Jimmy Stewart was not the only soon to be famous actor at Princeton University in the early 1930’s. Jose Ferrer was one year behind him in his college studies. At the time, Ferrer was a budding songwriter and, as vocalist, fronted his own small band, the Pied Pipers. Ferrer and band mate Sid Wyse had written a song titled Love Comes But Once and decided to have the band travel to New York City to record it. Just how Stewart got to go along and be the vocalist on that song is not known. However, Sherm Totten, another member of the Pied Pipers, remembered in a letter published in Record Research (Issue 124, November 1973), that the recording session took place at Standard Sound Recording Corporation in 1930 or 1931. Regardless of the exact recording date, this record would predate the better known Day After Day, which wasn’t recorded until the very end of 1931.
The following scan of the record’s label was provided to us by the folks at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library on the Princeton Campus.
We also have a copy of this record in our own collection and as you can see, the label is somewhat different:
Here the label plainly says, “Vocal Chorus By Jose Ferrer.” Despite this claim, the singer is clearly Stewart. Whether or not Ferrer ever recorded the vocals for this song is not known. Ferrer was the vocalist on the other side of the record, singing Sweet Georgia Brown.
In another letter to Record Research (Issue 125/6, February 1976), Totten remembered the members of the band for the recording session as being: Ralph Hallenbeck (trumpet), Edgar Allen Custer 3rd (trombone), Sherman Totten (sax), Robert Ficke (sax), John Bachman (sax), Sidney Wyse (piano), George White, Jr. (banjo), Al Clothier (drums) and William Gibby (bass).
We’ve kept you waiting long enough. Here it is, straight from the original 78 RPM record, Jimmy Stewart with Jose Ferrer’s Pied Pipers performing Love Comes But Once.
