the Jones Beach Theater. Real classy gentleman.

[NoelGuyALfan]

Thank you NYVoice,sure did cheer me up :-)

Your message was so gratefully received! Thank you for taking the time to share your fond memory from 1972.

I cannot believe i have found a Freeporter,who still lives there!! End Pt 1

[NoelGuyALfan]

Ctd Pt 2

I have just collected in the past month,one of the Jones Beach Marine Theater programs (nearly have them all) from around 1970,and in it was an advertisement for the proposed opening in 1971 for the "Harbour Light Manor" (Carl Hoppl & Rene W Schuhmacher- Owner &Operator?) at the foot of South Grove Street,which started out as Ray Liotta's "East Point House",and rebuilt by Guy on the same site as GL's "EPHouse".

[NoelGuyALfan]

Ctd Pt 3

I have never been able to find out what replaced Guy's EPH after the fire in 1968 (?) and cannot locate it today on any google map search.

It is sad to hear,from a lifelong fan's point of view,that the original home is now gone, which his wife owned until 1982,when Lilliebell herself died.

I think the number was 250 (?)

[NoelGuyALfan]

Final Pt 4

Like the Museum in his old hometown London Ont CA,also gone,sign of the times.

Even the Appreciation Society in Richmond VA,hardly looks "alive" at all,a great disappointment.

Sincerely

Noel

Melbourne.Victoria.

Australia.

PS.. I hope the photo made your Mom and Dad really happy to have met him,and gave them both a cherished memory !!

[marsmoke]

@NoelGuyALfan Sorry to hear the museum is gone. I last visited it in 1991. Auld lang syne.

[baghend]

@NoelGuyALfan You are so right Noel- what passes for "talent" these days just makes me want to cry- and there is so little "class" that the Lombardo's and others personified. I had the chance to dance to Guy in the 60's (can't remember the girls name!) and Carmen even sang a vocal then while Kenny took a break.

All sadly missed. Thanks goodness for sites like this.

-Bill

[mangeldeth]

Awesome.