Time Machine – 1930s – Andrew Sisters – Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! – MP3

This song was originally recorded by Orrin Tucker and his orchestra in 1938 or so….his female vocalist at the time became an instant national celebrity on the strength of their recording of this number…her name was Wee Bonnie Baker…if you can find one of those recordings, you would have a real original…the Andrew Sisters recording was a spin-off from the success of Bonnie’s s version.

My name is John Sforza and I am the author of SWING IT! THE ANDREWS SISTERS STORY (published Nov., 1999 by the University Press of Kentucky and available in bookstores, and on the Internet at Amazon.com & Barnesandnoble.com).
The trio recorded “Oh, Johnny! Oh, Johnny! Oh!” on 11/9/39 at New York’s Decca studios with Vic Schoen and his orchestra, who backed the sisters on most of their Decca hits. Schoen’s musical arrangement of the Orrin Tucker hit (w/ “Wee” Bonnie Baker supplying the coy vocal in that version) was classic, with blaring, harmonizing trumpets and some spirited scatting by the girls, who are incredibly in-sync with each other throughout the entire recording.
Although the trio’s recording of the tune did not find its way onto the Billboard charts (46 of their recordings DID make the Top-10, which is more than Elvis or the Beatles!), their version did pop up in Variety’s Top-10 listings, spending 9 weeks in the Top-10, peaking at #2.
The original Decca recording can be found in its most pristine sound on MCA’s “The Best of the Andrews Sisters” (MCA2-4024), released on lp and cassette in 1974. The song has also popped up on several cds, including Blue Moon’s “The Best of the Andrews Sisters,” but these transfers are very flat and or muffled, and the harmonies and swinging band arrangements are therefore diminished. If you’d like to hear a great live performance of the tune by the trio with Glenn Miller and his orchestra from 1939, pick up a copy of “The Andrews Sisters w/ the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Chesterfield Broadcasts, Volume 1” (RCA/BMG 09026/63113-2), currently available on cd and cassette.
Great stuff!

Got this info out of the Big Bands Songbook:

Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! Ed Rose and Abe Olman

By inserting a few extra panting ‘ohs’ and a few insinuating ‘uh-uhs’ into a World War One hit, Wee Bonnie Baker succeeded in transforming previously G-Rated “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny Oh” into a PG rated top selling record in 1939. But that wasn’t the first time the song had swept the nation. Back in 1916 it was sung by Eddie Cantor, Al Holson, and Sophie Tucker, among others. It was featured in the Ziegfield Follies and as a measure of it’s popularity sold an almost unheard of million and a quarter copies of sheet music. In 1918, Olman, who later became one of the big band era’s most successful music publishers, had become increasingly patriotic and also quite weary of constantly plugging and hearing his song. So he enlisted in the army. And what were the first sounds he heard upon arriving at training camp? A bunch of rookie soldiers marching to the tempo of – you guessed it-“Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh.”