Artist	Song
The Boswell Sisters	Dinah (1935)
The Ink Spots	Your Feet's Too Big (1936)
The Ink Spots	T'aint Nobody's Business If I Do (1936)
The Mills Brothers	Caravan (1937)
The Andrews Sisters	Nice Work If You Can Get It (1937)
The Andrews Sisters	Sha-Sha (1938)
The Golden Gate Quartet	Dipsy Doodle (1938)
The Mills Brothers	Sixty Seconds Got Together (1938)
The Ink Spots	If I Didn't Care (1939)
The Golden Gate Quartet	Stormy Weather (1939)
The Cats & The Fiddle	I Miss You So (1939)
The Cats & The Fiddle	Gang Busters (1939)
The Mills Brothers	You Tell Me Your Dream (1939)
The Mills Brothers	Goodbye Blues (1939)
The Golden Gate Quartet	Walking Stick (1939)
The Cats & The Fiddle	I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water (1939)
The Lewis Bronseville Five	Low Down Gal Blues (1940)
Leadbelly & The Golden Gate Quartet	Midnight Special (1940)
The Ink Spots	Java Jive (1940)
The Mills Brothers	Love Is Fun (1941)
The Four Clefs	I Like Pie, I Like Cake (1941)
The Ink Spots	Don't Get About Much Anymore (1942)
The Mills Brothers	I'll Be Around (1942)
Louis Jordan & The Timpany Five	Five Guys Named Mo (1942)
The Four Vagabonds	Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer (1943)
The Four Vagabonds	I Had The Craziest Dream (1943)

Comment:

Part Two! One more Boswell Sisters track and plenty more Mills Brothers songs (just to keep you happy, Mr Lally!)...along with several tracks from the other great proto-Doo Wop group - The Ink Spots. (...and if 'proto-Doo Wop' ever makes it into any dictionaries, I'm claiming royalties). There are some songs I really love on this mix: The Golden Gate Quartet bringing their Gospel harmonies to secular songs like "Stormy Weather" and "Walking Stick"; The Lewis Bronesville Five's "Low Down Gal Blues" (definitely a Doo Wop classic recorded too soon), The Mills Brothers version of "I'll Be Around" ...and, a song which could quite accurately be described as a 'vocal group instrumental', the entirely wordless "Caravan". When you do a mix like this... (I say that as though it's something people often do!?!!) there seems to be an obligation to end on a song which is appropriate, conclusive... and beautiful! A lot of the time history helps out and presents obvious solutions - like ending a Roots of Rock n Roll CD on an Elvis track, or concluding the story of Fifties Soul with Ray Charles' "What'd I Say", but on other occasions I seem to spend weeks looking for just one song to provide a fitting end to a particular story. Looking for a song when you have no title or artist in mind - just an idea of the 'sound' that it should have (and what year it should be from!) can be quite a challenge! Sometimes it feels like auditioning actors for a part in a big movie... there may be many great Hollywood stars available but sometimes they just don't seem right for the part, and a complete unkown turns out to be perfect for the role! I found this mix's final track "I Had The Craziest Dream" tucked away on a random compilation of torch songs and realised as soon as I heard the sweet harmonies and laid-back rhythm - perfectly foreshadowing the great Doo Wop ballads like "Sincerely" - that this particular search was over.

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