Sharing the big day with another unlikely assortment of notables including the divine Kate Bush, Emily Brontë, Frances de la Tour, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Bogdanovich, Daley Thompson, Lady Harriet Harman, Sir Clive Sinclair, Terry O'Neill, Henry Ford, Sir Christopher Nolan, Jimmy Cliff, David Sanborn, Rat Scabies, Stan Stennett, Christopher Warren-Green, Lisa Kudrow, Sid Krofft, Hilary Swank, Liz Kershaw, Buddy Guy and abstract modernist sculptor Henry Moore...
...it is the 85th birthday today of the man who wrote She's a Lady [a huge hit for Tom Jones], It Doesn't Matter Anymore [for Buddy Holly], Diana, and (of course) the lyrics to the enduring standard My Way - Mr Paul Albert Anka!
However, his 2005 album Rock Swings is, in my opinion, his finest hour. From it, this fave:
Faboo!
Just amazing to be so prolific. I once saw him do a comic take on his song “(She’s) Having My Baby” when his wife was pregnant with their sixth,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loathed that song. It ruined his classy reputation for a long time, until Rock Swings. Jx
DeleteI hated it, too! I liked when he made it a joke.
DeleteHe always struck me as a man who had a sense of humour. That song, however has the same effect on me as Lucky Stars by Dean Friedman or Honey by Bobby Goldsboro - I'll run a cross a room to turn it off! Jx
DeleteI thought hate Lucky Stars, too - it makes me want to rip my ears off!
DeleteSx
Even the thought of it makes me garble my sentences….
DeleteSx
Ha!
DeleteMe too - even the godawful Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs is preferable... Jx
Oh dear god... And honey I miss you and I’m being goo-oo-ood... I need to cleanse my brain immediately!
DeleteMe, too. Songs like that need to be confined to the "dustbin of awfulness". Jx
DeleteNice cover!!! Everything sounds fun with a bit of swing.
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You should seek out the album, Ms Scarlet - it is brilliant! Jx
DeleteI hated "Diana"!
ReplyDeleteIt is, indeed, a crap song. Very much of its time, however, when you think about some of the pap around at the time, like Oh Carol or Tammy, to name but a couple... Jx
DeleteProbably why I like classical and jazz. And I'll steer clear of "Yes, tonight, Josephine."
DeleteAmen. Jx
DeleteMusically, I have to admit that i live firmly entrenched in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. They aren't my favorite songs, but for some ungodly reason, Honey and Having My Baby and the rest of that ilk (you forgot Vikki Carr's With Pen In Hand) don't turn my stomach evidently as much as it does for other people. But then again, to each his own. Right now I'm listening to the Les Brown orchestra play an instrumental version of It's Not Unusual. Scary, i know.
ReplyDeleteHa! Les Brown and his Band of Renown - I have (inevitably) featured them before... Jx
DeletePS At least where Vikki Carr is concerned, there is deep undercurrent of camp, even in her most ostensibly tacky of numbers!
Indeed, Ms Carr is a goddess. Such a voice....
ReplyDeleteShe is in our pantheon of Patron Saints... Jx
DeleteUncle Albert by Paul and Linda McCartney
ReplyDeleteBilly Don't Be A Hero
Hello This Is Joanie?
All vomit inducing to me.
I do like a song with a marimba in them like Under My Thumb by The Rolling Stones.
Oh, lordy, the list goes on and on...
DeleteJx
PS "When marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway"...
He is Mr Cool and that track proves it.
ReplyDeleteHe deserves that nickname for that album alone! Jx
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