There are many delicious mysteries in “The World of Soundies,” and this is one I have tried hard to figure out. The best that I have come up with is a big fat zero.
In early 1946, former Glenn Miller vocal Ray Eberle – brother of Bob Eberly, band singer with Jimmy Dorsey – was discharged from military service and quickly returned to his singing career. He had been a very popular band vocalist, and Filmcraft producer William Forrest Crouch signed him to appear in two Soundies. Eberle was paid $350 for the pair, a very handsome amount for a few day’s work. The big band that accompanies Eberle on the soundtrack is not identified in the production files, and it might well be Jack Shaindlin’s “March of Time” studio band.
William Forest Crouch realized that Eberle, a fine ballad singer, should be featured in a couple of well-known songs, what today we call standards. From the 1935 feature Thanks A Million, Crouch selected the title song. It had been introduced in the film by Dick Powell, and recorded by Louis Armstrong soon after. From an even earlier film, Dancing Lady (1933), Crouch picked up “Everything I Have Is Yours.”
But when the Soundies reached the Panoram screen, the names of the songs had been changed. “Everything I Have Is Yours,” featured here, was now called “Take My All.” “Thanks A Million” was retitled “All My Gratitude.” Why the change? Almost certainly this was not required by the publishers, since the whole point of licensing a song was to maintain its name recognition. And why would the Soundies people present a well-known song under a bogus title? Any thoughts, group members?
Take My All (“Everything I Have Is Yours”) is a simply-produced presentation of the song, with Eberle singing to Jeni Freeland, one of the last surviving Soundies performers. This style of ballad presentation is rarely heard today, although the combination of Eberle’s sincere vocal, Shaindlin’s strong arrangement, and a wonderful standard tune makes this a Soundie worth revisiting.