Queen Of The Sea - Bram Martin & his Dance Orchestra -1936 (RMS Queen Mary)

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RMS QUEEN MARY OFFICIAL SOUVENIR RECORD 1936 – First Side

BRAM MARTIN AND HIS DANCE ORCHESTRA at the Holborn Restaurant in London play:

QUEEN OF THE SEA – Vocal sung by Eve Becke.

Recorded in London, c. April 1936

“QUEEN OF THE SEA” was written by Horatio Nicholls, the pen name of British music publisher Lawrence Wright, in honour of RMS Queen Mary, which was due to make its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 27th May 1936. This recording was released on a flexible disc which was distributed to passengers on the maiden voyage and is extremely rare. The disc used here was quite worn, as you can hear, but this is almost a unique chance to hear this historic recording and so please bear with the poor sound quality. I have therefore reproduced the lyrics below to assist those of you who wish to follow the song:

I’m happy and gay, ‘cos I’m sailing away
I’ve booked my trip for the USA on the finest ship in the world
The Queen Mary

The ship is all British, it’s wonderful too
The ship is manned by a British crew,
So when I go over the sea, the Queen Mary takes me

There’ll be fun galore, and people I’ll adore

That’s why I’m happy and gay, ‘cos I’m sailing away
I’ve booked my trip for the USA on the finest ship in the world
The Queen Mary, Queen of the sea

I have already uploaded the private recording made of this song by its composer https://youtu.be/ElFGB1KStxg?list=UUsB1cWYWLEZMd2qDg73jFtg . The only commercial record of the song that I know of was made by Primo Scala’s Accordeon Band, so it never became a “hit” or widely known. It had a rival in the form of “Somewhere at Sea” written by Henry Hall, director of the BBC Dance Orchestra, which was the designated signature tune of the RMS Queen Mary, and considerably better known. Henry was the guest conductor of the ship’s band on that maiden voyage.

I have no idea why Bram Martin’s Dance Orchestra was chosen to record the song for the souvenir record, but it was a very fine dance band of the time and they give a lively and quite hot performance. Eve Becke was a popular singer, much in demand by the various record companies of the 1930s for her attractive and classy vocals.

This is the reverse of this disc:

https://youtu.be/J1Pdzkw120Q

We are indebted to Stephen Paget for sharing this rarity from his collection and thank Charlie Crump for transferring the flexible disc to CD to allow me to present this upload to you. This recording is long-out-of copyright and may not be copied or sold without permission.