Dec 27, 2018
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Broadway Broadcasters, Do Something, 1929.
Broadway Broadcasters - South Bound - 1928
Sam Lanin d. Jimmy McPartland - cnt / Glenn Miller - tb - a / Jimmy Dorsey - cl-as / unknown - as / unknown - ts / Rube Bloom - p / unknown - bj / unknown - bb / - unknown - d
Song: Me and My Shadow / After We Kiss
Artist: The Rangers (AKA Sam Lanin with Les Reis)
Record Label: Lincoln 2628
Recorded: May 23, 1927
Location: Columbia Authority Office outside Park Ticketing to Soldier's Field
After traversing the Arcade in Battleship Bay, you'll need to get tickets to travel the gondola to Soldier's Field to gain access to The First Lady to take Elizabeth to "Paris". However, you'll have a strange encounter with Esther Mailer by the turnstile. She'll address your companion by "Annabelle", which Elizabeth corrects.
Inside the Ticketing area, the situation palpably becomes uneasy. Everyone will stare at you and the musicians will stop playing leaving only the ticking of the clock. Heading towards the ticket counter, the attendant on the telephone suggests to "Send in the Bird". It is an ambush, lead by Esther who directs orders to "Get the girl!"
Later, when things have quieted down, there will be a radio playing "Me and My Shadow" in the office by the ticket station. Inside is a voxophone by Esther, "Take Her Alive", next to a mugshot of Elizabeth and a telegram. The voxophone reveals that Comstock predicted Booker and Elizabeth's arrival. She must stop the coming of the False Shepard lest she too be "given to the Bird".
Identifying the artist of this song prior to Irrational Games finally updating bioshockinfinite.com/music in February 2014 (almost a year after the game came out) was next to impossible. Nearly every video with this song simply listed the authors (Rose, Jolson, Dreyer) or were flat out wrong. Of the authors, only Al Jolson was a singer (his vocal style can be heard in the anachronistic cover of "Shiny Happy People"). However, he never recorded this song.
Only one video said the artist was Sam Lanin. Despite this knowledge, I had difficulty finding evidence that he recorded a version. It turns out that he is known to have recorded under up to 170 different pseudonyms. I was slightly led astray for a while as I had found a recording of this song by "Al Lynn's Music Masters" (another pseudonym of Sam Lanin) on an Edison Diamond Disc and on an Oriole label. The horn section sounded hauntingly familiar, but it was always slightly different.
Even with the help of bioshockinfinite.com/music which confirmed that the artist was Sam Lanin, I still needed to find what pseudonym that he used on the actual record.
Finally I was able to find a compilation CD which mentioned that it featured "The Rangers". I was finally able to find this damaged copy on the Lincoln label. It's almost broken in half (unfortunately, typical of these fragile 78 rpm discs), but it's somewhat playable and I've attempted to remove the "clicks" from the recording process.
The Lincoln label was apparently a budget label that also featured music off the Cameo label. Basically, music from Cameo was repackaged under Lincoln, often under a pseudonym, or music was recorded by lesser-known artists. For this reason, I suspect that there's another recording of "Me and My Shadow" on the Cameo label by Sam Lanin or one of his pseudonyms. However, I'm not sure if it would be the same take.
In light of Irrational Games' downsizing, the webpage for the BioShock Infinite Music Credits is in great danger of being put on the back burner indefinitely. I would not have been able to identify some songs if it weren't for someone curating the songs at bioshockinfinite.com/music. If you would like to see the music credits for Burial at Sea, please contact Irrational Games.
On a lighter note, "Me and My Shadow" has since become a popular jazz standard performed by Perry Como, Vic Damone, Rose Murphy, The Mills Brother, Pearl Bailey, and many more. Shaggy and Scooby perform their own version as well. Most recently, Robbie Williams' & Jonathan Wilkes' version has entered pop charts which in turn was based on Frank Sinatra's and Sammy Davis Jr.'s cover. Sinatra's and Davis' carousing is a terrific sight to behold live, but very notably, their version was also appropriately featured in the ad campaign for Titanfall: Life is Better With a Titan.
Though little known today, Sam Lanin was one of the most prolific recording bandleaders of the 20s with nearly 400 sessions for each record label that existed at the time. Additionally, as previously mentioned, he recorded under over 170 different pseudonyms. Though none of his records were particular hits, he is best known for the sheer quantity of records he made.
Typically, he would record popular songs of the day with tasteful music arrangements. He recorded with many musicians in his orchestra such as the Dorsey brothers, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, and Red Nichols who would all go on to be major bandleaders and recording artists.
His most famous arrangement was the Ipana Troubadours (sponsored by Ipana toothpaste) which premiered on radio to great acclaim.
However, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 would bring Sam Lanin's recording career to a close. He was still well off from the money he had saved in the 1920s and retired from music in the 30s. Conversely, his brother, Lester Lanin would gain fame playing ensembles well into the 90s.
Unfortunately, I can find very little information on Les Reis which seems to be a nickname for Lester Reis (prounced “Reese”. Other than that, he performed with Artie Dunn as a popular singing duo in the 1930s.
Listen to the flip side "After We Kiss" here.
