The Sun Is At My Window + If I Had A Talking Picture Of You (1929) Harry Bidgood

THE SUN IS AT MY WINDOW [0:00]
IF I HAD A TALKING PICTURE OF YOU [3:28]
Al Benny’s Broadway Boys (Harry Bidgood): Vocalist – Tom Barratt
Broadcast-Twelve 2527 (30 October 1929)
The Vocalion Gramophone Company struck gold when they launched the Broadcast label using the Marconi Company’s patented electrical recording technology. The initial format was an 8-inch record which played for the duration of a conventional 10-inch and was priced at 1/3 (7p) as opposed to the 3/- (15p) of, for example, HMV 10-inchers (that’s 59% less). Profits had been so good that at the AGM in May 1928 the MD announced a 40% dividend to share holders; and the 8-inch Broadcast records had been selling for only seven of the previous twelve months. The MD also announced Vocalion’s intention to market 10-inch records which would play for the duration of conventional 12-inch ones. They would sell for 2/- (10p) as compared with HMV’s 4/6 (23p).

So the “Broadcast Twelve” was born; and this is one of them. What was the Marconi system?

Al Benny’s Broadway Boys is another of Harry Bidgood’s, Broadcast studio bands. Brian Rust’s book lists nineteen band names. ABBB had a wonderfully grand and luscious sound; and the contribution from the harp played by Gerry Quilliam is as exceptional as it is distinctive.

Like Victor in the USA, Broadcast labels identified A and B sides (e.g. HMV and Columbia didn’t). The Sun Is At My Window was their B side, but I have promoted it as it is the star item. Just hear that harp; and someone dropping, or knocking over, something at about 50 seconds!

Sunnyside Up was a 1929 musical release from the Fox Film Corporation (yet to merge with 20th Century Films) starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. It featured music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G DeSylva and Lew Brown (a prolific and extremely successful trio). The Bidgood arrangement of If I Had A Talking Picture Of You interweaves music from Turn On The Heat; both from Sunnyside Up.

Rust speculates that Tom Barratt, the vocalist, is also the whistler on The Sun Is At My Window. It took nerve to deliver strong, accurately pitched and tuneful whistling on cue whilst the wax is being cut.

The sound from this record belies its sad appearance. It looks to have been kicked and shuffled about with loose items in an attic for decades.

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