In light of the forthcoming Salinger documentary (something I dislike very much and would like to go away immediately), this week's Hit of the Week is Freddie Rich's Radio Orchestra playing Call Me Darling and Comin' Thro' the Rye. This comes from Holden Caulfield's misreading of the Robert Burns' poem Comin' Thro' the Rye. He thinks the lines are: "If a body catch a body", but Robert Burns' wrote "If a body meet a body".

--

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
  Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
  Comin thro' the rye!

Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
  Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
  Comin thro' the rye!

Gin a body meet a body
  Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
  Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
  Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
  Need the warl' ken?

Gin a body meet a body
  Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
   The thing's a body's ain.

--
 

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In the early 1930s, there was a record label in America called Hit of the Week. They catered mostly to the poorer majority of people during the Depression. Their records were made of a mixture of paper and resin, called durium, unlike most other label's shellac phonographs- which were more durable and resistant to time's persistent weathering abuse. Their phonographs were usually sold at newsstands, as opposed to record stores, in a rice paper sleeve for 15 cents a piece.

These flimsy little records weren't made to survive an extended amount of time, they were made for the people who loved music and couldn't afford to not have them. I really like the idea that people who largely couldn't afford a meal would spend the money to purchase a record instead. There's something to be said about the sentiment behind that (it certainly wasn't materialism or consumerism that drove these people to the newsstands).

Luckily, for us, this company has found and reproduced the songs from that short lived era of desperate hunger for music. Lucky for you, the reader: I have decided to post a song from this ephemeral little record company weekly. I hope that, in light of all the convenience of downloading albums and movies for free, this can serve as a small reminder that some things and feelings are well worth the money.

The following players are as follows: