Liner Notes

Here’s the second record of a two disk set that spent as much time among my own records as it did my dad’s. There was a point where neither one of us remembered whose collection it actually belonged in. Like I’ve said in the past, my dad and I had similar taste in music.

The featured artist is just as much among my favorites as he was my dad’s. I still remember sitting in the Richfield Coliseum awestruck at what I was witnessing him do on the stage. And I witnessed that performance with my dad and my mom.

When we get done with this episode you’ll know why they called him Mr. Show Business.

So get ready to hear music written over the course of four decades and then rearranged for one of the best overall stage entertainers the world ever saw in Volume 177: Sammy Record 2.

Promised link to a story on Sammy’s conversion to Judaism.
Promised link to research used in above story.

Video Intro

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Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

Sammy Davis, Jr. – Sammy
Label: Sessions (2) – ARI-1001
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Released: 1976
Genre: Jazz, Pop
Style: Vocal, Swing

We’ll hear 7 of the 13 songs from record 2.

Chicago (Toddling Town)
written by Fred Fisher and published in 1922.
Sammy recorded it live several times.

Go right into next song
Birth Of The Blues
composed in 1926 by Ray Henderson, with lyrics by Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown
It was a song he recorded in 1955 for the album Starring Sammy Davis Jr.

You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
written by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, and James Cavanaugh and published in 1944.
He recorded a studio version of that with Count Basie for the 1965 album Our Shining Hour

The Impossible Dream
composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion.
Sammy recorded a version for the 1969 album The Goin’ Great.

Exodus
composed by Ernest Gold.
This track was recorded sometime around 1972, and was never released on any of his official “albums”, however it was also released in 1975 on this K-Tel LP entitled “The Sounds Of Sammy Davis Jr.”

I’ve Gotta Be Me
composed and written by Walter Marks in 1967
Sammy Davis Jr. recorded the song in 1968, as the title track of Davis’ 1968 Reprise album.

Spinning Wheel
Written by David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1968.
This was taken from his 1970 LP Something for Everyone.

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

Liner Notes

So, mom…your last mother’s day was in 2015 just three weeks before you died.

In those nine years since, you have been dearly missed, thought of often and always toasted at family get-togethers.

I still use your recipes and even some of your kitchen tools to cook our meals. And your granddaughter still helps me make cavatelli and cassatelles. My kitchen always smells good. Almost like yours…sometimes.

Your memory is just as much a part of this record collection as dad’s. Because you were always telling me what you wanted to hear on the living room record player.

Mom…This episode is for you.

So get ready to hear a collection of Italian memories often played and definitely whistled around my house growing up with Volume 176: For Mama on Mothers Day.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

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Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

The Botticelli Family Singers – For Mama and Other Italian Favorites
Label: Diplomat Records – D 2348
Format: Vinyl, LP
Released: 1965
Genre: Folk, World, & Country

We will hear 7 of the 11 songs from the album.

For Mama
written by Charles Aznavour, Robert Gall

Funiculi Funicula
written by Luigi Denza, Peppino Turco

O Marie
an adaptation of an operatic tune called Maria Mari written by Eduardo di Capua and Vincenzo Russo.

Santa Lucia
A traditional Italian song first recorded by Enrico Caruso in 1916

Stretti Stretti
Vincenzo Di Chiara wrote the popular Italian song “La Spagnola”, also known as “Stretti stretti, nell’estasi d’amor”, in 1906.

Torna a Surriento
written by C. Chacón, Giambattista de Curtis, Ernesto de Curtis

Ciribiribin
written by Alberto Pestalozza, Carlo Tiochet

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

When you think of bebop and other improvisational jazz, your mind usually hears a trumpet or saxophone as the lead. We rarely think about that instrument with the long slide that makes some pretty funny sounds as taking on any serious solo work, because, the thinking went, there was no way to be as intricate with some of the fast solos in that type of jazz.

The trombone player you are about to hear proved them all wrong. And made a pretty good name for himself in that trumpet and sax dominated world. He is joined by three amazing big names from the era as well.

So get ready to hear the musician who brought the bone to bebop in Volume 175: JJ is Blue.

Promised link for arts.gov article.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

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Credits and Copyrights:

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J.J. Johnson – Blue Trombone
Label: Columbia – CL 1303
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Released: 1959
Genre: Jazz

We will hear 5 of the 7 songs on this album.

Hello, Young Lovers
Written-By – Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers Better known together as Rodgers & Hammerstein

What’s New
Written-By – Bob Haggart and Johnny Burke

Blue Trombone, Part 1
Written-By – J.J. Johnson

Blue Trombone, Part 2
Written-By – J.J. Johnson

100 Proof
Written-By – J.J. Johnson

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

One of the box sets that goes almost ignored is on the bottom row of my dad’s collection. It has a somewhat misleading title, but it includes some of the most classic standards in music.

Once again, we have no record of the musicians, the arrangers, the conductor or conductors, just that the box set is part of a much larger series put out by a company who produced radio shows…and hocked watches.

The title definitely doesn’t prepare you for the instrumentation used to perform this classic music, but it definitely grows on you.

So, get ready to hear tunes originating from the roots of American music in Volume 174: Birth of the Blues Record 2.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

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Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

The Longines Symphonette – Birth Of The Blues – Vol. 11
Label: Longines Symphonette Society – C-7-11 1
Series: Our Century In Music – 11
Format: 3 x Vinyl, LP Box Set
Country: Canada
Released: 1974
Genre: Blues

1974 Longines Society A Library of Memorable Hits from 1900 to the Present

We are listening to record two which is side C and D.

We will hear 6 of the 10 songs.

St. Louis Blues
composed by W. C. Handy

Muskat Ramble
written by Kid Ory

Jazz Me Blues
by Tom Delaney

Wabash Blues
arranged by Joseph E. Maddy

Blues in the Night
written by Harold Arlen

That’s A Plenty
by Lew Pollack

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

This is the second of the three main Rat Pack members we will hear from here in season four of this show. This crooner is the one we DIDN’T get to see in concert with the other two back in March of 1988 at the Richfield Coliseum.

He’s a singer, actor, and comedian. One of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, he was nicknamed “The King of Cool”. And his music is still among the most streamed today.

So, get ready to hear the voice that had just as many teenage girls swooning as Old Blue Eyes did in Volume 173: Dean’s Swingin’.

Promised Links:
Dean Martin’s IMDB listing
Dean Martin’s official website About page

Video Intro

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Credits and Copyrights:

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Dean Martin Orchestra Conducted By Nelson Riddle – This Time I’m Swingin’
Label: Capitol Records – T1442
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, Los Angeles Pressing
Released: Oct 3, 1960
Genre: Jazz
Style: Easy Listening, Vocal, Swing

It was recorded during three sessions in May of 1960.

We will hear 7 of the 12 songs on the album.

I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me
Written-By – Clarence Gaskill and Jimmy McHugh

You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You (the 1964 re-release reached number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1964 and number 1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.)
Written-By – James Cavanaugh, Larry Stock, and Russ Morgan

Imagination
Written-By – Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke

Until The Real Thing Comes Along
Written-By – Alberta Nichols, L.E. Freeman, Mann Holiner, Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin

Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone
Written-By – Sam Stept and Sidney Clare

Someday
Written-By – Jimmie Hodges

Just In Time
Written-By – Adoph Green, Betty Comden and Jule Styne

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

One hundred twelve years ago today, on April 14, 1912, while on its maiden voyage from England to New York, the unsinkable RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic… then the next day did the unthinkable…it sunk.

In 1960, Meredith Willson followed up his Broadway hit The Music Man with a musical version of the fictionalized life of one of the aristocrats who survived the sinking, Margerat Brown. The musical was made into a movie in 1964 starring Debbie Reynolds as Mrs. Brown and Harve Presnell reprising his role from the stage as JJ Brown.

The film was nominated for 6 Oscars. It won none. The Titanic and scenes of the aftermath of its sinking take all of two minutes and five seconds of the entire movie that runs two hours and fifteen minutes, but there are some great song and dance numbers in the show. As well as some very funny scenes.

So, get ready to hear a raucous MGM soundtrack sung by characters molded by the backwoods and mountains of Colorado in Volume 172: Molly is Unsinkable.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here:

Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell , Music And Lyrics By Meredith Willson, MGM Studio Orchestra Conducted By Robert Armbruster – The Unsinkable Molly Brown (The MGM Sound Track Album)
Label: MGM Records – M 90048
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Club Edition, Mono
Released: 1964
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack

MGM Studio Orchestra with the Overture for the musical the Unsinkable Molly Brown
Debbie Reynolds featured in I Ain’t Down Yet
Harve Presnell & Orchestra – Colorado, My Home
Harve Presnell And Debbie Reynolds–I’ll Never Say No
Debbie Reynolds And Chorus– Belly Up To The Bar, Boys
MGM Studio Orchestra– Dolce Far Niente (Meaning Pleasant Idleness) although literally meaning sweetly and softly do nothing
Harve Presnell & Cast– He’s My Friend
All music written by Meredith Willson

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.