1925: Jan Garber & His Orch. - Cross-Words Between Sweetie And Me

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Jan Garber & His Orchestra - Cross-Words Between Sweetie And Me, Fox-Trot (Steele-Schafer-Heagney-Read), Victor (Recorded in USA; Canadian product) 1925

NOTE: Mid-late 1920s were the best period in the long-lived history of Jan Garber’s dance band. Starting in 1920 as the Garber-Davis Orchestra with the renowned pianist Milton Davis in his team, Jan Garber’s band performed mostly in the Southern states until 1924, when Milton Davis left and Jan Garber formed a new band entirely of his own, performing mostly the hot pieces for dance, and gaining high popularity in the northern states as well as in the East Coast. He became so popular on the air that radio announcers nicknamed him the “idol of the Airwaves”. The Great Depression hit hard Garber’s band, the audience’s interest in the happy jazzy performing abruptly diminished and to catch up the sudden changes in the public taste, Garber in 1930 completely refashioned his orchestra into a big band, which played sweet pieces good for smooth dancing and listening to. This saved his band from the collapse and ever since Jan Garber continuously accompanied, with growing popularity, next two generations of American pop-music lovers.

This little known earlier recording of Garber’s band is one of the best in his “hot dance” period, especially the fantastic piano solo at 1:45 to 2:15 attracts attention of every Jazz Age connoisseur. Below, I’m quoting the song’s refrain which explains where the strange title comes from:

"Sorrow has torn at my heart strings / I wonder who is to blame
My sweetie never has time for me / She's deep in love with a game
Crosswords have made me blue as can be, / Cross, crosswords between my sweetie and me,
She's been puzzling, don't seem to care / Whether I'm near her or taking the air
I'm jealous. How can I win sympathy? I'm hoping she'll soon need L-O-V-E.
Every night in our little home / We sit together, but I'm all alone.
She's so contrary / Her old dictionary and crosswords are sweeter than me."

The slideshow consists of the finest drawings by the Canadian artist Arthur William Brown – illustrator ofF. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis shoty stories and novels, he also worked for Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, College Humor, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, portraying like no one else, everyday life of the American upper middle class in the 1920s/30s.