With a Smile and a Song - Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans

While doing research for this album, it became clear that there is no good source of information on the internet about CARROLL GIBBONS AND THE SAVOY HOTEL ORPHEANS. I have a couple of Disney songs by this group and absolutely love them and want to share them with you, but don't really have any info about them.

Here is what I do know: The house band for the Savoy Hotel in London, England, the Savoy Havana Band, was one of the top dance bands in the country in the 20s, but when they left to tour in 1923 the manager of the hotel hired a new group. This new group, called the Savoy Orpheans, specialized in fresh renditions of current pop hits and soon grew to have the same and then even greater popularity than their predecessors.

The Savoy Orpheans was lead by Debroy Sommers until his departure in 1926 and, after changing hands a few times, the baton was handed to Carrol Gibbons who had played with the group as a musician since the beginning.

With all the reading I did, I'm not sure what instrument Gibbons played in the band. I know he later moved to piano, but in the early days he was said to be in the band but Billy Thorburn was the pianist.

Gibbons lead the Savoy Orpheans starting in 1932 and continued to play at the Savoy Hotel until 1937 when they quit being the house band because the hotel wouldn't let them play gigs in other venues. The name of the band was changed to the Savoy Hotel Orpheans and later, when Carroll Gibbons became a big selling point for the group, it was changed again to Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans.

I know this seems like I actually found a lot of information, but certain things remain a mystery, like the recording date of this track. Snow White's With a Smile and a Song was released as a single on the Columbia record label with One Song, another Snow White song, as the b-side. But when was it recorded? Well, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937 so it can't have been before that. I would guess that it was probably recorded around 1938 or 1939 as the music from that film was quite popular after its release.

It should also be noted that the vocals are sung by Anne Lenner, a popular British singer who sang for Carroll on many occasions.

With a Smile and a Song Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans 1939?