“It’s So Peaceful in the Country”
Composed by Alec Wilder (music and lyric); arranged by Sonny Burke.
Recorded by Charlie Spivak and His Orchestra for Okeh on June 27, 1941 in New York.
Charlie Spivak, trumpet, directing: Bob Higgins, Tristan Haver, Buddy Yaeger, trumpets; Bill Mustarde, Ben Long and Nelson Riddle, trombones; Harry Klee, first alto saxophone; Jim Sands, alto saxophone; Don Raffell and Roy Hammerslag, tenor saxophones; Jerry Florian, baritone saxophone; Dave Mann, piano; Kenny White, guitar; Jimmy Middleton, bass; Norris Edwin “Bunny” Shawker, drums; Garry Stevens, vocal.
The story:
The story of how Charlie Spivak began his career as a bandleader, and how he was helped immeasurably to achieve success with the assistance of Glenn Miller, is told in the post here at swingandbeyond.com on Charlie’s lovely theme song, “Stardreams.” (A link to that post appears at endnote 1.)
In my explorations of the music of the band Charlie Spivak initially became successful with in 1941, and then on through the years of World War II, I am struck by how some of the music made by that band was truly excellent, yet unfortunately much more of it was mediocre. I can say without reservation that Spivak was a superb judge of musical talent because his band of the early 1940s was invariably stocked with musicians who were either already recognized within the profession as top-notch, like drummer Dave Tough, alto saxophonist Willie Smith and tenor saxophonist Fran Ludwig, or more often were gifted youngsters who would go on to have long and successful musical careers, like Nelson Riddle, Don Raffell, Les and Larry Elgart, Peanuts Hucko, Marky Markowitz, Turk Van Lake, Alvin Stoller, Herbie Harper and Harry Klee. Charlie also seemed to be open to a smidgen of experimentation with his arrangers, most notably Sonny Burke and Nelson Riddle, though he mostly adhered to the various commercially successful formulas that had brought Glenn Miller so much success, including using various vocal groups.
Charlie Spivak plays before dancers and a radio audience at Glen Island Casino in 1941: notice the mute he is using.
In the early years of Spivak’s success, he also maintained his trumpet playing at a very high level, though despite his formidable technique, he rarely attempted to do anything more than play the melody, either literally or with some small variations. Swing era journalist George T. Simon, who liked Spivak as a person and admired his skill as a trumpeter, had something of a fixation with the sound of Spivak’s open trumpet, which was quite lovely. Here is what Simon said about that: “The band sounded good, but to the vast disappointment of many listeners, there was one thing missing – the brilliant Spivak open horn. Charlie propounded a theory that many of us didn’t buy. He wasn’t sure that people would like the brilliance of an open trumpet; perhaps it might even drive them away. Therefore, he was trying to achieve the same intimacy on trumpet that Tommy Dorsey had projected so successfully on trombone. Accordingly, Charlie did almost all of his blowing through a specially designed mute, which emitted a very soft but not particularly distinguished sound.” (2) 
Simon, as a writer and later editor of the music magazine Metronome, had a substantial public platform for his opinions, which he freely sprinkled throughout his writings. Based on many recollections, Spivak was a guy who worried about what people thought about his music. It is likely that he discussed this issue with his mentor, Glenn Miller. If this did happen, I would have loved to have overheard the conversation. I strongly suspect that Miller, who knew Simon and his propensities to attempt to play Pygmalion with other people’s music, rolled his eyes and said something like this to Charlie: “George has his opinions about music, and that’s OK. But he really doesn’t know what is best when it comes to making music and leading a band. I know that you definitely play a lot of open trumpet throughout the evening in front of audiences. That, along with a good bit of muted trumpet, provides needed contrast. Also, the intimate sound you get with your new mute is very attractive, especially when you use it leading the trumpets in quiet, intimate passages. I think audiences, especially dancers, like that.” Reassured, Spivak continued doing what he had been doing with his new mute, and Simon continued complaining about it. (Above right: Charlie Spivak to Glenn Miller: “What should I do, Glenn?”)
The music:
Charlie Spivak’s recording was one of the first of Alec Wilder’s now semi-standard 1941 song “It’s So Peaceful in the Country.” The first recording of it seems to have been by Jan Savitt, on May 5, 1941 for Victor, with a vocal by Allen DeWitt. Mildred Bailey, a close friend of Wilder, recorded it on June 24, 1941 for Decca. Spivak’s recording, presented with this post, was done on June 27, 1941 for Columbia’s budget label Okeh. Harry James, then beginning to achieve some popularity as a bandleader, recorded it for Columbia three days later, with a vocal by Dick Haymes.
Benny Goodman was a part owner with his brothers Harry and Eugene, in the music publishing business called Regent Music Corporation. Regent was the publisher of many of Alec Wilder’s early popular songs. Consequently, Benny played a good many of Wilder’s songs in 1941. He recorded Wilder’s “Soft as Spring” (with a vocal by Helen Forrest) in June of 1941, and played it on a number of radio broadcasts in the summer of that year. He also broadcast Wilder’s “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” (with a vocal by Peggy Lee), and “Moon and Sand” throughout the autumn of 1941. BG played Wilder’s songs because they were quite good, and by doing so on radio and record, he was able to assist his brothers (and himself). As usual, Benny was taking care of the music and the business of his band, and helping his brothers in the process.(3) He didn’t record “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” because he was contracted to Columbia Records in 1941, and the song had already been recorded on both Columbia labels as noted above.
Spivak’s recording of “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” begins with a quote from Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, played quite beautifully by Harry Klee on his clarinet. The arranger of the piece, likely Sonny Burke, wraps Klee’s legitimate clarinet sound in a warm blanket of brass and reed instrumental sounds to create a most interesting and arresting introduction.
Chorus one (this is an AABA 32-bar song) starts with Mr. Spivak playing the main melody (A) using his specially designed mute. His accompaniment is just the rhythm section at first, then a delightful blend of softly played reeds. The repeat of the main melody has a muted Spivak playing the lead with his other three trumpets, achieving the intimate sound he sought quite effectively.
A transition/modulation (from B-flat to F) played by clarinet-led reeds brings vocalist Garry Stevens to the microphone. He had a rich tenor/baritone voice that remained on-pitch despite the sometimes wide intervals in Wilder’s melodies. The accompaniment he gets from the warm reeds, low trombones and softly played open trumpets is most complimentary to his singing. Stevens sings the song’s two-part secondary bridge melody (B), the first half of which is over A-7/ G-7 dominant chords (4). This passage has a dark feeling that suggests that big city living is often vexing. The second half of the bridge is less dark, as the lyric expresses resignation at the fact that big cities are often overwhelming for many of their inhabitants. When Stevens returns to the final tract of the main melody (A), the ensemble backs him a bit more forcefully than before, with pianist Dave Mann adding a bit of decoration along the way.
This is a fine performance of a very good melody cast in an excellent arrangement. I’m sure that – audiences, especially dancers, liked it.
P.S.:
I have always been struck by the part of the lyric in the bridge of this song which goes: “There’s too much stone, too much telephone…” in the city. This is a particularly revealing phrase from a man, Alec Wilder, who often lived as a recluse, and who would on the spur of the moment get on a train and ride around the U.S. for days, sometimes weeks at a time, simply to get away from his rooms at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. Query – this is purely an academic question as Alec Wilder transitioned in 1980: what would Wilder, who was dubbed the president of the derrierre guard by music journalist Whitney Balliett, have thought of the world of cell phones and digital communication? To say that he would have been mightily disturbed by them would be an understatement.
Alec Wilder in the 1970s: “Cell phones, email, text messages…you’ve got to be kidding.”
“It’s So Peaceful in the Country”
Composed by Alec Wilder (music and lyric); arranged by Lew Quadling.
Recorded by Frankie Carle and His Orchestra for Dot in 1968 in Hollywood.
Lew Quadling directing: Frankie Carle, piano, and (probable personnel): Shorty Sherock, Cappy Lewis, Graham Young, Uan Rasey trumpets; Dick Nash, Milt Bernhart, Lloyd Ulyate, tenor trombones; George Roberts, bass trombone; Arthur “Skeets” Herfurt, first alto saxophone; Wilbur Schwartz, alto saxophone and clarinet; Georgie Auld and Donald H. “Don” Raffell, tenor saxophones; Chuck Gentry, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; Bob Bain, guitar; Ray Brown, bass; Alvin Stoller, drums.
The story:
A brief synopsis of pianist/bandleader Frankie Carle’s career in music can be accessed at the post here at swingandbeyond.com on “The Commando’s Serenade.” A link to that post is at endnote (5).
In 1968, Frankie Carle was contacted by producer Tommy Mack (a former Glenn Miller trombonist), who was then employed by Dot Records in Hollywood, specializing in putting together recording projects that usually involved big, swing-oriented bands. The concept Mack devised was to use Carle’s name as titular leader of a band of top-flight studio musicians (arranger Lew Quadling conducted the band at the recording sessions), and then record some of the music of the classic bands from the swing era. Mack was trying to replicate the success bandleader Glen Gray had had at Capitol Records doing this same thing in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But Mack wanted to deviate slightly from the Gray/Capitol formula. Whereas Gray’s modus operandi was to record “note-for-note” recreations, having the musicians play exactly what was on the original recordings, Mack wanted to use the original recordings only as a point of departure, and allow veteran big band arranger Lew Quadling the liberty to revise certain parts of the classic arrangements, and also to allow the soloists to improvise. Carle, who was a very capable pianist, would also have a number of solos to play within these revised arrangements. The project produced two LPs of music that is beautifully performed and highly listenable. (Frankie Carle in 1968 above right.)
Producer Mack also wanted to record music from the swing era that had not already been recreated as a part of the Glen Gray/Capitol series. Charlie Spivak’s evocative “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” is one such tune.
This tribute to trumpeter Charlie Spivak is appropriately fashioned around the solo trumpet of Graham Young. Mr. Young (1921-1998), whose sound on trumpet was every bit as lovely as Charlie Spivak’s, plays a number of melodic solos in this performance. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but moved to Detroit and then Chicago with his family as a child. Graham attended Lakeview High School in Chicago, and played in the marching band there. He, like the other musicians on this Carle project, was a veteran of the bands of the swing era, getting his start in the big time in late 1940 with Raymond Scott, then with Gene Krupa’s band in 1941. Young stayed with Krupa for a year and then entered military service from 1942-1946. After that, he joined Tex Beneke’s band in early 1946, and remained well into 1947. Among the musicians Young met in the Beneke band was pianist/arranger/composer Henry Mancini. They would work together frequently through the period 1953 -1990.(6) (Above left: Graham Young in 1960.)
In the late 1940s, it appears that Young returned to his home in Michigan and began a career in music education that would span many years. By 1953, he had relocated to Hollywood, where opportunities for his high-level trumpet-playing were plentiful in the recording studios. At various times through the 1950s and 1960s, Young also continued his work as an educator, at John Muir High School in Burbank, California.
Among the most memorable of Graham Young’s recorded solos is the one from the introduction to the TV series The Waltons, which can be accessed at the link at endnote (7). He can also be heard in the music from the 1975 film The Great Waldo Pepper, which was written by Henry Mancini. (8)
The music:
This balladic performance starts with Graham Young playing the pickup into the main melody of “It’s So Peaceful in the Country.” His trumpet sound is pure and warm. Arranger Lew Quadling surrounds this sixteen-bar melody exposition with softly played reeds and a few glistening piano notes, provided by Frankie Carle. Trombonist Dick Nash follows playing the bridge melody, his velvety sound being set off first against a sparse background, then against the warm reeds. The entire ensemble carries the main melody through the next sequence, with Mr. Young returning to exalt the melody a bit more.
A bright ensemble transition/modulation (with a some nice Carle piano chords) leads into a melodic paraphrase played by tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld. His sound here is rhapsodic, and surrounded by softly played open brass. Pianist Carle then plays briefly and economically on the bridge, followed by the ensemble, to finish that sequence. (Georgie Auld is shown above right in 1970.)
Graham Young returns to reprise the main melody one last time before a cadence and the bright ensemble finale.
This is a fine performance of one of Alec Wilder’s most memorable melodies. If Charlie Spivak ever heard this recording, I’m sure that he would have smiled.
The recordings presented with this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) Here is a link to the story and music of Charlie Spivak’s theme song, “Stardreams”: https://swingandbeyond.com/2024/12/14/stardreams-1941-charlie-spivak-1960-glen-gray-with-shorty-sherock/
(2) The Big Bands by George T. Simon (1967), 427.
(3) It is likely that Alec Wilder was not a member of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in 1941. In that year, ASCAP was embroiled in a dispute with radio networks, consequently the music of ASCAP member composers was not broadcast on radio. Non-ASCAP composers saw a large increase in radio-play of their songs as a result.
(4) Per my music guru, Dennis Rodin, “The bridge begins with dominant chords – A7 – G7, which many jazz players know as the “Killer Joe” chord progression.” For those not conversant with the standard tunes in the repertoires of many jazz musicians, “Killer Joe” was composed in 1960 by the jazz saxophonist/composer and arranger Benny Golson.
(6) In the late 1970s, Henry Mancini would appear with the Cleveland Orchestra at their summer home, Blossom Music Center. His concerts would include many of his hit songs, and sometimes, longer concert works that he composed. On more than one occasion, he brought Graham Young with him as a soloist. Young always played beautifully.
(7) Here is a link to Graham Young playing the theme from The Walton’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvY2wk_ZDj4
(8) Here is a link to a listing of Hollywood studio trumpeters in addition to Graham Young whose work graces many feature films and television shows: http://www.trompete.com.pt/eng/filmestrompetistas.html
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