Painted Smiles Records


Painted Smiles Records was a small record label, based in New York City and run by Ben Bagley, which operated from the 1970s to the 1990s. It is best known for its Revisited series of recordings of little-known songs by well-known songwriters.

History

Genesis

During Ben Bagley's long stay in a hospital while recovering from tuberculosis, his best friend Arthur Siegel brought him tapes of little-known songs by great Broadway songwriters. Bagley was inspired to produce his own recordings of such songs, initially for existing record labels. In 1971, he founded his own label, Painted Smiles Records. Painted Smiles released cast recordings of Bagley's own revues and of historical and contemporary Broadway musicals, and many collections of those little-known songs.

The ''Revisited'' series

Most Painted Smiles recordings, most titled ... Revisited, were anthologies of the lesser-known songs of the top Broadway musical composers and lyricists from the 1920s through the 1940s, including Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Noël Coward, DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, Vernon Duke, George and Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Yip Harburg, Jerome Kern, Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Arthur Schwartz, Kurt Weill and Vincent Youmans.
The Revisited albums shared a distinctive design. Their covers displayed bright watercolors by Harvey Schmidt of showgirls in improbable and sometimes surreal costumes, often naked or nearly so above or even below the waist, on white backgrounds. Their backs were crammed with Bagley's detailed, witty, gossipy and occasionally ribald liner notes, bylined "by Ben Bagley ", and small photographs of the performers.
The Revisited series featured performances by some of the leading Broadway performers of the day, cabaret and jazz singers and many great theatre and film actors and other personalities not generally known for their singing ability, among them Ellen Burstyn, Martin Charnin, Richard Chamberlain, Phyllis Diller, Sheldon Harnick, Laurence Harvey, Katharine Hepburn, Lynn Redgrave, Rex Reed, Joan Rivers, Jerry Stiller and Gloria Swanson.
Playbill called Bagley's liner notes for the Revisited albums "odd and iconoclastic" and the albums themselves "hardly scholarly and sometimes downright unpleasant to listen to ". However, "the discs are nonetheless embraced by fans hungry to explore old, mothballed material by extraordinary songwriters".

Production

In its first decades Painted Smiles released its recordings on vinyl. In the 1980s it began releasing CDs, and re-released many of its earlier recordings on CD. Many Painted Smiles releases have been re-released, with improved sound, by Kritzerland Records.
Painted Smiles' first logo, used on the labels of its LPs, was a pair of lipsticked lips suggestively encircling the spindle hole. Its second logo, used on CDs, was a nude woman, standing, holding a snake's head and tail to form a capital P, with the rest of the label's name in cursive. Both logos were designed by Jerome Hill, who had put up the money to start the label.

Discography

Titles of Bagley's revues and the Revisited series are prefixed with Bagley's name, but in a smaller font and different case indicating that it is not part of the title proper.
Except where noted, all complete entries were written by consulting a copy of the release. That is, each complete entry is its own citation.

Long-playing records

Except where noted, partial citations are taken from the list of releases on the back cover of E.Y. Harburg Revisited.Lola. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1335.Alan Jay Lerner. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1337.Miss Julie. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1338.Kenward Elmslie Visited. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1339.Cole Porter. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1340.Rodgers & Hart Vol. 1. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1341.Vernon Duke. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1342.Rodgers & Hart Vol. 2. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1343.Harold Arlen. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1345.Arthur Schwartz. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1350.Desylva, Brown, Henderson. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1351.Vincent Youmans. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1352.Ira Gershwin. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1353.The Grass Harp. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1354.Irving Berlin. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1356.George Gershwin. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1357.Unpublished Cole Porter. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1358.Frank Loesser. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1359.Shoestring Revues. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1360.The Littlest Revue. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1361.Shoestring '57. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1362.Jerome Kern. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1363.Ballet on Broadway. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1364.Oscar Hammerstein. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1365.Rodgers & Hart Vol. 3. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1366.Rodgers & Hart Vol. 4. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1367.R & H's Too Many Girls. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1368.Make Mine Manhattan. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1369.Cole Porter Vol. 3. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1370.Cole Porter Vol. 4. US: Painted Smiles Records PS 1371.

Compact discs

All CDs released by Jackson Heights, NY: Painted Smiles Records.