This week for “Sometimes a Song,” we are meeting a new composer, Englishman Ray Noble. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Ray was a skilled classical pianist, but he was drawn to jazz and to the big band sound that had already wafted its way across the pond in the 1920’s just as he was finishing his formal studies. As music director for HMV Records and leader of their studio orchestra, Ray Noble worked with both the music and the musicians who made the music. Music historians now credit him with innovations which grew out of the popular music of the British Dance Band era, the period between the two world wars, when ballroom dancing and music were at their peak of popularity, innovations which paved the way for a Swing-master such as Benny Goodman to gain the public’s ear. So, having made a sensation at home, Ray Noble decided to try his luck in the United States.
And Ray Noble was a success here, but that was in no way the result of luck. Because he not permitted by law to bring more than a couple of his own musicians and his singer along with him to the US, Ray arranged with a young trombonist (named Glenn Miller) in America to hand-pick a group of excellent musicians for his stateside orchestra. He had already secured an engagement at New York’s posh Rainbow Room — and with his new band, Ray took the place by storm. Still, as the best-laid plans often do, Ray’s hopes for success as an independent bandleader didn’t come to pass. Instead, he took his talents to Hollywood, where he spent the bulk of his working years as a studio band leader, conductor, and music arranger. And along the way he wrote and produced some of the best-loved and most enduring songs of the swing era.
Ray Noble’s American orchestra provided the music for a good number of films, including “The Pride of the Yankees” (the story of Lou Gehrig). Having worked as a radio comedian in England, Ray was right at home acting the part of a “stuffy Englishman” when any film he was working on had a casting call for a such role. In the 1950’s when big bands were less in demand, Ray Nobel shifted his considerable talents to television. And then in addition to his music, Ray’s face became familiar to most Americans, because of his regular appearances on “The Charlie McCarthy Show,” with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. And he was not a mere comic actor, either, but provided the music for the show.
Ray Noble composed some twenty songs in the course of his career, often writing both music and lyrics. Today’s selection was one of the most popular songs of the 1930’s, reaching the number one spot on the Billboard Charts in two versions in 1934 and the number 11 spot that same year, in a recording by Bing Crosby. Since Ray’s first release of his song with his band singer Al Bowlly, “The Very Thought of You” has been commercially recorded over 700 times, most recently in 2023. Many of our readers will no doubt have favorite versions of this great popular song. Among them, I am guessing, will be Nat Cole’s big 1958 hit recording. The choices were overwhelming! Ultimately, I decided on a recording made by Tony Bennett in 1966. His voice was by then becoming a wee bit ragged in places, but his overall performance in something of a “duet” with the unbeatable Bobby Hackett on the cornet hit just the right note for me. See if you don’t agree. And listen, also, to the original (fox-trot) dance band recording by Ray Noble’s Orchestra, with Al Bowlly, as well, to see just how versatile a great song can be in the hands of masters of the art.
Word & Song is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymns, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. To help support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber.
As soon as I saw the name of this week’s song, I started singing it, & it kept running through my head ever since. Finally got a chance to listen tonight. I remembered it in Tony Bennett’s romantic style—& all his training still showed in his breath control, style, & pitch even when his voice began to fray. But the swing version forced my feet to dance (not publically, of course)—& yet respected the lyrics. What fun!
Thinking, imagining… God’s gifts to us.