(Week of 7/17/04 - 7/23/04)

---

"Old Bojangles Is Gone"/"I'm In The Mood For Love"
by Juanita Hall And The Four Tunes
on RCA Victor 20-3633
released 1950

[The above photo provided by Paul Ressler.]

Above: Photo of Juanita Hall. She appeared both on Broadway and on the silver screen as "Bloody Mary" in the musical South Pacific, and as "Madame 'Auntie' Liang" in The Flower Drum Song. Juanita composed music for the films "Paradise in Harlem" (1939) and "Miracle in Harlem" (1948) and had a featured singing spot in the latter.

[The above photo provided by Paul Ressler.]

Above: Photo of The Four Tunes from about 1950. (L-R) Jimmie Nabbie, Pat Best, Margie Sykes, Danny Owens, and Jim Gordon. Sykes was an avid fan of The Four Tunes, not a performer.

Click HERE for an article about The Brown Dots/Four Tunes by Marv Goldberg.

Above: Label image of RCA Victor 20-3633, recorded on 12/16/49 and released on 1/6/50.
[As always, much thanks to Ferdie Gonzalez for providing recording/release dates used at this web site.]

Both of these sides featured Benny Morton's large (18 piece) orchestra. Seemingly starting a new trend, The Ink Spots had just started using strings for their recordings in 1949. For "Old Bojangles Is Gone", a real tap dancer was used during the recording session, which was somewhat distracting to the singers.

Listen to this week's selections:

A) Click on an option below to listen to Juanita Hall And The Four Tunes using Streaming Windows Media Player.

"Old Bojangles Is Gone" - RCA Victor 20-3633-A - 1950
"I'm In The Mood For Love" - RCA Victor 20-3633-B - 1950
"BOTH SONGS" NOT FUNCTIONAL!

B) Click on an option below to listen using Downloading Windows Media Player.

"Old Bojangles Is Gone" - RCA Victor 20-3633-A - 1950 (file size=411KB)
"I'm In The Mood For Love" - RCA Victor 20-3633-B - 1950 (file size=406KB)

[The above photo provided by Martha Brandt and Pat Best.]

Above: Photo of The Four Tunes from about 1960. (Top) Jimmie Nabbie, (Middle L-R) Danny Owens, Jim Gordon, Pat Best, Billy Wells, (Bottom) Smiley Hightower (guitarist).

CLICK HERE FOR "THE PAT BEST WEB SITE".

This site is non-commercial. All information displayed is provided to further the general public's knowledge of RnB vocal group harmony.