Saturday, December 01, 2007

Dot And Ray


Here's another EP that I picked up at Banana's last week, same as my previous post. I probably wouldn't have given this one a second glance except for the small words "Produced Under The Supervision Of Raymond Scott". That caught me off-guard. I was pretty sure that Raymond Scott had never released any Christmas music. Well, there's one Christmas-titled track, but it's not very Christmassy. (Wait, I may be wrong...) I went ahead and bought this single, and I'm glad I did. Turns out that Dorothy Collins was married to Raymond Scott. I can't find too much information about this record on the net, but it's a great one. The orchestra has a lot of bounce to it that I'm sure comes from Mr. Scott. It's really jumping on the two fast numbers, and the two slower numbers aren't bad either. Turns out that I had shared a Dorothy Collins tune with you last year, yet I had forgotten all about it. These four tracks make a great addition to that one, so please go download Dorothy Collins-Season's Greetings In Song (A Top Rank Artist 117058/117059). As I keep finding myself saying, if you know anything more about this, please post it in the comments!

7 comments:

  1. Could this be the same Dorothy Collins who did the SINGING SCIENCE RECORDS?

    Here is her LP on Ebay

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  2. It's the same person. She was mostly famous for appearing the TV show Your Hit Parade (other than being married to Raymond Scott.)

    FYI - I suspect this record came out in 1957, when Collins released an LP on the Top Rank label. Coral was still releasing her records in 1956, and by 1958 she had moved on to Everest, where she recorded a Christmas album.

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  3. So there is a full Christmas LP by Dorothy Collins out there? This I gotta hear...

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  4. I'll try to rip it for you, but I won't be able to do it in the near term.

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  5. Dorothy Collins is (perhaps) most famous not for Your Hit Parade, but for her Tony-nominated performance in 1971 in Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES. Seriously, listen to that cast album, and weep, weep, weep. It's like jumping from performing on TV kid's shows to performing in Shakespeare. Amazing.

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  6. I may have found a mention of this EP...

    "VIDEO: "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" (film clip: jamesrstewartaz ) Lovely television performer, Dorothy Collins, sang the #6 song on "Your Hit Parade" for the week ending December 31, 1956, as Bing Crosby's seasonal hit returned to the nation's best selling charts year after year! Here Dorothy is presented as the angel from the top of a Christmas tree, being packed away until the next holiday season rolls around. Keep in mind this was done on LIVE TV...no chance for retakes...and, as was typical of the Hit Parade cast and crew, was executed flawlessly!! Dorothy would later record "White Christmas" as part of her 1958 Everest Records holiday album, and also with her then-husband, Raymond Scott's orchestra for a holiday EP distributed to Sinclaire Oil customers! Raymond Scott conducted the orchestra on Your Hit Parade and, of course, for this song"

    Quoted from:

    http://www.nfo.net/video/vid6.html

    about a quarter of the way down the page. Hmmm, Sinclair Oil...

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  7. Didn't Raymond Scott do "Christmas Night in Harlem"? I think he at least wrote it.

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