#frankie laine

[dayniac]

Doris and Frankie Laine

They recorded Sugarbush and How Lovely Cooks The Meat in 1952.

[welleducatedinfant]

high noon by frankie laine sung soprano

[singeratlarge]

SONG OF THE WEEK: “That Lucky Old Sun” https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/that-lucky-old-sun

The lyrics of "Lucky Old Sun" contrast the toil and hardship of the singer's life with the obliviousness of the natural world. Yet he sees a silver lining and God's deliverance behind it all. This song was written in 1949 by big band musician Beasley Smith and prolific Tin Pan Alley lyricist Haven Gillespie—who also wrote "You Go To My Head" (another favorite of mine). They said “Ol’ Man River” inspired this song, which gained more presence with me after hearing Brian Wilson's 2007 concept album based on this song. In 2020 I added it to my set list for when I perform in assisted living homes. My arrangement blends the definitive Frankie Laine recording with the soul of Louis Armstrong's (in 1949 both artists released "competing” versions). I've grown fond of singing it and I added a gospel flair to it. Please listen (feedback welcome), and don’t work too hard out there.

#luckyoldsun #GreatAmericanSongbook #OlManRiver #BeasleySmith #HavenGillespie #BrianWilson #LouisArmstrong #FrankieLaine #gospel #work #river #johnnyjblair #singeratlarge

[highbrow-hepcat]

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #4: 1953

Moving on to 1953. This year continues to represent many of the trends featured in previous polls, such as traditional pop and folk staples. Another staple of the 1950s (and later the 1960s) is the novelty song, as seen with the inclusion of (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?.

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[gracie-bird]

Frankie Laine visiting Grace Kelly, Celeste Holm, Frank Sinatra on the set of "High Society” in 1956.

[spilladabalia]

Dead Kennedys - Rawhide (lost session tapes)

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

Revisiting the Charts #5: December 26, 1957 (Billboard Top 100)

It’s Christmas time again, and Revisiting the Charts is heading back to the merry Christmas week of 1957 to take a look at Billboard’s Top 100!

1. Singing the Blues — Guy Mitchell Current Spotify stats: 13.707.537 plays

A simple and not very memorable song, sure, but still a catchy one. While Guy Mitchell’s hit version is competent enough, Marty Robbin’s (which also reached the top 20 at the time) sounds more charismatic to me.

2. Green Door — Jim Lowe Current Spotify stats: 1.816.796 plays

Strong honky-tonk vibes here; suddenly you feel the need to get up and dance! Shakin’ Stevens made this fine rockabilly number a hit again in the 1980s, and his version is just as good as Jim Lowe’s.

3. Love Me Tender — Elvis Presley Current Spotify stats: 99.349.865 plays

The minimalist instrumentation makes this recording a good example of Elvis' talents, as his vocals do all the heavy lifting here. His high baritone voice had a unique and plushy tone, and he was always able to express emotion through his singing. A must-listen.

4. True Love — Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly Current Spotify stats: 5.001.601 plays

I've heard a few versions of this Cole Porter-penned song, and they all sound flat to me. The chorus is insipid. The restrained arrangement of this version doesn't help either. And be warned: despite it being labeled a duet, Grace Kelly is barely present.

5. Just Walking in the Rain — Johnnie Ray Current Spotify stats: 13.841.716 plays

Johnnie Ray is an underrated name nowadays, and this is one of his biggest hits. A quintessential 1950s rueful song with a smooth performance by Mr. Ray.

6. (tie) Blueberry Hill — Fats Domino Current Spotify stats: 97.324.232 plays

This R&B recording is considered a classic, but I wasn’t impressed by it. I don’t think Fats Domino gave the song what it needed. Everyone and their mother recorded this song (and despite its catchiness, it’s not that good), so there are many nice versions out there. Brenda Lee’s poppier cover is my favorite one, and it’s worth a listen.

6. (tie) Love Me — Elvis Presley Current Spotify stats: 30.998.484 plays

Another Elvis ballad, with a title similar to the first one. In less capable hands, this song could have become a boring number, but Elvis' skillful delivery managed to make it presentable.

8. (tie) Hey! Jealous Lover — Frank Sinatra Current Spotify stats: 629.831 plays

I can see why this one ended up being forgotten; it’s just silly fluff. Sinatra has much better singles.

8. (tie) A Rose and a Baby Ruth — George Hamilton IV Current Spotify stats: 84.570 plays

This sounds like a demo, and not a promising one. It’s like the singer isn’t even trying.

10. Moonlight Gambler — Frankie Laine Current Spotify stats: 2.138.443 plays

Not a bad song, and Frankie Laine’s vocal performance is quite solid, but the whole thing gets pretty repetitive after a few listens.

[originalharmonysalad]

Frankie Laine and Perry Como - The Frank Sinatra show (1951)

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 24th December

Well, one of these tunes is certainly not like the others, and precisely none of them thrill me - though they're about the most predictable thing that could happen around Christmas 1959.

Rawhide - Frankie Laine (peaked at Number 6)

Just when we thought his presence was gone from the charts for good, Frankie's back to defend his title of "most entries in this blog". To nobody's great surprise, at least if they've been following any of the rest of Frankie's career, it's a Western theme he comes back with - in fact, of of the Western themes of all time. You think Western themes, this is probably gonna be in your top 5, alongside tunes such as the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, or the theme from High Noon.

Unlike those themes, though, this is from a TV show, not a film. The show was called Rawhide, and ran from 1959 to 1965 on CBS. It was, unsurprisingly, a Western serial drama focussed on a group of cattle drovers in the 1880s, working on a cattle drive. The plots were surprisingly realistic and naturalistic, and dealt with all manner of gritty, sometimes controversial themes, including anthrax, wolves, banditry, morphine addiction and racism.

The music fits this perfectly, with the whole thing starting with what sounds like a chant, a men's chorus singing the now iconic intro of rollin' rollin' rollin' rawhide! It creates a chugging, driving effect, evoking the monotony of riding for hours, of head aafter head of cattle filing past. And the pace and tone this sets holds strong throughout the whole song, which never slows down, just keeps chugging along, with a steady doo-doo-doo continuing in the background as Frankie takes the lead.

Frankie, for his part, is also giving his all, singing about how you've got to keep rollin' rollin' rollin, though the streams are swollen' and how he must continue through rain, wind and weather / hell-bent for leather / wishin' my girl was by my side. It's an image of a life that's hard and lonely, if not without a certain romanticism and rough masculinity - all of which is underscored by the middle part, with the almost frenzied delivery of lines where Frankie almost screams at his colleagues to move 'em on, head 'em up, head 'em up, move 'em on / Cut 'em out, ride 'em in, rawhide! It sounds physical, like you can hear the exertion that the job demends, the sheer physical toughness of it all, and then we add in a key change upwards and a bunch of hearty hyah noises, presumably as Frankie uses his rawhide whip on the cattle he's droving. It genuinely sounds a bit unhinged by the end - Frankie's holding absolutely nothing back, here!

I kind of expected to dislike this as a piece of cheesy, campy silliness. And yes, there's definitely something a bit camp about it. But I think the energy that Frankie throws at it has actually endeared this song to me a lot more than I expected - there's a sort of fun to it, an adventurous romance that you can't help but be sucked into. And I'm clearly not the only one to think this - the song's been used and/or parodied in film after film, as a signifier of rugged cowboy antics.

More and More Party Pops - Russ Conway (5)

I don't think Russ' case is helped either by the absolutely terrible recording quality of the only version I can find of this track, or by the fact that I've just listened to a completely different Russ track that I actully didn't mind. In comparison to the tentatively pretty enjoyable Snow Coach, this is just not as memorable - and all that despite the fact that it nominally did better than Snow Coach?

I think some of that might be down to the established "Party Pops" branding. People who bought the previous edition last year and enjoyed it are more likely to buy this one, after all, and I can kind of see the appeal of the medley format for a Christmas party - it's doing a similar thing to those end of year mashups of all the year's hits that you get around New Year nowadays. Or at least I assume it does - the song certainly changes enough to make me think it's a medley, though I don't recognise literally any of the tracks that seem to have made it in, barring the classic "shave and a haircut" riff at the end, which does give a certain Cockney charm.

Okay, a bit of research suggests that it is indeed a medley, beginning with The Sheik of Araby, a 1921 Tin Pan Alley hit and jazz stadard, a more mysterious tune called Who Were You With Last Night, and a music hall tune referencing the rag and bone trade, called Any Old Iron. I know precisely none of these, though the same source suggests a Part 2 exists including, along with two other mystery tunes, a version of Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Which, while it's a fun little number, isn't enough to make me want to track down Part 2, it it really exists - two and a half minutes of this is more than enough of Russ for me, I think.

Piano Party - Winifred Atwell (10)

In further proof that the British record-buying public have questionable taste, this track, despite being clearly of better quality than More and More Piano Pops, did not do as well. Why, I don't know - it's zippier, chirpier and better recorded than Russ' stuff, and even includes at least one song that I recognised straight off, a jaunty version of Baby Face, which was a Little Richard hit all the way back at the start of the year.

I actually get familiar vibes from a few more of the songs here, too, possibly because one tune that's included is Comin' Thro' The Rye, which gave us the rock and roll-ified version Rockin' Through the Rye a while back, and which also sounds a whole lot like Auld Lang Syne - a similarity that surely helped this along, in a season Christmas and New Year's parties. There's also touches of Frosty the Snowman, later on, which is almost certainly a coincidence - though the song has existed since 1950, which is a good decade or two earlier than I'd assumed that song came out.

Aside from this, there's not much I recognise, but I still appreciate the verve that Winifred brings to it all - she swaps between songs quicker and plays in a slightly wilder, less controlled way than Russ does, and it's great. I particularly like the left hand bassline that comes in at about the minute mark, all low and menacing and slightly jazzy - it's not a huge part of the song, but it's a real virtuoso performance. As Winifred's yearly hits go, this is one of my favourites, honestly - she's giving it so much, and honestly her playing is kind of impressive, in its own right.

As I said, one song here stands out, both in terms of genre and also in my reaction to it - though I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I appreciated Winifred's annual outing, this time round, too. Still, it was Rawhide that really won me over, with it's silly hyah whip sounds and the sheer gusto that Frankie throws at it. Between him and Winifred, I think we're set for sheer enthusiasm for - oh, shall we say a year? That sounds about right to me.

Favourite song of the bunch: Rawhide

[hollywoodcomet]

Musical Monday: Bring Your Smile Along (1955)

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: Bring Your Smile Along (1955) – Musical #780 Studio: Columbia Pictures Director: Blake Edwards Starring: Frankie Laine, Keefe…

[mishalogic]

Cool Water

Song for the moment ... Misha

[singeratlarge]

SONG OF THE WEEK: “That Lucky Old Sun” https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/that-lucky-old-sun

The lyrics of "Lucky Old Sun" contrast the toil and hardship of the singer's life with the obliviousness of the natural world. Yet he sees a silver lining and God's deliverance behind it all. This song was written in 1949 by big band musician Beasley Smith and prolific Tin Pan Alley lyricist Haven Gillespie—who also wrote "You Go To My Head" (another favorite of mine). They said “Ol’ Man River” inspired this song, which gained more presence with me after hearing Brian Wilson's 2007 concept album based on this song. In 2020 I added it to my set list for when I perform in assisted living homes. My arrangement blends the definitive Frankie Laine recording with the soul of Louis Armstrong's (in 1949 both artists released "competing versions"). I've grown fond of singing it and I added a gospel flair to it. Please listen (feedback welcome), and don’t work too hard out there.

#luckyoldsun #GreatAmericanSongbook #OlManRiver #BeasleySmith #HavenGillespie #BrianWilson #LouisArmstrong #FrankieLaine #gospel #work #river #johnnyjblair #singeratlarge

[ghassanrassam]

1956 Lucy Marlowe is abducted