When I was a teenager, I made some pitiful attempts at songwriting. One was called, “Oh, Juanita,” which had stunning lyrics such as, “Oh, Juanita, Juanita, with eyes so brown, Oh Juanita, Juanita, please do not frown.” There’s more, but you get the idea. It was probably inspired by a line in Donovan’s There Is A Mountain [LISTEN], which came out in 1967. I probably stole some lyrics from an early Harry Belafonte song.
But it wasn’t until this month that I realized that I had, unconsciously, stolen the MUSIC from the chorus of Eydie Gorme’s 1963 hit Blame It On the Bossa Nova [LISTEN]. The music of 1964 and especially after that is still imprinted in my brain. Though I had obviously heard the song, tunes from 1959-1963 were more ephemeral in my mind.
I used to see Eydie, with her husband Steve Lawrence, all the time on the Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, and other programs. Ken Levine wrote: “She wasn’t Barbra and she wasn’t Judy so she never received that level of adoration, but boy could the lady sing.” Mark Evanier suggests, “I don’t think the obits are doing a good enough job describing the length and breadth of Eydie Gorme’s career.”
And speaking of musical theft: Robin Thicke sues Marvin Gaye’s family to protect his song ‘Blurred Lines’. How does THAT work, exactly?
Rose Marie, who played Sally Rogers on the Dick Van Dyke Show, turned 90 this month and both Evanier and Levine each, separately, had lunch with her.
The Daughter and I are in the midst of watching every single episode of DVD on DVD; we’re almost done with the 18th disc in the 25-disc set, midway through Season 4 of a series that lasted five glorious years. One of the more recent episodes we saw involved Sally going on a test date with Rob’s (DVD) brother Stacey (guest star Jerry Van Dyke), so Stacey can get up the nerve to ask out his actual intended. This makes Sally’s off-and-on boyfriend Herman Glimscher (Bill Idelson) jealous, and chaos ensues. The Daughter laughed out loud, literally.
I used to watch The McLaughlin Report almost every week, and loved the unpretentious Jack Germond, who died this month.
Nippertown and Dustbury wrote about Karen Black, who also died this month.