Johnny Marvin, Nat Shilkret and The Victor Orchestra - What Do We Do On A Dew Dew Dewy Day (1927)

Johnny Marvin (July 11, 1887 - 1945) was one of the great crooners of the 1920s, and his ukulele accompaniment was unsurpassed.

In the 1920s, he was one of the most celebrated ukulele performers and crooners of the era. Billing himself as "Honey Duke and His Uke" then as "Johnny Marvin, the Ukulele Ace" his recorded output was prodigious.

He even had a brand of ukulele named for him, which sported his face on the headstock and was noted for its unique airplane-shaped bridge. As the ukulele craze of the 20s faded, Marvin retired.

When the stock market crashed, however, he lost his savings and came out of retirement, reinventing himself as a cowboy songwriting partner to Gene Autry, providing him with a second equally noteworthy career that lasted until his death.

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Nathaniel Shilkret (Dec.25,1889 - Feb.18,1982) was born in New York, to an Austrian immigrant family. He was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive (A&R man), and music director (Victor, RKO and MGM).

He was a child prodigy, touring the country with the New York Boys' Orchestra from the ages of seven to thirteen as their clarinet soloist. From his late teens to mid-twenties he was a clarinetist in the best New York music organizations, including the New York Philharmonic Society (under Vassily Safanov and Gustav Mahler), the New York Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra, the Russian Symphony Orchestra, Victor Herbert's Orchestra, Arnold Volpe's Orchestra, Sousa's Grand Concert Band, Arthur Pryor's Band, and Edwin Franko Goldman's Band. He was also a rehearsal pianist for Walter Damrosch, playing for stars that included dancer Isadora Duncan.

He joined the Foreign Department of the Victor Talking Machine Company (later to become RCA Victor) around 1915, and soon was made manager of the department. In 1926 he became "director of light music." He made many thousands of recordings, possibly more than anyone in recording history. His son Arthur estimated the sales of these records was of the order of 50 million copies. He was the conductor of choice for many of Victor's innovative recordings. He conducted the first record made by the "electric method," the first commercial Victor LP (in 1931!) and was the first conductor to successfully dub an electrically recorded orchestra background over the recordings of Enrico Caruso, Victor's star artist, who died before the vastly superior electrical recording method was developed. He conducted the orchestra for the premiere recording of George Gershwin's symphonic poem An American in Paris, in 1929. This recording was one of five recordings conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret that eventually earned Grammy Awards.


Johnny Marvin, Nat Shilkret and The Victor Orchestra - What Do We Do On A Dew Dew Dewy Day (1927)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Johnny
• Marvin
• Nat
• Shilkret
• 1927
• 20s
• 30s

[wpl955g]

Great tune - have this on 78 somewhere, one of my faves.

[jazz1929]

Nice version of this song. Thanks.

[fillra]

Very nice, thankyou, edmundus.

Wiki states: The word "ukulele" comes from Hawaii where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea", due to the action of one's fingers playing the ukulele resembling a jumping flea.... or the name means the gift that came here, from the Hawaiian words uku (gift or reward) and lele (to come).

Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on a small guitar-like instrument, the cavaquinho, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

[Masquerade03]

I did not know Johnny Marvin but Shilkret is one of my favorites. A charming surprise! Thanks!