Terpsichore!

Grrrr. Monday again...

Never mind, eh? Among a peppering of assorted celebrants - including Mollie Sugden, Queenie Watts, Robin Williams, Paloma Faith, Ernest Hemingway, Bill Pertwee, Sir Jonathan Miller, Cat Stevens, Ross Kemp, Josh Hartnett, Helen Merrill, Charlotte Gainsbourg and (erm) the Aswan High Dam in Egypt - it would have been the birthday today of the marvellous Miss Kay Starr!

Although she became a world-renowned hitmaker in her own right during the 1950s, she did venture into the world of "ghost singer" for other actresseses...

...and here, on this Tacky Music Monday, is a great (and exceptionally OTT) example!

Kay Starr sings the vocal for Adele Jergens - Kiss of the Muse [from Down to Earth, 1947]

Camp as old tits! Even more camp is that fact that this little-known musical (that actually starred Rita Hayworth) was remade as, or at least formed the basis of Xanadu with Olivia Newton-John...

Have a good week, dear reader.

The higher the hair...

Not one, but two centenaries to celebrate on this Midsummer's Day, dear reader!

Born this day in 1922 were the inimitable Mollie Sugden, most famous, of course for her "battleaxe" roles as "Mrs Slocombe" in Are You Being Served? and as "Sandra"'s mother in The Liver Birds...

...and a woman for whom Sondheim's beloved lyrics "First you're another sloe-eyed vamp, then someone's mother, then you're camp" could have been written - Miss Kay Starr!

Kay Starr - Hard Hearted Hannah [The Mike Douglas Show, 1970]

Go, girl!

Enjoy the sunshine, dears - it's all downhill from today...

It might have been in County Down

It's happened again! No sooner do I think I've "closed-off" another Tacky Music Monday, but another Scopitone fave goes and pops her clogs...

Not before she went Around the World, of course:

Kay Starr - Around the World

Around the world I've searched for you;
I travelled on when hope was gone
To keep a rendezvous.
I knew somewhere, sometime, somehow,
You'd look at me and I would see
The smile you're smiling now.

It might have been in County Down,
Or in New York, or gay Paree,
Or even London town.
No more will I go all around the world
For I have found my world in you.

RIP, the lovely Kay Starr (born Katherine Laverne Starks, born 21st July 1922, departed for Fabulon 3rd November 2016)

A-one, two, and then roll

Many happy returns to the Iroquois Nation's greatest daughter, Miss Katherine Laverne Stark. Better known (of course) as Kay Starr, she - remarkably - blows out 91 candles on her cake today...

I did, inevitably, celebrate the great lady's 90th birthday last year, so without further ado, here she is singing one of her earliest hits:

Kay Starr - Bonaparte's Retreat

And here she is, still glittering and big-haired in the 1980s with her greatest hit:

Kay Starr - Rock'n'Roll Waltz

Ah, "Sunday music"...

Kay Starr (born 21st July 1922)

Will the arrow point my way?

Heavens! Who even knew she was still alive? (#297 in a series...)

Today, the lovely 1950s crooner Miss Kay Starr celebrates her 90th birthday. What better way to pay respects than with Miss Starr's most famous hit Wheel of Fortune, as presented in that most "creative" of styles, a Scopitone clip?!

Kay Starr - Wheel of Fortune

I dare say that when this song was first written and recorded, no-one could have expected it - or Miss Starr - would ever be accompanied by writhing go-go girls...

And then there's this bizarrely literal interpretation of Around The World:

Kay Starr - Around the World

We love Scopitone! We love Kay Starr!

Facts about Kay Starr:

• She is part-Iroquois Indian, and was born on a reservation in Oklahoma.
• Kay was one of the guests who accompanied the manic Spike Jones on his TV series Club Oasis.
• Count Basie and Kay Starr collaborated on an album in 1968 called How About This; and this rare classic has recently been released on CD.
• One of her last recordings was a duet with Tony Bennett in 2001, Blue and Sentimental .

Kay Starr fan site