Strictly speaking, this budget album should not be credited to
Jan Savitt. It contains the second episode of a half-hour radio series called Rhapsody in Rhythm, broadcast June 23, 1946, on which Savitt & His Top Hatters were the featured orchestra, playing songs of their own and supporting guests
the Golden Gate Quartet,
Skitch Henderson, and
Connie Haines. The
Savitt band starts things off playing "Paradise" and closes with the same theme song, but their only feature on the program is a swing arrangement of
Bach's "Fugue in G Minor." The harmonies of
the Golden Gate Quartet are featured on "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho," "Camptown Races," and "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy"; pianist
Henderson performs "Fascinatin' Rhythm," "Full Moon and Empty Arms" (accompanied by a string quartet drawn from the
Savitt band), and "Liza";
Haines sings "I've Got the Sun in the Morning" from the recently opened Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun and, accompanied by
Henderson, "Come Rain or Come Shine"; and the whole cast joins in on "Basin St. Blues." It's a good, varied selection of music by some outstanding 1940s performers, but it isn't really a
Jan Savitt album.