If you want to hear that Swanee River played in a ragtime

I wish.

It's been a very relaxing three-day weekend. I did get some stuff done, such as cleaning off the black mould caused by condensation around our bedroom window - oh, the delights of an old home! - but generally I was mainly sedentary. Now it's time to dust off the laptop once again, and see what joys the working week's going to bring...

To alleviate the forthcoming frustrations, let's indulge ourselves this Tacky Music Monday in the company of another of this weekend's birthday girls, the irrepressible Ethel Merman - doing Disco!

Ethel Merman - Alexander's Ragtime Band from The Ethel Merman Disco Album

Those poor kids must have been threatened with unspeakable punishments to cheer the way they did...

More about Ethel's infamous "Disco phase" in a post I did way back in 2009.

Ethel Merman (16th January 1908 – 15th February 1984)

Everything about it is appealing, everything that traffic will allow

Monday - sun is shining, daffs are up, and my thoughts turn to tacky music again!

We were listening to the fab Paul O'Grady show on Radio 2 yesterday (so much better than Elaine Paige, for whom he is covering for a few weeks), and among his selection of show music he featured this marvellous slice of incredibly bad kitsch.



For some impossible-to-understand reason back in 1979 someone thought it would be a good idea to get the most powerful voice in showbiz Ethel Merman to record a disco album - and a camp cult classic was born. Unsurprisingly, we have a treasured copy on vinyl as well as the CD (and it is always a guaranteed party hit, if only for the guests screaming for it to stop!). I love it...

Ethel Merman Disco Album - Some People

Ethel Merman Disco Album - There's No Business Like Showbusiness

Ethel Merman Disco Album