Currently Listening Mark II

Last night, whilst working at the computer, I was listening to a couple of Bobby Darin records - 'Dream Lover' and 'Mack the Knife'. Although he was a world famous singer/songwriter and film/TV star the younger ones on here may not have heard of him. He died in 1973 at the age of 37.

As I haven't got this song of his I decided to get it from youtube and listen to it and put it up here. It was his last big hit in this country



For those of you that remember him:-
He has a star on the 'Hollywood Walk of Fame' and the Las Vegas 'Walk of Stars', is in the 'Songwriters Hall of Fame' and the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame', won a 'Golden Globe' for his performance in the film 'Come September' (where he met and married film star Sandra Dee), was nominated for another Golden Globe and an Academy Award and was awarded a posthumous 'Lifetime Achievement Award' at the Grammy Awards.

Kevin Spacey produced and acted as Darin in his biopic 'Beyond the Sea' and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

Darin was also a very popular night club performer and was pretty good at impersonations. He did this set on one of his TV shows.

You youngsters may not know many of the people he impersonates on this clip. Skip through to about 2.40 on th clip.

 

On this day, 32 years ago, Muddy Waters was performing at a night club in Chicago when The Rolling Stones turned up, before their three day gig in town.

It was obvious that the club had known the Stones would turn up as there were cameras there but Muddy got them up on stage performing with him.

 

I commented on this song on another thread and it has got stuck in my head

The old song, "On the Road to Mandalay" (1907), has a first line that says "By the old Moulmein Pagoda lookin' eastward to the sea". This was a major error by Rudyard Kipling as the sea was to the west of the Moulmein Pagoda - but, in the poem, it scans better!

There have been many versions of the song and Frank Sinatra took a bit of liberty with the tune and wording when he gave this performance.

 

Early on in this thread I gave the information and songs, in one of my 'connections' stories, about the connection between Buddy Holly, Don McLean and Roberta Flack. (Maclean wrote and sang the song 'American Pie' about Holly, and Flack did the song 'Killing Me Softly With His Song' about McLean - both really lovely songs.)

There was another close connection as well. The song 'American Pie' was also known as 'The Day The Music Died' and was about the death of Buddy Holly (who died in a plane crash with Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and the pilot, Roger Peterson).

This was one of Don Mclean's best performances and youtube has almost 4 million hits on it!



The crash happened on their way to their next gig in Minnesota. A decision was made to continue with the show/local dance as a tribute to the stars and the local radio station put out a plea for performers to come along.

Bobby Vee aged 15 had, just a week beforehand, started putting a group together. They quickly decided on a name (The Shadows) and volunteered. This started him on a career that made him one of the giants in the pop world. Some of his big hits over here were 'Rubber Ball', 'More Than I Can Say', 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes', 'Run To Him' and 'Take Good Care Of My Baby'.



During his band's early days they sometimes had a pianist join them. The pianist, playing as Elston Gunnn, eventually performed under the name of Bob Dylan. Dylan speaks with great respect about Vee.

Sadly, Bobby has now been diagnosed with Altzheimers