Lullaby of Broadway (From "Gold Diggers of 1935") - Single

During the 1930s, when he was appearing in as many as five movie musicals a year, Dick Powell also was trooping over to the offices of various record companies (first Conqueror, then Brunswick, and finally Decca) and dutifully cutting studio recordings of the songs he was singing in his films. British archival label ASV/Living Era, taking advantage of European copyright law that puts all recordings more than 50 years in the public domain, here compiles some of those recordings by transferring old 78s (complete with surface noise). Thirteen of the tracks derive from Brunswick, one ("Thanks a Million," from the movie of the same name) was on Decca, and there are two songs taken from the actual soundtracks of the films. Powell did not have a recording contract when he sang "Young and Healthy" in 42nd Street, and, for some reason, he did not make a studio recording of the standard "I Only Have Eyes for You," despite singing it in 1934's Dames, so here he is joined by co-star Ruby Keeler and other cast members. Necessarily, the 1986 album cuts off with "Thanks a Million" (recorded November 3, 1935), but within that time constraint, it includes the most memorable songs Powell recorded from his first batch of movie musicals, many of them written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Others may have scored the record hits with the songs (such as Bing Crosby on "Young and Healthy" and the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra with Bob Crosby on "Lullaby of Broadway"), but Powell introduced them with his confident tenor, and he does them justice here.