Observation and a possible theory about unissued Goldkette title "Play It, Red"
Posted Jun 16, 2009 10:59 PM
One of the tunes the Goldkette band recorded for Victor and was rejected for issue was "Play It, Red" recorded May 23, 1927. In Lost Chords on page 315 Sudhalter has this to say about the title- "one of the "lost' Goldkette records, done for Victor on May 23, 1927, but never released, was a piece identified only as 'Play It, Red.' A feature for Brown, 'Red' to his friends? We may never know"
Here I think Sudhalter is speculating that "Play It, Red" might have been a tune written to feature Steve Brown's bass playing on that unissued Goldkette recording.
I think Sudhalter's theory about "Play It, Red" is incorrect.
I have a theory of my own about this tune.
I discovered the tune was written by Harry Barris. This is from page 263 of Evans and Evans.
Harry Barris, who wrote the tune, had nothing to do with Jean Goldkette's Orchestra when he wrote the tune. But he was a member of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra when he wrote the tune AND Red Nichols was ALSO a member of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra at that time.
My theory about the tune is that Harry Barris wrote the tune for and named it for Red Nichols. Too bad Paul Whiteman never recorded it. But it was recorded by several bands including the Little Ramblers on July 8, 1927. There is a a lot of trumpet work on the Little Ramblers recording further suggesting the tune might have been written by Harry Barris for Red Nichols. Here is a link to the Little Ramblers Columbia recording I uploaded to my youtube page: