Martha Tilton born 14 November 1915

Martha Tilton (November 14, 1915, Corpus Christi, Texas -December 8, 2006, Brentwood, California) was an American popular singer, best-known for her 1939 recording of "And the Angels Sing" with Benny Goodman. She was sometimes introduced as The Liltin' Miss Tilton.
 

 

                              
       

Ms. Tilton was born in Texas and lived for a short time in Kansas. When she was 7 her family relocated to Los Angeles where her father was a banker. She began singing for free on a small radio station in Los Angeles while attending Fairfax High School. An agent heard her, signed her and began booking her on larger radio tations.

Tilton dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to join Hal Grayson's band. She was part of a vocal group, Three Hits and a Miss, when she was asked to audition for the Goodman band. Mr. Goodman left the room during her second song, so she left too, disappointed that he was not impressed. She later learned that he had liked her, and was hired for $125 a week in 1937.

Dubbed “liltin” Martha Tilton during her tenure with Goodman, Ms. Tilton had girl next-door looks and a personality to match. Coupled with her straight forward and no frills vocals, Tilton was received warmly by both the media and the all-important public during the Swing era. She recorded a number of fine sides for Goodman and toured with him regularly from 1937 to 1939.

Although her most popular recording with Goodman was “And The Angels Sing” her first session with the bandleader produced a recording of “Bob White” (What ‘Cha Gonna Swing Tonight) that has a little more zip to it. However, her short vocal on a Goodman Quartet recording of “Bie Mir Bist Du Schoen” was her greatest Goodman jazz record. Although many jazz discographies do not list the session, the recording was waxed in December of 1937 in two parts, taking up 2 sides of a 78-RPM record. Trumpeter Ziggy Elman was added to the Quartet on side 2 along with Tilton’s vocal.

During Tilton's time as vocalist with Goodman, the band made history when it performed the first-ever swing concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. In so doing Martha Tilton became the first non-classical vocalist to perform at Carnegie, known mainly at the time as a classical music venue.

Tilton joined Artie Shaw’s big band in 1940 recording two less than memorable sides and then recorded with Bob Crosby’s Orchestra in 1941.

Tilton made guest appearances on numerous radio programs in the '40s and was vocalist for a time with the Billy Mills orchestra on "Fibber McGee and Molly." She also was the host of her own radio show for NBC, "Liltin' Martha Tilton Time," for a year.

During the World War II years, Tilton participated in two USO tours with Jack Benny — to the South Pacific in 1944 and the next year to Germany to entertain Allied troops right after the war ended in 1945.

She also had major success from 1942-49 as one of the first artists to record for Capitol Records. Among her biggest hits as a solo artist were "I'll Walk Alone," a wartime ballad which peaked at #4 on the charts in 1944; "I Should Care" and "A Stranger in Town," both of which peaked at #10 in 1945; and three in 1947: "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," from Finian's Rainbow, which reached #8; "That's My Desire," which hit #10; and "I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder," which peaked at #9.

After she left Capitol, Tilton recorded for various other labels, including Coral and Tops. Among her later albums was We Sing the Old Songs (1957, Tops), a mix of older songs and recent standards with Curt Massey, who later became well-known for singing the theme song to the CBS-TV series Petticoat Junction.

Martha Tilton made her movie debut the same year she made her first recording with Goodman in 1937. The film was "Sing While You're Able" and she had memorable performances in other movies such as "Sunny" (1941), "Swing Hostess" (1944), "Crime, Inc." (1945) and "The Benny Goodman Story" (1955). Her singing voice was also used in many films dubbed over other actresses including Barbara Stanwyck, Martha O'Driscoll, and Anne Gwynne.
 

Tilton who later appeared in a daily half-hour TV show with the aforementioned Curt Massey that ran almost seven years in Los Angeles, continued to work through the mid-1960s.

In the mid-1980s, Tilton came out of retirement to be the featured vocalist on a Benny Goodman tribute band's tour of Australia.

Chuck Cecil, longtime host of the Los Angeles-area radio show "The Swingin' Years," told The LA Times in December of 2006, "To me, she was so unique because she didn't reinterpret the song that the composers gave her; she sang it straight, without her own styling or imprint on it…"

In his review of "The Liltin' Miss Tilton," a two-CD set from Capitol Records in 2000, critic Don Heckman wrote: "There are those who would say that Martha Tilton wasn't a jazz singer at all. But Swing era fans won't have any doubts, remembering her for a rocking version of 'Loch Lomond' at Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert."

Early in her career Miss Tilton was introduced by Benny Goodman as “a pretty gal from Hollywood that’s really going places.” She missed the cue. After a moment, Mr. Goodman ad-libbed, “She’s not going places, she’s already gone.”

 

Martha Tilton died December 8th 2006 in Los Angeles. She was 91.    (info from swingmusic.net)

Martha Tilton sings in this Soundies film from 1941, with Slate Brothers, and Ben Pollack and His Orchestra accompanying. 

Louise Tobin born 11 November 1918

Mary Louise Tobin (born November 14, 1918 in Aubrey, Texas) is an American singer. She appeared with Benny Goodman, Bobby Hackett, Will Bradley, and Jack Jenney. Tobin introduced I Didn't Know What Time It Was with Benny Goodman’s band in 1939. Her biggest hit with Goodman was There'll Be Some Changes Made, which was number two on the Hit Parade in 1941 for 15 weeks. 

In 1932 Tobin won a CBS Radio Talent Contest and, after touring with society dance orchestras in Texas, joined Art Hicks and his Orchestra in 1934. At that time, Harry James played first trumpet for Hicks and a year later, on May 4, 1935, Tobin and James were married. They had two sons: Harry (born 1941) and Tim (née Jerin Timothyray James; born March 21, 1942). Tobin brought Frank Sinatra to James' attention in 1939 after hearing Sinatra sing on the radio. James subsequently signed Sinatra to a one-year contract at $75 a week. 

 

 

Tobin with Harry James

While Tobin was singing with trumpeter Bobby Hackett at Nick’s in the Village, jazz critic and producer John Hammond heard her and brought Benny Goodman to a performance. Tobin soon joined the Benny Goodman band and went on to record There'll Be Some Changes Made, Scatterbrain, Comes Love, Love Never Went to College, What's New?, and Blue Orchids, with Goodman. Johnny Mercer especially wrote Louise Tobin Blues for her while she was with Goodman. It was arranged by Fletcher Henderson. 

In 1940 Tobin recorded Deed I Do and Don’t Let It Get You Down, with Will Bradley and His Orchestra. Tobin and James were divorced May 1943 in Juárez, Mexico. 

 

In 1945 she recorded All through the Day with Tommy Jones and His Orchestra, and June Comes Every Year with Emil Coleman and His Orchestra. In 1946 she performed with Skippy Anderson’s Band at the Melodee Club in Los Angeles, and in 1950 she recorded Sunny Disposish with Ziggy Elman and His Orchestra. 


After a long hiatus spent raising her two boys, Tobin accepted an invitation from jazz critic and publisher George Simon to sing at the 1962 Newport Jazz Festival, where she met her future husband, clarinettist Peanuts Hucko. The Whitney Balliett review of the festival published in The New Yorker included the statement: "Louise Tobin sings like the young Ella Fitzgerald." Peanuts and Louise began to perform regularly
together, including at the Gibson-inspired Odessa Jazz Parties and a

Tobin with Peanuts Hucko

regular engagement at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. They married in 1967 and moved to Denver, Colorado, where they were co-owners and the house band of the Navarre Club.

In 1974 Peanuts led the Glenn Miller Orchestra, touring worldwide with Louise singing various numbers with the band. In 1977, Louise recorded There'll Be Some Changes Made with Peanuts on an album titled, San Diego Jazz Club Plays the Sound of Jazz. There'll Be Some Changes Made became an oft requested fan favourite at concerts. In the 1980s they toured Europe, Australia, and Japan with the Pied Piper Quintet and recorded the tribute albums: Tribute to Louis Armstrong and Tribute to Benny Goodman, featuring Louise singing several numbers on both. In 1992 Starline Records issuedSwing That Music, including a vocal duet with Peanuts and Louise singing When You're Smiling. This would be their final recording made together. Peanuts Hucko died in 2003. 

In 2008 Tobin donated her extensive collection of original musical arrangements, press clippings, programs, recordings, playbills and photographs to create the Tobin-Hucko Jazz Collection at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

 

On 8/13/11 Texas A & M University recognized Louise with an Honorary Doctorate!  Louise  now lives with her son, Harry James, Jr., in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. (Info mainly Wikipedia) 

UPDATE - Tobin died at the home of her granddaughter in Carrollton, Texas on November 26, 2022, aged 104.

Helen Ward born 19 September 1913

Helen Ward (born September 19, 1913, New York City – died April 21, 1998, Arlington, Virginia) was one of the finest vocalists of the swing era. Her sweet and easily swinging style could be adapted to any band format, and it seems a lot of band leaders shared that opinion as she was hardly out of work from 1934 on. Although she originally retired quite early and at the peak of her fame, fortunately she returned to music many times in later years.

Ward was taught piano as a child by her father, and took up singing as a teenager, working in a duo with the songwriter and pianist Burton Lane, whom she met because his aunt played bridge with her mother. The exposure brought her to the notice of a number of bandleaders around New York, and she established a considerable local reputation with various 'sweet' bands of the day. She started performing in bands led by Nye Mayhew, Eddie Duchin, Dave Rubinoff, Nat Brandwynne and Will Osborne; she also appeared on radio programs on WOR and WNBC, where she became a staff musician. 

She was singing with Enrique Madriguera's Latin Band in 1934 when the Goodman band was auditioning for an engagement at the Billy Rose Music Hall; she sang with the band at its second audition, and it got the job, although she did not join the Goodman band until a few months later. She also sang with the Goodman band on the radio program ''Let's Dance'' from December 1934 to May 1935.
 

She was one of the first such 'girl singers' (as they were always known, regardless of age) to make a real popular impact with the swing bands. Her unaffected vocal style and supple swing proved vital to the band's initial success, and she was also something of a sex symbol for the college students which provided the central core of the band's audience. Her untrained style, while technically deficient in some respects, was highly assured, and that kind of "natural" voice -- which would dominate pop music in the ensuing decades -- was just becoming fashionable at that period. 

 

 

 

With the Goodman band, she recorded songs including ''Goody Goody,'' ''You Turned the Tables on Me,'' ''It's Been So Long'' and the million-seller ''These Foolish Things.'' She recorded ''All My Life'' and ''Too Good to Be True'' with the Goodman trio. Often, she would be handed the sheet music for a song the same day she performed it.  

While performing with Benny Goodman she and Benny had a brief romance and he came very close to proposing marriage to her in either 1935 or 1936. However, according to Ward in the documentary Adventures in the Kingdom of Swing, he called it off at the last minute, citing his career. She married financier Albert Marx the following year and left the band. In 1938, Marx arranged for Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert to be recorded for her as an anniversary present. That recording was later released as a dual LP set by Columbia Records in 1950. 

After leaving the Goodman band, Ms. Ward turned to recording, appearing on albums with Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, Bob Crosby, Joe Sullivan and Harry James. She toured with the band led by Hal McIntyre in 1942 and 1943, and recorded with Red Norvo, Harry James, Wild Bill Davison and Peanuts Hucko. In 1944 she joined Harry James's band. In 1946-47 she produced musical variety shows on WMGM in New York City.  

After her marriage to Marx ended, Ward later married the audio engineer Bill Savory. Ward continued to do sporadic studio work and also worked briefly with Peanuts Hucko.

She retired from regular performing in the late 1940's but rejoined Goodman for tours and recordings in 1953, 1957 and 1958. In 1979, she came out of retirement, performing at clubs including the Waldorf-Astoria's Starlight Roof and the Rainbow Room in New York City, and she made ''The Helen Ward Song Book'' in 1981. There never was a Vol. 2.  

At one point during the 1980’s, she moved to Arlington, Virginia and when she passed away in April 1998 many people were surprised to hear that the legendary band singer was still around. Her Virginia years seem to have been spent very privately, as she never gave interviews or made any public appearances.  (info edited from Wikipedia & NY Times)

Benny Goodman born 30 May 1909

Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman".

The music of Benny Goodman is most closely identified with the years 1935-1945, when big bands played at dances and on the radio. The swing band functioned like an orchestra, with a leader and carefully arranged musical parts. Many had elaborate costumes and "signature" tunes that were especially popular on radio. But Goodman was more than a bandleader and soloist; he also contributed to American musical history as a jazz clarinetist, composer, and performer of concert works for the clarinet.

Benjamin David Goodman was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 1909, into a large, poor Jewish family. His parents, who had moved to the United States from Eastern Europe, were Dora and David Goodman. Benny formally studied music at the famed Hull House (a settlement house that was originally opened by Jane Addams [1860–1935] to provide services to poor members of the community), and at the age of ten he was already a skilled clarinetist. At age twelve, appearing onstage in a talent contest, he did an imitation of the popular Ted Lewis. So impressed was bandleader Ben Pollack that five years later he sent for Goodman to join his band in Los Angeles, California. After three years with Pollack, Goodman left the band in New York City in 1929 to make it on his own.

In 1934 he led his first band on a radio series called "Let's Dance" (which became the title of Goodman's theme song). The band also played at dance halls and made a handful of records.

In 1935, armed with songs developed by some of the great African American arrangers, Goodman's band traveled the country to play their music. Not especially successful in most of its performances, the band arrived at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles in a discouraged mood. The evening of August 21, 1935, began coolly. Then, desperate to wow the unimpressed audience, Goodman called for the band to launch into a couple of fast-paced crowd pleasers, and the reaction ultimately sent shock waves through the entire popular music world. Hundreds of people stopped dancing and massed around the bandstand, responding with enthusiasm.

That performance turned out to be not only a personal triumph for the band, but for swing music in general. Goodman's popularity soared; the band topped almost all the magazine and theater polls, their record sales were huge, they were given a weekly radio show, and they were featured in two big-budget movies. But an even greater triumph awaited—a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York that was to win respect for Goodman's music. The night of January 16, 1938, is now famous; the band outdid itself, improving on recorded favorites such as "King Porter Stomp" and "Don't Be That Way." The band finished the evening with a lengthy, classic version of "Sing, Sing, Sing."

 

Two of the finest musicians ever to work with Goodman were pianist Teddy Wilson (1912–1986) and vibraphonist-drummer Lionel Hampton (1909–2002). However, they played only in small-group arrangements because of the unwritten rule that did not allow white musicians and African American musicians to play together. Goodman was the first white bandleader to challenge segregation (keeping people of different races separate) in the music business, and as the rules eased he hired other African American greats.

Many top-notch musicians joined and left Goodman's band over the years, more so than in other bands. Most musicians found Goodman an unfriendly employer. He was said to be stern and stingy with money. Moreover, Goodman was referred to in music circles as "the Ray," because of his habit of glaring at any player guilty of a "clam" or "clinker" (a wrong note), even in rehearsal. An outstanding clarinetist who was equally at home performing difficult classical music, Goodman was not very patient with anything that was not technically perfect.

After 1945 the clarinet was pushed into a minor role in bebop music, the new style of jazz that was becoming popular. Goodman struggled for a while to accept the new music, but in 1950 he decided to dissolve his band. From that time forward his public appearances were rare. They were mostly with small groups and almost always for television specials, recordings, or European tours. His most celebrated tour, however, was part of the first-ever cultural exchange with the Soviet Union. 

 In 1962, at the request of the U.S. State Department, he went to the Soviet Union with a band. The trip was a smashing success and greatly helped American jazz become popular in Eastern Europe.

After his marriage in 1941, Goodman's home was New York City. His wife, Alice, with whom he had two daughters, died in 1978. Goodman maintained his habit of performing on occasion. In 1985 he made a surprise and, by all accounts, spectacular appearance at the Kool Jazz Festival in New York. He died the following year of an apparent heart attack.

After his death, the Yale University library received the bulk of Goodman’s personal collection including many private never-before-heard recordings and rare unpublished photos.

(Info edited mainly from notablebiographies.com)