Celebrating the Full Orchestral Grunt

Or, another chapter in the long-running series, “Odd Things from Pandora”. So across Pandora one day came streaming the song “Whatever Lola Wants,” recorded by Carmen McRae in the mid 1950’s. It’s from the show Damn Yankees, in which Lola isn’t simply a femme fatale, she’s the Devil’s assistant. The recording is typical non-rock-n-roll ’50’s pop: a singer backed by a brass orchestra. Now, I’d never heard the song before; I only recognized the name because once in a while my dad would say, in his archest voice, “Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!”

So, OK, an interesting song, well sung; except that at particular points in the song the background singers, who I take to be the orchestra members, give out with a deep, loud “Unh!” It’s like a full orchestral grunt! So OK, I says. Lola brings out the beast in men, so they’re grunting. OK. I get it.

Well, then, a couple of days later I heard Rosemary Clooney single “Mambo Italiano”, which is a fun little bit of a song, also from the mid-’50’s. And what do I hear at the end of the song? My old friend, the full orchestral grunt!

So was this a thing, in the 1950’s? Male band-members expressing their manly natures and appreciation for the singer by belting out a loud, carefully enunciated grunts in unison? Ms. Clooney was quite attractive in those days, so I suppose it’s possible.

But then, what to make of Perry Como’s “Papa Loves Mambo”, which contains many instances of the FOG?

Although, listening to it again I notice that many of the backup singers are women; I suppose they can grunt, too, if they like. Who knew that Perry Como was so avant garde?

Anybody have any idea about the history of this odd bit of musical punctuation?