Brown Eyes, Why Are You Blue + I Want A Lovable Baby (1925) Savoy Orpheans + Ramon Newton

BROWN EYES WHY ARE YOU BLUE { 0:00 } - vocalist Ramon Newton
I WANT A LOVABLE BABY { 2:54 }
Savoy Orpheans, directed by Debroy Somers
HMV B2252 (22 and 15 December 1925, respectively)

BROWN EYES was recorded on 22 December 1925, exactly six months after HMV's earliest electrical recording to be issued, which was by Jack Hylton on 22 June 1925. Going by the matrix numbers, I reckon the Gramophone Co Ltd recorded in excess of 1270 10-inch sides in that six-month period; and there were a few score more 10-inchers recorded outside the Hayes studios, not to mention the 12-inchers (recorded at Hayes and wherever).

Both sides are almost sedate, by the standards we mostly associate with the Orpheans. My upload of the Goodrich Silvertown Cord Band takes BROWN EYES at a more cracking if less sophisticated pace.    • Brown Eyes Why Are You Blue + Yesterday (1...   . The balance has Newton's vocal at a strong level. That was far from being the usual case, as several records on this channel attest. Oddly, the label omits to mention his vocal refrain.

I WANT A LOVABLE BABY has lyrics by Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown, and music by Ray Henderson: the trio of sure-hit tune-smiths of the era. Being an instrumental side, the label credits only Henderson.

The recording dates were in December 1925, but the record was issued in March 1926. Unless a special speedy effort was being made, e.g. for commercial or topical reasons, two or three months between recording and release was the norm.

The condition of the shellac demonstrates how the quality of HMV's 'shellac' (in terms of ageing) deteriorated towards the end of the 1920s. The blizzard of crackle that afflicts many HMVs pressed a few years later is absent from this early electric, facilitating light-touch restoration.