Is this a dream, am I here, where are you?

The weekend may once again have flown by, it may indeed be the dreaded start of another week in the benighted office - but it also happens to be the centenary today of the one-and-only Miss Jacqueline Susann, the author who almost single-handedly invented (and certainly popularised - she remains one of the world's biggest selling authors, ever) the genre of trashy, glossy, salacious and camp-as-tits "popular fiction" that covers all the subjects that readers really want to read about - sex and drugs and glamorous, doomed people living jet-set lifestyles beyond the reach of ordinary folk.

Obviously, I have featured the grande dame before - read my post on the occasion of her 90th [yes! this blog has been going a long time...].

Perhaps Miss Susann's most famous work is (of course) Valley of the Dolls, the theme tune for which was a big hit for none other than Miss Dionne Warwick - and, by way of a celebration on this Tacky Music Monday, here she is singing it.

But, wait! I hear you cry. That Bacharach and David Andre and Dory Previn number is wistful, mournful and sedate - what part of the regular "Monday pick-me-up music" criteria does this satisfy?

You wait till you see the second number in this clip [or skip to the 4:05 mark]...

Dionne Warwick - Theme from Valley of the Dolls/Children Go Where I Send Thee

Jacqueline Susann (20th August 1918 – 21st September 1974)

Wonderful you

I have been deep in concentration all day today, at home on study leave - studying the esoteric end of the "leadership and management theory" spectrum, if you really need to know; lord knows I wish I didn't!

Despite the steam that has been rising from my brain-cells since 9am, I have not forgotten that today is a Tacky Music Monday, dear reader; our traditional "opening number" of the week from the glitzy world of showtunes - however, the epithet "tacky" is somewhat of a misnomer when it comes down to the array of talent I have in store...

On Saturday, our beloved Dame Cleo Laine (she of the estimable, and still clear as a bell, jazz tonsils) turned 90 years old. Just this July, she was up and performing at her annual "Dankworth Family Festival" alongside daughter Jacqui, guitarist John Williams, musician Earl Okin and vocalist Lorna Dallas. I couldn't imagine being that energetic if I were her age. Nor even at my age.

And here is the great lady herself - alongside Margaret Whiting, Maureen McGovern, Dionne Warwick, Jack Jones and John Raitt!

Margaret Whiting, Maureen McGovern, Dionne Warwick, Jack Jones, Cleo Laine, John Raitt, Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops - It Had To Be You

Imagine being in that audience...

Many happy returns, Dame Cleo Laine (Lady Dankworth DBE, born Clementine Dinah Bullock, 28th October 1927).

Have a good week, peeps!

Don't make me over

Dionne Warwick has filed for bankruptcy in the US after amounting debts of almost $10 million (£6.6m) in taxes since 1991.

Warwick, 72, has sold more than 100 million records since the 1960s.

Last March, Warwick celebrated 50 years in show business with a special event at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

Her publicist said she had been the victim of poor financial management.

Read the article on the BBC.

Dionne Warwick - Don't Make Me Over

Dionne Warwick on Wikipedia

When legends meet

Today marks a double celebration - the 70th birthday of Miss Dionne Warwick, and the 95th anniversary of the birth of one Francis Albert Sinatra!

There are few words one can succinctly add to the millions of pages already written about either of these demi-gods in the pantheon of music - so let us instead enjoy a classic from each:

Dionne Warwick - Walk On By

Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin

And this is rarer than hen's teeth - a duet featuring both great artists! Shame it's such a dull song...

Frank Sinatra & Dionne Warwick - You and Me (We Wanted It All)