Cab Calloway - Jukebox Hits: 1930-1950

Featuring 20 tracks from the jazz legend. Acrobat. 2004. Album Description

The Cotton Club King

Collectors of Golden Oldie R&R, R&B and Country music hits are, I'm sure, well aware of the quality received from British outlets, especially Ace Records with their almost flawless sound reproduction and copious liner notes in series such as The Golden Age Of American Rock 'n' Roll and Teen Beat, among many others. Acrobat Music & Media Ltd. is almost as good with their Jukebox Hits series of individual artists and multi-artist compilations focusing on the greats of R&B and Jazz, and so far, judging by the lack of reviews here on Amazon, they seem to be largely a secret in North America.

I now have the volumes covering Lucky Millinder, The Clovers, Erskine Hawkins, Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy, Ivory Joe Hunter, Johnny Otis and Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (2 volumes), and have just placed an order for those dealing with Buddy Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Jimmie Lunceford and Lionel Hampton. I also have the multi-artist R&B compilations (2 volumes) covering 1955, and still out there for future orders are multi-artist CDs for 1942 to 1944, 1947 and 1953, along with individual CDs for Ella Fitzgerald, Ruth Brown, Count Basie, Muddy Waters, Billy Eckstine; Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Nat "King" Cole.

This one, covering the great Cab Calloway, is the only one I have been slightly - and I stress slightly - disappointed in, although with respect to quality of sound and liner notes, and the selections included, it's still close to a 5-star purchase. Why I deducted 1 star is more related to what they didn't include. Certainly, as with Louis Jordan, this legend deserves 2 volumes to provide the 45 Pop hits he registered from 1930 to 1968 and the three R&B-only entries in 1946, 1948, and 1978. As it is, here they give you just 18 as neither Roomin'House Boogie nor Shotgun Boogie were hits for Cab.

Looking at his hit singles, it seems out of place to categorize him as "R&B." Those charts came into existence in October 1942 as The Harlem Hit Parade and, while he registered 4 Pop hit singles from there to 1945 (none of which are in this collection), not one made the R&B charts. In fact, he didn't score there until 1946 when his version of The Honeydripper went to # 3, and in 1948 The Calloway Boogie also went to # 13 R&B - or what was then called The Most Played Juke Box Race Records - (both are here). Released by Columbia, neither made the Pop charts.

In 1956 Cab and his 8-year-old daughter Lael's cover of the Eddie Albert & Sondra Lee hit Little Child, backed by the Don Costa orchestra, reached # 62 Pop Top 100 on ABC-Paramount and, 12 years later, Cab covered Buddy Starcher's novelty History Repeats Itself for the Boom label and saw it top out at # 89 Pop Hot 100. Neither is here, of course, since this covers 1930 to 1950 only, so nor is his 1978 version of Minnie The Moocher, which peaked at # 91 R&B in late 1978 for RCA. That, in fact, would be his last charter (he passed away on November 18, 1994 at age 86).

But the original 1931 Brunswick label version of that immortal tune, based upon the folk song Willy The Weeper, is here and it, in fact, was his only # 1, reaching that pinnacle in the spring. This follows his initial hit in late 1930, St. Louis Blues, which was billed simply to The Jungle Band (all others were billed as Cab Calloway & His Orchestra), and in 1943 a re-issue would chart again at # 18. St. James Infirmary came close to # 1 in June 1931, settling in at # 3 - which wasn't bad since the song was banned by most radio stations!

The liner notes provide full details on these and all the other selections here (note that track 14 was actually released as (Hep-Hep!) The Jumpin' Jive). It's just too bad they didn't see fit to include the fourth entry in the Minnie The Moocher series (the second was Kickin' The Gong Around - a # 4 in December 1931 - the third was Minnie The Moocher's Wedding Day - a # 8 in summer 1932 - and the fourth was The Ghost Of Smokey Joe - # 13 in June 1939, and missing here).

IF they come out with a Volume 2 for Cab providing the missing hits, this will at once jump to a 5-star release.

March 18, 2008

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