Of Eric, Grace, Bonnie, Bobby and Alison

Morecambe & Wise and the tribute statue to Eric in his home town Morecambe, after which he took his stage name. [click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post today, dear reader:

• National treasure news: It's the centenary today of one of Britain's most beloved comedians, Eric Morecambe, "the funny half" of the prime-time-TV staples Morecambe and Wise. He was a phenomenon, and their popularity led to an endless stream of top guests, including one soon-to-be-Dame:

Morecambe & Wise - Shirley Bassey:

• Where does time go? news: Over at the superb Bitterness Personified blog, Mr Graham Russell reminds us that we're all getting old - it is 45 years since Grace Jones' magnum opus the album Nightclubbing was released! Gulp.

Grace Jones - I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)

• It's a Heartache news: The legendary Bonnie Tyler is "seriously ill but stable" after undergoing emergency surgery in Portugal, where she has a home. Get well soon, darling!

Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For a Hero

• Ol' Mackie news: It's ninety years since the great swinger Walden Robert Cassotto, better known as Bobby Darin was born!

Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife

• And finally: The utterly faboo Miss Alison Goldfrapp was 60 years old yesterday! Another gulp.

Goldfrapp - Strict Machine

And the weather? Up and down like a whore's drawers again, dear reader - one minute brilliant sunshine, the next black skies, rain and even thunder. Britain, Britain, Britain.

Of a drag emporium, old age, drought, a wounded Dame, space sperm and Troggs on the Tube

"The Palladium of Drag" in 1895 and today. [click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Gays of London rejoice! news: The legendary Black Cap in Camden ["The Palladium of Drag"], subject of an impressive eleven-year battle over its closure and proposed conversion into flats by property developers, has finally re-opened. We plan to pay a visit soon, of course!
• Old age is no place for sissies news: A new exhibition at the Wellcome Foundation The Coming of Age explores experiences and perceptions of ageing, from adolescence to later life, and asks how societies can adapt for us all to age better. Apparently, one in ten children in the UK are expected to live beyond the age of 100! As the curator says, however: “people want to live for ever, but they don’t want to get old”. Could be interesting. Or scary.
• Hosepipe news: Apparently, England is no longer in drought. No shit, Sherlock! It was pissing down for months this winter...

• Icon news: Dame Shirley Bassey [pictured above, accepting her "Women of Monaco" award at a society do on 10th March] has announced - at the age of 89 - that she can no longer write replies to every one of her fan letters, as she has always done throughout her long career, because she has to have surgery on her hand. What a trouper! Imagine any other star of her magnitude answering their own post...
• It's not just the Robinsons news: Sperm get lost in space, scientists have discovered. In zero gravity, I'd make sure I was wearing eye-shields - you never know what might float your way!
• And finally: RIP, Chip Taylor. Who? I hear you ask. Apart from being Jon Voight's brother [his real name was James Voight] he was a prolific songwriter, and among his hits were PP Arnold's Angel of the Morning [a hit in the US for Merrilee Rush, and later Juice Newton], the Hollies I Can't Let Go and this one [memorably covered by Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie aka The Creatures]. This sort of thing never happens to me when I'm on London Underground!

The Troggs - Wild Thing

And the weather? Sunshine again - but really quite chilly!

Of Shirl, sacrilege, sheep, sausage poisoning, stolen penis and "a statement, darling!"

Many happy returns, Dame Shirley Bassey!

It's another snippets post, dear reader!

• Vandals are coming news: Our beloved "Horticultural Mile" - north London's Crews Hill, home of the highest concentration of garden centres anywhere is under threat from this benighted government's determination to build "new towns" on "greenfield" land, and the complacency of Enfield Council towards those plans. Bastards!
• Ewe news: Staff and customers at a supermarket in in the village of Burgsinn, Bavaria were startled - as a flock of sheep caused havoc by invading the aisles!
• Ewww! news: A train crew member on London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has been sacked for serving passengers sausage rolls that he had apparently fished out of the bin. LNER's advertising slogan is "Freedom all the way". I assume it refers to bowel movements.

The Daily Mash. Of course.

• Donkey's penis stolen news: A drunken punter nicked a "beloved" antique walrus penis bone from behind the bar at a "cheesesteak" restaurant named Donkey’s Place in New Jersey. What he intended to do with it remains a mystery...
• And finally: A most unexpected focus on items in their collection, from the V&A!

Which Lamp is CAMPEST? - Rating Camp Decor with Reece Davey - V&A

And the weather? Grey, with storms and rain forecast. Yuk!

Sparkling 'round my little finger

A smattering of our little gang (Me, Madam Arcati, Hils and Our Sal) entered the hallowed halls of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) this afternoon, for a magnificent wallow in the glittering world of Cartier - and we emerged with diamond sparkles in our eyes! [more on that later, inevitably]...

...and we know a song about that, don't we, dear reader?

Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds are forever
Sparkling 'round my little finger
Unlike men, the diamonds linger
Men are mere mortals who
Are not worth going to your grave for!

Amen.

Of butlers, cucumbers, pies, Oscars and Dame Shirl

RIP, Jack Vettriano, prints of whose works, incuding "The Singing Butler" [above], are some of the best-selling in British history.

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• Oscars news: The culmination of "the back-slapping season" has come and gone, and yet again a load of awards went to people we don't know or care about, and to a clutch of films I have not, and will never see. Yawn.
• More art news: A Brueghel miniature painting has been rediscovered, 50 years after it was stolen.

• Weirdest carnival ever? In La Paz, Bolivia, there is an annual cucumber parade (Farándula de los Pepinos) in the carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras (which is today). I wouldn't want that with my pancakes!
• Thick as a plank news: An 18-year-old woman in Florida was arrested after vandalising the car of her ex-boyfriend's neighbour, rather than his. And Americans wonder why we sneer at their education system?
• Happy British Pie Week! Yes, unbelievably, the beloved comfort food of varying quality meat encased in pastry does indeed have its own "awareness week". Who am I to argue? Yum, yum.
• And finally: Happy 80th birthday today to Dieter Meier, brainchild behind the Swiss oddball synth pioneers Yello! By way of a tribute, these masterpieces...

Yello - The Race

Yello - Oh Yeah

...and one of my all-time favourite songs, ever!

Yello featuring Shirley Bassey - The Rhythm Divine

Utter perfection.

And the weather? Spring, Spring, Spring!!

Even a Fool Learns to Love?

It is that annual "Diva Day", when we celebrate the birthdays of two eternal icons and Patron Saints here at Dolores Delargo Towers [one, gladly, still with us us, one forever missed] - Dame Shirley Bassey and Mr David Bowie.

To that end, a mini-quiz, dear reader. What connects this song from the then Miss Bassey's repertoire...

Shirley Bassey - My Way (1978)

...with this, from Mr Bowie's?

David Bowie - Life On Mars

From The Guardian:

In the late 60s, a young songwriter called David Bowie was asked by his manager to write an English lyric for a French pop song, Comme d’habitude (As Usual), by Claude François. “I turned in the pitifully awful title 'Even a Fool Learns to Love', which he rejected out of hand, quite rightly, I feel,” Bowie remembered in 1999. “And it passed on to Paul Anka, who did his own English lyric. And he called it, simply and effectively, 'My Way'”...

...Later, Sinatra would claim My Way “really had nothing to do with my life whatsoever”. Anka, however, felt Sinatra’s experiences helped give the song its power. “Shit happens to everybody every day, whether you’re Frank Sinatra or Joe Blow,” says Anka. “Of course he had regrets – that’s why we sat around and drank every night. You could hear it come out in him, from Ava Gardner, to whoever … but that was the magic of Sinatra: when he sang about it, you believed it. His lucky streak is that he is able to sing about it, convey it and help people along who need it emotionally.”

... When the young Bowie heard Don Costa’s grand arrangement [for Sinatra] on the radio, he was crestfallen. “So in retaliation,” he said, “I wrote 'Life on Mars'.”

A note on the inner sleeve of Hunky Dory reads: “Inspired by Frankie.”

Inspired, indeed.

Spin the wheel, relax

Oh, dear - the man who created a certain type of "Ibiza sound" that combined the rhythms of Brazil with '90s dance beats [yet he wasn't in the slightest bit "Latino", having been born in very-less-than-tropical Crewe, about as far from a beach as you could imagine] Dario G has departed for the club tent at Fabulon, aged just 53.

We need to pay tribute, methinks, by way of a paaaarty!!

Dario G - Sunchyme

Dario G - Carnaval De Paris

Dario G - Dream to Me

And finally - who among us remembers that he collaborated with none other than our Patron Saint of Belting Vocals Dame Shirley Bassey?!

Dame Shirley Bassey and Dario G - We Got Music (7th Heaven Radio Edit)

That song should have been so much bigger...

A talented man, and a sad loss.

RIP Dario G (born Paul Spencer, 1971 - 17th June 2024)

Who's That Boy?

That toddler is 65?! Heavens.

On the day he was born, Elvis was at #1 (and Cliff-bloody-Richard was at #3 - and neither of them are getting an airing here) - but what else was in the charts?

At #2:

The Teddy Bears [featuring Phil Spector] - To Know Him Is To Love Him

At #4:

Shirley Bassey - Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me

At #7:

The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

...and then, there was this:

Lonnie Donegan - Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)?

...and this!

Tommy Dorsey Orchestra - Tea For Two Cha Cha

Many happy returns, Madam Arcati!

Happy birthday, darling.

The countdown begins...

As the Madam and I do the final whizz around cleaning in preparation for receiving visitors, and I turn my attention to preparing the buffet - I think some musical highlights from 2023 are in order, to get the juices flowing for a party!

Blam! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go to the Grave [Wham! vs Black Sabbath Bill McClintock mash-up]

Jessie Ware - Pearls

Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha [Finland; Eurovision Song Contest 2023]

Adam Lambert - Holding Out for a Hero

Troye Sivan - Rush

And the "Song of the Year":

Kylie Minogue - Padam Padam

However, as my 60th year passes into the ether, let's have another outing for my song from my birthday post - this:

Shirley Bassey - If I Never Sing Another Song

Happy New Year, dear reader!

Arise...

...Companion of Honour Dame Shirley Bassey, Dame Jilly Cooper (for services to the "bonk-buster" novel?), [founder of Glastonbury Festival] Sir Michael Eavis, [founder of that other great British institution Wetherspoons] Sir Tim Martin.

Also honoured: Dame Judith Weir [Master of the King's Music], author Sir Alexander McCall Smith, former Home Secretary Sir Sajid Javid, Knight Grand Cross Sir Ridley Scott and Dame Grand Cross Dame Margaret Beckett.

Among those awarded Commander of the British Empire (CBE): lyricist Don Black, TV chef Paul Hollywood, former rugby players turned fundraisers Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield, former England footballer Peter Shilton, TV historian Professor Ronald Hutton and author Kate Mosse; Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) include legendary DJ Tony Blackburn, singer Leona Lewis, business guru Mary Portas, soprano Carolyn Sampson and England football team captain Millie Bright; Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) include DJ Steve Wright, actress Emilia Clarke, broadcaster James Whale and England footballers Lauren Hemp and Mary Earps.

Congratulations, one and all!

New Year Honours list 2024 in full

Always posing, but you love it all

Yes. I used to look like this. Time's a terrible thing.

As it's my 60th birthday today, I thought I'd indulge myself with some of my favourite music...

How about six decades' worth?

1960s:

Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

1970s:

Blondie - Picture This

1980s:

Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin

1990s:

Youssou N'Dour ft. Neneh Cherry - Seven Seconds

2000s:

Madonna - Hung Up

2010s:

Kylie Minogue - All The Lovers

Then there are the songs that transcend decades. The likes of Soft Cell - Tainted Love [and just about anything Marc Almond has ever done], David Bowie - Queen Bitch [and just about anything Bowie ever did (check out the "Queen Bitch" link for my week-long tribute to the man on the news of his death)], Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill [and an endless list of beloved works by her], Grace Jones - Private Life [and, again, just about anything else in her repertoire], Raffaella Carra - Do It, Do It Again, White Town - Your Woman, Visage - Fade to Grey, Patti Smith - Because The Night, Liza Minnelli - Mein Herr, Erasure - A Little Respect, Shakespear's Sister - Stay, Tom Robinson - War Baby, Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round...

...and gazillions of others from the likes of Doris Day, Eartha Kitt, Bette Midler, Dalida, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Divine, Style Council, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, All Seeing I, Petula Clark, Ofra Haza, Dinah Washington, Laura Branigan, Ian Dury, Lisa Stansfield, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Nina Simone, Three Degrees, KLF, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Cilla Black, Associates, Caro Emerald, Régine, Postmodern Jukebox, Talking Heads, Elaine Stritch, Simple Minds, Celia Cruz, Beautiful South, S-Club 7, Carol Channing, Sam Brown, Jimmy Somerville, Vikki Carr, Donna Summer, Blossom Dearie, ABC, Mika, Etta James, Duran Duran, Lou Reed, Scissor Sisters, Cher, Pearl Bailey, Fangoria, Hot Chocolate, Rocio Jurado, Queen, Klaus Nomi, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Mitzi Gaynor, B-52s, Loleatta Holloway, Adam and the Ants, Gina G, Gina X, Eurythmics/Annie Lennox, Roisin Murphy, Chaka Khan, Conchita Wurst, Edith Piaf, Human League, Rose Royce, Dolly Parton, Depeche Mode, Faithless, Monica Naranjo, Ethel Merman, Alison Jiear, Ysa Ferrer, Divine Comedy, Peggy Lee, Steps, Ella Fitzgerald, Mamas and The Papas, George Michael/Wham, Baccara, Yma Sumac, New Order, Puppini Sisters, Take That, Ultra Nate, Bananarama, Isabel Pantoja, Heaven 17, Diana Ross, Kirsty McColl, Roxy Music, Tina Turner, Flying Lizards, The Cure, Marianne Faithfull and so on. And on. And on...
[All searchable on this very blog]

Then there are the musicals - including Sweet Charity, Chicago, La Cage Aux Folles, Gypsy, Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors and everything by Stephen Sondheim [that link takes you to the week-long series of tributes I did when he departed for Fabulon] - and the classical and operatic stuff [too numerous to mention].

However, dear reader, I still have one more beloved song by one more - the ultimate - diva to play. It's rather appropriate, you see:

Shirley Bassey - If I Never Sing Another Song

In my heyday
Young men wrote to me
Everybody seemed to have time to devote to me
Everyone I saw all swore they knew me
Once upon a song

Main attraction, couldn't buy a seat
The celebrity celebrities were dying to meet
I've had every accolade bestowed on me
And so you see

If I never sing another song
It wouldn't bother me
I had my share of fame
You know my name

If I never sing another song
Or take another bow
I would get by, but I'm not sure how

Always posing, but you love it all
Though you have to learn to act like you're above it all
Everything I did the world applauded
Once upon a star

Framed citations, hung on every wall
Got a scrapbook full of quotes, I can recall them all
There were times I felt the world belonged to me
And so you see

If I never sing another song
It wouldn't bother me
I had my share of fame
You know my name

If I never sing another song
Or take another bow
I would get by, but I'm not sure how
But I'm not sure how
But I'm not sure how

If it’s good enough for Shirley Bassey it’s good enough for you

Double-Diva-Day is upon us!

Today is the 86th birthday of our most-revered Patron Saint Dame Shirley Bassey, and, as I have mentioned many times before, she shares it with another - the desperately-missed David Bowie...

Here's my favourite anecdote from the latter, that ties the two together neatly:

“Well, backstage one night I was desperate to use the bathroom. I was dressed in my full, battle finery of Tokyo-spaceboy and a pair of shoes high enough that it induced nose bleeds.

“I went up to the promoter – actually I tottered over to the promoter – and I asked ‘Could you please tell me where the lavatory is?’

“And he said: ‘Yeah, look down that corridor. On the far end of that wall. You see that sink? There you go.’

“I said: ‘My good man, I’m not taking a piss in the sink.’

“He said: ‘Listen, son, if it’s good enough for Shirley Bassey it’s good enough for you.’”

Such is the glamorous life of the megastar.

Let's have a wallow in a little something from both divas...

Shirley Bassey - The Lady Is A Tramp [1996 Royal Gala Performance]

David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging [The Kenny Everett Show, 1979]

Many happy returns, Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (born 8th January 1937)

We still love you, David Robert Jones (8th January 1947 – 10th January 2016)

We know when to kiss and we know when to kill

Heavens! Possibly one of Britain's greatest exports, James Bond is 60 today! [Well, the film franchise is, anyhow...]

Any excuse, methinks, to indulge ourselves in the greatness of some of my favourite Bond themes over the last six decades!

Shirley Bassey - Moonraker (1978)

Matt Monro - From Russia With Love (1963)

Duran Duran - A View To a Kill(1985)

Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Gladys Knight - License to Kill (1989)

Garbage - The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger (1964)

Oh, I needed that wallow...

Read Peter Bradshaw on Bond at 60, in The Guardian

Thank you very, very, very much!

Another day, another new addition to Fabulon, the "Valhalla of the Stars" - the multi-talented Bea Lillie protégé, composer, lyricist and playwright Mr Leslie Bricusse.

Most famous for his long professional partnership with fellow "triple threat" Anthony Newley, the mass of "standards" in the great man's repertoire include Nina Simone's Feeling Good [a version of which I posted just the other day], What Kind of Fool Am I?, The Joker [used later as the theme song for Kath & Kim], The Candy Man and Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, London Is London, A Wonderful Day Like Today, Talk to the Animals, Who Can I Turn To?...

...and these!

Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger

Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice

Anthony Newley - Thank You Very Much [from Scrooge]

Julie Andrews- Le Jazz Hot

...and our "Gay Pride March" anthem, to boot!

Linda Eder - Bring On The Men [from Jekyll and Hyde the musical]

RIP, Leslie Bricusse OBE (29th January 1931 – 19th October 2021)

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues

That was a long, long, long week... Time for a bit of a party!

As it is "Diva Day" again - the date when two of our greatest icons Dame Shirley Bassey and David Bowie [whose death five years ago this weekend rocked the world, and still hurts] were born ten years apart - it seems only fair that we usher in the weekend in their company. First, a boppy number from her...

Shirley Bassey - Disco La Passione

...and then one from him!

David Bowie - Let's Dance (The Penelopes Remix)

Have a good weekend, dear reader - Thank Disco It's Friday!

Many happy returns, Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (born 8th January 1937)

RIP, David Robert Jones (8th January 1947 – 10th January 2016)

• Read the concluding post of my week-long set of tributes to the great man after his death was announced [it contains links to each of the others in the series]

Songs of the Year, Part 2

There are very few certainties in life, but when it comes down to musical tastes, dear reader, you can be absolutely sure that no list of my "favourites" will ever include: whining gits like Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi or Coldplay; nor urban/rap/grime/whatever-the-latest-term-is for the likes of Stormzy, Drake, Megan Thee Stallion and so on; nor wibblers like Rihanna or Ariana or their newer competitors in the "ear-bleed" stakes; nor will there be much in the way of Country or Rock. No Taylor "Gwyneth Paltrow-lookey-likey" Swift, nor Harry Styles, Justin "somebody smack him" Bieber or the GaGa creature. Nor Captain Tom Moore.

Artists who did "tickle my fancy" during 2020 included Róisín Murphy, Shapeshifters, Jess Glynne, Doja Cat, Dua Lipa (well, one of hers, anyhow), Jaxx Jones and Martin Solveig - all featured (or linked to), among others, in Part 1 of this personal year-end round-up... 

...and this lot!

Without further ado, here in Part 2 - these are the songs that I loved the most in 2020.

First up, a song that has had not one, not two, but three iterations in a matter of eighteen months - not least the Xmas version I featured here. However, this was the one that made me laugh out loud (and lord knows we needed it this year):

Todrick Hall - Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrubs

From laughter to tears. A superbly-arranged collaboration between some very big names indeed (to raise funds for Children In Need); you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this one...

Radio 2 Allstars - Stop Crying Your Heart Out

Changing the mood completely, despite the fact that (like just about everything) the Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled in 2020, this song - which indubitably would have won - remains an exercise in pure, understated genius:

Daði Freyr - Think About Things

What's this? Two bites of the cherry for "Little Miss Weeknd-without-an-e"? Yes. I adored this song for the whole of lockdown #1, and I love it still:

The Weeknd - In Your Eyes

Our beloved Patron Saint of Belting Dame Shirley Bassey apparently hung up her sparkly frocks for the last time in November with a "farewell" album, much to our dismay - but from it came a boppy little number that has been receiving quite a bit of airplay on BBC Radio 2 ever since:

Shirley Bassey - Look But Don't Touch

Speaking of Patron Saints and Divas, Kylie exploded back into our lives with her DISCO album, from which came first the sublime Say Something - and then, this!

Kylie Minogue - Magic

Ramping up the camp-with-a-capital-C (as only they can), 2020 was also a busy year for the fantabulosa Steps, who released a couple of genuine earworms, Something In Your Eyes and, from the album of the same name, this house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers:

Steps - What the Future Holds

And finally, if there is to be an end-point, a pinnacle, a crescendo for such a list of remarkable numbers from an otherwise benighted year - here is the "Queen of the Lockdown" herself, with not only a brilliant cover of an all-time camp classic, but also with a poignant video that just about sums up our feelings about this "year of shuttered venues". Let's hope that by this time next year, we'll have a had few happier times on a dance-floor somewhere...

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Crying At The Discotheque

As always, let me know your thoughts, my leetle chums!

The Dame bows out with a bang!

We acquired a gem last weekend [I pre-ordered], and for the first time last night we listened to it - Dame Shirley Bassey's final (sniff! sniff!) album I Owe It All to You.

I don't really need to say it, but...

...it is FAB!!

Already Britain’s most successful female artist of all time, with this album crashing into the Top Ten she has broken a new chart record and has become the first to have a UK Top 40 album in seven consecutive decades!

Among a smattering of original songs and cabaret standards, the Dame covers numbers originally recorded by Barry Manilow, Queen, John Miles, Elvis and Liza Minnelli. Unafraid of a challenge, she also covers GaGa and Beyonce(!) - and in doing so, shows both of them exactly how a song should be sung...

By way of a teaser before you all troll off to purchase your copy, here are just two of the tracks - starting with the title song, written especially for her by fellow retiree and longtime collaborator Don Black. As the review in the Financial Times put it:

Bassey’s songs have always had a different outlook. Their world is one of glitz and glamour and ornate vocal power. A swish of thick red velvet curtains, and the spotlight picks out a sumptuously robed figure at the microphone stand. “You have kept me centre stage,” she sings, arms outstretched, voice ringing out to all corners.

Indeed. How life should be.

Dame Shirley Bassey - I Owe It All To You (lyric video)

...and then, this...

Dame Shirley Bassey - You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet

There is, and never will be, anyone else like her!

I Owe It All to You is available from Decca Records and Amazon.

But that's the way that I was born to be

Darlings! Reasons to be cheerful:

• It's Gay Xmas Eve! - even if we have no Pride march nor parties to go to, other than via Zoom.
• It's payday - even if the prospect of a return to shopping in Primark at the moment still seems weird, and somehow slightly scary...
• We have the ultimate, most magisterial gay icon and Patron Saint here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Dame Shirley Bassey to lead us into the celebrations - as only she knows how [even if her audience in this clip doesn't]!

All the more reason to Thank Disco It's Gay Pride Friday!

Funny how a lonely day can make a person say:
What good is my life?
Funny how a breaking heart can make me start to say:
What good is my life?
Funny how I often seem to think I'll never find a dream
In my life
Till I look around and see, this great big world is part of me
And my life
This is my life
Today, tomorrow, love will come and find me
But that's the way that I was born to be
This is me
This is me

This is my life
And I don't give a damn for lost emotions
I've such a lot of love I've got to give
Let me live
Let me live

Sometime when I feel afraid, I think of what a mess I've made
Of my life
Crying over my mistakes, forgetting all the breaks I've had
In my life
I was put on earth to be, a part of this great world is me
And my life
Guess I'll just add up the score, and count the things I'm grateful for
In my life
This is my life
Today, tomorrow, love will come and find me
But that's the way that I was born to be
This is me
This is me

This is my life
And I don't give a damn for lost emotions
I've such a lot of love I've got to give
Let me live
Let me live

This is my life
This is my life
This is my life!

Amen to that.

Have a faboo sparkling weekend, dear reader!

Does anybody miss me? Anybody feel the way I do?

Another prodigious musical talent has departed for Fabulon - Mr Les Reed.

Who? I hear you say...

Mr Reed was the man behind myriad hits in the 1960s and 70s for the likes of Connie Francis, Gene Pitney, Sammy Davis Jnr., The Fortunes, Mirielle Mathieu, Sandie Shaw, The Dave Clark 5, Des O'Connor, Cleo Laine, The Drifters, Frank Ifield, The Applejacks, P.J. Proby, Petula Clark, Elvis Presley and many, many more.

Including these!

Herman's Hermits - There's A Kind Of Hush (All Over the World)

Tom Jones - Delilah

Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual

Engelbert Humperdinck - The Last Waltz

Shirley Bassey - Does Anybody Miss Me?

Classics, every one.





RIP, Leslie David Reed OBE (24th July 1935 – 15th April 2019)

All the seasons and the times of your days

Another legendary composer has departed for Fabulon - the sublimely talented Michel Legrand, Oscar-winning composer of the music for The Thomas Crown Affair, Yentl and Summer of 42, and the genius whose scores made such French-language films as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort huge international hits.


Jacques Demy, Agnès Varda, Michel Legrand, and Catherine Deneuve on the set of The Young Girls Of Rochefort

Over the years he collaborated with a glittering array of stars including Sacha Distel, Caterina Valente, Petula Clark, Miles Davis, Catherine Deneuve, Dame Shirl, Yves Montand, Edith Piaf, Nana Mouskouri, Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. Along the way, he wrote numerous songs that became cherished standards, performed by a wide range of singers. Here's just a few of them:

Shirley Bassey - How do you keep the music playing?

Nana Mouskouri and Michel Legrand - I Will Wait For You

Dusty Springfield - The Windmills Of Your Mind

Blossom Dearie - Once upon a Summertime

Alison Moyet and Michel Legrand - Between Yesterday and Tomorrow

Michel Legrand working with Barbara Streisand and the Bergmans on Yentl in 1983

Alongside writers Alan and Marilyn Bergman, he had a particular and long-standing affinity with Barbra Streisand.

Barbra Streisand and Michel Legrand - The way he makes me feel

Barbra Streisand - Papa, Can You Hear Me?

Barbra Streisand and Michel Legrand - What are you doing the rest of your life?

What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and south and east and west of your life
I have only one request of your life
That you spend it all with me

All the seasons and the times of your days
All the nickels and the dimes of your days
Let the reasons and the rhymes of your days
All begin and end with me

I want to see your face
In every kind of light
In fields of dawn
And forests of the night

And when you stand before the candles on the cake
Oh, let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make

Those tomorrow's waiting deep in your eyes
And the world of love you keep in your eyes
I'll awaken what's asleep in your eyes
It may take a kiss or two

He will be sadly missed.

RIP Michel Jean Legrand (24th February 1932 – 26th January 2019)