Royale Orchestra “Hoagy Carmichael Songs”

While the Royale label is really cool-looking, this 45 is a disappointment. I’ve always been in awe of Hoagy Carmichael (the man they named a sandwich after), and I wonder if he ever had time to sit down. This disc didn’t, however, take up much of his time, unless it was moving numbers around in his bank account. This record is a total swindle! It’s passing itself off as a Hoagy Carmichael record, but it’s actually a Royale Orchestra record, performing songs of Hoagy Carmichael. Not that I spent top dollar on what I thought was a HC record—in fact, I suspect that a little man wearing a black sweatshirt and a toupee snuck into my apartment at night and placed this 7-inch EP with the rest of my 7-inch vinyl in my mom’s old sewing kit which has served as my record case since the early Eighties (I remember the cat using it was a scratching post). There are four classic HC songs, and two have vocals, performed by the uncredited members of the “Royale Orchestra”—a sleepy version of “Lazy Bones” and an inspired “Rockin’ Chair” (“Fetch me that gin, son…”) Tired instrumental “Georgia on My Mind.” One of my favorite songs of all time is “Stardust”—but what we get here is “Star Dust”—a lifeless, bad-movie version that standard that even popcorn won’t help. Indeed, Royale with cheese.

2.18.25