"Moonlight Becomes You" was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was written for the 1942 film Road to Morocco. The tune is used quite effectively in a scene in which Bing Crosby serenades the lovely Lamour (Dorothy). Bob Hope didn't stand a chance!
"Moonlight Becomes You" was also chosen for the opening track on Sinatra's collection of moon songs, one of my favorites, Moonlight Sinatra (1966).
"#9 Dream" is a song written and performed by John Lennon and featured as the seventh track on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. In January 1975, it was released as the second single from that album. It continues Lennon's fascination with the number nine (he was born on October 9). On The Beatles' White Album, he and Yoko Ono contributed a track titled "Revolution #9."
Texas - where the cheerleaders carry assault rifles!
In honor of the "simple, innocent satire," as it was described by the principal of the Nacogdoches High School (I'm calling it "the Columbine Pep Rally"), performed at a football pep rally last month, here is a similarly subtle tribute to firearms, this one from Robin and the 7 Hoods. I give you Sammy Davis Jr. doing "Bang! Bang!":
Smaller text paraphrased from the possibly in need of editing Wikipedia entry:
The Cyrkle were originally a "frat rock" band called The Rhondells, but were later discovered and managed by Brian Epstein, who was better known as manager of The Beatles. John Lennon provided the unique spelling of their new name. In the summer of 1966, they opened on fourteen dates for The Beatles during their U.S. tour. On August 28, they headed the opening acts performing prior to The Beatles at Dodger Stadium.
The Cyrkle is best known for their 1966 song "Red Rubber Ball," which went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was co-written by Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel and Bruce Woodley of The Seekers. The band had one more Top 20 hit, "Turn-Down Day," later in 1966.
"Turn-Down Day"
sitar-riffic!
After the release of the debut album, Red Rubber Ball, they recorded a second album, Neon, in late 1966, and a movie soundtrack, The Minx, in 1967. They followed that with various singles and then disbanded in late 1967.
"It's a Lovely Game, Louise"
The original inspiration for this post. I just ordered The Minx soundtrack from Amazon, so regular visitors to this blog (bless you) can expect to see "It's a Lovely Game, Louise" as my MP3 up there on top, soon. It is such a delicious slice of "West-Coast Sunshine Pop." Too bad the YouTube uploader used such a sucky recording of it for the above video! The soundtrack might have done for The Cyrkle what The Graduate soundtrack did for Simon and Garfunkel, if not for that pesky "X" rating, which caused the film to have a limited release two years later in 1969.
"The Minx (instrumental)"
"plop plop fizz fizz" jingle for Alka-Seltzer
Both bassist Tom Dawes and lead vocalist Don Danneman became professional jingle writers, penning the famous "plop plop fizz fizz" jingle for Alka-Seltzer, jingles for Continental Airlines (my research revealed Dawes did jingles for American Airlines - "We're American Airlines, Doing What We Do Best" and "Something Special in the Air"), Swanson Foods, as well as the original "7-Up, the Uncola" song. In 1977 1973, Dawes produced for Foghat.
In Exit Ghost (2007), writer Philip Roth's alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, returns like Rip Van Winkle to a post-9/11 New York after being away for eleven years :
What surprised me most my first few days walking around the city? The most obvious thing--the cell phones...I remembered New York when the only people walking up Broadway seemingly talking to themselves were crazy. What had happened in these ten years for there suddenly to be so much to say--so much so pressing that it couldn't wait to be said? Everywhere I walked, somebody was approaching me talking on a phone and someone was behind me talking on a phone. Inside the cars, the drivers were on the phone. When I took a taxi, the cabbie was on the phone. For one who frequently went without talking to anyone for days at a time, I had to wonder what that had prevously held them up and collapsed in people to make incessant talking into a telephone preferable to walking about under no one's surveillance, momentarily solitary, assimilating the streets through one's animal senses and thinking the myriad thoughts that the activities of a city inspire. For me it made the streets appear comic and the people ridiculous. And yet it seemed like a real tragedy, too. To eradicate the experience of separation must inevitably have a dramatic effect. What will the consequence be? (pp. 63, 64)
"Moonlight Becomes You" was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was written for the 1942 film Road to Morocco. The tune is used quite effectively in a scene in which Bing Crosby serenades the lovely Lamour (Dorothy). Bob Hope didn't stand a chance!
"Moonlight Becomes You" was also chosen for the opening track on Sinatra's collection of moon songs, one of my favorites, Moonlight Sinatra (1966).
Paraphrased from the Wikipedia entry:
Smaller text paraphrased from the possibly in need of editing Wikipedia entry:
In the summer of 1966, they opened on fourteen dates for The Beatles during their U.S. tour. On August 28, they headed the opening acts performing prior to The Beatles at Dodger Stadium.
After the release of the debut album, Red Rubber Ball, they recorded a second album, Neon, in late 1966, and a movie soundtrack, The Minx, in 1967. They followed that with various singles and then disbanded in late 1967.
In Exit Ghost (2007), writer Philip Roth's alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, returns like Rip Van Winkle to a post-9/11 New York after being away for eleven years :
What surprised me most my first few days walking around the city? The most obvious thing--the cell phones...I remembered New York when the only people walking up Broadway seemingly talking to themselves were crazy. What had happened in these ten years for there suddenly to be so much to say--so much so pressing that it couldn't wait to be said? Everywhere I walked, somebody was approaching me talking on a phone and someone was behind me talking on a phone. Inside the cars, the drivers were on the phone. When I took a taxi, the cabbie was on the phone. For one who frequently went without talking to anyone for days at a time, I had to wonder what that had prevously held them up and collapsed in people to make incessant talking into a telephone preferable to walking about under no one's surveillance, momentarily solitary, assimilating the streets through one's animal senses and thinking the myriad thoughts that the activities of a city inspire. For me it made the streets appear comic and the people ridiculous. And yet it seemed like a real tragedy, too. To eradicate the experience of separation must inevitably have a dramatic effect. What will the consequence be? (pp. 63, 64)
