The first one is "Doin' Things" by Joe Venutti and Eddie Lang.
The next is "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller. It is a live recording of an arrangement of his theme song that is different from the studio album.
The next is "Baby It's Cold Outside" from the film 'Neptune's Daughter'. The singers are the actors, Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban.
The last one is the early Nashville recording of "Your Cheatin' Heart" from Hank Williams. They are excellent recordings, with the only flaw being the strident tone in certain notes in the Hank Williams recording. There are so many possible alterations of the recording that could happen, it is difficult to say if that is close to the original or an altered version. So we can't blame anybody for the problem, since we don't know the source.
A lot of good music was recorded in that time period and it is worth listening to. If you enjoy music or want to learn how to write and record music, you should always listen to the music that has been successful before.
Good music is good music, no matter when it was written or when it was recorded. Great musicians listen and learn from earlier times and diverse styles.
Great songs were written in Classical music, Jazz, Country, Folk, Blues, Gospel, Rock, etc.
We need to be open to all of them.
How do you tell a good song from a bad song?
That is the 64 dollar question. It is difficult to define, but, until recent decades, the tunes that were most popular were tunes that had quality. People like what they like, and they cannot necessarily tell you why. In recent times, people purchase music to fit in with their friends, and quality music is much harder to find.
If you go to a wedding and observe the dance floor after the reception, you can quickly see which songs are great dance songs. The floor get's crowded when a good song comes on, and people quickly vacate the floor when a not-so-good song comes on.
Within the last week I had occasion to talk to a folk duo consisting of 2 brothers. They were 12 and 9 years old. I asked them what was their favorite group and they said "Credence Clearwater Revival".
They did not have decades of music study, but they knew what they liked. And they had excellent musical taste.
So the first step in knowing what good music sounds like, is to listen to the great songs of the past.
The more you listen to the oldies and goodies, the better your music will be written and recorded.
'Til next time...