\"Shanghai Dream Man\" is played by Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra on Victor 20683.
Recorded on Feb. 10, 1927.
Vocals by Bing Crosby, Al Rinker, Charles Gaylord, Jack Fulton, and Austin \"Skin\" Young.
Whiteman's remarkable recording career began in 1920. His success led to the demise of \"jass\" bands that had earlier enjoyed success. He pioneered a new type of dance music.
Victor's November 1920 record catalog supplement announced the release of Whiteman's first disc, twelve-inch 35701 featuring \"Avalon--Just Like a Gypsy\" (the label describes it as a \"Fox Trot Medley\") backed by \"Best Ever Medley.\"
The supplement states, \"These are the first records by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra from the Ambassador Hotel, at Atlantic City. They exhibit a new type of dance record--a new and singularly beautiful type, which must be heard to be taken at its true value. This orchestra has its own methods of scoring...\"
The supplement's claim that the records \"exhibit a new type of dance record\" is valid. Whiteman's early records were different from most being issued by Victor, especially in instrumentation--a combination of saxophones, brass instruments, strings (banjo and violin), and percussion.
Whiteman's orchestra used nine musicians, making it larger than the typical dance orchestra of 1920. Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra at that time employed six musicians, sometimes seven. Selvin's Novelty Orchestra in late 1919 recorded the carefully arranged \"Dardanella\" (Victor 18633) with nine musicians playing most of the same instruments that Whiteman used one year later for his first session.
Selvin's \"Dardanella\" was a huge hit in 1920 and arguably a harbinger of dance records to come, including Whiteman's. Though Selvin would make many more records, working for various companies, no other Selvin performance duplicated the success of \"Dardanella.\"
Whiteman, in contrast to Selvin, enjoyed hit after hit as an exclusive Victor artist.
In the autumn of 1921 the orchestra was featured for the first time in a vaudeville house, the prestigious Palace Theatre. To play to an audience that had no space for dancing was daring, but the engagement was successful, proving that audiences were satisfied when simply listening to Whiteman's dance band. His records had been promoted as meant for dancers--not for listeners in seats.
He was called the King of Jazz, but a better name would have been King of the Fox Trot. The fox trot had caught on in 1914 as another spirited trot, but it eventually merged with the two step, becoming smooth. The name \"fox trot\" finally replaced \"two step\" and \"march\" on sheet music and record labels.
Most ten-inch Whiteman records of the acoustic era have, after the song title, the simple phrase \"Fox Trot.\" Exceptions are \"Medley Fox Trot,\" \"Oriental Fox Trot,\" \"Waltz,\" \"Medley Waltz,\" \"Medley One-Step,\" and \"Blues Fox Trot.\"
Victor 18744, featuring \"Down Around the 'Sip, 'Sip, 'Sippy Shore,\" may be the first Whiteman record to feature a voice: a session participant supplies square dancing calls.
Whiteman records issued through most of 1921 state \"For dancing\" near the spindle hole. Whiteman began recording at a time when the one-step was losing favor, dancers instead preferring to fox trot.
An ambitious businessman, he formed in late 1921 the company Paul Whiteman, Inc., for the purpose of supplying dance bands throughout the New York City area. Whiteman served as president and opened an office at 158-160 West 45th Street. Page 147 of the December 1921 issue of Talking Machine World announced the appointment of Hugh C. Ernst as vice-president and treasurer. Ernst was Whiteman's business manager.
Victor promotional literature often stressed that Whiteman's sound was new. Announcing Victor 35704, the February 1921 supplement states, \"In both numbers there are many new and beautiful ideas--in rhythm, harmony and orchestral scoring.\" Important to the orchestra's success were imaginative arrangements. His arranging staff during the acoustic era consisted of Ferde Grofé, Ross Gorman, and Albert Casseday. Grofé was especially important.
In the sense that his musicians followed carefully prepared arrangements, Whiteman took a symphonic approach to popular music. His men were proficient at reading music, with opportunities for improvisation given only to selected soloists (in the early 1920s solos were generally straightforward expositions of a song's melody).
Program notes for the February 12, 1924, concert at Aeolian Hall state, \"Paul Whiteman's orchestra was the first organization to especially score each selection and to play it according to the score. Since then practically every modern orchestra has its own arranger or staff of arrangers.\"
\"Shanghai Dream Man\" Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra on Victor 20683 (1927) Bing Crosby, Al Rinker
