Ladies and Gentlemen – Mr. Eddie Deezen!

I have been meaning to do a little interview with Eddie Deezen for a couple of years. I was always afraid to ask. You see, we’ve been friends on Facebook for some time and I’ve found that we share a lot in common. He has shared a lot of great personal stories about his interactions with other Hollywood celebrities, as well as some amazing trivia on just about everything.

I had noticed that he did a few podcasts with other Facebook friends and thought, “Maybe, he’ll allow me to ask him some questions for my blog.” As scared as I was to ask, Eddie said yes almost immediately. What follows in the transcript, if you will, of our chat. My questions are in bold and his answers follow.

Today is Eddie’s birthday, by the way, so what better way to celebrate than sharing a few minutes with him?

Keith: You and I have been Facebook friends now for almost 10 years. You have a very active social media presence. For fans like me, it is a wonderful way to connect with you. Like a true friendship, you share your life with us and you share your laughs with us. Many celebrities avoid social media or have someone run their page for them. What is it about social media (Facebook) makes you love it so much?

Eddie Deezen: I love Facebook. I am 100% pure Facebook. I know I could reach more fans and have more followers on other sites, on Facebook I am limited to just 5,000 fans. This is the only thing about Facebook I dislike. The 5,000 friend limit makes no sense to me. I am a compulsive writer and joke writer. I fill up notebook after notebook with my jokes and stuff. With Facebook I have an avenue of people to see my stuff. Before I joined Facebook in 2009, I would write jokes and stories and trivia to a list of about 200 friends. My Facebook friends are wonderful. I love them very much. Also, I get told by people who are not on my Facebook friends list that they read my posts too. So that makes me happy.

One of the things I look forward to on your Facebook posts is your personal stories about your movies, behind the scenes tid-bits, and your interaction with other actors. Many folks know you as Eugene from Grease. You have shared so many wonderful stories about John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (and others). Do you have a favorite Grease story you love to share?

My favorite Grease story would be how I got Grease in the first place. Ok, I went to my Grease audition in my little suit, with a bow tie and I put Vitalis or some greasy stuff in my hair (The movie was called “Grease”, so I figured Grease in my hair made sense). I went in to Paramount Studios (by the way, Paramount has always been my favorite studio) and the place was packed with guts in leather jackets and girls in poodle skirts and saddle shoes.

I read for Allan Carr the producer), Randal Kleiser (the director) and Joel Thurm ( the casting director). As I was talking to them and reading my two or three lines, I saw them nudging each other. I figured the nudges were a good sign. Anyway, a few days later, my agent calls and tells me I got the part. I was ecstatic, I called my parents and my friends and told them I was going to be in a movie with John Travolta and all.

Then, a few days later, my agent calls me and tells me “Eugene is a small role and the studio decided they’re going to cut out your role from the film”. Of course, I felt like jumping off a cliff. My agent said “We’re going to church to pray”. I swear to God, we go in, my agent gives me a match and tells me to light candies and pray at the alter. I prayed fervently to God. “Please God, let something good happen”. A few days later, the studio calls my agent and tells her they want me back in the movie.

True story. Divine intervention? Or just a lucky break? Who knows? I have wondered about this first 48 years now. You can believe whatever you want, but this really did happen..

That is a GREAT story! I’m glad you got back into the film! Speaking of Grease, you worked with comedy legend Sid Caesar. Did you have any interesting interactions with him?

Well, I was chauffeured home each night with Sid Caesar. I was carefully instructed “Don’t speak to Mr. Caesar unless he speaks to you first”. So I would sit in the back seat and Mr. Caesar would sit in the front seat and I would just sit silently as he spoke to our chauffeur. One day He turned around to me and said “So you’re the water boy, huh?”. I replied sarcastically “ Oh, is it okay if I speak?”. This was very rude of me, but I was a twenty year old kid. Very immature.

Mr. Caesar was a very intelligent man. I would listen to him pontificate about history and religion and stuff. Our chauffeur was named Kirk or Kurt. He was a nice guy.

One of my favorite movies of yours is 1941. What a cast for that movie! You had the chance to work with John Belushi. On Facebook, you have shared that Belushi was actually pretty quiet and was very nice to you. Can you elaborate on that?

John was always extremely kind and nice to me. I loved him so much. We had met previously in New York. He was at the premiere of my movie “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. At the party after the premiere I sat with John and we chatted for about 15 minutes. He was serious and thoughtful. No jokes. He spoke earnestly. I loved seeing him on the set of “1941”

The last time I saw John was around 1980. I was just leaving a really bad audition. I felt bad and who comes walking down the street but John Belushi. He saw I was sad and said “What’s the matter, Eddie?”. I said, “ I just had a terrible audition, John. These guys hated me”. He replied “They’re assholes”. And he just walked away. That was the last time I ever saw John Belushi.

To John’s credit, he was probably right!

I wasn’t going to ask, but I’d kick myself if I didn’t ask you to share a bit about Murray Hamilton and the dummy from the Ferris Wheel scene….

Murray was a wonderful, very nice guy. We had many great talks up on that Ferris wheel. Murray was a big time smoker. He smoked three or four packs a day. So every once in a while he would have trouble breathing up there. Steven had a. Oxygen tank he kept for Murray. If Murray was having trouble breathing, Steven would let us down and Murray would take a few hits of oxygen.

One of my favorite holiday films is the Polar Express. Your work as the Know It All kid is just wonderful! How did you and Tom Hanks get along? Is he as nice as he seems?

Tom has always been my favorite movie star. The first day of the table read, there were a bunch of us all gathered to greet Tom. He was the biggest movie star in the world. He spots me in the bunch, walks up to me first and says, “Hi Eddie. I’m Tom”. No shit Sherlock.

He was a total pro. Never flubbed a line or missed a cue. One day I made a bad mistake. I screwed up a line or some such thing. Our director, Bob Zemeckis, said “cut”. “What happened, Eddie?”, he asked me. Before I could say anything, Tom cut in. “That was my fault”, he said. He took the blame for my mistake. He was like an older brother to me.

After we finished filming “The Polar Express”, he took me to three Dodger games at Dodger Stadium. We sat in his box seats. We sang the National Anthem and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” together. He was just as cool as you’d expect him to be.

That’s awesome. What an experience for you!

You got to work with Dick Shawn in an episode of Magnum PI.

He seemed like a pretty unique guy. His comedy was so different and manic at times. I don’t think there is anything I’ve seen him do that didn’t intrigue me. What was it like to work with him?

Dick Shawn was a wonderful, nice, lovely, friendly, terrific, and delightful guy. I loved working with him. My career was pretty much movies, not a whole lot of television. But that “Magnum P.I.” episode I did (“Squeeze Play”) was probably the best thing I ever did on tv. I loved the entire Magnum cast and crew. Dick Shawn was a marvelous comedian and a fantastic straight man too. I loved playing his nephew.

You also shared the screen with two of the hottest gals of the 1980’s: Heather Thomas in Zapped! and Morgan Fairchild in Mob Boss.

Correct me if I am wrong but don’t you have a story about kissing Morgan Fairchild?

Yes, I did a movie called “ Mob Boss” with Morgan. Ok, we had a scene where the nerdy guy (me) kisses the ultra-sexy woman. We embrace and kiss and my glasses are all steamed up. Well, before we did that scene, Morgan said to me, “Eddie, do you want to rehearse?”. YOU THINK?? So she held me and kissed me at different angles and straight on, Etc. By the way, Morgan was a marvelous kisser. Her lips were so soft. She was also the most lovely lady ever. I loved her so much. She was a fabulous comedienne. Great straight woman too.

It was so much fun to work with Heather Thomas, too. Heather was a doll. She was very cool and incredibly nice. The episode of “The Fall Guy” I did with her was very fun to shoot. I loved all the cast and crew of “The Fall Guy”.

As a voice over actor, you have appeared in countless cartoons and series.

I always love when I hear your voice on something my kids are watching. You showed up recently on an episode of Handy Manny and also on Oswald. Do you find voice acting to be easier than acting on screen or are the about the same? Do you prefer one over the other?

Well, I have never been great at memorizing lines. Now, on camera stuff, you have to learn your lines by heart. For “The Polar Express”, our director Bob Zemeckis, knew my problem, and he let me read my entire role using cue cards.

I enjoy voiceovers and doing cartoons because you can just read your role from a script, no memorization involved. But as a performer, you get a bigger rush doing a movie, because it’s fun seeing yourself onscreen.

A show that many folks don’t remember is the Weird Al Show from the late 90’s. Can you tell me how you got to play “Guy Boarded Up in the Wall?”

Yes, Weird Al is a marvelous, very nice guy. He also knew of my problem remembering lines and he wanted me on his show. So he created the “Man in the Wall” character. I was “ on camera” but I was behind a wall, so I could just read my lines. It was a very fun gig.

Your fans are well aware of your love for the Beatles and their music.

A while back, my blogger friend, Dave from A Sound Day ran a feature. He had some of us bloggers write about the Beatles and if they were still relevant today. I wrote my piece about songs I would use to introduce the band to someone. So, if YOU had to introduce someone who had never heard of the Beatles or their music, what 5 (or ten if you wish) songs would you play for them?

My favorite Beatles song is “A Hard Day’s Night”, so I would have to include that one. Now, you did not ask first my favorite Beatle songs, however, you asked first five or ten Beatle songs I would use to introduce a new fan to the Beatles. So here are my choices:

Love Me Do
She Loves You
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Help!
Yesterday
In My Life
Penny Lane
A Day in the Life
Strawberry Fields Forever
Let It Be

There are so many great Beatles tunes to choose from, and you have some classics there!

You and I share many of the same likes, the Beatles being one of them. However, you are also as big a Stooge Fan as I am. I have loved The Three Stooges since my dad introduced me to them as a kid. You have said often that Curly is your favorite.

It is hard NOT to like him. Is there any one thing in particular that makes him your favorite?

Yes, Curly Howard is my all- time favorite comedian. He was as great as Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton physically. Plus, he was a hilarious verbal comedian, something Chaplin and Keaton were not. He made 97 shorts. About 70 or 80 are comedy classics. He was amazingly prolific. He was all finished and retired by the age of 42. 42!!!! He just wore himself out. He was spent and got progressively sicker. The poor guy was gone at the age of 48. 48!!!

You could really see how sick he was in his last few shorts. The world certainly got a lot less “funny” when he passed away. So, do you have a favorite Stooges Short?

My favorite Three Stooge shorts are “Punch Drunks” and “Micro-Phonies”

Those are both in my top ten Stooges shorts, too. One last question for you, my friend. Do you think Shemp gets a bum rap for following Curly?

Well, yes. Shemp is obviously anticlimactic because he followed Curly. That’s Iike following Elvis or Paul McCartney, anyone would suffer in comparison. That said, Shemp was a fair to good comedian. He was not great. He did not have Curly’s innate sense of humor or timing or sense of what makes a line funny or what makes a gag funny.

He had his great moments, yes, but he has a lot of very unfunny scenes too. Plus, his character was not as original or lovable or magical as Curly’s. I always love what Leonard Martin said about him- Shemp was an indisputably good comedian, but he never had Curly’s “otherworldliness.” A perfect word that captures it all. Curly was otherworldly.

I’d forgotten that you wrote a piece about Shemp for Mental Floss back in 2011. It’s a great piece that readers can see on the Mental Floss Site.

Eddie, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Thank you for your friendship. I truly hope to meet you in person one day. Maybe a trip to the Stoogeum in Pennsylvania one day? I wish you all the best and lots of happiness on your birthday, my friend! Cheers to another year of friendship and laughs!

Thanks Keith. I’m glad to answer these questions for you. You are a wonderful guy and I am proud to have you as a friend both on Facebook and in my life. That trip to the Stoogeum sounds like a plan on my bucket list, so let’s hope! See you on Facebook!

I need to once again extend a huge thank you to Eddie for taking the time to chat with me. If you are a fan, Eddie also does do personalized messages for birthdays and such on Cameo. I had him do one for my dad a year or so ago! You can check out the information on Eddie’s Cameo Page.

Happy Birthday, Eddie! May your day be filled with laughter and happiness!

Share Your Nostalgia – Round 2

Back in November, I did a feature I called “Share Your Nostalgia.” I asked some of my blogger friends to write up a piece that focused on their favorite toy from childhood. The response was positive and it was suggested to do another round. So this time around, I asked for them to tell us about their Favorite Childhood Book.

Their book could be something that was read to them by their parents or grandparents. It could also be a book that was read to them in school at story time. I also suggested that their book might be one that they read to their own children. I wanted each of them to have as much freedom as necessary.

Today’s guest blogger is responsible for my continuing this feature. Dave from A Sound Day hosts Turntable Talk every month, which many of the participants and I take part in. It’s a wonderful music feature that we all enjoy taking part in. When I decided to try my feature, Dave was very supportive of the idea and felt it was worthy of doing again with a change in topic.

Dave has been one of those bloggers that I followed early on. His musical pieces are worth a read daily. Will his books have a musical theme to them? Let’s find out together…

Thanks Keith, for running this interesting feature and inviting me to be a part of it. Last time, we talked about toys we loved as a kid which brought me back a lot of nice memories, as it likely did to most of the readers I would bet. This time we’re remembering something that was as important as the toys to me growing up – books.

I feel fortunate I grew up in a household of readers, book-lovers. My Mom was a school teacher (although she pretty much gave that up to be a stay-at-home mom as my brother and I grew up) and loved books, read quite a bit. Even in her old age, she loved romance novels and Diana Galbadon fantasy books. She even read the hefty Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. My dad was more surprising to many. He dropped out of school at 14, more due to his family’s financial reasons than a disdain for education. He grew up speaking German but learned English when he came over here and taught himself a great deal reading. He built nice bookcases in our living room and filled them with books, fiction and non-fiction alike. He read anything from history epics to James Bond thrillers to ones of philosophy to books theorizing about extraterrestrials; probably where I got my fascination for UFOs from. There were series of books on foreign lands and even some novels that were considered on the “racy” side I’d eventually find out. He was walking proof that formal education isn’t necessarily equal to intelligence. Both of them had their flaws (we all do) but both loved reading and would often take me to the library or bookstores and for that I’m grateful.

Not surprisingly then, my parents got me reading pretty young. I can’t remember the exact dates or details, but most definitely I could read some basic things before I was near school age.

Like most kids my age, I would guess, the first books I remember having and learning to read (first having my mom read it and after awhile being able to myself) were various ones from the great, delightful Dr. Seuss. He had to have done more to promote literacy in young people than any other individual in the 1950s through ’70s. We had pretty much all of the “classic” titles in his collection; I’m thrilled when I go to my town supermarket now and see a big display featuring most of them, even in the same format and with the same covers I remember. Green Eggs & Ham was a real fave of mine, and I liked that rascally Cat in the Hat but of course the prize in that set was The Grinch. Of course I loved the TV version of it (still do) but it was amazingly fun to me back then to be able to read the words and see the still pictures Ted Geisel (aka, Dr Seuss) drew for them. I nearly picked those books collectively to feature but decided to go for something a little more unusual perhaps that were hugely important to me later, when I was … maybe eight to ten years old. The little Golden books, and in particular Weather : A Guide to Phenomena and Forecasts, and Birds : A Guide to Familiar American Birds. Both were small, pocket-sized ( just a shade smaller than a Reader’s Digest magazine as a reference point), had 160 pages and were published in the mid-’50s. And both let me develop a couple of interests I already had into real passions.

Ever since I was little, the changes in the weather, and especially storms always fascinated me. When the thunder rolled or snow blizzarded so hard you could barely see across the street, I ran to the window, not for cover. By the time I was about 10, I had a little weather set and kept records of the temperature, the barometer, the amount of rain we got day-by-day. I was quite the nerd apparently! But I loved that stuff and the Golden book was the one that made me understand it all. It described air masses, cold and warm fronts, how storms developed, tornadoes and hurricanes and how professionals measured it all and came up with forecasts. All explained with a lot of pictures and maps and in terms simple enough for a kid my age to understand, but not totally dumbed down. I swear that an average person who read through it twice might well have a better understanding of how weather works than a number of TV “weathermen” or “weatherwomen” I’ve seen on TV. It was a trusty reference book for me for years, probably until my parents split up and my Mom and I moved, when I was a teen. In no small part thanks to it, I even thought about becoming a meteorolgist. The amount of advanced schooling required for the degree and the probability of being sent to work in some remote northern locale ended up deterring me from that but to this day, I note the weather and try to see the weather maps online. I even took a training course a few years back offered by the Weather Service to be an informed weather spotter… basically if I see a wall cloud that’s rotating or nickel-sized hail falling, I can call into the weather office and report it and they won’t think I’m some total bozo without a clue.

The birds book had a similar effect on me, and I probably got it around the same age. I’d always loved nature, and back then our family often watched shows like Wild Kingdom . I was fascinated. When my Mom put out a bird feeder in the birch tree in our front yard, near the living room window, I soon became enthralled by the creatures. The color, the vibrancy, the variety… I’d spend hours at times in winter adoring the tiny, busy chickadees, admiring the occasional neon-red Cardinal that dropped by, seeing the goldfinches and being amazed how the dazzling yellow June ones and the more subdued olive-and-brown January ones were the same birds! All the while, I thought the bold, loud and ultra-colorful Blue Jays were just about the best. How great for me my favorite baseball team chose them as their name and symbol!

Anyway, when something unfamiliar showed up in the yard, I was always wondering what it was. What it ate, where it came from, that sort of thing. The Golden book helped me do that. Now, it was only 160 pages, so it probably only covered about 140 or so species; a small sampling of the over 700 types that inhabit the U.S. and Canada. But most of the ones I saw regularly were in there, or if not, were close to ones that were shown. Soon I knew a Slate-colored Junco was that little blackish sparrow eating seeds on the ground and those green-headed ducks I’d see on every pond and creek were Mallards. The book showed them, told a bit about them in a paragraph or two, and even had a little map to show where you should expect to see them. It also made me see birds that I wanted to see but hadn’t – man, who can look at a Pileated Woodpecker, the one the cartoonist based Woody on, the size of a crow with a flaming red crest on top of its head, and not be in awe? I would venture out to parks and woods to look for some of those magic creatures, and in time saw most of them. Soon of course, I wanted to know more and got a full field guide (as it happens, also a Golden one, but a much more scientific and complete one, over 400 pages with pretty much every bird on the continent shown) that could tell me all those species and how to tell them apart, but it was the little beginners one that got me to that point. I found one in a used store not many years ago, and of course bought it. Why wouldn’t I?

If I wasn’t nostalgic for my childhood, I wouldn’t be writing this for Keith… and if you weren’t for your own childhood, you wouldn’t be reading it.

My brother at those ages liked the Hardy Boys. Nothing wrong with that, but I guess I was always more fascinated by what really was than what could be in a pretend world. Thanks to the creators of that Golden series for helping me understand the basics and become even more fascinated with every bit I learned.

Turntable Talk #34 – What’s My Scene?

Welcome to the first Turntable Talk of 2025, hosted by Dave of A Sound Day. This is the 34th round, if you are keeping track. If you are a new follower, let me fill you in on how it works. Dave Ruch offers up a musical topic to a group of us music fans each month. Each of the writers come up with a response to the topic and Dave runs each piece on his website.

We have had some fun and interesting topics, and this one is no exception. This time around, Dave asks, “What’s my scene?” Our instructions: Pick a sort of music “Scene” that either you would have liked to have been a part of or one that you think really created a lot of the music you love. Pick a general place and time and have fun….

My fellow music bloggers know my musical tastes pretty well by now. So, let’s see a show of hands – How many thought I’d pick The Rat Pack in Vegas? I almost did, but I know I have written on a live Rat Pack show in the past. Honestly, as awesome as that would be, the more I thought about it the more I leaned another way.

My scene certainly influenced the Rat Pack. Dean Martin cut an album called Swingin’ Down Yonder. Frank Sinatra recorded albums titled: Sinatra Swings, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers, Swing Easy, Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session, Sinatra and Swingin’ Brass, and A Swingin’ Affair! You know what the song says, “It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing!”

As a mediocre trumpet player, I have always loved Big Band/Swing music. Most folks would consider the Swing Era to be from the early 1930’s to around the mid 1940’s. Even though swing music was prominent in the early 1930’s, it was often ridiculed for its style and feel. Some went as far as to call it a menace (much like Rock and Roll when it gained popularity). After 1935, big bands rose to prominence playing swing music. They held a major role in defining swing as a distinctive style.

There were many big bands on the scene at this time. Each had a very distinct sound and feel to it. For example, Glenn Miller’s orchestra often used a clarinet lead. Count Basie’s sound has a relaxed feel to it. Benny Goodman used a driving and hard swing sound. Duke Ellington’s songs has a sophisticated sound to them.

The band leaders often took the spotlight. They were amazing instrumentalists. Harry James and his trumpet, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw on their clarinets, Gene Krupa on his drums, the trombones of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, and Lionel Hampton’s vibes. Along with those great leaders, there were plenty of talented musicians within those bands who went on to make a name for themselves.

Perhaps Sinatra recorded his many swing songs because he rose to fame alongside Tommy Dorsey. He was one of many singers who sang with those big bands. Others included the voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Kay Starr, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Kitty Kallen, and Dick Haymes. While they all started with the big swing bands, they also went on to have prolific careers.

During the swing era, the big bands would often play at dance halls across the country. They appeared on the radio playing dance music. Some appeared in movies, and all of them made records. Their music had teenagers and young adults dancing until their feet hurt.

As years went on, the taste of music listeners changed. Swing began to fade away to make way for music that was less “danceable” like bebop. Many of the swing bands broke up, while other continued without their original leaders. The Glenn Miller Orchestra still tours today, for example.

When I put on headphones and listen to old big band recordings, I picture myself there listening. I picture myself in one of those great 1930’s suits with a stylish fedora.

Maybe it is in a dance hall or at a live concert. Maybe I am in the audience of a radio program where the band is playing. Wherever the music is being played, I am zoned in on it. I am listening to the drum beat of Sing, Sing, Sing and Benny Goodman. I can hear the vibrato of Tommy Dorsey’s trombone solo on I’m Getting Sentimental Over You. I marvel as I watch and listen to Harry James play his theme song, Ciribiribin.

Throughout the evening, I will study those great instrumentalists who improvise solos off the top of their head. Looking at nothing but chords and making up their own melodies. This is something I wish I could do as a trumpet player.

In all honesty, in my “scene,” I would be happy as a clam to just be in the audience. It would be the bees knees just watching those guys swing! Yeah, I can totally see myself swinging, singing, and dancing to the sounds of swing.

Thanks again, Dave for inviting me to take part in this feature. It is always fun to contribute and to read the other submissions. I’m already looking forward to next month’s topic!

Turntable Talk #33 – One More For Under The Tree

Once again, it is time for Turntable Talk, our monthly musical topic hosted by Dave from A Sound Day. Most readers are familiar with this feature. Dave gives some of us musical bloggers a topic and we write about it. This month, he asked for our help in creating a holiday playlist.

Per his instructions: “Because of the time of the year, we’ll keep it simple – One More For Under The Tree. Just pick a favorite Christmas / holiday season song of yours and tell us a wee bit about it and maybe why you love it. If it’s a ‘standard’, old or new, pick the favorite version of yours and we’ll make a nice little Christmas playlist of sorts.”

A couple years ago, we did something similar. As someone who loves Christmas music, it is difficult for me to chose just one. I will try to keep it to no more than two. Maybe three. Surely, not four….

The song I want to feature is one that has never really been classified as a “Christmas” song. It is not one that you will hear often (if at all) on the radio in December. You will find it on a few 1970’s Holiday compilation albums, though. It was first released as a B-side of a single and released again as a posthumous single.

It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way

Jim Croce’s It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way was on his 1973 Life and Times Album. It was the B-side of One Less Set of Footsteps. He died in a plane crash in September of that year. It was in December that his label rereleased the song as the final single from the album. The song paints some wonderful images of winter and Christmas for the listener. Perhaps this is what the label was hoping to take advantage of when it was released again.

I was introduced to this song by a gal I was dating in the late 1980’s. I had never heard the song before and she had told me it was one of her favorites. From the opening guitar work and Jim’s vocal, I was hooked. The song is melodically beautiful. As beautiful as it is, however, it is a sad song.

Anyone who has ever gone through a break-up around the holidays will tell you how difficult it is. The festive decorations, the warmth and happiness of the season, and the overall feeling of love can really cause depression. No one wants to be alone at Christmas time.

The singer reveals himself to be a man who has recently ended a relationship. As the holiday season approaches, the Christmas atmosphere in his town is evident nearly everywhere. The lyrics attest to that. As he experiences his surroundings, he begins to wish that he and his lover could reunite. He professes that it was a mistake to end their relationship and that it can easily be rekindled.

The song ends in mystery. In a bold move, the man says he will be stopping by his old lover’s place to “get it together.” “It’s only right” for them to start the relationship again according to the song. We never do find out what happens. Perhaps the “happy” chimes at the end of the song elude to a happy ending.

The songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote over 70 hit songs together. They wrote songs in the 1950’s for The Coasters, Wilbert Harrision, Big Mama, Thorton, and Elvis Presley. One of those Elvis songs was the one that opened his first Christmas album…

Santa Claus is Back In Town

Elvis’ Christmas Album was released in 1957. It contained twelve songs – six on each side. Side A contained the more contemporary cuts like Blue Christmas, White Christmas and Santa Claus is Back in Town. Side B contained the more religious and sacred songs like Silent Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem.

For years, I was only familiar with his versions of Blue Christmas and Here Comes Santa Claus. You know, the ones that played on the radio. In 1994, I picked up the compilation “If Every Day Was Like Christmas.” It included early Christmas songs as well as his later songs. I first heard Santa Claus is Back in Town on this album.

The song is a basic twelve-bar blues song with three verses. I have always wished that Elvis would have recorded an album of all blues songs. The genre (and the mixing of blues and rock) is one that allows him to shine. This song is a prime example of this. It is a raunchy, raw, and dirty blues song that is misleading from the beginning.

The song begins a group singing the word “Christmas” three times. You get the feeling that you are about to hear this beautiful holiday song. Suddenly the drum kicks, Elvis growls his first lyric and the blues begin!

Elvis howls his was through the verses as “Santa Claus,” who has no sleigh, but a black Cadillac instead. He also tells his pretty baby to expect him to come down her chimney later that night. The chorus begs her to be a good little girl because Santa is back in town. Naturally, the lyrics and the song itself are meant to have that “double entendre” and “innuendo” to it.

Many people have covered this song, including Dwight Yoakam, Foghat, Billy Idol, and Joe Perry. Even Kurt Russell performed it in the Netflix special, “The Christmas Chronicles.” These versions never seem to live up to the energy and the grittiness that the Elvis version has. None of them have ever given me goosebumps when I hear it either. The Elvis version does. His version is the best!

The question I pose now is a simple one. Is it possible to make this song sound even better? Personally, I think so. When the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied Elvis on a Christmas album in 2017, it brought it to an entire new level! It is still gritty. It is still bluesy. It is still raunchy. But now, you’ve got this fantastic horn line that takes it up a notch. Mix the orchestra parts with the original arrangement and you have a much fuller and fresh sound. Now, there is a raunchy “sparkle” to it.

Dave, thank you for again asking me to be a part of this feature. To my fellow music bloggers and you, I wish you and your family a Happy Holiday season. May you and yours have a blessed and Merry Christmas! Here’s to an amazing 2025!!

Turntable Talk #31 – Hit The Road Jack

It is time for another edition of Turntable Talk, hosted by Dave from A Sound Day. There seems to be no shortage of music topics for him to present. This month the topic is a bit different. Here are his instructions:

It’s time to Hit the Road, Jack … you’re invited to take part in a sort of magical road trip… but with a few restrictions. You can go to any music location you’d like to see, and if it is long gone, we can assume it was still there for you to see (or that you could go back in time to see it). Studio, concert venue, house, record store, you name it! Wanna see Graceland (or see it again if you’ve been) – boom! You’re there.

As I began to think on my musical place, I became depressed. This is because there are so many places that I have never been to. Yes, I have been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yes I have been to Graceland. Sadly, despite the 90 minute drive from where I live, I have never visited the Motown Museum!

Next I began to think about concert venues. I looked up “Greatest Concert Venues” and it is quite a list. Surprisingly, Pine Knob Music Theater (in Clarkston, MI) is one I have been to numerous times! It’s a great place to see a show. I couldn’t believe that it was counted as one of the “greatest” among some of the others.

In the cartoons, it meant you had made it if you played The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It was always a big deal if an artist is playing Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall or Madison Square Garden in New York. As many times as I have been to Nashville, I have never seen a show at the Ryman Auditorium. Outside of the US, it is big to play the Syndey Opera House in Australia or Royal Albert Hall in London.

There are so many great places on the list, but one stood out. It is a venue that I truly hope to see a show at some day. Many artists have recorded albums or videos there. They include, the Grateful Dead, Joe Bonamassa, U2, Barenaked Ladies, Stevie Nicks, The Dave Matthews Band, and even John Tesh! That place is the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison Colorado.

I am in awe of this truly amazing place. The venue is approximately ten miles southwest of Denver. The venue is best recognized by its two massive monoliths. They are named “Ship Rock” and “Creation Rock”. There is also the smaller “Stage Rock”. All of them together flank its 9,525 capacity seating area and naturally form the amphitheater.

Imagine seeing your favorite band on stage, while enjoying the breathtaking scenery! It is on my bucket list!

The experience that a concert viewer would have is incomprehensible to me. Go back to the first photo and scroll down. Think about the various changes in light, the beauty of the setting sun, the lights up on the rocks, and finally night fall. Wow!

I would think that this has to be an extraordinary experience for the artists, too. While their view is a bit different than the audience, it still is pretty amazing.

I believe that I am the last contribution before Dave wraps up this topic. I can’t help but wonder what the other bloggers have chosen. Did they chose a venue? A recording studio? A musical museum? By the time you read this, you will already know – and so will I. Right now, however, I am excited to find out what they chose.

Thanks again to Dave for asking me to participate in this feature. I would also like to thank him for his understanding. I chose to run my Share Your Nostalgia Feature right around the same time as Turntable Talk. He did some shuffling and made it work for all of the writers involved. Should I do another topic, I will check with Dave and make sure the schedules are good for everyone.

Thanks for reading!

Share Your Nostalgia

This week I’ve been featuring guest bloggers in the series, “Share Your Nostalgia.” The idea was one that was proposed to me be some of my blogger friends. Many of them contributed to this series. The topic for this feature is “The Toy of Your Life.” Was there one toy that you considered the “best?” When you think of yourself as a child, what is the toy that immediately pops into your mind? What was the toy that you brought to Show and Tell or took with you everywhere?

The idea of having guest bloggers is not a new one. As a matter of fact, my next writer has been doing something similar for a couple years now. I am talking about my good friend Dave Ruch. Dave’s name should sound familiar if you visit my page often. Dave is the host of Turntable Talk, a monthly music feature that appears on his blog, A Sound Day. You can find his site here: https://soundday.wordpress.com/

Dave is another one of those great people I met through music and music bloggers. Dave’s blog features musical writings on many genres of music, music history, and artist info. Dave has also authored a couple books. The Mockingbird Speaks was published in 2014 and deals with two things of importance to him. First, appreciating wildlife (and in particular birds) and second, looking at things in a positive light. Another book is Thank Goodness! 101 Things to Be Grateful For Today. It is a collection of personal accounts of good things that often go unnoticed that can bring happiness.

Admittedly, this feature is a blatant rip off of Dave’s Turntable Talk. The only difference is that his topic is musical and mine is nostalgic. Although, now that I think about it, those two things can easily be the same thing. I need to apologize to Dave here. When I decided when this would run, I didn’t think about my feature and his bumping into each other. My bad. It won’t happen again, I promise.

I can’t help but wonder what Dave’s favorite toy was. I know he’s a big baseball fan. Is is sport related? Let’s find out, shall we?

Don’t Walk Barefoot

Thanks Keith, for inviting me to take part in this forum and relive a few fine childhood memories in the process! “The Toy Of Your Life” is a great topic and it seems most of us have at least one that pops into our head and calls up moments of fond reminiscing.

Growing up in the ’70s, I see I had some things in common with people who’ve already contributed. I think most of us grew up in decent homes, but weren’t Richie Rich clones nor spoiled. I had a good number of toys to play with when young, but my closet wasn’t busting at the seams and I sure was taught young that I couldn’t get anything I wanted just by throwing a tantrum. Typically, outside of a few small dollar-store style toys, if I wanted something major, I’d ask for it and if lucky, it might appear on my birthday or under the Christmas tree. That helped teach me patience, and to save up my little allowance to buy things I really wanted months away from those times. For me, that was largely records, but at times it might be a special toy.

Paul’s Soccer (Football) game was new to me, but reminded me of a table hockey game I had for years – about a yard-long hockey “rink” with little players who slid around when you moved the metal pulls they attached to and would “shoot” the little puck, or try to block it. Like Paul’s game, it came with players in two uniforms (Toronto and Montreal I believe) but you could interchange them and there were other sets of players in other team uniforms available. Eventually I think I had 12 teams, which if memory serves, might have been the entire NHL back then. I liked it, and would sometimes play my older brother (who liked to win – a lot) or even my mother, but it wasn’t my favorite by any means nor something I could do by myself to keep me occupied when alone. The same goes for the several board games like “Monopoly” and “Careers” I had… I liked the latter one more, it seemed more creative and interesting and gave your player choices as to what they wanted to do – go to college? Get into environmentalism? Try to become famous? It was up to you.

Christian already wrote about small cars like Hot Wheels and Matchoxes, and I had quite a few of those and really liked them… in fact I wrote about the Hot Wheels once before! You can read that piece here: https://everydavelife.home.blog/2024/07/26/flashback-foto-friday-fun

They were something that I had a lot of fun with and valued for years, but they still wouldn’t necessarily take my “favorite” title. When I thought about it, there was only one real option for me – Lego.

I imagine nowadays everyone is familiar with Lego. It’s a multi-million dollar industry across varoius ends of commerce, including of course movies. You can now buy Lego kits to build realistic-looking flowers and much of their product line is now branded – Star Wars for example. It actually dates back to 1949, when a Danish carpenter came up with the idea of interlocking blocks (with the little “studs” on top that lock into the “tubes” underneath to make them sturdy when connected. He called it “Leg godt”, or “play good” which got shortened to the familiar brand name when patented in 1958. It was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame (yes, there is such a thing – part of the Museum of Play in Rochester, which sounds a fun place to visit – in 1998. But back when I was a kid, it was a rather different kind of thing, and I dare say, better.

That’s because while you could get some actual “kits” to build specific things (I seem to remember having this little firehouse kit, or at least the vehicles shown):

Mostly, it was just sold in big boxes of mixed blocks. There were white ones, red ones, probably some black ones too. Some were rounded so you could build a turret or cylindrical building if you wanted. Plus there were little doors, windows, blue ceiling shingles… all still connected with the blocks, plus a few less 3-d interlocking features like little trees, or wheel sets. Instead of following an Ikea furniture-like instruction sheet to build the kit to specification, we just used our imaginations and build what we felt like. To me that is a much more creative and ultimately satisfying toy, as much as I did like building a few scale models of real trucks in later years and have them look like the picture on the box.

I had a very large box of mixed blocks and house accessories like windows, and a case that had extra ones from smaller kits I’d been given. I mostly loved building little houses with it. The blurry picture at the top shows me (on right) at probably three or four years old, with my older brother and some of our Lego creations. You can vaguely make out a little white house with blue roof I’d built, in front of me. And as an added bonus, don’t miss that early-’70s orange wall color! I had hours of fun building the houses, making each one look a little different. Sometimes I’d even draw a sort of floorplan for a house – bedroom here, living room there, door here – on paper and try to build one with Lego. When done, I’d maybe keep it on my desk or a table for awhile, then carefully take it apart and build something new. Every once in awhile, for a change, I’d take the base board that I usually built the individual house on and would stack up blocks into little skyscrapers and create a sort of city skyline, viewed from afar. And the wheels allowed me to change it up and build little cars or vans from my imagination too.

It was a great way to spend a rainy or snowy afternoon, building houses, or little castles or whatever I fancied, having something to show for it and then, best of all, it was reusable. Of course, I guess any really incredible creations could have been preserved, but the basis of the toy snapping together and coming apart meant you could use the same set endlessly…which perhaps was why they turned to more specialized kits later. From a commercial standpoint, a toy you only have to buy the child once and they keep using perhaps limits the market potential a little.

It’s a cliché but it’s also true – it was a simpler time. And, I say, for a kid growing up, a better time. I look back on those Lego creations, and Hot Wheels and model trucks with a lot of affection. I can hardly imagine today’s six year old in 50 years looking back fondly on playing a video game for hours or texting the kid next door all night. Thanks Keith for reminding us of this!

Turntable Talk #30 – The Most Fab of Them All

It’s time again for my contribution to Dave from A Sound Day’s monthly feature Turntable Talk. If you are keeping track, this is round #30! Way back when we started this, he asked us if the Beatles were still relevant. This time we circle back to the Fab Four and Dave wants us to write about our favorite Beatle. He is calling this round The Most Fab of Them All.

I have struggled in the past to narrow down what song or artist I am going to write about, but never like this. It shouldn’t be hard to pick one guy out of four, right? For me it is, believe it or not. Frankly, and I mean no disrespect to Dave, the topic is unfair. To me, a musical group or band is the coming together of people, each contributing something unique. Like a puzzle, when all the pieces come together, you have something amazing. To have to choose one is a daunting task.

Let me start by saying that if you had asked me as a kid, without a pause, I would have chose Ringo. This may be because I was so familiar with the Beatles cartoon and Ringo always made me laugh. I also really enjoyed the almost all of the songs that he sang lead on. He went on to have some solo hits post-Beatles, too.

There are times I might have picked George Harrison, but probably not because of his Beatles stuff. Don’t get me wrong, he wrote the amazing song “Something,” which even Sinatra said was a beautiful love song. I also loved a lot of the early songs he sang on. Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby is one of my favorites. George really gained my respect as a musician and songwriter post-Beatles.

John was a quick wit and always made me laugh when I saw him in those early interviews. You cannot deny the songwriting power that he had both solo and with Paul McCartney. He really wrote some deep songs. To me, it is interesting to look back and see how he put much of his hurt, suffering and confusion into a song.

John was also a guy who wasn’t afraid to take a stand for something. Many of his solo songs are still as relevant today as they were when they were released. If only the people would listen to the lyrics of Imagine, maybe we’d see a change? Every Christmas I hear War is Over, yet every day when I go to MSN, there is some new story about Putin and World War III. Obviously, Give Peace a Chance is not something any of the world powers wants to do.

Then, there is Paul. I don’t have to really say much about his songwriting abilities. As a matter of fact, if you look at the output of the Lennon-McCartney machine, you cannot help but be in awe of the volume of work they put out. As a musician, he really was the greatest talent of the group. Before you get up in arms, let me prove it to you.

We know that he was best known for playing bass guitar for the Beatles. Growing up, his first instrument was the trumpet (given to him by his dad). He also knew how to play the piano, and did so on Beatles songs like Slow Down and Ob La Di Ob La Da. While it is a simple tune, you can hear Paul’s drumming skills on The Ballad of John and Yoko. As a matter of fact, he can play over 40 instruments including mandolin, cello, harmonica, harpsichord, and the ukulele. Watch his video from 2020 for Find My Way and you will see him playing many (FYI – it’s not my favorite McCartney song, but it is a good illustration).

While many songs had both John and Paul listed as writers, many were “all Paul.” Yesterday, Hey Jude, Blackbird, and Here There and Everywhere, just to name a few. Paul said once that the last one was the only one that John had ever complimented him on. John said in an interview that it “was all his” and was “one of my favorite Beatles songs.”

So why am I picking Paul? Honestly, if it wasn’t Paul it would be Ringo for the simple fact that they are still around. Both are still touring and in the public eye. I love watching Paul do interviews. He is fun to watch, tells great stories and isn’t afraid to be a part of something a bit silly.

One of my favorite McCartney moments was when Chris Farley interviewed him on SNL for the Chris Farley Show bit. How Paul kept a straight face through that still amazes me. Farley asks him, “Remember when they said you were dead? That was a hoax, right?” and Paul simply says, “I wasn’t really dead!” That always makes me laugh. How Paul keeps a straight face through the bit is beyond me. I wish there was a better quality clip…

There’s another great SNL bit where he and Martin Short and doing something for a Christmas Pageant. Martin says that he and Paul are a team but he is the only singer because Paul “cannot sing.” Paul plays the triangle in the bit. He misses cues and Martin screams at him through the whole bit. Paul is hilarious. The bit ends with Martin leaving and Paul asking, “Can I sing now?” Walls move and Paul walks onto the stage to sing Wonderful Christmastime, as himself.

Paul was fantastic on the Letterman show reminiscing about being there on the Ed Sullivan show. During the interview Dave says that they have been trying to get him on the show for years. He asks why it took so long to get him there, to which Paul says with a straight face, “I don’t like the show, David.” But THE highlight for me was to watch him do a rooftop performance of Get Back. I want to say that he wound up doing about a 40 minute concert from up there that night.

Another great Paul bit is when he shows up on James Corden’s show and does his Carpool Karaoke. The first song they sing together is Drive My Car and he’s having a blast doing it. The conversation between the two of them as they drive around is moving at times. Paul and James stop at Paul’s boyhood home and shares some great stories. The kicker is that they go to a pub that McCartney used to play at and he and his band surprise the patrons of it with a concert. It is worth a watch on Youtube –

As I write this, I have no idea what Beatle the other contributors have chosen. I am guessing that many of the pieces will be very music related. While I feel mine is also a bit music related, I also feel that what made Paul stand out to me was Paul being Paul. Paul, years away from the Beatles, talking about those days, the music, the memories, and the rest of the band. Paul, looking back at those early days that influenced and brought him to where he is today.

Not too long ago, country singer George Strait said he was done touring. George is 72. Sir Paul is 82 and still out there playing for sold out crowds for hours at a time. He is an artist who is always trying something new, while never forgetting his roots. He has a passion for the music and for his fans. He just seems to be that guy who’d be fun to hang out with.

Thanks to Dave for asking me to be a part of Turntable Talk. Thanks for another great topic. I love writing for it and love to see the responses from the other music lovers. Until next month … Thanks for reading.

Friday Photo Flashback

Tuesday was National Radio Day! This is not to be confused with World Radio Day which is celebrated on February 13th every year. On Facebook, many of my radio friends posted old photos and listed the call letters of all the stations that they worked at. I did the same, but neglected to do an entire blog about it. I think the reason for that is that I have written a lot of blogs about radio, radio mentors, radio friends, and radio listeners. If you are new to this blog, I will share a link or two after today’s photo, which ties into “radio.”

I have never really grasped just how lucky I was to land my first few radio jobs in a major market. I spent a lot of time on the airwaves in Detroit. One of those stops was at WWWW-FM (W4 Country). Many remember that this was the station Howard Stern worked at in the early 80’s. It played rock at the time, but so did a few other stations in the market, so they switched format to Country. They actually wanted to call him “Hopalong Howie!” You know the rest of that story.

When I worked there, I was there in a part time capacity and had a lot of fun.

The above picture was taken while I was out at a station appearance. I believe one of my listener friends took this photo of me. This must have been taken around 1997. I was still wearing glasses, so I had yet to have my Lasik surgery. I am also much skinnier!

I loved the station apparel we got to wear. The station logo on that yellow always seemed to “pop” to me. I wish that I had thought like some of my other radio friends and saved something from every station I worked at (logo items). I think some stuff got lost in a move or went to Goodwill. I may still have station coffee mugs somewhere!

I don’t want to sound egotistical, but this is one of my favorite radio pictures. I don’t recall if this was an a concert (which it probably was) or at some type of remote broadcast, but I like it. I haven’t had a goatee since I got married to Sam. She loves my full beard (and I love that I don’t have to shave every day). The beard here is much darker than it is today. There’s a whole lotta grey in there now!

The baseball cap is one that I bought at the ballpark. It was the only one that I ever owned that was fitted. What a difference between those and the ones with the snappy things on the back. It fit SO good. I loved that hat.

I can’t help but laugh at the size of my eyebrows! I once told a joke on the air that my eyebrows had their own Facebook page! I did create one (Keith Allen’s Eyebrows), but deleted it some time later after it had brought about as many laughs as I could milk out of it.

I also have to laugh at the “Nokia” banner behind me. Why? Because at the time, me and half the world had THAT Nokia phone!

Even though Covid forced me into “radio retirement,” I still look back at those days with many memories. You can read more of those memories below. First a compilation of a few radio blogs here:

A “Best of Radio” Blog

Shortly after that one was published, Dave from A Sound Day asked me a few radio questions that I answered here:

Interview with Dave from A Sound Day

Finally, after many blogs praising one of my favorite bosses and mentors, I was shocked to hear of the passing of one of them. Here was my tribute to Richard D.

A Voice Silenced. A Friend Lost. A Legend Remembered.

I suppose this was a lot for a simple “Photo Flashback,” but radio is and will always be in my blood. It is something that I love to talk about and always brings about so many memories…..

Turntable Talk #25 – A Novel Idea For a Song

It’s time once again for another submission of Dave Ruch’s Turntable Talk hosted by A Sound Day. Every month he presents our musical blogging community with a musical topic and I have been lucky enough to have participated in every one of them.

This month’s topic was difficult for me, because there were just SO many songs I could choose from. Our instructions for A Novel Idea for a Song were to “pick a novelty record you like. Or else one you love to hate if you don’t have any favorites. I’ll let you decide what exactly is a “novelty” record but I look forward to seeing your picks and maybe having a laugh or two. And maybe a cringe or two as well!“

I want to say that the first novelty song I remember hearing as a kid was Ahab, the Arab by Ray Stevens. This led to the discovery of an album that had all kinds of silly songs on it. The tracks included Mr. Custer, I’m a Nut, Hello Muddah Hello Faddah, and more. What kid doesn’t love a silly song? I began to search for more silly songs. During my search I was introduced to Stan Freberg and his amazing satires, Weird Al Yankovic and various other novelty song collections.

In the late 1980’s, the Doctor Demento Show aired on a local radio station and he played many novelty songs that were completely new to me. The songs he played were recorded anywhere from the 1920’s to the present. I had no idea that novelty songs were something that went back that far. The Dr. Demento show was where I heard Monty Python for the first time and where I was introduced to another artist – Tom Lehrer.

I read where Tom celebrated his 96th birthday this week (April 9), and that is what led me to my song for Turntable Talk. All in all he only recorded about 50 or so songs, and I could have picked one that may not be so …. controversial, however, of all his songs, it was THE one that stuck out to me. More on that in a minute, but first, here’s a bit about him.

According to Wiki, Tom is “an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous songs that became popular in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though they usually had original melodies.” His early stuff featured songs that were kind of dark like “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” and “I Hold Your Hand In Mine.” His later material was a little more topical.

So what led Tom to record this dark and humorous songs? The story goes that Tom had been playing some of these songs for friends and was convinced to record them. According to Wiki, “he paid $15 (equivalent to $171 in 2023) for some studio time in 1953 to record Songs by Tom Lehrer. The initial pressing was 400 copies. Radio stations would not air his songs because of his controversial subjects, so he sold the album on campus at Harvard for $3 (equivalent to $34 in 2023) while “several stores near the Harvard campus sold it for $3.50, taking only a minimal markup as a kind of community service. Newsstands on campus sold it for the same price.”

This was followed by “More by Tom Lehrer” and a live concert version of those songs on a album called “An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer.

In 1960, he basically retired from touring in the US, but he was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of That Was The Week That Was. TWTWTW was a satirical TV show and he was responsible for a song per show.

For the show (and the album of the same name), he wrote songs about political and topical events. There were songs about education (New Math), race relations (National Brotherhood Week), the ecology (Pollution), and the military (Send the Marines). What are the two things people aren’t supposed to talk about – politics and religion, right? Naturally, Tom had a funny take on a religious news event.

The Second Vatican Council took place in the early to mid-1960’s. A spoken introduction describes The Vatican Rag as a response to the “Vatican II” council—which, among other things, broadened the range of music that could be used in services. Tom humorously proposes this “rag” as a more accessible alternative to traditional liturgical music of the mass.

Before I go on, I want to say that I was born and raised Catholic. I am a Christian who no longer practices Catholicism (my choice). I did not pick this particular song as one to offend, but it may very well do so. Humor, they say, is subjective. That being said, while the song mocks some of the Catholic rituals (confession, the rosary, and more), it is the fact that it is a rag that makes it so ridiculous. You can imagine, howeverm that many people of that faith considered it blasphemous at the time.

Lehrer never submitted the song to the show That Was the Week That Was, as he felt they would edit all the satire out of the song. Instead, he debuted the song at a California nightclub called the Hungry I. At one performance, actor Ricardo Montalban was in the audience and it is said that he approached Lehrer and told him “I love my religion. I would die for my religion.” Lehrer reportedly responded, “Hey, no problem, as long as you don’t fight for your religion.”

At this point there are a couple of Tom Lehrer quotes I want to share with you before you listen to the song:

“You can’t be satirical and not be offensive to somebody.”

“The people who came to hear me perform or to buy my records were not the type who would be offended (by the song The Vatican Rag). But I gather that there were other people who were offended.”

About the song, he says, “Well, I wasn’t really attacking the religious beliefs, I was attacking the formality of the rituals of the Catholic church; however, people took it wrongly.”

With all of that being said, I hope this one song I picked doesn’t stop you from checking out some of his other stuff. For example, The Elements is a fantastic song that literally just lists all the elements. It is a fan favorite. Lehrer fan Daniel Ratcliff (Harry Potter) actually sang it on The Graham Norton talk show from memory (this is what led Weird Al Yankovic to pursue Ratcliff to play him in his recent movie).

Tom Lehrer’s fans consider The Vatican Rag to be one of his best compositions. So without any further ado, pull up a pew and give it a listen.

Lehrer has said, jokingly, of his musical career: “If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while.” In October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain. In November 2022, he formally relinquished the copyright and performing/recording rights on his songs, making all music and lyrics composed by him free for anyone to use, and established a website (https://tomlehrersongs.com) from which all of his recordings and printable copies of all of his songs could be downloaded. His statement releasing all his works into the public domain concludes with this note: “This website will be shut down at some date in the not too distant future, so if you want to download anything, don’t wait too long.”

Thanks again to Dave from A Sound Day for a great Turntable Talk Topic. Hopefully, after my choice, he will invite me back next month. Maybe I should have just went with The Curly Shuffle, instead?

Turntable Talk #24 – This Woman’s Work

For two solid years Dave Ruch from A Sound Day has been hosting a monthly feature called “Turntable Talk.” Each month he provides a topic to me and other musical bloggers to write about. I have been honored to have participated in every one of them. Each of the participants look forward to not only writing our piece, but anxiously await reading the other contributions.

As I stated in a previous blog, this month is International Women’s Month. Dave offered us an easy topic to write about this month. His instructions state “we’re going to turn our tables and sights to the women of music. Pick one you like and write about her. Whoever you want (that might sound creepier than I intended it), singer, songwriter, band member, the lady on the ‘Breakfast in America’ cover, whoever.”

I wrote a blog that teased this topic earlier in the week. In that post, I said, “I really struggled to pick one (female singer). I even posted on Facebook asking my friends to offer up their three favorite singers. I guess I hoped that they would offer up someone that I hadn’t considered (and they did). The results surprised me. The singers that came up the most were (1) Stevie Nicks, (2) Etta James, and (3 – tie) Pink and Karen Carpenter. Etta was the only one that was in my list of considerations. After looking at the list (and the suggestions) I finally chose who I am writing about and NO ONE mentioned her.“

Along with Etta James, I featured a song from my other considerations: Ella Fitzgerald, Alison Krauss, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Dusty Springfield, Sarah Vaughn, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Linda Ronstandt, Pat Benatar, Peggy Lee, Jewel, and Keely Smith in that blog. So how did I finally come up with my choice?

My friend, Dawn, from high school actually helped me make my decision. She said, “There are so many talented vocalists, I’d have a hard time picking. if you’re going to write an impactful piece, I think you have to go with somebody you admire because they knocked down boundaries or overcame obstacles. That’s how I’d pick my vocalist.” That really struck me. Now, I am not saying that the ladies I mentioned already did not knock down boundaries or overcome obstacles – heck, Jewel was living in her van before she made it big!

My featured female singer is a talented woman named Diane Schuur.

I was introduced to Diane Schuur back in the late 80’s. I was talking about music with a gal I was dating at the time. We started talking about jazz singers and she asked if I had ever heard of Schuur. I hadn’t. If memory serves me correct, she loaned me a cassette (or maybe a CD) with some songs on it and I really enjoyed it.

One of her biographies online says this: “Diane Schuur is as eclectic as she is brilliant.” In my opinion, this statement could not be more true. While many of her songs would fall into the jazz category, she could easily be filed in the blues or pop categories, too. While preparing to write this, I picked a playlist on YouTube and it was fun to hear the different sounds of each of the songs.

My friend Dawn said to pick someone who “overcame obstacles.” Diane certainly has done that! She was born prematurely in 1953. She has been blind since birth because of Retinopathy of Prematurity. This disorder affected premature newborns who received high-oxygen therapy during neonatal intensive care. This was a standard practice until 1954.

She learned to play piano by ear. She would listen to Dinah Washington songs and began to pound out the melodies at age 3. Dinah was a big influence to Diane as she began singing her songs as a toddler and worked on her own vocal style. She once stated, “As far back as I can remember, singing was in my blood. My parents loved music, and I loved to sing. I was scatting at an early age.” She scats right up there with Ella and Mel Torme’! She also has perfect pitch!

Blindness was not her only obstacle. When she was a young adult, she began drinking and struggled with alcoholism. She also battled an eating disorder. Those obstacles were so much that she actually contemplated and attempted suicide. Thankfully, her brother-in-law stopped her from jumping out a third-story window. She got help and has been sober for several decades.

Diane got her big break when she was 22 years old. She auditioned for drummer/bandleader Ed Shaughnessy (of the Tonight Show Band) after he finished a concert with Doc Severinsen. Ed said, “this young blind girl comes in and sits down at the Fender Rhodes keyboard and starts singing the blues. Well, my hair stood on end!”

He hired her to be the vocalist in his orchestra. This led many other musicians to hear her. Those included Dizzy Gillespie and the great Stan Getz. Stan was so impressed that he became an advisor and coach to her. She stated that it was Stan who taught her that “less is more.” This was important because she had many critics that said she often “oversang” when she first started out. Stan once said, “She’s just like Sarah (Vaughn) or Ella (Fitzgerald) to me. She’s taking from the tradition, and what comes out is her own conception and advancement of the tradition.”

In 1985, she met B.B. King at a music festival in Tokyo. The two really hit it off and later made an album together entitled “Heart to Heart.” It was released in 1994 and it entered the Billboard Jazz Charts at number one!

In 1988, Frank Sinatra asked her to sing with him at a benefit concert when Liza Minnelli was unable to perform. She was a guest at Sinatra’s home and also performed at a concert with him and Quincy Jones. Frank gave her an abstract oil painting that he had created for her afterwards. When Frank passed away, Schuur recorded a tribute album for her late friends (Frank and Stan).

Other inspirations to Schuur include George Shearing, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles who are all blind as well. She has said that one of her fondest memories was performing with Ray Charles in 1998 for a PBS concert (some of which is available on YouTube).

Her career has brought her two Grammy awards – both for Best Jazz Vocal Performance (1986 & 1987). She is still recording and touring today. She says, “For the future I plan to continue my reading of American song, paying respect to celebrated writers and polishing the gems in the jazz tradition.”

I’ve never had the chance to see her in person, but there are some fantastic live albums available.

All About Jazz says, “Ms. Schuur surely is among the very best jazz vocalists, and she exemplifies, if not redefines the “diva” category with her warm, often humorous and relaxed interactions with the audience and the musicians. Her mere presence is enough to make for a memorable evening.” I hope to be able to see her perform one day.

I will include just a couple of my favorite cuts at the end of this blog, but before I do, I want to again thank Dave for hosting this monthly feature. I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. I love that with each topic, I am not only enjoying old favorites, but I am introduced to new songs and singers. Perhaps this blog is your introduction to Diane Schuur?

Here is a classic – Come Rain or Come Shine