May 2021 - Page 3 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Composer Hal David would have been 100

About 700 songs

Here’s a list of the songs written by Hal David. Keep reading; it’s very long. While many of them were written with Burt Bacharach, a number of them were not.

As I noted when he died back in 2012, he was far less well-known than his regular writing partner. While I surely recognize the importance of the music, without the lyricist, they’re just a bunch of pretty tunes lacking the resonance of the core message of the songs.

Some of his accomplishments, too many to list:

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, which was in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, garnered an Oscar. What’s New Pussycat, Alfie, and The Look of Love received Oscar nominations.

He garnered numerous Grammys. Don’t Make Me Over, Close to You, and Walk on By are all in the Grammy Hall of Fame. He had 40 top 10 songs.

Hal was elected to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His work is quoted in “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations,” and the book of his lyrics, entitled “What the World Needs Now and Other Love Lyrics” was published by Simon and Schuster.

I didn’t link to the same tracks that I used in 2012. And I’ve made an attempt to avoid selecting Dionne Warwick, who I love, on every other cut, though she’s likely recorded half of these songs.

Records that chart on the major Billboard charts in the 1960s are indicated.

Songs

24 Hours from Tulsa – Dusty Springfield

A House Is Not a Home – Ella Fitzgerald
Alfie – Nancy Wilson
(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me – Sandie Shaw, #52 pop in 1965
American Beauty Rose – Frank Sinatra (Hal David/Redd Evans/Arthur Altman)
Anyone Who Had a Heart – Linda Ronstadt
The April Fools – Dionne Warwick, #8 adult contemporary, #33 RB, #37 pop in 1969

Blue on Blue – Bobby Vinton, #2 AC for three weeks, #3 pop in 1963

Do You Know the Way to San Jose – Neil Diamond
Don’t Make Me Over – Sybil

I Say A Little Prayer – the Overtones
It Was Almost Like a Song – Ronnie Milsap (Hal David/Archie Jordan)

Johnny Get Angry – Joanie Sommers (Sherman Edwards/Hal David), #7 pop in 1962; you don’t hear kazoo nearly enough

(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valence – Gene Pitney, #4 pop in 1962
The Look of Love – Diana Krall

Magic Moments – Perry Como
Make It Easy on Yourself – Jerry Butler, #18 RB, #20 pop in 1962

More songs

Message to Michael – the Marvelettes
My Heart is an Open Book – Dean Martin (Lee Pockriss/Hal David)

One Less Bell To Answer/A House Is Not A Home – Barbra Streisand

Promises, Promises – Dionne Warwick, #7 AC, #19 pop, #47 RB in 1968

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head – Izzie Naylor
Reach Out for Me – Lou Johnson, #31 RB, #74 pop in 1963

This Guy’s in Love with You – Oasis
To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before – Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson (Hal David, Albert Hammond)
Trains and Boats and Planes – the Box Tops

Walk on By – the Beach Boys
What the World Needs Now (Is Love) – Broadway for Orlando, “an all-star group of artists from the theatre and pop world: Sara Bareilles, Idina Menzel, Audra McDonald, Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many more.”
What’s New Pussycat – Tom Jones, #3 pop for two weeks in 1965
The Windows Of The World – The Pretenders
Wishin’ and Hopin’ – Ani DiFranco
Wives and Lovers – Jack Jones, #9AC in 1963, #14 pop in 1964

You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If you Break My Heart) – the Stylistics

Composer Hal David would have been 100 on May 25, 2021.

Former Senator Al Franken turns 70

liberal talk radio

Al Franken was a writer and featured performer on Saturday Night Live in 1977–1980, leaving when producer Lorne Michaels did. Michaels had recommended Franken to succeed him as the producer, but NBC president Fred Silverman said no, probably because of a Franken skit that insulted Fred personally.

Franken returned to SNL in 1986, then from 1988 to 1995. It was during that period that he did a running bit called “Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley.” It was a mock self-help show inspired by Franken attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

The skit series inspired a 1992 novel, titled after Smiley’s catchphrase, “I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!” I’ll admit to relating to that mantra, even if I wasn’t quite sure it was true of me.

Air America Radio was a talk radio network, with a liberal POV, trying (and largely failing) to counterprogram the conservative message. The Al Franken Show was the flagship talk program from 2004 to Valentine’s Day 2007. That was the day Franken announced his candidacy for the United States Senate for the state of Minnesota.

The 2008 Senate race between Franken and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman was incredibly close, each with 41.99% of the vote. After recounts and court rulings, Franken wasn’t sworn in until July 7, 2009. The Minnesota senator had a progressive voting record and was reelected with 53.9% of the vote in 2014.

The allegations

Some sexual misconduct allegations were made against Franken in 2017. One famous photo from before he was in public office he apologized for, and the subject, a fellow comedian, accepted that. Nevertheless, the Senate Ethics Committee announced on November 30 it was “investigating allegations against him.” Some liberal groups and commentators… called on Franken to resign.”

As other accusations surfaced, “more than two dozen Democratic senators, led by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, called on Franken to resign before the ethics committee could review the allegations.

“Although Franken had asked to be allowed to appear before the Senate Ethics Committee to give his side of the story, on December 6 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told him he had to announce his resignation by five o’clock or he could be censured and stripped of committee assignments. On December 7, Franken announced his intention to resign his Senate seat. He called some of the accusations ‘simply not true’ and said he remembered others ‘very differently.'”

I do wish he had gotten the hearing he was due, and not just for his sake. Many people believed that Gillibrand, who I’ve voted for multiple times and would select again, was working to get rid of a potential rival for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President.

I don’t buy the notion that she was that calculating. She’s long been a staunch advocate for ridding sexual harassment and assault in the military and might be getting some traction in 2021. Nevertheless, I was convinced early on that she had zero chance of obtaining her party’s support for a White House run in 2020.

Aftermath

In 2019, New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer documented substantial inaccuracies in allegations by conservative talk-radio host Leeann Tweeden. “Seven former or current senators who called for Franken’s resignation in 2017 told Mayer they regretted doing so.”

Here is the Al Franken website, which leads to his podcast (over 110 episodes) and “other stuff.” As he puts it: “A five-time Emmy-winning SNL comedy writer/producer, joins a four-time #1 NYT bestselling author, a three-time highest-rated national progressive radio host, a two-time Grammy-winning artist, and a former US Senator. So, it gets a little crowded in the booth when Al talks about public policy and sometimes political comedy with notable guests. Think ‘The Daily’ without the resources of the NYTimes.”

Movie review: The Mole Agent

From Chile

The Mole Agent is a film that was nominated for Best Documentary Feature in the most recent Oscar season. It lost to My Octopus Teacher, which I have not seen. Regardless, I found it a charming movie.

“A private investigator in Chile hires someone to work as a mole at a retirement home where a client of his suspects the caretakers of elder abuse.” One of the respondents is Sergio Chamy. He is one of a half dozen men responding to a newspaper ad looking for a healthy 80-89-year-old in fine health and with good technological skills.

It appears that NONE of the candidates are particularly tech-savvy. The job requires the spy to operate a pen that has a mini-camera, wear glasses with a camera inside, and use an iPhone. None of these are in his initial skill set.

Nevertheless, Romulo hires Sergio anyway. The mole, a recent widower, is one of only a small number of men in the retirement home; the women outnumber them by about ten to one. He attracts considerable attention from some of the female residents.

Reviews well

I suppose the movie, especially the beginning is “contrived and cutesy,” as one critic noted. Yet, more true, “Sounds depressing. Its big reveal was that it was often the exact opposite. Sweet, charming, and poignant, it was a meditation on growing old, loneliness and making a life when confined in an institution.”

That said, “the ‘documentary’ nature of this hybrid is very much in question. The filmmakers acknowledged at the Sundance Film Festival, that the lead protagonist was cast by them and that scenes were invented.” I don’t think it diminishes what’s on the screen.

The Mole Agent is in Spanish with subtitles. I saw it on Hulu when I forgot to cancel it after my free trial.

Best Sitcoms – what’s that?

Can an animated show be considered?

Recently. Rolling Stone listed the 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time. There was a time I’d be all over this.

But as Mark Evanier noted, the meaning is fuzzy. Does The Best mean the Most Influential? Beloved? Enduring?

Can an animated show be a sitcom? The Simpsons are #1 on the list.

But the real issue for me is that there are shows that I have NEVER even HEARD of, let alone seen. #98 Derry Girls, #96 Bluey (animated), #95 Baskets, #94 Insecure, #93 Big Mouth (animated), #88 Party Down, #83 Letterkenny, #78 Peep Show, #72 The Comeback, #64 What We Do in the Shadows, #61 Catastrophe, #59 Spaced, #57 You’re the Worst, #40 Review. Do any of you recommend some of these shows?

And some of these are on a platform called Channel 4, which I assume is NOT the British news programme.

I’m not planning to go through all of the rest. You can assume, however, that whatever CBS shows that are on this list from 1965-1980, and the NBC shows from 1983-2000 I probably watched.

Some shows

#99 Frank’s Place – I’m glad this obscure dramedy made the list, though I haven’t seen it since it first broadcast. Ditto #91, Buffalo Bill.

#85 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show – in the 1950s, it broke down the fourth wall.

#65 Phineas and Ferb. I know more about this animated show than any adult should. I liked it.

#49 Barney Miller, was not only one of my favorite shows but had one of the best theme songs. Interesting, though, the attempt to make this a work and home show (like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and, The Dick Van Dyke Show, for two) just didn’t click here. The home segments, with Barbara Barrie, were abandoned quite early.

#38 Friends – I’m surprised the phenomenon didn’t rate higher, though the show irritated me as often as entertained.

#36 – Sex and the City – a sitcom? The writeup describes it as beginning “as a clumsy, loud, and only occasionally funny attempt at social anthropology… By the end, it was almost purely a drama…”

Plus

#15 Arrested Development – I watched a few episodes the first season and gave up. Yet I watched the second season and grew to like it.

#14 The Andy Griffith Show. When flicking through the channels, I’ll still watch it.

#11 The Dick Van Dyke Show – the only sitcom for which I own the entire run on DVD. Yes, DVD on DVD.

#6 MASH – as early as the middle of Season 1, it dealt with serious subjects. The “Sometimes, you hear the bullet” episode. e.g.

#4 I Love Lucy – we’ve been to the museum. From a comment by the late Dustbury: “I Love Lucy invented the sitcom as we know it, with three-camera coverage, film instead of kinescope, and reruns (39 new shows a season, plus 13 repeats). Its influence is incalculable.”

#3 Seinfeld – I liked it much more when it really WAS about nothing, such as getting lost in a parking lot. I thought it became mean-spirited after a while, and I gave up on it.

Sister Marcia, the convener

old movies

My sister Marcia was asking that the family, i.e., my sister Leslie, she, and I – meet online on a regular basis for years. And years.

She wanted to use Skype or some such. As I vaguely recall, I found that platform unnecessarily wonky, and so… I didn’t say No, and I actually downloaded the software. MAYBE we used it once or twice, but I didn’t like it.

But as the saying goes, it takes a pandemic. The three of us have met almost every week for a year on ZOOM. Occasionally, we’ll get guest participants such as my wife or Marcia’s daughter. We pretty much fill two 40-minute slots. (Longer than that and I develop brain fog.)

Currently, she’s working on pricing a headstone for our maternal grandmother Gertrude (Yates) Williams, who died in 1982, and her sister Adenia Yates, who passed in 1966. Why my parents never took care of this is one of those unsolved mysteries.

One of these days, maybe in the summer, we’ll spend some time working on genealogy. Ancestry.com has provided us with approximately one jillion hints of possible connections. Anyone who’s ever spent any appreciable time finding their roots knows that it is a rabbit hole that would have Alice wondering.

Cinema

I may have seen more recent movies. But she has viewed FAR more movies from the last century, especially the 1930s through the 1960s, almost all of them released before she was born. I keep threatening to veg out on TCM or some other channel, but I haven’t done so yet.

So she knows who Barbara Stanwick is. I mean, I do too, but only because she was on the TV series The Big Valley (1965-1969), while she’ll know the performer from classics such as Double Indemnity (1944), but also from the more obscure fare.

For the most part, she knows her performers from the Studio Age of cinema. Of course, she has a pretty uncanny ability to recall things from our childhood, events I’ve long forgotten.

Happy birthday, baby sister.