Category Archives: Music

Showtune Saturday: “I’ve Got Plenty To Be Thankful For”

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes: By this point in the holiday season you’re almost certainly heartily sick of the most famous song from Holiday Inn (1942). Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” is certainly a victim of its own success: despite, (or perhaps because … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged bing crosby, bob crosby, holiday inn, i've got plenty to be thankful for, showtune saturday, white christmas | Leave a comment

Showtune Saturday: “Thank Heaven For Little Girls”

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes: The irreplaceable Maurice Chevalier in Vincente Minnelli’s Gigi (1958), a most astonishingly lighthearted and charming Lerner and Loewe musical (based on Colette’s novella of the same name) about a Parisian courtesan. Do yourself a favor, and ignore … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged couldn't do it today, gigi, lerner and loewe, sex, sexism, showtune saturday, vincente minnelli | Leave a comment

Showtune Saturday: “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat”

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes: From “The Aristocats” (1970), one of Disney’s lesser-known animated features, comes this delightfully jazzy number with Scatman Crothers, Eva Gabor, and Phil Harris. It’s got some trippy color-swirling visuals, a snappy beat, some rather gulp-inducing double-entendres, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged couldn't do it today, everybody wants to be a cat, showtune saturday, the aristocats, Walt Disney, you're a racist! | Leave a comment

Couldn’t Do It Today

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes: RIP Bobby Keys who died today at 70. In the documentary STONES IN EXILE, Keys comes off as even more rock ‘n roll than Mick and Keef. Here’s Richards, from his excellent autobiography Life, explaining why Keys was fired … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged Bobby Keys, Brown Sugar, Rolling Stones | 5 Comments

Showtune Saturday: “Some Enchanted Evening”

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes: It’s big and lush and swoony and romantic. It’s a guy telling a girl about falling in love at first sight, and not missing out on it when it happens. This is the sort of song that … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Music, Performers | Tagged giorgio tozzi, mitzi gaynor, rodgers and hammerstein, rossano brazzi, showtune saturday, south pacific | 2 Comments

Couldn’t Do It Today

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

Posted in Music | Tagged Big Chief Beretti, couldn't do it today, crabs with spears and Indian drums, Indian Girl, Slick Rick | Leave a comment

Nightmare on Broadway

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: “Gold Diggers of 1935” is a pretty lame movie. Yet it includes what might be Busby Berkeley’s masterpiece: A musical fantasy sequence scored to “The Lullaby of Broadway.” Is it an exaggeration to call it one … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged Busby Berkeley, Dick Powell, Film, Gold Diggers of 1935, movies, Musicals, The Lullaby of Broadway | 3 Comments

“Few Men Have Even Tried What He Has Tried”

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: Around the time this blog launched, I wrote about enjoyably silly movie theme songs, a thing that mostly disappeared from movies in the ’70s or ’80s. I just love those kitschy tunes. I need to add a new … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged Film, movies, Rankin/Bass, Richard Boone, The Last Dinosaur | 2 Comments

Showtune Saturday: “This Time The Dream’s On Me”

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes: The sublime Sylvia McNair treats us to her rendition of the Arlen/Mercer standard, which originally appeared in Blues in the Night (1941). It’s on her marvelous 1995 collaboration with André Previn*, Come Rain Or Come Shine: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Performers | Tagged andre previn, blues in the night, harold arlen, showtune saturday, sylvia mcnair, this time the dreams on me | 2 Comments

Manon Lescaut, Five Ways

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes: She done him so, so wrong. L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut is a scandalous novella written in 1731 by Abbé Antoine François Prévost. Frequently banned and censored, it’s the story of a bourgeois … Continue reading →