1940 Jack Teagarden - Night On The Shalimar (Marianne Dunn, vocal)

Classical music buffs know that this melody originated as part of the “Polovtsian Dances” from Alexander Borodin’s 1888 opera “Prince Igor.” And most everyone knows it as the Broadway tune “Stranger In Paradise,” adapted from Borodin for the Tony award-winning musical “Kismet.” Long before “Stranger,” during the big band years, there had been at least two attempts to turn this melody into commercial gold. In March 1940 at his “Frenesi” session for Victor, Artie Shaw recorded it as “My Fantasy” with a Pauline Byrne vocal. Then a month later, the Teagarden band tried it with a different lyric on this Varsity release. Transferred from the original 78rpm: Varsity 8278 - Night On The Shalimar (Fisher) by Jack Teagarden & his Orchestra, vocal by Marianne Dunne, recorded in NYC April 14 15 or 16, 1940