Song: Shine On Harvest Moon / Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
Artist: Four Aces with Al Alberts and the Jack Pleis Orchestra
Record Label: Decca Records 29625
This song plays near the end of Episode 6 in Series 3 of Call the Midwife.
As the opening narration says, "we had few thoughts of autumn or of harvest, for we saw the fruits of women’s labor every day."
At last, the day's trials and tribulations are all over: Nurse Patsy Mount confides to Nurse Trixie Franklin that her standoffish behavior stems from a childhood imprisonment in an internment camp, which enables her to diagnose a patient's tropical parasite. Curate Tom Hereward plans to arrange donation boxes for the Harvest Festival and ends with a near-disastrous date with Nurse Franklin. And new parents Phoebe and Declan Doyle finally reconcile and rejoice with their new baby boy.
The Harvest Festival in Britain is similar to Thanksgiving in the US. Traditionally, the community turns to the church to give thanks for a successful harvest. As the members of Nonnatus House gather for the Harvest Festival supper, Sister Winifred brings in a beautifully done bread wheatsheaf while this song plays.
Compared to the previous record featured, this is a rather different take on the same tune recorded nearly 50 years apart. You may have noticed the removal of the introductory verse and the alteration of the months from "April, January, June, or July" to the most rhythmically-pleasing "January, February, June, or July".
It's an appropriate song now that the cooler days of autumn are upon us. And it's still popular even a century after the words were written.
Left to right, top to bottom: Dave Mahoney, Al Alberts, Sol Vaccaro, and Lou Silvestri
The Four Aces were originally founded by Navy shipmates Al Alberts and Dave Mahoney. They added Sol Vaccaro on trumpet and Lou Silvestri on drums where they played locally in Philadelphia.
When they could not find a distributor for their song "(It's No) Sin", Al Alberts founded his own record company, Victoria Records. It managed to sell over a million copies, attracting the notice of Decca Records who signed them on as "The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts". They soon had a series of hits including "Perfida", "Three Coins in the Fountain", "Stranger in Paradise", and of course, the flip side to this record "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing".
Later on, Al Alberts would leave the group to pursue a solo career. Various lineup changes followed with Fred Diodati taking the place of lead singer. However, the advent of rock and roll would lead to the decline of traditional pop.
Jack Pleis was an arranger and pianist who frequently recorded with the Four Aces, Teresa Brewer, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr. and Don Cornell. In 1952, he married noted singer Eva Chandler whose most famous hit was "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me". He conducted the orchestra for Coral Records on her "Love is the $64,000 Question".
Listen to the flip side "Love is a Many Splendored-Thing" here.
