Avid
presents 25 classic British
dance band
sides recorded by
Jack Hylton
and his orchestra in London and Berlin between July 1927 and December 1939 . The earliest of these,
"Me and My Jane in a Plane,"
was utilized in a rather precarious publicity stunt when the band performed it aboard a low-flying aircraft that circled Blackpool Tower while littering the crowded beachfront with sheet music.
"Chinatown, My Chinatown"
and
"Limehouse Blues"
are relics of
Tin Pan Alley
's peculiarly ignorant fascination with the Ethnic "Other." Sung by
Dolly Elsie
,
"Boom!"
is an Anglicized cover of
Charles Trenet
's still-popular
novelty
hit
"Boum!"
Hylton
was well-received in Europe between the two World Wars; this compilation contains three recordings made in Berlin:
"Wir Wollen Tun, Als Ob Wir Freunde Waeren"
;
"Ich Bin So Scharf Auf Erika"
sung by
Siegfried Arno
, and
"Herr Lehmann, Herr Lehmann, Was Macht Die Frau Gemahlin in Marienbad?"
Marcel Wittrisch
. ~ arwulf arwulf