DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

A musical phenomenon capturing America’s fancy during that Camelot period, just before Kennedy’s assassination, HELLO MUDDAH, HELLO FADDAH, Allan Sherman’s parody of “The Dance of the Hours” ballet, from the opera La Giocanda was a world-wide smash. (It made it to #2 on the Billboard Top 100, won the Grammy for best comedy performance, inspired books, a sitcom, a musical, numerous commercials, and has been translated into a multitude of languages.

Sherman, born Allan Copelon (1924-1973) was a tragic clown who died young from a combination of alcoholism, obesity, and diabetes. His career was a roller coaster which careened from being a successful TV game show producer to ignominious unemployment, then back up to the heights of comedy success as a performer, before plummeting back down to earth and to his early death at the age of 48.

Anyone who has ever attended a sleep away camp (as I did at Camp Snow Hill) can relate to this hilarious litany of mayhem, as well might the mothers and dads who may have gotten a summer vacation from parenting (but, also some separation anxiety). And, anyone who has ever attempted to write song parodies (me again - my finest hour being when Lewis Black performed my ditty “Candid Cancer” )- will count Allan Sherman as their Buddha - (his most notable descendent being Weird Al Yankovic).  Brilliantly subversive, irresistibly charming - Sherman was a comedic supernova.  

I’m sure almost everyone who interviews you must ask about “Time Is on My Side.” But could you talk about why you gave up playing it for a while in the middle of your career?

"Well you know, after a while, when you sing something that you know you’ve recorded, and you did the first national version of it, and when you’re singing, somebody tells you: “Oh, you’re doing a Rolling Stones song,” I got tired of explaining that I did it before the Rolling Stones. After a while that gets to be old. And so I stopped doing it, because I got tired of explaining that. They didn’t do their homework, they made assumptions. And so at some point you get tired of repeating yourself. Even now, I don’t do it as much as I do others. I sing it, but a lot of times it’s requested before I think about doing it, because I have so many other songs I can do.

I have a large enough repertoire that by choice I can either do all of my own material or I can do a few cover songs that I like. And by taking requests, it makes it simpler, because then you are doing what your audience wants to hear. And I’ll put it this way: Most folks leave satisfied that they’ve heard their favorite song.

In fact, “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is” — I recorded that back in 1964. I was at a show on the East Coast somewhere, and somebody in the audience asked me to play “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is.” I said, “Wow, I haven’t heard that request in a long time.” I sang it for them, and then when I got through, I asked them: “What album did you get that from?” They said, “We didn’t get it off an album. We heard it on ‘Black Mirror.’” You never know where you’re going to get a request from, or where they heard the song. And so I prepare — I put as much of my own material in my iPad, lyrically, so in case someone asks for it, I’ll do my best to do it for them."

Is there one song that you consider nearest to your heart?

"The only one that I could say I’m closest to would be the one that got me my first big hit, which was: Wish Someone Would Care". It became No. 17 in the nation, and if it hadn’t been for the British Invasion, it might have gone a little higher in the charts. There were some personal things going on in my life and I wrote the song because of those things. So that would be the closest to me."

IT IS TIME TO WALK WITH THE ZOMBIES! '
WELCOME TO THE PORTAL NO ONE LEAVES ALIVE.
HALLOWEEN IS UPON US, AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO CELEBRATE THIS TERRIFYING TRADITION THAN A "DIG THIS" JOURNEY INTO THE THE NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE.
YOU WILL BE TRANSPORTED AND EDUCATED WITH DELIGHTFUL DREAD AS WE VISIT THE TALE OF ROCK AND REAPER ICON ROKY ERICKSON, A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SPOOKY SPLENDOR OF HALLOWEEN AND THE MEMORY OF JOHN ZACHERLE, THE HEAD MASTER OF THE GHOUL SCHOOL OF OUR YOUTH.
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!

PLEASE VISIT "DIG THIS" AT  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2028913 FOR A VARIETY OF ENTERTAINING MUSIC AND POP CULTURE  PODCASTS!!

Ok, this is an ironic first for SUNNY SONGS: an emo number about death. WTF? I can’t really explain why, when I set about devising a list of songs that make me feel good, this one popped into my head. Maybe it’s the unflinching devotion expressed by composer Ben Gibbard. It’s calm, simple, stoic, resolute. “When your soul embarks I will follow you into the dark,” he proclaims. No questions, no hesitation. His love is eternal, and conquers the fear of unending night. We’ll hold hands, he assures his love. 

I can remember when I first heard it, riding in the backseat of a car on a roadtrip. It wasn’t loud, and took me by surprise, gobsmacking me, and causing me to well up instantaneously.  I wanted to know who that singer was, wondering who could have rendered this perfect piece. I had heard about the band from Bellingham, WA, with the unusual name - Death Cab For Cutie, but I had never actually heard them. The name derives, I discovered, from a song title written by the British Bonzo Dog Band humorists, Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes. Things just got curiouser and curiouser. 

In the lyric Ben tells us that he was taught in Catholic school that “Fear is the heart of love,” and he is clearly doing his utmost here to countermand that dogma. Recorded solo, on a single mic during a session break, I Will Follow You Into the Dark may have failed to chart on the Billboard Top 100, but it went double platinum, was nominated for a Grammy in 2007, and has been featured in many many tv shows and films, proving that, sometimes, quieter is better.

https://www.npr.org/2007/12/21/17498799/moby-grape-just-cant-catch-a-break

1930- 2014
Inducted Into The Songwriters Hall Of Fame In 1995.

While songwriter/producer/recording star, Bob Crewe, is perhaps best remembered for the notable parade of hits penned with co-writer Bob Gaudio for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, his songwriting credits began considerably earlier.

In the early '50s, New Jersey-born Crewe first tasted success on the music charts with writing teammate Frank Slay with a batch of hits for a variety of artists. Among the best known were "Silhouettes" and "Daddy Cool" for The Rays; "Lah Dee Dah" and "Lucky Ladybug" for Billy and Lillie; and Freddy Cannon's "Tallahassee Lassie" and "Okefenokee."

In 1961, Crewe also blossomed as a recording artist himself, with a pair of solo albums on Warwick Records. Kicks, featuring "The Whiffenpoof Song," and Crazy in the Heart, both produced by one of the more colorful producers of that time.

Following these successes as a solo recording act, Crewe joined forces with songwriter Bob Gaudio, and good fortune struck almost immediately for the pair with the smash hit, "Sherry," for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Thus began a years-long association with an uninterrupted string of chart successes including "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Rag Doll," "Ronnie," "Walk Like a Man," "Bye Bye Baby" and "Connie 0," as well as the monumental Frankie Valli hit, "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You."

Other Crewe and Gaudio successes include "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine," for The Walker Brothers and "Silence Is Golden" by The Tremeloes. Following this phase, Crewe moved out again on his own to form The Bob Crewe Generation ("Music to Watch Girls By"), utilizing studio musicians and original material for instrumental music collections. Bob Crewe later teamed with writer, Charles Fox, in penning the soundtrack for Dino De Laurentis' film, "Barbarella."

During the mid-sixties, Bob Crewe turned discoverer, locating a band known as Billy Lee and The Rivieras, which he later re-named, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, a major success on the charts with such Crewe-arranged smashes as "Jenny Take a Ride," "Devil With the Blue Dress On" and "Sock It to Me Baby."

As the '60s were coming to a close, Crewe had also established his own recording firm, Crewe Records, which owned hits by Oliver and Lesley Gore, among others. Later, Crewe wrote and produced the song, "Eternity," which became an international hit for Vicki Carr. Following a short stay with Motown Records, when he produced what turned out to be Bobby Darin's final album, Crewe rejoined forces with Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli, and bought back from Motown the tape master for Valli's "My Eyes Adored You," a song co-written with Kenny Nolan, which became a huge new hit for Valli on Private Stock Records. The song "Lady Marmalade," another joint effort for Crewe and Nolan, went on to reach hit status and also helped re-establish Patti LaBelle as an artist of major stature.

Still later, Crewe and Gaudio teamed with another writer, Jerry Corbetta, in penning the hit song "You're Looking Like Love to Me," for Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson. Crewe also collaborated with Corbetta and the writer, Ellie Greenwich, in producing the original cast album for Greenwich's Broadway musical, "Leader of the Pack."

In addition to his music, Crewe also owned impressive credentials in the art world. He has designed numerous album covers and has been featured in several one-man gallery showings, including The Earl McGrath Gallery and Thomas Solomon's Garage in Los Angeles.

All it takes is one good idea; one spark of Promethean fire to ignite a life-long, multi-generational success. For Ross Bagdasarian Sr., it was a sped up tape recording of a nonsense scat phrase: “Oo-ee-oo-ah-ah; Ting-tang Walla Walla Bing Bang…”

Taking inspiration from “Duel with the Witch Doctor”, a volume sitting on his bookshelf, Ross bought a tape recorder and set about creating a silly rockabilly tune, featuring a duet with himself. By overdubbing his voice singing slowly, recorded at 1/2 speed, and then speeding up the tape, he created a high pitched character that charmed the world.

The resulting novelty record pulled Liberty Records out of near bankruptcy, selling 1.4 million copies and landing at the pinnacle of the Top 100 and R&B charts. He used the same technique to create the world wide Alvin and the Chipmunks craze which he then parlayed into a number of big records and an animated tv series. After Ross’s untimely death in 1972, the franchise was shepherd by his son, Ross jr. into a raft of hit, live action features running all the way up to 2015. 57 years of popular commercial product from one zany idea. Not bad. 

Jimi Hendrix-
"Electric Church/ Red House"

An unreleased Jam session featuring  Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, Lee Michaels  and the great Buddy Miles

This track was originally intended for release on an album titled "Best Of The Bootlegs".
This album was scheduled for release by Warner Brothers in 1994 but was shelved by producer Alan Douglas.
All tracks were early demos and studio jam recordings.

JIMI HENDRIX ON THE BIG SCREEN:

Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church presents the legendary guitarist in full flight at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival before the largest US audience of his career. This critically acclaimed film combines color, 16mm multi-camera footage of Hendrix’s unforgettable July 4, 1970 concert in its original performance sequence together with a new documentary that traces his journey to the festival amidst the dark shadow of civil rights unrest, the unrelenting toll of the Vietnam War and a burgeoning festival culture that drew together young people across the country who were inspired by the Woodstock festival.

Marty (1955) is the poignant, simple character study of a lonely, unmarried, lovelorn middle-aged, 34 year old son who works as a Bronx butcher and still lives with his love-smothering mother. By film's end, he and another homely 29 year old Brooklyn schoolteacher and female wallflower are liberated - both are triumphant over their respective limitations.

The film's screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky transformed his own original teleplay into a successful major motion picture - and the modest film remains one of the best examples of the cinematization of a television play. (The 48-minute TV comedy-drama was originally presented on NBC-TV's "Philco-Goodyear Playhouse" series on May 24, 1953 as a 60-minute broadcast, with leads Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand, during a period now recognized as the "Golden Age of Television." It received zero nominations during the Emmys that year.) It was the only film based on a TV drama to ever win Best Picture.

As a feature film, it was one of the biggest 'sleepers' in Hollywood history, from the independent production company of Harold Hecht and actor Burt Lancaster (Hecht-Lancaster). A modest, black and white film in an era of wide-screen color epics, its critical acclaim and box-office success were phenomenal - its $340,000 production budget yielded over $5 million in gross proceeds. And it was the second Best Picture Oscar winner to also win the Golden Palm (Palme d'Or) at Cannes - The Lost Weekend (1945) was the first.

Marty was nominated for eight Academy Awards - and was awarded four - Best Picture!, Best Actor (character actor Ernest Borgnine in a role quite different from his menacing, sadistic villains or murderous 'heavies' in From Here to Eternity (1953) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)), Best Director (Delbert Mann for his debut film), and Best Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky). It was also the shortest Best Picture winner at 91 minutes.
Like “On the Waterfront,” this film demonstrates that story, performance, and direction always count. Neither color nor new projection and sound techniques could make “Marty” any better than it is now. Although filmed on a modest budget (reportedly about $300,000), there is no evidence of any stinting in the production values, a factor the industry will note.

Despite the picture’s north Bronx locale and concern with an Italian-American family, the theme is universal and many viewers may experience a degree of identification. It’s a quiet, simple story. While lacking in general excitement, it’s sparked with sufficient comedy.

Basically, it’s the story of a boy and girl, both of whom consider themselves misfits in that they are unable to attract members of the opposite sex. The boy, sensitively played by Ernest Borgnine, is a friendly, mild-mannered guy in his thirties who feels he hasn’t the handsomeness or the necessary savoire faire to impress girls. He is constantly needled by his mother, with whom he lives, and the customers at the butcher store where he works, to get married.
The girl, beautifully played by Betsy Blair, is a plain schoolteacher whom everybody is always trying to fix up with dates. Pair come together at a boy-meets-girl dance where Miss Blair is ditched by her blind date. A blossoming romance brings both out of their shells as each is able to pour out pent-up emotions to the other.

Country Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall's death at 85 in 2021 was by suicide, officials in his native Williamson County, Tennessee, have confirmed to reporters.

The cause of death was first reported Wednesday by the website  "Saving Country Music" which followed up on multiple comments posted on a year-end In Memoriam piece and confirmed the cause of death with Williamson County’s medical examiner. Rolling Stone also confirmed the coroner’s determination of suicide with county officials.

The report obtained by Saving Country Music showed that Hall “had sustained an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, to the head, on the morning of 8/20/2021. A 911 call was placed at 1115 hours on 8/20/201. Williamson County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) and Williamson Medical Emergency Medical Services (WMC EMS) responded to the call. Paramedics confirmed death at approximately 1133 hours, due to obvious injuries.”

Port's Award Winner Tom T. Hall speaks onstage at the 5th Annual ACM Honors at Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 19, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn.Frederick Breedon IV / Getty Images file

Hall’s son, Dean Hall, also a musician, had announced his father’s passing without offering a cause of death. He subsequently deleted his social media accounts, the website reported, and did not respond to requests for comment.

After being one of the biggest country stars of the 1970s, and certainly one of the most revered for his artistry among country cognoscenti to the present day, Hall had long since retired from performing and recording. Performing only sporadically after the mid-1990s, he delivered his last performance in 2011, saying he preferred enjoying life on the farm with his wife, Dixie Hall, and thought newer generations should have their day.

He was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2019, Hall was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Other honors ranged from becoming a Grand Ole Opry member in 1971 to receiving a tribute from BMI with its Icon award at the org’s annual Nashville awards dinner in 2017.

Hall, nicknamed “The Storyteller” for his unadorned yet incisive lyrics, composed hundreds of songs. As a songwriter, he was known for hits for others, like “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” recorded by Jeannie C. Riley in 1968, as well as his own unusually literary No. 1 country singles of the 1970s like “The Year Clayton Delaney Died” and “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine.” He was also famous for the prosaically titled “I Like Beer,” a top 10 hit in 1975. Among his best known songs were “I Love,” which spent two weeks at the top of the country chart in 1974 and crossed over to the top 40. Among some modern fans, he might be best recognized for the oft-covered “That’s How I Got to Memphis,” which has become an Americana standard.

Patterson Hood of the band Drive-By Truckers called Hall “the greatest storyteller songwriter of all time” upon hearing of his death. “A writer’s writer. There’s at least a dozen categories of song that he wrote arguably the best ever example of.”

Dixie Hall, who achieved her own fame as a songwriter and collaborator, died in 2015. Dean Hall, his son from a previous marriage, is Hall’s only child.