Dime Store Music
There are many delightful performances in the Knott’s record collection, but from time to time in the 1920’s, the demand for talent outstripped the supply.
Bob Haring created music under at least two dozen different names. His records were mostly distributed through budget labels that were sold in dime stores. For these selections from the Knott’s collection, Haring used the Colonial Club Orchestra pseudonym. The musicianship is pretty good, but the material is pretty boring. In “It’s too Late to be Sorry” nothing breaks the monotony:
The song “My Pal Jerry” was recorded by a number of different artists with similarly boring results. There is, however, one interesting moment in this recording by Bob Haring. A little over a minute into the track, the orchestra plays a brief interjection: Boop-Boop-a-Doop. Listen for it:
This musical phrase is familiar from the Betty Boop cartoons and later Marilyn Monroe. Helen Kane, the self-proclaimed ‘Boop-Boop-a-Doop girl’, announced in 1928 that the phase was hers and sued Fleshier Studios for infringement over their use of it in the cartoon. After two years, the court ruled against her. Being from 1926, Bob Haring’s recording precedes Betty Boop and Ms. Kane by two years. This record could have saved them a lot of time.
The Knott’s collection only has a few dime store records, but if you’d like to hear more 1920s dime store music, a search on Amazon turns up a nine CD set! You really can’t explain taste.
The Colonial Club Orchestra (1926)
A: “It's Too Late To Be Sorry”
B: “My Pal Jerry”
