Back in the day, when an instrumental tune became an unexpected hit the next order of business was to see if a lyric could be added to expand the songs recording possibilities–singers, after all, were still where the big money in music was. Neal Hefti’s beautiful theme music for the
Apropos of yesterday’s post featuring the lyrics to the theme song of ‘Bewitched’, here is the ‘I Love Lucy’ theme with lyrics sung by Ricky Ricardo himself. The theme was written by two-time Oscar nominee Eliot Daniel. The lyrics were later written by five-time Oscar nominee Harold Adamson for the 1953 episode ‘Lucy’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSKhIqMBhzchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cdt5dtRURE Last Friday I posted about the theme song of the classic TV show Bewitched. Today I’m adding two vocal versions. The first is sung by Steve Lawrence and the second by Peggy Lee. Steve does a perfectly serviceable Steve Lawrence impersonation (people often say he tries to imitate Frank
YouTube is an interesting place to hang out. It enjoys introducing people to material that it houses and makes some curious connections when doing so. For instance, I’ve been posting Fats Waller material for the past few days. When I awoke this AM and logged in I found that they
Here’s another Fats Waller short made for jukebox consumption in 1941 (see yesterday’s post for ‘Your Feets Too Big’). ‘The Joint Is Jumpin’, written by Waller, Andy Razaf and J.C.Johnson, is another of his hit novelty numbers and it’s given a rowdy treatment in this dramatization of what a Harlem
Last Friday I posted about a beautifully restored jukebox that was equipped to show films of the bands performing the songs in the jukebox. These films, known as ‘soundies’, are a great preservation tool as far too little film of performers of the day exist, especially black performers who were
Here’s an excerpt of a musical sequence from an obscure 1944 Republic Studios movie called ‘Atlantic City’. The number is ‘Harlem On Parade’ and it’s a more-than-slightly-valuable documentation of three of the prime black entertainers of the 1930s/40s. I refer to the above mentioned performers who all are given a
A gentleman named Jon Torrence made the above home video of a beautifully restored machine from 1939 called a Mills Company Panoram. This was a period jukebox with a screen that permitted the viewing of soundies–short films of bands and singers performing popular songs of the day. Mr. Torrence is
Here’s the complete ‘Shindig’ from October 7, 1964 which features The Beatles bookending the show. They begin with ‘Kansas City’ which features a rocking (though barely audible) McCartney vocal and then everyone has to wait twenty minutes for their return. Meanwhile another seven performers take the stage, possibly feeling the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOmlwDTVxA As a piece of material, ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’ by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkens is pretty much indestructible. When I first stumbled upon this clip from a 1969 ‘Hollywood Palace’, featuring a Barrie Chase dance set to the song, I had high hopes. Alas, they seem to