Victor Young & His Orchestra - Trees

Although I already posted a lovely version of this song before (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk6dut_isham-jones-his-orchestra-trees_music#.UcX7QxZkh8I), I decide to share this one too since this delicate performance is quite unique. The label does not credit the accompanying musicians, but thanks to Rust's Entertainment Discography, I could identify them as Victor Young & His Orchestra. Victor Young (1899-1956) was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor, who began as a classical composer and concert violinist but swithched to popular music when he joined Isham Jones' orchestra. He studied the piano with Isidor Philipp of the Paris Conservatory. In the mid-1930s he moved to Hollywood. As a recording artist he waxed a lot of popular dance tunes but also played with many famous jazzmen. On radio, he was the musical director of Harvest of Stars. He was musical director for many of Bing Crosby's recordings. He received 22 Academy Award nominations for his work in film, twice being nominated four times in a single year, but he did not win during his lifetime. He received his only Oscar posthumously for his score of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). The vocal on this impressive 1933 record, is by Donald Novis (1906-1966), who was an English actor and tenor. Novis pursued an acting and singing career. He made his film debut as the Country Boy in the detective film Bulldog Drummond (1929). He appeared on screen in numerous films up to 1937, often as a singer in films like One Hour with You (1932) and This Is the Night (1932). His appearances in films were thereafter limited. He sang on several film soundtracks and notably recorded the Academy Award-nominated song "Love Is a Song" for the Disney animated feature film Bambi (1942). In 1930, Novis made his Broadway debut as Hoheno in the original production of Rudolf Friml's Luana. He performed in only one other Broadway musical during his career, Matt Mulligan, Jr. in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Jumbo in 1935-1936. In 1938 he starred in a production of Jerome Kern's Roberta at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. He was also highly active as a singer with big bands and as a radio entertainer in the 1930s. He performed frequently with Anson Weeks and his band and was often heard on the radio programme Fibber McGee and Molly. From 1932–1934 he led his own orchestra which made several recordings for Brunswick Records. In 1955 Novis co-created the script for the long-running “Golden Horseshoe Revue” at Disneyland’s Frontierland with Wally Boag. The show ran continuously to 1986, and Novis himself starred in the production from its inception until his retirement 9 years later in 1964. He died in Norwalk, California in 1966 at the age of 60.