Music Tastes

You youngsters under 60 years old missed out. As a teenager we would ride around in my Volkswagen (with no brakes), crammed full of people and suddenly we would hear this on the radio:

I told the witch doctor I was in love with you

doh doh doh

I told the witch doctor I was in love with you

doh doh doh

And then the witch doctor told me what to do

He told me

Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang

Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang

We would sing "The Witch Doctor" at the top of our lungs. And then the exotic "Purple People Eater" would blare, and our voices would blare even louder.
  

Well I saw the thing comin' out of the sky

It had one long horn, one big eye

I commenced to shakin' and I said "ooh eee"

It looks like a Purple People Eater to me.

It was a one-eyed one-horned flyin' purple people eater

One-eyed one-horned flyin' purple people eater 

One-eyed one-horned flyin' purple people eater

Sure looks strange to me.

Not only did you poor children miss out on these wonders, but you were not born early enough for "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" and "Please Mister Custer, I Don't Wanna' Go".

With this foundation in my repertoire it was only natural that I went to school to study music. There I learned that the music I listened to evolved from the Gregorian Chants through to old Gospel Music employing a basic four chord progression in a major key. And if I listened to "Singin' the Blues" I discovered that there was such a thing as a minor key.

I once read a short science fiction story about Shakespeare appearing in our current world. He found out that there was a college course on Shakespearean Literature, so he signed up for it. He flunked the course. He walked away bewildered. In his mind he meant what he wrote just as he wrote it. But they assigned deep and mysterious meanings to his words that he just couldn't fathom. He was completely lost trying to read his own words the way they told him to.

Sometimes we can destroy a subject by studying it too much.

My music tastes have changed since those early teenage days. In some ways I guess it could be considered more sophisticated. I love the jazz vocals of Mel Torme (known as the Velvet Fog) and appreciate the singing of Michael Buble. I am intrigued by Mannheim Steamroller, and appreciate the symphonic tones of Aaron Copeland, H. Owen Reed, and Heitor Villa Lobos -- and even that oddity Esquivel. Put a nice jazz combo in a restaurant, and I will sit there all night.

But in one way, my music tastes take a bit of a twist.  There is one other singer I like a lot.

His birth name was Francesco Peolo LoVecchio, His father was deeply involved with the Mafia, and his grandfather was gunned down by a rival gang. He started singing at the local church, and when he was 17 he was invited to sing at Chicago's Merry Garden Ballroom before a crowd of 5,000 people, and the crowd was so ecstatic that he had to give four encores. He said of that experience, "I was really nervous but I started singing 'Beside an Open Fireplace,' a popular song of the day. It was a sentimental tune and the lyrics choked me up. When I got done, the tears were streaming down my cheeks and the ballroom became quiet. I was very nearsighted and couldn't see the audience. I thought that the people didn't like me."

He ended up working with Rose Marie, Anita O'Day and became friends with Nat King Cole. He also became close friends with Perry Como, and Mr. Como would have to lend him money so he could travel to his performances. These were hard times. "I would sneak into hotel rooms and sleep on the floor. In fact, I was bodily thrown out of 11 different New York hotels. I stayed in YMCAs and with anyone who would let me flop. Eventually I was down to my last four cents, and my bed became a roughened wooden bench in Central Park. I used my four pennies to buy four tiny Baby Ruth candy bars and rationed myself to one a day."

In 1939 a program director told him that Francesco LoVecchio was too much of a mouth full and he needed to change his name. He did. To Frankie Laine.

Frankie continued to sing a various jazz spots until he was discovered by Hoagy Carmichael and got a record contract. But that pretty much went nowhere. He was singing at The College Inn in Cleveland when he sang a fifteen year old song named, "That's My Desire". People would line up just to hear him sing that song....and it led to a record contract with Mercury. 

Frankie was $7,000 in debt and he was astounded when his first royalty check was over $30,000. He paid everyone back, except that Perry Como refused to take the money. Frankie Laine continued singing jazz and had four gold records. 

Then he suddenly changed a little. He cut a new record with the lead song "That Lucky Old Song". It was a spiritual -- and that type of music just wasn't recorded back then. It became his fifth gold record. Then he recorded, of all things, "Mule Train" -- and to everyone's astonishment, the two albums, "That Lucky Old Song" and "Mule Train" became number one and two on the charts.

Frankie Laine, the popular jazz singer, found that he liked singing songs of the west. Some would consider it sophisticated Cowboy music -- with the twangs of guitars and banjos replaced with french horns and trumpets. He had a sophisticated voice that was rich with emotion, and it came through warm and crystal clear.

Frankie had 39 hit records featuring such songs as High Noon, I Believe, Cool Water, Ghost Riders in the Sky, The Cry of the Wild Goose, Rawhide, The 3:10 to Yuma, Jezebel, Gunfight at the OK Corral, They Call the Wind Mariah, and  Tumbling Tumbleweeds. If you have seen the TV series "Rawhide", that is his voice and music...and the movies "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and "The 3:10 to Yuma".

An interesting note. Frankie Laine was even more popular in Great Britain than in the U.S. and even topped Elvis in the charts at the height of Elvis' career and he broke all attendance records at the London Palladium. He was personally requested to perform a Royal Performance for Queen Elizabeth.

So, when I am in a down mood, I will drive down the road, plop in a CD of Frankie Laine and sing The Cry of the Wild Goose at the top of my lungs right along with Frankie.

He was 93 years old when he died in 2007.

Here is a You Tube link, if you are interested. Ghost Riders in the Sky