Editorial Reviews

In 1919, the shellac had barely dried on the earliest recorded jazz, when, at 18, Ted FioRito entered the studio, as pianist, with some of the biggest names in music. These included Earl Oliver, Tom Brown, Rudy Wiedoeft, Alcide Nunez, Joe Green and, his brother, George Hamilton Green. Within a year later, in 1920, young FioRito’s name began to circulate as an up-and-coming composer, with works recorded by the popular bands of Art Hickman and Harry Yerkes. Still not old enough to vote, in September of 1922, FioRito achieved songwriting acclaim when Al Jolson recorded one of the great anthems of the 1920s, “Toot Toot Tootsie, Goo’bye.” It was during this same year that Ted FioRito became co-leader of his first band. Over the years, there have been many fine, musicians, composers and bandleaders, but seldom have all three been embodied in the person of one man as fully as they were in Ted FioRito. Throughout his long, musical career, Ted FioRito remained the “complete” artist, performing, composing and leading a band that became one of the most recognized on radio and film. (Excerpt from liner notes by Jeff Hopkins, 2002)

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches; 3.67 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Transatlantic Radio
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ January 20, 2007
Label ‏ : ‎ Transatlantic Radio
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00007MB32
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #572,106 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #3,501 in Contemporary Big Band
- #3,795 in Classic Big Band
- #283,499 in Pop (CDs & Vinyl)

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4.2 2 ratings

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Samantha Glasser

"I Wanna Go Back to My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii!"

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2008

Verified Purchase

Ted Fio Rito was a bandleader and composer with an immense amount of talent. His music stands the test of time as a beautiful, fun, and exciting collection that reflects an era gone by. These songs are impossible not to want to dance to, or at least sing along with. Vocalists on this CD include Dick Powell, Nick Lucas, Ted Lewis, Dan Russo, and more. The booklet includes an extensive biography, photographs, and notes on each song.

The track list is as follows:
1. Soothing
2. Toot, Toot, Tootsie!
3. Copenhagen
4. Trying to Forget
5. Then You've Never Been Blue
6. Hangin' on the Garden Gate
7. My Baby Just Cares For Me
8. (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance With You
9. I'll Take an Option on You
10. My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii
11. Fair and Warmer
12. I'll String Along With You
13. Simple and Sweet
14. Here Comes Cookie
15. Roll Along, Prairie Moon
16. Honey
17. It's Been So Long
18. Let's Face the Music and Dance
19. King Kamahameha
20. Baby, Won't You Please Come Home
21. Charley, My Boy
22. King For a Day
23. No! No! Nora
24. Rio Rita

This CD is perfect for jazz lovers with a penchant for the silly or the sentimental.

4 people found this helpful

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George O'Leary

Best Available Compilation Of His Big Band Music

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2012

If you are searching for the music of those jazz artists who, in the 1920s and early 1930s, paved the way for what would become known to posterity as The Big Band Era (roughly 1935 to 1942), you can't do any better than the products produced by TransAtlantic Radio where sound restoration is under the guidance of Bill Hebden, who makes a point of avoiding the use of electronic enhancement. The result is 80- to 90-year-old music as good as you are ever going to hear it given today's technology.

Case in point is this 24-track compendium of the music of jazz keyboardist, and 1930s radio personality, Ted Fio Rito. Born Teodorico Salvatore Fiorito in Newark, New Jersey on December 2, 1900, he became proficient on both piano and Hammond organ before going on to perform in several bands, beginning in 1919 with The Yerkes Novelty Five, The Yerkes' Jazarimba Orchestra and The Happy Six, all under the direction of Harry Yerkes, then recording for Columbia in New York, before relocating to Chicago in 1921. There he joined the Dan Russo aggregation and by 1922 they were calling themselves Russo and Fio Rito's Oriole Orchestra and, eventually, The Oriole Terrace Orchestra after opening a gig at that location in Detroit.

Under those titles, and then later leading his own orchestra when Russo departed in 1928, he recorded proficiently through to the early 1940s for 4-Star, Columbia, Victor, Hit Of The Week, Brunswick, Decca and Bluebird, and in this volume, which contains an informative 16-page insert written by Jeff Hopkins, you get a nice cross-section of that work which includes some of the 17 national hit singles he accrued from 1932 to 1939. In the Comments below I re-list the contents showing years of release, billings, label details and, where applicable, chart information. That's followed by a list of his hits which have yet to appear in mp.3 format.

As you will see in the notes, featured in the various selections are vocalist/jazz guitarist Nick Lucas, then-vocalist Dick Powell, vocalist/whistler Maurice "Muzzy" Marcellino, vocalist/bass player (and band comedian) Candy Candido, vocalist Stanley Hickman, an all-girl trio called The Debutantes and, in 1929, the clarinet of Ted Lewis on a couple of recordings, among others. Both Betty Grable and June Haver also sang with his bands in the early 1930s before gaining fame as actresses, as did coming actor Lief Erickson, and even he great Billy Murray. In later years (he would lead bands right into the 1960s) he would feature as vocalists such as Kay Swingle & Her Brothers, The Mahoney Sisters, Jimmy Baxter, Patti Palmer, Maureen O'Connor, and Joy Layne.

In the 1960s, heading small combos, he would perform at various venues in the budding Las Vegas and throughout California and Arizona before a July 22, 1971 heart attack took him at age 71 in Scottsdale.

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Never Been Blue 1922-42