Year: 2007

Obituary: Frankie Laine

I made one quick reference in passing recently about Frankie Laine, and now he’s died. He’s best known for having sung the theme to “Rawhide” — the song that saved the hides of the Blues Brothers!

1950s singer Frankie Laine dies at 93

By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 6, 8:45 PM ET

LOS ANGELES – Frankie Laine, the big-voiced singer whose string of hits made him one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s, died Tuesday. He was 93.

Laine died of heart failure at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, Jimmy Marino, Laine’s producer of more than a dozen years, told The Associated Press.

“He was one of the greatest singers around,” Marino said. “He was one of the last Italian crooners type.”

With songs such as “That’s My Desire,” “Mule Train,” “Jezebel,” “I Believe” and “That Lucky Old Sun,” Laine was a regular feature of the Top Ten in the years just before rock ‘n’ roll ushered in a new era of popular music.

Somewhat younger listeners may remember him best for singing the theme to the television show “Rawhide,” which ran from 1959 to 1966, and the theme for the 1974 movie “Blazing Saddles.”
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All-Classical WGBH

Boston’s commercial Classical music radio station, WCRB, is struggling at its new frequency, according to a recent news account, as seen below. The moment it left its original frequency can be heard here.

Meanwhile, public station powerhouse WGBH is now offering its HD Radio all-Classical music channel on the Net. Bravo. Way to go. Encoding runs at 128 Kbps, and it sounds fine. I just added this link for it on my Windows desktop.

Reception is mixed to new WCRB signal, programming

By Clea Simon, Globe Correspondent | January 25, 2007

Is WCRB-FM fading out?

While the Dec. 1 move of the commercial classical station’s frequency, from 102.5 to 99.5, has made tuning in troublesome for some listeners, changes in the station’s programming have raised other questions. In Boston’s classical music community, the reception to both the signal and the revived station has been mixed.
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NPR Explores Income Inequality

income
NPR is doing a series this week on the widening gap between the rich and everybody else. Like global warming, there are those who deny the evidence, but that’s only because they’re happy with the way things are. Many working Americans aren’t.

We’ll see at the end of the week whether or not the series is adequately critical of CEO pay and entitlements, as well as Bush’s tax cuts for the ultra-rich. Click here to go to the series home page.