Sentiment Pays

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 673, 27 May 1929, Page 14

Sentiment Pays

AUCKLAND HAS SPENT £3,600 ON 17.800 “SONNY BOY” RECORDS l I WOMEN WEEP IN SHOPS If there is anyone inclined to dispute the suggestion that money may be made through exploitation of sentiment, Auckland can provide an answer which should silence all doubters. Within the past month two agencies alone have distributed 17,800 copies of the record, “Sonny Boy/' Auckland has therefore paid approximately £3,600 to hear a sentimental song. With this number of records in cir- j mulation in the city, suburbs and country, there is little reason to be surprised when somebody, with the proper catch in their voice, sings softly: When there are grey skies I don't mind the grey skies— You make them blue, Sonny Boy. During the past year there has been a great boom in the sale of single records, and although “Breeze” was an immense success, “Sonny Boy” has practically eclipsed it now, and distributors say that the demand for the latter number is only now at its height. Naturally there is great demand for the recording made by A 1 Jolson. and one dealer relates how a woman came into his shop to hear the record. She wept while the Jolson voice throbbed sadly and brightly by turn. With the song over she stepped happily out into the sunlight once more. Other dealers give similar “eports, and there seem to be a lot of people prepared to take their joys sadly just now. The popularity of the gramophone as a means of social entertainment is now far ahead of books, and a popular record will be sold in thousands where a book is sold only in hundreds. A big city shop last year sold roughly 500 copies of “Beau Ideal” (Wren) and “Sands of God” (Sabatini) but what a poor showing against “Sonny Boy.”