“Leave Me with a Love Song.” Music by Hugh Williams [Wilhelm Grosz], lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy. Recorded in London in September 1935 by Stan Atkins and His Band, with vocal chorus by Anne Lenner. Teledisk 1994 mx. S-281.

Much of what I have written about this record’s other side (“Red Sails in the Sunset”) is applicable to this side, as well; the tune even has the same songwriters. The disc itself is ridiculously rare, ¹ the band having been a less prominent one and the recording process that of a made-to-order disc company (Teledisk) rather than one of the more familiar companies such as Columbia or HMV that sold records to the general public.

As with “Red Sails in the Sunset,” we catch bandleader Stan Atkins providing Anne Lenner with a (presumably stock) arrangement of “Leave Me with a Love Song” that has not been suitably transposed into her vocal range. The vocal chorus is a challenge for Lenner and dips dangerously low, particularly at the beginning of the B part—but she succeeds in not sounding too gravelly. We have the sense that the recording session was arranged at the last minute.

I would not want to give the wrong impression by drawing too much attention to this deficit or others. The disc’s value lies precisely in its not being a representative of mainstream, high-end British recording technology and technique, but rather an unusual example of a less familiar band operating under imperfect circumstances and producing something nonetheless quite pleasurable. The resulting sides are a rare instance of Anne Lenner recording with a bandleader other than Carroll Gibbons, with whom her career was intimately connected. As it happens, “Leave Me with a Love Song” is perfectly delightful, and the foxtrot’s instrumentals are handled nicely by Stan Atkins’s anonymous band members.

Other artists who recorded “Leave Me with a Love Song” in 1935 were Arthur Tracy, Lou Preager and His Romano’s Restaurant Dance Orchestra (v. Ronnie Hill), Ambrose and His Orchestra (v. Jack Cooper), The Casani Club Orchestra (dir. Charlie Kunz/v. George Barclay), and Geraldo and His Sweet Music (v. Monte Rey).