kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 15, 2020 16:47:44 GMT -8
Who remembers this band? They were a talented group of guys and made some good music.
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Post by timothylane on Jan 15, 2020 16:56:02 GMT -8
I had their greatest hits on LP, and a CD of it was one of the first CDs I picked up. They also appeared in Louisville 15 or 20 years ago along with the Lovin' Spoonful. A friend of mine got a pair of tickets (they were sponsored by the firemen) but had no interest in attending himself. But he knew I liked both groups, and Elizabeth ended up attending (and enjoying ourselves).
CDs (actually MP3 folders) from both are part of my regular music sequence. "Along Comes Mary" is one of my favorite of their songs. "Requiem for the Masses", which immediately precedes it, is another.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 15, 2020 17:03:59 GMT -8
That band did some nice harmonies. Here's hoping that pop music can drag itself out of the gutter and rediscover art. /theassociation-56a6cc2f3df78cf7729021c4.jpg) |
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 15, 2020 17:09:49 GMT -8
I doubt we will live to see it, but hope springs eternal.
I estimate that I have over 300 albums and CDs, mainly classical and pop. I would love to put this all on digital media in one big resource. Maybe one day.
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Post by timothylane on Jan 15, 2020 17:22:51 GMT -8
There are ways to download CDs onto computer images, which is how we have this humongous collection of MP3s. It includes a lot of mine (maybe most of them, but definitely not all), some of Elizabeth's, and many more from several other people. Between all of us, I'll bet we supplied a lot more than 300 to the music library. I don't play anywhere near all of them, and there are numerous odd gaps.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 15, 2020 17:23:33 GMT -8
If you've got a hundred dollars burning a hole in your pocket, sign up for a year of Apple Music and you'll likely find most of your albums on there. Music sitting in a drawer is basically music unused. I know. I have a drawer full of untouched CDs.
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Post by timothylane on Jun 7, 2020 20:06:27 GMT -8
I was just playing an anthology CD which started with "Wild Thing" by the Troggs. This made me think of the novelty version by "Senator Bobby"; I also knew that there was another by "Senator Everett McKinley" but had never heard it. I found Senator Bobby (an actual comedy group) on youtube, and they had (and I played) both songs.
There's some nice byplay. The Republican version mentions Rocky (who's paying for the session), Ronny (with a west coast sound), and Barry. The Democrat version mentions Teddy on the ocarina and has Senator Bobby's kids overrunning the band so he has Ethel get them out of there.
Naturally, Senator Bobby sounded better -- he was portraying a 40-year-old with a good voice, whereas Dirksen was much older and sounded like it. They also have some other items which I may listen to sometime.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 17, 2020 18:20:59 GMT -8
I don't believe I've ever heard that:
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 17, 2020 18:31:35 GMT -8
And you can appreciate the talent that went into the cover art:  WildCam |
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Post by timothylane on Jun 17, 2020 18:32:30 GMT -8
The other side has a version by "Senator Everett McKinley". I heard the Senator Bobby version at the time, but never heard the other one (though I had heard of it) until I recently looked them up on youtube. I only heard it on the radio so I never saw the cover art.
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Post by artraveler on Jul 13, 2020 5:54:08 GMT -8
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 31, 2020 14:43:34 GMT -8
Wow. Great article. And “The Summer Wind” is one of the finer examples of Sinatra. I love that song.
As for earbuds vs. speakers for quality listening: I’ve never liked earbuds. But I do have a good set of Sony over-the-ear headphones. And I have a very good stereo system as well. Either does Sinatra justice. I don’t know what “circular breathing” is, but Sinatra himself credits Tommy Dorsey (trumpet) for the importance of learning a good breathing technique. That was an early relationship that clearly benefited both. There’s no doubt that Dorsey gave Sinatra some of the formal training he needed but without emasculating his creative instincts. Add Nelson Riddle into the mix. Again, both men gained a lot from that relationship. Ditto Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Mercer, and the great Cole Porter. On one of his CDs (or articles), Frank talks about a concept he had for an album. It would be sort of a musical travelogue. He had some great songs in hand but needed one to bring it all together and be the headliner. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen went to work and the next day had “Come Fly with Me.” Basically "hits by order." There may have been a good reason Frank was known as The Chairman of the Board. He may have recorded more original songs written just for him than anyone else. I was listening to his “Duets” albums yesterday. Frank is way beyond his prime. But there are some good numbers here even so. Surprisingly, Willy Nelson is among the best, doing “London Town” and “My Way” with Sinatra. Whatever you may think of Willy Nelson, he is not (at least in these songs) a ham. But listen to Bono mangling “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and you can appreciate the professionalism of old pros like Nelson. [Skip to 2:25] |
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Post by timothylane on Jul 31, 2020 15:22:04 GMT -8
"Summer Wind" is on my Sinatra best hits MP3 set, which I listen to occasionally.
Interestingly, I have a folder of duets by Petula Clark. (Sinatra never worked with her, evidently. Too bad.) I wonder how many performers had such albums. Certainly there are duet songs, but the Clark one is the only set of duets that I'm aware of in our music library.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 31, 2020 17:41:09 GMT -8
Clark and Sinatra would have sounded great together. I'll see if Apple Music has that album . . . They have only four of her albums (not counting live albums and compilations). But you can find the Duets on Amazon on CD.
One of the greatest songs of the 60's is Clark doing Hatch and Trent's "Don't Sleep in the Subway." I put "Downtown" ahead of that. But both are iconic songs. With songs like these you can say "No one else is quite like Petula Clark."
To his credit, Frank does a credible rendition of it:
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 31, 2020 17:50:28 GMT -8
I'll still take the Clark version. But this is sort of fun:
I am not picturing Nancy Sinatra naked. That would just not be right.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 31, 2020 18:40:22 GMT -8
I do have a few Sinatra family songs, including "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by Nancy and Frank Jr. about what they gave "our loving dad", as well as individual songs by both Frank and Nancy (she also did some fine duets with both Dean Martin and Lee Hazelwood). But I don't have either one doing any Petula Clark songs.
Incidentally, Jackie Trent was Tony Hatch's wife. I guess they made a good team in more than one way. I think she first showed up (in the Clark songbook) on the very underrated Colour My World/Who Am I album. One or another (or both) of "Please Don't Go" and "What Would I Be Without Your Love" was written by her, as I recall. (My MP3 folders generally don't include songwriters, but that was the very first album of hers I picked up when a friend suggested used record shops. Within a little over a week I had 10 albums bought in 3 different such stores, which is more than I ever had by any other performer.)
Way back when, the satirical show That Was The Week That Was did an interesting parody: They played "Downtown" while showing pictures of the seamier side of urban life. It was amusing, but it also inevitably caused me to notice the song, and decide that I really liked it. My liking of pop music really got started then and there. I also associated her with "Don't Sleep in the Subway".
Unfortunately, she had a skyrocket career in America, at least for someone who hears what other people are listening to. So by the time I started buying a record collection of my own, I had pretty much forgotten about her. Then she was a guest star on The Muppet Show shortly after I started watching it on a friend's recommendation, so I started looking for her records. It was a few years before I succeeded.
"And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you." Hmm, no wonder I so enjoyed "Downtown". There was never a time in my life when that wouldn't speak to me. And a lot better than the sort of emotions I got out of "Eve of Destruction" or "I Am a Rock" or later "Goodbye to Love". One reason I was so dedicated to reason was because of the darkness of my emotions.
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Post by timothylane on Jul 31, 2020 19:04:37 GMT -8
I just checked on wikipedia, and Trent's contributions to the Colour My World album were "What Would I Be" and collaborating with Hatch on the two title songs. Hatch was involved in several others as well, including "Please Don't Go". The article on Trent (which didn't identify her written songs) noted that "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" was based on what was then an affair between Hatch (who wrote the song) and Trent. (It's a favorite of Clark's.) They were married in 1967, which was probably after the Colour My World album came out.
I listened to the two Sinatra songs. Frank and Nancy played the first stanza of "Downtown" quite straight, matching Dame Petula's words exactly as best I could tell. Of course, when you have a favorite song, a version in which someone plays around with it can be displeasing. A friend of mind reacts that way to Clark's superbly sung version of "Windmills of Your Mind" (incidentally, one of the songs on Duets is her singing it with the original French composer) because she changes a couple of lines that are favorites of his. I wasn't so familiar with the song previously, so that's not a problem for me. But I have a similar problem with her superbly sung version of "Cherish" on the Colour My World album (though I still play the song when I listen to the MP3).
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 1, 2020 8:43:24 GMT -8
Well, let's play it!
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 1, 2020 8:48:01 GMT -8
Frank was known to change a lyric or two. Purists like Mark Steyn would roll their eyes but I liked his style.
On the Sinatra Duets album, "The Lady is a Tramp," with Luther Vandross, Frank changes the word to "Champ." Is that woke?
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 1, 2020 9:06:49 GMT -8
I’d never heard of Luis Miguel. But he does a duet on Duets II with Sinatra, “Come Fly with Me,” that is terrific. I’ve not turned into a fan of his but he does have an extraordinarily smooth rendition of it.
Okay, that was a little girly. And I could take this guy only in small doses. But I think it works for that duet.
Another signer who can dish it on Duets II is Jon Secada (never heard of him either):
Is this guy the successor of Mel Tormé or what?
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