Billy Vaughn - Dance Music

In the last post, you were able to hear Benny Goodman's version of Glenn Miller's hit, A String of Pearls. This time around you can listen to a much more recent version of the tune, courtesy of Billy Vaughn.

Vaughn did record this song for Dot when he was churning out album after album, and it appeared in 1960 on the LP Great Golden Hits. But this is a later version that comes from a 1984 CD for Japanese Victor called simply Dance Music. Vaughn apparently recorded a bunch of tracks specifically for the Japanese label. Some of them appeared on a Dance Music LP in 1979 so that's probably pretty close to the time they were recorded. Vaughn is said to have used his original Dot arrangements on some of the selections.

In any case advances in recording technology, and some superb musicians, make this a more vibrant recording.

A String of Pearls

Great Golden Hits, including Vaughn's original version of A String of Pearls, is available as part of a three-CD set, Long Play Collection: The Top Ten Albums.

Downloads of Vaughn doing big band hits, including A String of Pearls, are available. I suspect these are the Dot recordings -- possibly sourced from vinyl -- so tread cautiously.

Vaughn's Japanese recordings do not appear to be readily available.