Make Believe Ballroom - Ralphie's Record Club List - New Season Episode 1

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It's make Believe ballroom time. Put
all your cares away. All the bands

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are here to bring good cheer your
way. It's make Believe ballroom time and

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free to everyone. It's no time
to friend your Dalis said Bamba yours,

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close your eyes and vis you lie
in your solitude. Your favorite bands are

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on list Dance and mister Miller.
But you're in the mood. It's make

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believe ballroom time. We are of
sweet romance as you make it. Come

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on, Joe Last Dance La.
Hi, folks, I'm Jeff Pressler,

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turning on the lights of the Make
Belief Ballroom and welcoming you into my Crystal

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Studio for a very special new season
of programs that we're calling Ralphie's List.

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We received an email here at the
ballroom a few years ago from Angelo,

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a longtime listener from Naples, Florida, by way of Canarsi, Brooklyn,

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whose parents, Ralphie and Rose started
a record club inviting neighbors to their home

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every other Saturday night from nineteen thirty
five to the mid seventies to share potluck,

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suffers and listen and dance to the
greatest big band hits of the thirties.

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And forty. Ralphie and the club
went on to painstaking lee compile over

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the decades a list of over seven
hundred and fifty of their favorite ranked tunes.

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So sit back and listen as we
bring you selections each week from the

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legendary Ralphie's List. Hi, friends, and welcome, Welcome, Welcome to

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another edition of The Make Believe Ballroom, heard almost continuously on the radio since

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Martin Block first took to the airwaves
at WEW Radio, New York City back

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in nineteen thirty five. And as
I said in the introduction, this new

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season of the Ballroom is being devoted
to Ralphie's List. That's a list comprised

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of over seven hundred and fifty big
band tunes that Ralphie Carbone and his wife

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Rose and their record club members ranked
and compiled over fifty decades of getting together

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every other Saturday night. More than
delighted to start this new series. I've

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had the privilege, as many of
you know, to present The Ballroom on

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public and community radio stations over several
years. But this thirty minute new series

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I decided to exclusively put on podcast. So if you're new to the Ballroom,

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also in the podcast listings. You
can hear around two hundred of our

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past radio episodes. I encourage you
to do so. You're going to receive

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a great education into the music and
history of the big band era. But

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we are here, indeed to play
music from Ralphie's list, not to hear

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me carry on. So without any
further ado, we will carry on.

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So let's trigger the make Believe Ballroom
Randomizer to come up with our first random

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Ralphie from Knar record. I've set
up the make Belie Ballroom Randomizer with numbers

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one to seven hundred and fifty and
will randomly pick a number, play the

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song, and then give you a
little background to the record. So here

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we go on the computer. As
I press the button and we land on

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number one, nineteen nineteen thirty seven, Red Norvo I've got my Love to

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keep me Warm with a Mildred Bailey
vocal. The snow is snowing, the

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wind is blowing, but I can
weather the storm. Why do I care

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much? In May Store, I've
got my love to keep me warm.

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I can't remember a worse December.
Just watch those icicles for? What do

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I care if iicycles? For?
I've got my love to keep me warm.

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Off with my overcoat, off with
my glove, I need no overcoat

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or burning with love, my hearts
on fire, flame grows higher, so

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I will weather the storm. What
do I care how much it may store.

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I've got my love to keep me
warm. Cook. That was Irving

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Berlin's cold Weather song from the nineteen
thirty seven Fox musical On the Avenue,

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which starred Dick Powell, Madeline Carol
and Alice Faye. And you just heard

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on Brunswick I've Got My Love to
keep Me Warm by Red Norvo and his

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orchestra vocal by Mildred Bailey, recorded
in Chicago back on January the eighth,

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nineteenth thirty seven. Mildred and Red
were mar for some time. For a

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good portion of that time, while
they performed together, they were somewhat of

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an odd couple. Red was thin
and soft spoken, while Mildred Bailey was

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full figured and was known, from
what I have read to be rather a

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boisterous individual. But somehow the combination
worked well for more than a decade of

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both musically and personally. Norvo very
interestingly was jazz's first significant xylophonist, while

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Bailey, native American, was one
of the first non African American female singers

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to make a strong impression on the
jazz world. That was I've Got My

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Love to Keep Me Warm. And
you're listening to our new series Ralphie's list

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here on the Make Believe Ballroom as
we go back to the Compewter randomizer for

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our next tune, and it is
number seventy nine, Charlie Barnett and his

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Orchestra with Cherokee. I don't know
how the name then Nonny, Nonny,

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not any that was on Bluebird Records. Cherokee by Charlie Barnett and his Orchestra,

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recorded back in nineteen thirty nine,
and I think there was no argument

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at all that Cherokee was the Barnett
Band's most famous and best selling recording,

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featured a Billy May arrangement and was
composed by Ray Noble. Cherokee. Ralphie's

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list number seventy nine has voted on
by his Canarsi Record Club that met from

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nineteen thirty five through the mid nineteen
seventies. Friends, if you'd like to

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contact me in our Crystal studio in
New York, you can email me at

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Jeff at retroradioland dot com. That's
Jeff at retro radioland dot com. And

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next, how about putting my index
finger to work and hitting the icon to

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come up with our next Make Believe
Ballroom randomizer number? And it is number

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three six nine. I'm an old
cowhand on the rio Grand Bing Crosby with

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the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, recorded in
nineteen thirty six. And do wow,

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see if you agree with me that
this song, perhaps not to question the

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late Ralphie from CANARSI, should have
been maybe a little higher on the list.

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I'm an old car hand from the
real ground. But my legs ain't

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bowl, and my cheek saint town. I'm a cowboy who never saw a

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cow whatever rope the steel cous I
don't know how sure ain't a fixing to

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start in now Oh Yippi? I
old, Pi Yippi, I old.

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I'm an old cow hand and a
can down from the ground, and I

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learned to ride, ride ride for
a learned to stand. I'm a riding

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fool who is up to date.
I'm not ever trailing the long star statement

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because I ride the range in the
board. Pa bo Yippi, I okay

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yeavy is okay yi y o?
Where old Calhoun from from the Rio grand

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and come to town just to hear
the band. We know all the songs

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at the cowboys, know about the
big call round where the doggies go.

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We learned them all on the radio. Here the isle, ye the isle.

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I'm just an old Cowhoun. Oh
yea mister being two hundred un the

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fun down from the Riogram were the
worst is all around the board to her

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her last, where the bove from
roam around the zoo, and the in

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jurs run up a record to and
the old barnacks just the barbecue. Yeah,

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Hian, Jimmy, I'm a pioneer
who began from scratch. I don't

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betterne any shooting match. I don't
call the owner of the combus satche him

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die file Let that out of there. WHOA. That was Ralphie's List number

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three sixty nine, a popular a
bing record hit from his film Rhythm on

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the Range on Decca Records of an
Old Cowhan from the Rio Grande, recorded

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in Los Angeles, July the seventeenth, nineteen thirty six. Tune was written

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by Johnny Mercer, Ben Crosby with
the vocal and Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra.

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Thinking here for a moment, if
I recall correctly, that song was

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Johnny Mercer's first big Hollywood movie song, and I know this story to be

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fact. Johnny Mercer wrote the tune
after he took a road trip through Texas,

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and as you can tell by the
lyrics, the song was satirical,

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with the ride by Johnny Mercer through
the lone Star state not really meeting the

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expectations of what he thought the Wild
West should have looked like in the late

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nineteen thirties. Again, personally for
a catchy Mercer Dorsey Crosby record, I

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think that one should have been higher
than three hundred and sixty nine. But

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who am I a second gut Ralphie
from Canarsi, and who am I to

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second guest that you're listening to the
Make Believe Ballroom Ralphie's list season heard on

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your favorite podcast platform. We are
on all of them as a matter of

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fact. And now, ladies and
gentlemen, back to the old Make Belie

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Ballroom randomizer for yet another ranked tune
from the Ralphie from Canarsi Record Club list,

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and the number is is well,
this one's way down on the list

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at number seven hundred and twenty eight
Bouncing with Bean Coleman Hawkins and his Orchestra,

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recorded in nineteen forty s A A
A he he didn't he didn't even

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get unicating him. That was the
great tenor, saxophonist and band leader Coleman

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Hawkins with Ralphie's Record Club List number
seven twenty eight the Swinging Bouncing with Bean

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Coleman Hawkins and his All Star Octet. It was recorded on Bluebird Records on

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November one, nineteen forty. So
you might be saying why the name Bouncing

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with Bean Well Hawkins had two nicknames. One was Hawk and the other well,

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it was Bean. I'm Jeff Presler
from here in the Crystal Studio in

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New York, and I am bringing
you a special season of Make Believe Ballroom

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Programs dedicated to the Ralphie from Canarsi
Record Club List. And I said earlier

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in the program that I want to
keep this series to around thirty minutes an

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episode. So it looks like we
have time for just one more. So

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let's hit the randomizer and come up
with number number one five two one five

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to two. Let me look at
the list. Interesting, we had Jimmy

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Dorsey and Bang with I'm an Old
cow hand on the show. And now

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for number one fifty two, we
go to Heaven Can Wait. This time

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Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra with the
Jack Leonard vocal Heaven can Wait. This

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is paradise just being here with you
and breathing the air you do. Heaven

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can Wait, Darling, It's true. This is paradise. Gazing at all

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your charms. It's heavenly your arms. Heaven can wait. You must be

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an angel on a busy from the
skies. Now I look at Heaven when

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I look into your Heaven canway.
This is paradise, loving the way we

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do until I go there with you. Heaven can Wait. That was Heaven

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can Wait, written by Eddie Delang
and the Great Jimmy Vanhuston recorded on OURCA

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Records with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra vocal
refrain from Jack Leonard back in nineteen thirty

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nine. And friends. That's it
for today's edition of The Make Believe Ballroom

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in our special Ralphie from Canarsi Record
Club List season. If you'd like to

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contact me, I'm Jeffitt Retro radioland
dot Com. That's Jeffitt, Retro radioland

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dot Com. So until next week, as we spin in the randomizer to

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select more gems from Ralphie's list.
This has been Jeff Bresler, just Keith

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Oh A small room, make it
your ballroom less fash