“You, or No One” (1934)
“You, or No One” (Rothberg-Tinturin-Wright; 1933). Recorded in London on January 4, 1934 by Scott Wood and His Orchestra with singer Betty Bolton.
“You, or No One.” Lyrics by Bob Rothberg, music by Peter Tinturin, with possible contributions by Lawrence Wright (working, as often, under the name “Horatio Nicholls”) (1933). Recorded in London on January 4, 1934 by Scott Wood and His Orchestra with singer Betty Bolton. Regal Zonophone MR-1192 mx. CAR-2460-1.
Personnel: George Scott Wood-p dir. Max Goldberg-Charlie Price-t / Bud Hammond-tb / Freddy Gardner-cl-as-bar / Jay Langham-cl-as / Reg. Pink-cl-ts / Ronald Ogilvie-g / George Gibbs-sb / Jock Jacobson-d / Betty Bolton-v
Scott Wood and His Orchestra (v. Betty Bolton)
“You, or No One” (1934)
Betty Bolton collaborated with George Scott Wood and His Orchestra only once, in 1934. This was her penultimate year as a recording artist, a time when her output had become more limited. Two impressive but rather melancholy songs resulted from their one session together: “Little You Know” and “You, or No One.”
“You, or No One” is credited to three songwriters. The words were written by Bob Rothberg, a prolific lyricist whose legacy includes many songs from cartoon series such as Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop. The music is attributed to Russian-born composer Peter Tinturin, who is best known for his film scores. Tinturin collaborated with Rothberg on at least one other song, “The Debutante Waltz” (1934). On American records and sheet music, there is no “Nicholls” credit, but there is on British ones. Horatio Nicholls was the composer pseudonym for Lawrence Wright, who published “You, or No One” in Britain. It is possible that he made some small contribution to the arrangement, but it is also possible that he had made being included in the credits a precondition for publishing the song;1 such a practice would not have been unheard of.
“You, or No One” has a rather complex melodic structure. Scott Wood’s band works its way through a powerful arrangement, evoking sometimes sadness, sometimes optimism. Bolton’s vocal chorus takes up roughly the last third of the song. She gets across the song’s central message nicely, namely that feeling love can mean feeling defeated by love. Given the task of describing a paradoxical emotional phenomenon, she does so admirably, with an intensely earnest interpretation. “You, or No One” reveals Bolton to be so much more than the singer of the silly, risqué “My Private Affair” (1931)—she is immensely talented at dealing convincingly with more serious material.
The American bands that recorded “You, or No One” in 1933 were Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians (v. Carmen Lombardo) and Ernie Holst and His Hotel Lexington Orchestra (v. Edith Caldwell). The song was recorded in 1933–1934 in Britain by Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans (v. Harry Bentley), Terry Mack and His Serenaders (with a vocal by an unknown young woman), The Odonians (dir. Allan Selby/vocalist unknown), and Casani Club Orchestra (v. Harry Bentley; this last recording was never issued).
A general suggestion made by Fred Godfrey Songs with regard to some compositions partially credited to Lawrence Wright or one of his pseudonyms. ↩︎
