“Dream Lover” (1930)
“Dream Lover” (Grey-Schertzinger). Recorded in London on February 14, 1930 by Betty Bolton, with Edward Cooper accompanying on the piano.
“Dream Lover.” Lyrics by Clifford Grey, music by Victor Schertzinger; composed for the 1929 film The Love Parade. Recorded in London on February 14, 1930 by Betty Bolton, with Edward Cooper accompanying on the piano. Columbia DB-18 mx. WA-10057-2.
Betty Bolton (with Edward Cooper on the piano) - “Dream Lover” (1930)
Transfer by Jonathan David Holmes
English lyricist Clifford Grey and American composer Victor Schertzinger composed all the songs in The Love Parade (1929), legendary director Ernst Lubitsch’s first sound film, in which Jeanette MacDonald had her cinematic debut. In it, MacDonald plays the alluring queen Louise of the fictional European country Sylvania. A soprano whose operatic voice always seemed to be gesturing toward the conventions of high culture, MacDonald was the perfect vehicle for the recurrent waltz theme “Dream Lover,” a song about a persistent fantasy of perfect romantic contentment.
It is worth comparing MacDonald’s vocals, either in the film itself or on the Victor disc she made of “Dream Lover” in 1929, with the version of the song that Betty Bolton recorded several months later in London. To start with, Bolton was a contralto, not a soprano; she occupied the lower end of the normal range of female voices, and so, when she sings “Dream Lover,” a downward transposition is necessary. When the song is delivered in a lower voice, with minimal vibrato, its operatic qualities disappear, and we are left with something refreshingly down to earth. There is, moreover, something very slow and deliberate in the way Bolton describes her dream revelations. It is as if she has reanalyzed the song so as to stress the universal romantic import of its lyrics. Whereas the MacDonald version is used in The Love Parade to set the mood for the comings and goings of the warbly queen, in Bolton’s version, the dream lover of the song is more relatable.
North American artists who recorded “Dream Lover” in 1929 include Smith Ballew (as Buddy Blue and His Texans; v. Smith Ballew), Ben Selvin and His Orchestra (v. Smith Ballew), Smith Ballew and His Orchestra (v. Smith Ballew), Tom Gerun and His Orchestra (vocalist unknown), Jack Stillman’s Orchestra (v. Joe Wilbur), Adrian Schubert and His Salon Orchestra (v. Smith Ballew), The Grey Gull Studio Band (vocalist unknown), and Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra (v. Franklyn Baur). There was also a noteworthy rendition of “Dream Lover” made in Sydney by Australian Gladys Moncrieff.
In 1930, versions were recorded by such British artists as Jack Hylton and His Orchestra (v. ?Sam Browne; rejected by HMV), Bidgood’s Broadcasters (as the Manhattan Melodymakers; v. Patrick Waddington), The Rhythm Maniacs (dir. Arthur Lally; v. Maurice Elwin), Cecil Norman’s Savoy Plaza Band (v. Cavan O’Connor), Bertini and His Band (vocalist unknown), Jack Payne and His BBC Dance Orchestra (instrumental Love Parade medley), Nat Star and His Dance Orchestra (as Bert Maddison and His Dance Orchestra; v. Cavan O’Connor), Olive Groves, Nat Star and His Dance Orchestra (as Roy Deller’s Orchestra, in a Love Parade medley; v. Cavan O’Connor), Alfredo’s Band (v. Hal Swain), Gladys Ripley, Harry Hudson’s Melody Men (in a Love Parade medley; v. Sam Browne), The Midnight Minstrels (in a Love Parade medley; dir. Stan Greening; v. Tom Barratt), and Gracie Fields.
