Nick Lucas - Accent Records

Nick is excited about a tune he recorded only last week. Entitled "Pasta Cheech," it was written by Harry Warren, who penned "That's Amore." Warren recently formed his own publishing firm and "Pasta Cheech" is the first tune printed under his own banner. Dallas Morning News Paper, Feb. 7, 1956

First and Last Accents
1955-1980© 2007 Melody Man Records
-MMCD-2577-

Souvenir Album
© 2006 Melody Man Records
-MMCD-1493-

Rose Colored Glasses
© 2020 Melody Man Records
-MMCD-2588-

Featured Songs:

Soldier's Guitar

Kind and Considerate

Can't We Talk It Over

Related Links:

Scott Seely

Interviews

1978 Indianapolis, Murat Theatre

Nick Lucas
&
Accent Records

(Annotations adapted from the First and Last Accents CD liner notes of Michael R. Pitts)

Nick Lucas felt the records he made for the Hollywood based Accent

Record label were among the finest and most satisfying of his career. Lucas

recorded with Accent longer than he did with any other label. (Cavalier,

Decca, Paramount, MGM). By the time he began working with Accent,

Nick Lucas was 57 years old, a time when most singers had retired. Yet

for the next quarter century he could continue to make records, his voice

and guitar playing just as good as in his heyday with Brunswick Records

from the mid-1920s into the 1930s. With Accent he also had the benefit of

much improved recording techniques. For example, he would record a

song and then sometimes add one or two additional guitar or banjo tracks,

something he could never have done at Brunswick. In listening to these

Accent recordings one is amazed at the power and clarity of Nick Lucas'

voice and the agility of his guitar work, although he was past 70 when most

of them were made.

Nick Lucas' first recording session with Accent Records was on March

14, 1955 at Radio Recorders on Santa Montica Bulevard with the songs

"Paper Roses" and "Bella Nonna" (Little Grandmother) and did two more

separate sessions in 1955 and 1956. One of these songs recorded in the

1956 session, "Pasta Cheech," was composed by Harry Warren, who

considered it his favorite work. It would be almost a decade before Nick

would return to Accent, as he did in 1964 with the then popular "Hello

Dolly," coupled with the first of three versions he would do of his best

remembered number, "Tip Toe Thru the Tulips," which was written for him

to sing in the 1929 film THE GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY.

In 1966 Nick waxed "Darling, I Love You" and "It's Been a Good

Life," two songs he would re-record for Accent two and three years later,

respectively, in his SOUVENIR ALBUM, and ROSE COLORED

GLASSES album. In 1968 there were two more Accent sessions, resulting

in four of the best records he ever made: "Our San Diego/I'm Blue for

You" and "Brown Eyes, Why Are You Blue/Worryin'." The latter single

carried a letter from Nick to DJs and music librarians promoting the disc.

In it he noted, "The band on this session was great, with a dozen men from

the (Lawrence) Welk band doing great things to Scott Seely's

arrangements." "Brown Eyes, Why Are You Blue" was recorded by Nick

several times. He had a big seller with it for Brunswick in 1925-26 and in

1948 he did it again in a demo Capitol version. In 1956 he recorded it for

the third time for Cavalier Records which added material to songs he had

already done for that label in 1952, resulting in a long playing album TIP

TOE THRU THE TULIPS WITH NICK LUCAS.

Nick's second Accent album, ROSE COLORED GLASSES-(ACS-

5043), was recorded April 16 and 17, 1969; (available on CD from Melody

Man Records / MMCD-2588) his first LP for the label, SOUVINER

ALBUM ( ACS-5027) was done the year before and also available on CD

from Melody Man Records (MMCD-1493). Four songs from ROSE

COLORED GLASSES were culled from the LP and issued as singles in

1970: "Looking at the World Thru Rose Colored Glasses/I'm Sitting on Top

of the World" and "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You/I Want To Hold

You In My Arms." The first three songs had originally been waxed by Nick

for Brunswick Records in the 1920s and had been major sellers for him.

The final 45 rpm record Nick Lucas did for Accent was "Silver Sails" in

1974, backed by his third version of "Tip Toe Thru the Tulips" for the

label. Altogether Accent Records released ten singles and two LPs

between 1955 and 1974. Quite a few other recordings between 1955 and

1980 Lucas made with Accent Records were unreleased.

The complete title list of released and unreleased recordings Nick Lucas

made for Accent Records can be found listed within the discography
pages.