Ms Scarlet, Mitzi, Dinahmow and Savvy have started the party early!
Another wearisome week is kicking and screaming its way to its demise, and for that we are very grateful.
As it would have been the 95th birthday of that former nightclub-crooner-turned-hitmaker Al Martino, here's something a little - ahem - unexpected to get the festivities underway.
Who the hell thought that great singalong number Volare would have made a good dance record..? No-one young, of that we can be certain - yet, here it is:
Thank - cough, cough! - Disco It's Friday!
Gave a great weekend, peeps!
I guess you can make anything a dance choon, as long as your stomach is strong enough.
ReplyDeleteTrue - the trend even continued into the rap era when that godawful interpretation of It's A Hard Knock Life came out. Jx
DeleteAnd let’s not forget Ethel Merman’s disco album. Dear god. I just returned from seeing lots of people dancing flamenco. At one point, Volare played! (But it was during a break in the dancing.) No flamenco beat.
ReplyDeleteOnce heard, never fogotten! [And, needless to say. it's in our collection here at Dolores Delargo Towers.]
DeleteVolare at a flamenco evening without a flamenco beat? An opportunity lost there, methinks... Jx
I have a horrible feeling that I've heard a disco version before, and that I may have learnt at an early age that it was supposed to sound that way! I will investigate!
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The Gypsy Kings version is dance worthy. There is also a Barry White version.
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Gypsy Kings did a good job of it, but I'll need to check out the version by "The Walrus of Love"... Jx
DeleteDear Al, who played the Sinatra-esque singer in The Godfather. If memory serves (though it rarely does) Al got arrested for shoplifting in Massachusetts. He may have had a gig at a Trumpy kind of showroom, glitzy/tacky in Framingham- Chateau DeVille.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, Coppola wanted to replace Al Martino with Vic Damone - but Al had friends in the real-life mob, and with their "assistance" the decision was quickly reversed... Jx
DeleteI love The Gypsy Kings version, gives me the fanny gallops as does Begin The Beguine by Julio Iglesias, as I recall is a disco version of an old Cole Porter tune from the B&W era.
ReplyDeleteWho could forget Eartha Kitt's foray into disco music in the 80s I still have the CD I bought from Our Price in the 90s, she's wearing a turban on the front cover.
Eartha Kitt's Where Is My Man was on heavy rotation in my bedroom at my mother's house the summer before I came out. Thanks, Eartha! Jx
DeleteMy father called her "Earthy" Kitt. It wasn't hard to see why. No, not the "Santa , Baby" crap. Her way of hitting some notes with a half-gargle. I remember Volare being big in the 60s. And "Forget Domani" from movie Yellow Rolls Royce. Not sure, but Al Martino rings a bell there, too.Christ! Everyone covered that in the mid 60s!
ReplyDeleteIt goes without saying that Miss Kitt is one of our most adored "Patron Saints" - we have a vast collection of her back catalogue, purring her way through everything from Uska Dara to Cha-Cha Heels and back again. Saw her live on stage at the Sondheim 75th birthday Gala at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane way back in 2005, and she was magnificent!
DeleteAs for 60s hits, there were loads of Italian songs that were translated or had new lyrics written for them (and Volare began life as Italy's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest!) - I did a post about the phenomenon earlier this year. Jx
That clip from the party must be very early on as Ms Scarlet, Mitzi, Dinahmow and Savvy are all in time, so can't have hit the sauce (much).
ReplyDeleteThe top was off the Tipp-Ex, so I can imagine things had already started "buzzing"... Jx
DeleteLove it
ReplyDeleteOOoooh OOOooooo.
I can hear your dulcets from here. Jx
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