“Let’s Do It” (1940) with Lee Wiley

Composed by Cole Porter; head arrangement by Lee Wiley and Bunny Berigan.

Recorded on April 10, 1940 for Liberty Music Shop in New York.

Lee Wiley, vocal with Bunny Berigan, trumpet; Joe Bushkin, piano; Sid Weiss, bass; George Wettling, drums.

NOTE: This the second in a series of posts about Lee Wiley. The first post can be accessed at endnote 12.

The story:

On October 13, 1932, singer Lee Wiley appeared as a guest on Rudy Vallee’s sponsored network radio program. Bunny Berigan was in Vallee’s orchestra that night. This evidently was the first time they worked together. It is unlikely that anything more than a casual meeting between Berigan and Wiley, if that, occurred at the time. But soon they would meet and be drawn to each other, and an intense but spasmodic relationship would develop between them. Beginning either in the summer of 1935 or in early 1936, and continuing until mid-1940, Bunny Berigan’s relationship with Lee Wiley would deeply affect him personally as well as professionally.

As the 1930s drew to a close, a change was taking place in Ms. Wiley’s orientation as a performer. In this second phase of her career, which began in the late 1930s, she began delving more deeply into the music of composers whose work in that decade was regarded as great popular music, but not yet identified as a part of the body of music that has since become known as Great American Popular Song. In addition, she began to devise and produce small collections of recordings (multi-record 78 rpm disk albums) that were dedicated to one composer. This was done in conjunction with Liberty Music Shop, a Manhattan record store that had begun producing records bearing their own imprint in 1933. In the golden age of the long-playing record album that began in the 1950s, this idea came to be known as the “concept album.” The first series of these Lee Wiley “concept” recordings was produced in late 1939, and was dedicated to the music of George and Ira Gershwin. Unlike almost all recordings of songs that either were already standards then, or were in the process of becoming standards, Lee Wiley often sang the prefatory verse for each song on her recordings of them. Her intention was to elevate these songs by her presentation of them in this fashion.

Of equal importance during this second phase of her career, Ms. Wiley often surrounded herself with jazz musicians on her recordings to create what was a marvelously relaxed, late-night informal jam session atmosphere, as a complement to her singing. I have often wondered what role Bunny Berigan played in the metamorphosis of Lee Wiley’s singing. Bunny of course was a jazz musician, and that shaped and informed his approach to music no matter how mundane the material he played or recorded was. We know that Berigan recorded his own “concept album” late in 1938, in the form of several tunes either written by Bix Beiderbecke or identified with him. That was a novel idea in 1938. I have often also wondered what role Lee Wiley may have played in developing that idea, and conversely, what role Bunny may have played in redirecting Lee Wiley’s musical approach toward jazz.

The change in Ms. Wiley’s approach to her singing and repertoire began after her personal relationship with composer Victor Young ended in mid-1935. Her career as a radio star continued after that, though with some apparent interruptions: “Lee Wiley, who returned two months ago from her citrus farm in
Arizona, where she recuperated from a glandular operation, was awarded a spot on the Willard Robison air show in addition to her own Wednesday night offering. She is also the only artist (to that point) who has made a return appearance on Bunny Berigan’s swing show.”(1) This squib in the August 1936 Down Beat referred to “Bunny Berigan’s swing show,” which was the Saturday Night Swing Club, broadcast over CBS radio weekly. Indeed, Lee Wiley’s relationship with both Bunny Berigan and the Saturday Night Swing Club became more intense at that time: “Riley & Farley Have Large Opening – Riley and Farley’s return to West Fifty Second street was well attended by local maestri in the persons of Joe Reichman, George Hall, and Lou Bring. Also attending was Bunny Berigan, Dick McDonough Buddy Clark and Lee Wiley. Incidentally, Lee Wiley will become a permanent feature of Berigan’s Saturday Night Swing Session heard over CBS, in addition to her own starring program heard on Wednesday nights.”(2) Although Ms. Wiley did appear often on the Saturday Night Swing Club shows, she did not appear weekly.

The Wiley-Berigan relationship was in full bloom during the time in early and mid-1937 when Bunny was getting his new band into operation. It was interrupted in October however when the Berigan band took to the road, and did not return to Manhattan for a lengthy spell until March of 1938. The resumption of their affair then led to a confrontation of Bunny by his wife Donna in May of 1938 about it, which resulted in their separation, which lasted into the summer of 1938. Ms. Wiley then took one of her periodic trips to Hollywood, and Bunny began a long tour with his band, and this resulted in yet another hiatus in their relationship: “Lee Wiley settled down out here (in Hollywood) readying herself for a return to radio and possibly pictures.”(3) Nevertheless, Ms. Wiley was back in Manhattan by August of 1938: “Lee Wiley in N.Y. for Max Gordon musical…”(4)

Lee Wiley’s series of recordings of Gershwin music was made in November of 1939. Those recordings were produced on the Liberty Music Shop record label. Liberty Music Shop Records was a boutique record label started in New York City in 1933. At one time in the late 1930s, Liberty had three shops in Manhattan. In addition to recording their own masters, they also imported a number of records from the United Kingdom, as copies of British HMVs and Deccas have been found with large Liberty Music Shop stickers covering their foreign logos.

In 1933, Liberty Music Shops started recording their own masters at the Brunswick Records studio near 57th and Broadway in Manhattan, and later, from 1936, at Decca’s 50 West 57th Street studio.(4A) Liberty Music Shop Records specialized in dance music, including that of bandleaders Enrique Madriguera, Freddy Martin, Emile Petti and Ted Straeter; and cabaret and Broadway personalities including Beatrice Lillie, Ramona Davies, Mabel Mercer, Ethel Merman, Cy Walter, Ethel Waters, and Lee Wiley. About 200 records were produced by Liberty Music Shop Records between 1933 and 1942. In the 1950s the label produced LP reissues of many of the recordings they made in the 1930s and early 1940s. (5)

The tempestuous relationship between Lee Wiley and Bunny Berigan (there was no other kind with LW), which probably began in the summer of 1935, was nearing its end when this recording was made in the spring of 1940. Their relationship was spasmodic as both parties were frequently away from Manhattan during this period. In the spring of 1940 Berigan was temporarily working in Tommy Dorsey’s band to clear the debts he had incurred with his first band, and attempting to regain his health after a disturbing hospitalization at the end of 1939 and into 1940 which was caused by symptoms of cirrhosis. The various business arrangements Bunny had made to pay his creditors left him with very little money each week. It is my informed speculation that whatever money Berigan made from the Lee Wiley recording date that produced the recording presented with this post was not taken by his creditors. Shortly after this recording date, the Dorsey band took a vacation from May 5 to May 20. During that time, Berigan took one of the few non-work vacations he ever took.

The mere thought of a layoff was anathema to Bunny Berigan. Vacations made him extremely nervous. Nevertheless, for one of the few times in his professional life, he now found himself with two entire weeks off, with no work scheduled. He and Donna, his wife, perhaps as an attempt to patch-up their marriage, planned to spend at least some of this time in far upstate New York. Since their daughter Patricia was in elementary school, she would not have been able to join them for the entire two weeks. Little Joyce, now four years old, could. They worked out a compromise that would allow all four members of the family to be together for at least a few days. As Donna recalled it: “I remember five days at Saranac Lake, New York. It was the only vacation for Bunny in the eleven years of our marriage.”(6) Evidently, she did not consider the summers in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, Bunny’s home town, in 1933, 1935 and 1939 as vacations, because Bunny wasn’t there for much of those times. But in all of those cases he was there with her and Patty at first, and then with both girls for more than five days. Harry Struble, a former member of the Paul Whiteman orchestra with Bunny, recalled “Bunny, Donna and the kids up in Syracuse, New York in 1940.”(7) (Syracuse was the home of Donna’s family.) Bunny probably paid for this vacation with the money he had received for the Lee Wiley recording date, which unlike his wages from Tommy Dorsey, was not subject to garnishment. After this brief hiatus, Bunny undoubtedly rushed back to Manhattan, and probably showed up at various clubs to sit in until the Dorsey band resumed operations.

The morning after the Dorsey band closed at the Paramount Theater (April 10, 1940), Tommy had them in Victor’s East 24th Street Manhattan studio to make some records. Six sides were cut at that session, including a Sy Oliver arrangement on “I’m Nobody’s Baby,” with a vocal by Connie Haines, and some fine trumpet playing from Berigan. The available information indicates that this session began at 9:30 a.m. and concluded at 6:30 p.m. Somewhere along the line, the musicians took a lunch break. We can assume therefore that Tommy Dorsey had his band in the studio on that date for the better part of eight hours!(8)  Then, three of TD’s sidemen, Joe Bushkin, Sid Weiss, and Bunny Berigan, headed to Decca’s 57th Street studio to make more recordings! Bushkin recalled that day many years later:

“We were at the Victor studios on Twenty-fourth Street between Third and Lexington. It was a long day. Tommy Dorsey was a workaholic. We all got a guarantee, including Frank Sinatra, of $125 a week. (In addition to this base salary, the sidemen also were paid for recording dates and sponsored radio broadcasts. Berigan was reportedly making $250 a week as a base salary. MZ) After a late closing at the Paramount, we started at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning and had a break for lunch then worked through 6:00 or so. Then we had just enough time to get uptown and grab a sandwich or something—and in Bunny’s case a number of drinks. So we showed up at the second studio at about 8:00 in the evening and played until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. That means that Bunny Berigan’s lip held up from 10:00 in the morning until about 2:00 the next morning, with a lot of pressure on him, because there’s no screwing around at Victor with Tommy Dorsey.”(9)

The second studio to which Bushkin referred contained Lee Wiley and Bunny’s former drummer George Wettling, one of her favorite percussionists. They were there waiting when Bunny, Bushkin, and Weiss arrived. What transpired during the next six hours these musicians were in the studio has been documented to a large degree on BluDisc LP T-1013. Ultimately, four takes were made that were issued: “Let’s Fly Away,” “Let’s Do It,” “Hot House Rose,” and “Find Me a Primitive Man,” all composed by Cole Porter. There were in addition several other completed takes of these tunes, as well as numerous breakdowns, with talk among the performers about what was wrong with the breakdowns, and how to fix it.

After this marathon of work, the Dorsey band had a day off on April 11, which Tommy used to transport his band from Manhattan to their next gig, a week long stand at Shea’s Theater in Buffalo, New York. The young trumpeter Ray Linn, who was a member of the TD trumpet section then, was once again surprised by Bunny Berigan: “I knew nothing about Bunny’s relationship with Lee Wiley, but I saw her standing around a couple of times outside the band bus and kissing him goodbye, when we were leaving town to play some one-nighters. I would have to assume that they weren’t just toasting marshmallows together!”(10)

Despite all of this, I have found no evidence that after April of 1940, Lee Wiley and Bunny Berigan continued their relationship. (11)

The music:

This recording of “Let’s Do It” starts with a four-bar introduction played by Bunny Berigan, who mutes the sound of his trumpet with a cup mute. Ms. Wiley sings the first chorus. Her pitch is excellent, and she demonstrates that she had clearly absorbed the lessons of swing since her earliest recordings that were made in the early 1930s. She gets fine, uncluttered accompaniment from pianist Joe Buskhin, and Berigan adds his own softly supportive sounds as a cushion for Ms. Wiley’s voice.

Berigan, still muted, starts the second chorus by interpolating the melody of “Memories of You” into his 16 bar improvisation. Bushkin’s crystalline tones are heard as he improvises on the bridge. Bunny returns with an open horn and his customary full tone to finish the chorus.

The final chorus has the three protagonists expressing themselves more vigorously, with Ms. Wiley allowing her Oklahoma accent to peek through as the music wends its way to a happy conclusion.

This lyric is one of Cole Porter’s most clever and slyly humorous.

The recording presented with this post was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.

Notes and links:

(1) Down Beat, August 1936, 15.

(2) Down Beat, September 9, 1936, 3.

(3) Down Beat, July 7, 1938, 37.

(4) Down Beat, August 8, 1938, 28.

(4A) In her interview with New York radio personality Richard Lamparski on June 13, 1972, Ms. Wiley sardonically recalled the Where’s the Melody? statue or wall painting in Decca’s studio at 50 West 57th. The Where’s the Melody? statue or painting was of a native American maiden holding her hand in the air asking that not so rhetorical question. It was not a public monument, but a large image or painting located inside the Manhattan Decca Records studios during the 1930s that had been placed there by Decca executives Jack and Dave Kapp. It served as a symbolic, humorous reminder to musicians and producers to prioritize the melody in their recordings. Ms. Wiley, who was of native American lineage, and who was increasingly incorporating jazz devices into her singing, may not have been amused by this image.

(5) Wikipedia post for Liberty Music Shop Records. NOTE: Liberty Music Shop Records is not to be confused with another Manhattan specialty record label, Commodore Records, which were sold in the Commodore Music Shop in the 1930s and 1940s.

Here is a link to a story (courtesy of my colleague and friend Michael Steinman) about a fabulous bit of memorabilia from the Liberty Music Shop – a book of autographs of music-loving patrons including: Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Barber, Martha Graham, Anna Magnani, Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire, Hoagy Carmichael, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis Jr., Alan Jay Lerner (2x), Yul Brynner, Ogden Nash, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontaine, Andres Segovia, Margaret Hamilton, Tony Bennett, Myrna Loy, Edna Ferber, Byron Janis, Farley Grainger, Rex Harrison, Broderick Crawford, Edward G. Robinson, George Szell, Jessica Tandy, Basil Rathbone, Claudette Colbert, Hazel Scott, Raymond Massey, Alexander Smallens, Kate Smith, James Mason, Ray Bolger, Benny Goodman, Noël Coward, Joan Blondell, Arnold Stang, Constance Talmadge, Garson Kanin, Mischa Elman, Connee Boswell, Vincent Price, Lillian Gish, Paulette Goddard, J. William Fulbright and dozens more.

https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/tag/liberty-music-shop

(6) White materials, May 4, 1940.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Robert Dupuis Berigan biography, 224.

(9) Ibid.

(10) White materials, April 10, 1940.

(11) It appears that Lee Wiley began her relationship with pianist Jess Stacy in the summer of 1940, when they both were working in Chicago during May-June. They married in 1943 and divorced in 1949. Their marriage can aptly be described as turbulent.

It should also be noted that Lee Wiley had a short but tumultuous relationship with Artie Shaw in early 1939. “Artie Shaw and Lee Wiley are on fire . . .” Swing: The Guide to Modern Music, Vol. 1 no. 11 (March 1939): 24. But Shaw ended the relationship with her in early April, just before he headed to Hollywood to make a movie for M-G-M. Apparently, that breakup was not pleasant for Ms. Wiley. Immediately after it, she pursued Bunny Berigan, who was on the road with his band, and caught-up with him in Ohio, in a state of emotional disturbance. It is unclear how long she stayed with Bunny while he was on tour. My informed speculation derived from surrounding events, is a week or ten days. (See: the White Materials, May 7, 1939.)

(12) Here is a link to the first post in this series about Lee Wiley:

“You’ve Got Me Crying Again” (1933) Lee Wiley with the Dorsey Brothers and Bunny Berigan