The Victor Salon Orchestra was created in 1924 to play mainly instrumental orchestrations of popular and light classical music.
Starting just before the inception of electrical recording in 1925, a number of acoustically recorded pieces were re-visited soon after the development of microphone
technology enabled greater fidelity and the ease and sensitivity of the new recording system allowed greater spacing between musicians to give better balance between the instruments.
Nat composed and arranged thousands of pieces. His best-known popular composition was The Lonesome Road, first sung by co-writer Gene Austin and later by Willard Robison and recorded by more than two hundred artists, including Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Frank
Sinatra and Paul Robeson. He composed the theme song Lady Divine for the Academy Award winning film The Divine Lady in 1929. He also composed the theme song Some Sweet Day for the film Children of the Ritz in the same year. His composition Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac
Time sold almost two million copies of sheet music and was also recorded by over a hundred top artists, including Louis Armstrong, Skitch Henderson, Guy Lombardo, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, John McCormack, Mitch Miller, Hugo Montenegro, The Platters, and
Lawrence Welk. You'll find the Victor Salon Orchestra's version on Disc 3 of this set. His composition Concerto for Trombone was premiered in 1945 by Tommy Dorsey, playing with the New York Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. The piece was
unavailable to the public from the mid-1950’s until Scottish trombonist Bryan Free rescued it from anonymity in the beginning of this century. It was re-premiered at Carnegie Hall by the New York Pops, under the direction of Skitch Henderson, with Jim Pugh as soloist.
Since its revival, the Concerto for Trombone has been performed about sixty times (with more performances scheduled) in the USA, Canada and several European countries. In 1935 he moved to Los Angeles, contributing music scores and musical direction for a string of
Hollywood films for RKO (as musical director from 1935 to 1937), Walter Lantz Productions (one of the studio's musical directors during 1937) and MGM (as a musical director from 1942 to 1946). His films included Mary of Scotland (1936), Swing Time (1936), The Plough and
the Stars, and Shall We Dance? (1937) and several films of Laurel and Hardy. He also received an Oscar nomination for his work scoring the film version of Maxwell Anderson's stage drama Winterset (1936). In 1939, he conducted a group of soloists (including tenor Jan
Peerce) and the Victor Symphony Orchestra for RCA Victor's multi-disc tribute to Victor Herbert, which were recorded following a special NBC radio broadcast, and he recorded a number of other albums in 1939 and 1940. Due to a serious abdominal operation for cancer
removal, he did not conduct for most of 1941. He worked at RKO-Pathe, making short films from 1946 through the mid-1950’s. He was the pit orchestra conductor for the Broadway show Paris '90 in 1952. He lived in his son's home in Franklin Square, New York, from the mid-
1950s. ~ Mickey Clark
Victor Salon Orchestra #1 Recorded 1924 - 1926 CD039A
WHAT'LL I DO? VIC 19433 07/11/24 30378 BERLIN
MARCHETA VIC 19433 08/15/24 30379 SCHERTZINGER
I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS VIC 19695 05/18/25 32485 KAHN-JONES
NOLA VIC 19758 06/12/25 32486 BURNS-ARNDT
MONTMARTRE ROSE VIC 19695 06/12/25 32721 LYMAN
YEARNING(JUST FOR YOU) VIC 19702 06/12/25 32726 DAVIS-BURKE
WARBLINGS AT EVE MARGARET MCKEE-WHISTLING VIC 19849 06/30/25 32210 SHILKRET-RICHARDS
WHEN YOU AND I WERE SEVENTEEN VIC 19702 08/05/25 32733 SOSOFF
GLOW WORM-IDYLL VIC 19758 08/18/25 33322 ROBINSON-LINCKE
JUNE BROUGHT THE ROSES VIC 19802 08/26/25 33323 OPENSHAW
DANCE OF THE TOY REGIMENT VIC 19849 08/26/25 33346 GREEN-SHILKRET
BY THE LIGHT OF THE STARS VIC 19799 09/04/25 33366 LITTLE-SIZEMORE-SHAY
REMEMBER VIC 19802 09/10/25 33378 BERLIN
OH! HOW I MISS YOU TONIGHT VIC 19799 09/25/25 33377 DAVIS-BURKE-FISHER
WHAT'LL I DO? VIC 19876 11/01/25 30378 BERLIN
MARCHETA VIC 19876 11/01/25 30379 SCHERTZINGER
A PERFECT DAY VIC 19874 11/10/25 33863 JACOBS-BOND
MOTHER MACHREE VIC 19874 11/23/25 33864 YOUNG-OLCOTT-BALL
LA GOLONDRINA VIC 21055 01/12/26 34324 SERRADELL
ALWAYS VIC 19972 02/15/26 34616 BERLIN
JUST A COTTAGE SMALL VIC 19972 02/15/26 34617 HANLEY-DE SYLVA
LONG LONG AGO VIC 19992 03/10/26 34694 BAYLY
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