One of Prue Bury’s best friends is in this video clip, a montage-homage to the film Carnal Knowledge. I’m in the middle of reading her memoir, which has almost nothing to do with modeling, or acting, or anything glamorous.
Category: Music
When touring was still tolerable
September 3, 1964, 5 pm — Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis
Brit bitch on Mitch
We turn our attention yet again to Mitch Miller, this time for a British perspective on the late musician/talent scout/record producer. As the English news outlet The Independent said in its obituary of Mitch…
Miller loved coming to London. One of his slogans was “Thank God for the British” because he always felt that a record that had failed in America might get a second chance when it was released here. “Cool Water” (Laine), “Christopher Columbus” (Mitchell) and “Where Will the Dimple Be” (Clooney) had been overlooked in the US, but became successful in the UK. “I like the British,” he told the New Musical Express in 1955. “They are not in as much a hurry as we Americans are. They take time out to really listen.”
Russell Davies on BBC Radio 2 (who isn’t BBC TV’s Russell T. Davies) spent fifteen minutes of his Sunday programme talking about Mitch, and he played Rosemary Clooney singing a very odd novelty song, “Where Will the Dimple Be?” which was a #7 hit in England.
[Audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/AUG/RussellDavies.mp3]
Davies points out that Thurl “Tony the Tiger” Ravenscroft (“You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch”) is credited for singing bass, and thanks to 78s4FR on YouTube we can see the original record label as it appeared in England in 1955.
The Compleatles
Denro and I have various catch-phrases we like to use, and at least a couple of them are Beatles-related quotes. One of them is, “I can say no more,” from HELP! Another is “Touring became intolerable,” from an 80’s documentary, now out-of-print, called The Compleat Beatles. Here’s the complete Compleat. The quote is at 1h 12m into the video.
http://youtu.be/DrvhyL0cIm4?t=1h12m10s
It was 50 years ago today…
Denro pointed out that Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles starting work in Hamburg, Germany. On August 17, 1960, a contract was signed by their agent at the time, Allan Williams, committing the boys to play until October 16. A fire-singed fragment of the contract survives. In the picture above, John Lennon watches the Beatles’ van being loaded onto a ferry in Liverpool, bound for the Netherlands, August 16, 1960.
Elvis ’77
