Old Silvertone : Freddy Martin©2006JCMarion
Freddy Martin was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, in December of 1906. As a young boy he was interested
in music and his first led to the drums. He soon switched to the
saxophone and concentrated on the tenor instrument. By the time he was
in his teenage years and finishing up high school, he started his own
orchestra playing big band arrangements. By the early nineteen thirties
he was heard by the Lombardo Brothers who liked his style and offered
encouragement and helped him find the way to break into the music field
in New York. His orchestra played many of the top hotels in New York
and Chicago, and Martin used a number of stage names during these early
years such as Bob Causer, Ed Lloyd, and Alan Burns. He began to record
for the Brunswick label with his first hit record called “Bless Your
Heart” with vocal by Terry Shand. His tone on the sax led to his
nickname among musicians as “Old Silvertone”. From that point until the
end of World Wat II, Martin had amassed an incredible fifty seven best
sellers for Brunswick, Bluebird, and RCA Victor records. The number one
sellers he recorded were “I Saw Stars” in 1934, “Piano Concerto in
B-Flat” featuring Jack Fina on piano in 1941, (which was adapted in a
vocal version by Martin called “Tonight We Love”) and “Rose O’Day” with
Eddie Stone’s vocal in 1942. The Martin band also was a frequent
musical performer on many radio programs during the nineteen thirties
into the early forties. The band also made some appearances in wartime
movie musicals such as “The Mayor Of 44th Street”, “Hit Parade Of
1943”, “What’s Buzzin Cousin”, and “Stage Door Canteen”. By late 1945
Freddy Martin was a proven veteran hit maker, but some of his best
musical moments were ahead of him during the Interlude Era.
In early 1946, the Freddy
Martin hit machine was at full strength with a Clyde Rogers vocal on
the tune “Symphony” on RCA Victor # 1747 which topped the sales charts
in the country and spent more than four months on the best sellers
list. This was followed by two top ten sellers “One-zy Two-zy” on #
1826, and another classic remake with Jack Fina “Bumble Boogie” (based
on Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight Of The Bumble Bee”). The Martin
aggregation scored with another huge hit shortly afterward that year
with a tune from the Broadway show “Annie Get Your Gun”. The song
recorded on # 1878 was called “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly” and it
peaked at number two in the nation. Freddy Martin and his orchestra hit
again during the year with a number one million selling hit version of
the song “To Each His Own” (also a hit for Eddy Howard) with a fine
vocal by Stuart Wade on # 1921. The year 1946 was huge for Martin and
they started the following year without any signs of slowing down.
“Managua, Nicaragua” (# 2026),
again with Stuart Wade on vocal, hit the number one position in sales
in the country which it held for three weeks. Following during the year
were “Santa Catalina” featuring Stuart Wade & The Martin Men on #
2136, “Moon Faced And Starry Eyed” with Murray Arnold doing the vocal
honors on # 2176, a cover of the Andrews Sisters “The Lady From 29
Palms” on # 2347, “Come To The Mardi Gras” on # 2288, and “Don’t You
Love Me Anymore?” on # 2473, all making the top twenty best sellers in
the country during the year. In 1948 the Freddy Martin Orchestra began
with two recordings of movie songs that made the hit parade. First was
“The Treasure Of Sierra Madre” on # 2473, and “Don’t Call It Love”
(from the picture “I’ll Walk Alone”) on # 2590 each of which charted
briefly. The next big seller for the band was when Martin returned to a
popular theme that had proven successful in the past – big band
arrangements of classical themes. This time it was Katchaturian and
“Sabre Dance” which in the Martin version became “Sabre Dance Boogie”
featuring Barclay Allen on RCA Victor # 2721 which was a top five
seller. “The New Look” on # 2769 was a decent seller for the band but
the next two 1948 releases by the band were big hits featuring vocals
by Glen Hughes. “The Dickey Bird Song” (from the film “Three Darling
Daughters”) on # 2617, and Martin’s version of a big song from 1948 “On
A Slow Boat To China” (# 3123) were top four sellers in the country.
During the year 1949, Freddy
Martin had only one charted record, but it was a big national hit
record that featured a new singer that would achieve lasting fame in
the entertainment field for many years – Merv Griffin. The song was a
silly novelty tune called “I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch Of Cocoanuts” on #
3554 which was a top seller for more than four months. In 1950 the
Freddy Martin Orchestra hit with two covers – “Music Music Music” with
Griffin on vocal on # 3693 covering Teresa Brewer was surprisingly a
good seller for the band getting into the top five and lasting for
three months. The other song was the movie theme song from “The Third
Man” (a number one for Anton Karas on the zither) which was released by
RCA Victor on # 3797. In 1951 a movie tune from the picture “Two Weeks
With Love” called “Aba Daba Honeymoon” on #4065 was a top ten seller
and was followed by “Never Been Kissed” (# 4099) and “My Truly Truly
Fair” (# 4159) both with vocals by Merv Griffin were moderate hits. The
final mark by the band during the year was a cover of Del Wood’s big
hit “Down Yonder” featuring a vocal by Murray Arnold on # 4267.
In 1952 the band did not chart
but returned in 1953 with a cover of “April In Portugal” on # 5052
which was a top fifteen seller. In 1954 another movie tune “Lonesome
Polecat” from “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers” on # 5833 briefly made
the national best sellers. That was the last time the band had a decent
selling record that charted. The orchestra under the leadership of
Freddy Martin continued on during the rock revolution of the fifties
and sixties doing hotel dates and Las Vegas venues, including appearing
with Elvis Presley at his ill fated Vegas debut. A period of inactivity
in the late sixties was followed by a reorganized band that played the
nostalgia circuit in the early seventies featuring such musicians as
Frankie Carle, Margaret Whiting, Art Mooney, and Bob Crosby. Martin
continued to lead the band at sporadic intervals into the early
nineteen eighties, until a short while before his passing in 1983 at
the age of seventy seven.
Freddy Martin left a successful
legacy of recorded music that spanned three decades at the top of his
field. He totaled eighty five chart hits of which three got to number
two and six others topped the American sales charts. That adds up to a
major influence when the history of American popular music is
contemplated. “Old Silvertone” in his way is certainly one of the
giants of the industry.