I’m in the Seventh Heaven
LP Sunbeam MFC-20
Records that were sold in “dime stores” were cheap and when the depression struck the American people hard in the beginning of the thirties they were still sold and bought while the big companies of the recording industry had to cut down their activities considerably.
The many small labels didn’t have contracts with big names but under pseudonyms they could employ many of the top bands and musicians of the era. The songwriters and the staff arrangers were very active during 1929-1932, and it resulted in a lot of good songs and recordings, often with a melancholic undertone that is touching.
The record we listen to today is a typical example, a good score (probably a so-called stock arrangement), well recorded (but with equipment of less good quality than the big companies), and flawlessly performed by a band that’s called “Duane Smith and his Band”.
Thousands of records of this kind were quickly and expertly made by musicians that played the music by sight-reading, and we have most often to guess who they were. There is a vocal here by one Herb Morse and the trumpet solo may be played by Tommy Gott.