Category: All Posts

Cilla Black, British Import

Will the three K’s in the girl group K3 ever find fame beyond Belgium and the Netherlands? I suspect not, with language being the reason why. Do any American network television producers even know about K3? Oh, yes. As of yesterday I am 100% sure of that.

Cilla Black with George MartinBut now let’s go back to 1965, when Petula Clark had a string of hit records that was perhaps unprecedented for any solo female singer. Certainly no other British woman has met with such success before or since. Julie Andrews specialized in musicals, of course.

Dusty Springfield broke onto the U.S. charts some months before Petula, and she was quite successful, although she never had a #1 hit here. But there was also another female English solo singer seeking success in America. Cilla Black was, like the Beatles, from Liverpool, and she was likewise discovered and managed by Brian Epstein.

Cilla Black provides an interesting contrast to Petula Clark. They’re both petite, with strong voices, but where Cilla’s appeal was being cute and coy, Petula’s primary charm was sexiness. With great popularity in England, Brian Epstein behind her, and George Martin producing her records, Cilla had the necessary advantages to succeed in America. But it didn’t happen.

Cilla Black made one appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was on September 12, 1965, the same night the Beatles made their last live appearance for Sullivan. I featured a bit of it at this link eighteen months ago. And this is Cilla on that night.

[flv:/Video/2008/JUN/CillaBlackEdSullivan.flv 440 330]

In the recording studio, Cilla had the benefit of not only George Martin, but several songs written by Paul McCartney.

The first is “Love of the Love,” from 1963, which I think should have been done in a more laid back style.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/LoveOfTheLoved.mp3]

Then there’s “It’s For You,” from 1964, which I think has Martin making Cilla sound conspicuously like Shirley Bassey, who he had recorded recently singing the famous “Goldfinger” theme.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/ItsForYou.mp3]

… and “Step Inside Love” from much later, in 1968, with production values that point towards George Martin’s work with McCartney on “Live and Let Die.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/StepInsideLove.mp3]

Jon Provost’s Graceful Movie Mom

Nobody ever says just the name “Lassie”, do they? Doesn’t everybody who’s old enough to know the TV show say “Timmy and Lassie”?

Jon Provost says he has no problem with the idea that he played second fiddle to a dog, but once he was on board the series he was the star. Tommy Rettig was great playing Jeff, Lassie’s previous owner, but the character Timmy has achieved the status of a pop culture icon.

I’ve featured Provost several times here, and I highly recommend his tell-all book, Timmy’s In The Well. The Daily Breeze, out in L.A., CA way, has a good, concise article about Jon that I’ll link to right here.

The article mentions that Provost is in The Country Girl with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. Of the movie, Jon says, “At ease with grown-ups, I struck up a conversation with Mr. Crosby while we waited for technicians to light the set. Whatever I said made him laugh. “Say, this kid ad libs better than Bob Hope!”” And here Jon is, in “The Country Girl.”

[flv:/Video/2008/JUN/CountryGirl.flv 440 330]

Great death scene, Jon. Hey, I’ve met somebody who met Grace Kelly. And she was no dog!

Studio 100 Globalizes

K3 - Kristel Verbeke, Karen Damen, Kathleen Aerts
K3 (l-r) Kristel Verbeke, Karen Damen, Kathleen Aerts in their “Kissing Day” costumes

I’m preparing a lot of audio and video clips for what is turning into a long build-up to a Petula Clark post. One week ago I knew nothing of Studio 100 in Belgium, and now I’m intrigued by the outfit. D.F. Rogers has spotted a video about the history of Studio 100, and it’s at this link. The page is done in Flash, and the player starts automatically. (It misbehaves a tiny bit, so I suggest opening it in a new window.)

I had speculated on K3 being a good prospect for Disney, but now I see that Studio 100 feels they don’t need Disney, although it’s not K3 they’ll be exporting. Dennis also uncovered a detailed proposal by Studio 100 for the expansion of Mega Mindy into the UK. You can read it at this link. (It’s in PDF and it’s big, so it’s probably better to right-click and save it, rather than open in your browser.) Get a load of these talking points I’ve selected.

  • We are witnessing ever-increasing age-compression, a fact that is heavily influencing the programming and marketing of both Disney and Nickelodeon. In today’s World, Mega Mindy will appeal to ages 7 through 17 if thoughtfully produced, and well cast.
  • The insatiable drive for expansion through excellence has resulted in the decision to globalize Studio 100, using our formula for success, which is deceptively simple, but adhered to strictly in every instance.
  • There are distinct forces of attraction which combine to provide an irresistible argument that a well written, well shot United Kingdom Mega Mindy will be a huge success in the English speaking World. Let us note that it is already a hit in Belgium and in the Netherlands, which has only one home grown super heroine to speak of.
  • If Hillary Clinton affects the Worldview by becoming ‘leader of the Free World’, in the same way that Margaret Thatcher affected the British view in the 1980’s, Mega Mindy will be in a perfect position to benefit.

How about that last point? They won’t be able to capitalize on the Presidency of Hillary Clinton, but it was an interesting idea. OK, that’s enough for now about Studio 100, K3, and Mega Mindy! Next up… XUXA!

3*2=0

For the few of you who are staying with me as I lead up to my post about Petula Clark on Paul O’Grady’s BBC TV show — because that really is what I’m doing, I promise — here’s more about K3 from Belgium.

As I once heard Elvis Costello describe his enjoyment and appreciation of ABBA, I think the best K3 songs are “sprinkled with magic pixie dust.” Studio 100 exported K3’s sound to Germany, with a group called Wir 3 — different women in place of Karen, Kathleen, and Kristel, but everything else looking and sounding the same as K3. Click here for some background.

The song they’re talking about is “Heyah Mama,” which dates back to when K3 was targeting an adult audience of on-the-make 20-something women. Indeed, their first video is downright risqué. By the time of the Wir 3 spin off, K3 had made the switch to catering to kids, so Wir 3 is comparably clean. The embedded YouTube videos on that Belgovision link above are broken, but I’ll fix that here. Note: The first video, with K3, isn’t for kids!

This answers my question about exporting the group and casting different women. Wir 3 just doesn’t click like K3 does. It doesn’t take long when first watching K3 for Karen Damen to stand out, and I don’t see anybody comparable to her, nor Kathleen or Kristel, for that matter, in Wir 3. So the formula doesn’t work the same elsewhere, and I guess it’s unlikely they’ll be transplanted to America; which is just as well, because we wouldn’t want to see the three K’s without their magic pixie dust. 😉

Hello, Goodbye, Coffee Lane

Cover of The Comics Journal #290Of his essay “Regarding Schulz and Peanuts,” in The Comics Journal #290, Monte Schulz comments at this link, “I’ve had my say, as I wanted to say it, and that’s it.” In that spirit, I’d like to offer a closing of my own.

When the biography came out last fall, there was something of a companion piece in the form of David Van Taylor’s documentary for the PBS series American Masters, “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz.” I posted a few moments of it at this link, because I feel the emotional core of the program is in the ten minutes about the Schulz family during their years living at Coffee Lane in Sebastopol, California. Here is the complete segment.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/Schulz/CoffeeLane.flv 440 330]

In my previous entry I included the song “Moon River,” and following the lead of the background music in the documentary, I used Henry Mancini’s recording. But in Monte’s essay he mentions the Andy Williams version, so I’ll toss that one in here.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Nov/AW.mp3|titles=Moon River performed by Andy Williams]