Ben Bagley's Vernon Duke Revisited

Vladimir Dukelsky entered this world in 1903 and is certainly one of the most underrated composers in all of The Great American Songbook. Of course, he changed his name to Vernon Duke and for someone who had some very huge hits over the years, mention his name to most people and they won’t know who you’re talking about. But anyone who wrote with such luminaries as Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Howard Dietz, Ogden Nash, Sammy Cahn, E.Y. Harburg is not exactly chopped liver.

His shows included Walk a Little Faster (which produced the classic “April in Paris”), Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 (which included “I Like the Likes of You”), Thumbs Up! (“Autumn in New York”), Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 (“I Can’t Get Started”), Cabin in the Sky (which featured the amazing “Taking a Chance on Love”), Banjo Eyes, The Lady Comes Across, Jackpot, Sadie Thompson, Sweet Bye and Bye (which had a book by S.J. Perelman and Al Hischfeld!), Two’s Company, and, of course, Ben Bagley’s The Littlest Revue. And his little-known classical output included three symphonies, a piano concerto, a cello concerto, a violin concerto, several ballets, including two used in the film The Goldwyn Follies.

For Vernon Duke Revisited, Bagley assembled a truly eclectic cast: Tammy Grimes, Anthony Perkins, Blossom Dearie, Gloria De Haven, Jack Haskell, and, in true Ben fashion, Rex Reed and Joan Rivers. The wonderful arrangements and orchestrations are by Norman Paris. The rarities included are all gems and wonderful discoveries and we really do have to be grateful to the self-described “incurably insane” Ben for giving this gift and its subsequent volumes to us. As we’ve done for all these releases, we’ve considerably spruced up the sound for this new release. And the cover art is, of course, by the great Harvey Schmidt