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!

Gentle finger waves

A Margaret Whiting moment...

Just because.

Margaret Whiting - Moonlight in Vermont

Pennies in a stream
Falling leaves from a sycamore
Moonlight in Vermont

Gentle finger waves
Ski trails down a mountain side
Snowlight in Vermont

Telegraph cables, how they sing down the highway
As they travel each bend in the road
And when people meet, in this romantic setting
They're so hypnotized by the lovely...

Evening summer breeze
Sweet warblings of the meadowlark
Moonlight in Vermont...

Margaret Whiting on Wikipedia

RIP a remarkable lady

Sad news today that the lovely Margaret Whiting, magnificent singer and gay pornstar-magnet, has died at the age of 86.

Hers was indeed a colourful life, as I have written before - read my previous post - and she will be sorely missed.

A little sweetness has gone from the music world... RIP.

Margaret Whiting - The Gypsy In My Soul

Margaret Whiting obituary in the Telegraph

Take back your mink, take back your pearls

Forty years ago the musical genius that was Frank Loesser died (far too early at only 59), and the world of musicals lost one of its most prolific writers.

In his glittering career, Loesser wrote more than 700 songs, giving the world such enduring standards as On a Slow Boat to China, Two Sleepy People, Heart and Soul, I Don't Want to Walk Without You, Wonderful Copenhagen, Moon of Manakoora, Spring Will Be a Little Late this Year, They're Either Too Young or Too Old, Standing On The Corner, and the Oscar-winning Baby, It's Cold Outside. Some of his songs, with their open-to-interpretation lyrics even became camp gay anthems - including Kiss The Boys Goodbye and (See What) The Boys in the Backroom (Will Have).

After a prolongued spell in Hollywood, writing for over sixty films including Destry Rides Again, Neptune's Daughter, Thank Your Lucky Stars and Fred Astaire's Let's Dance, he returned to Broadway and produced his masterwork - one of the most popular musicals of all time - Guys and Dolls.

With its cavalcade of classics such as A Bushel and a Peck, Luck Be a Lady, Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat, Take Back Your Mink and the wonderful Adelaide's Lament, this musical has had numerous revivals (and was famously adapted for the big screen with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine), including the 2005 West End production, which we went to see, starring Ewan McGregor.

So to celebrate this man's genius, here are just some of Frank Loesser's greatest musical moments:

Take Back Your Mink

Frank Sinatra - Luck be a Lady

Miss Bette Davis - They're Either Too Young Or Too Old

Marlene Dietrich - The Boys in the Backroom

Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer - Baby It's Cold Outside

Frank Loesser (29th June 1910 – 28th July 1969)

"Only round the edges, dear!"

"I’m not bisexual and I’m not straight. I’m gay, but I could never live a gay lifestyle because I’m much too competitive. When I was with a guy I would always want to be better than him: what we were accomplishing, what we were wearing - anything. With a woman you compete like crazy, but coming from different points of view, and as far as I’m concerned, that was doable." - Jack Wrangler

As we wish a very happy 85th birthday to the lovely singer Margaret Whiting, it is worth reflecting upon her rather unconventional life and marriage.

For, bizarrely, after a long career of chart hits and numerous appearances on stage, variety shows and TV, the seventy-year-old Miss Whiting surprised everyone when she got married for the fourth time in 1994 to a gay porn star Jack Wrangler, twenty years her junior!

Despite this strange and unlikely coupling, the pair evidently loved each other, and stayed together until Mr Wrangler's death in April this year. Allegedly, when he said publicly "But I'm gay!" Miss Whiting replied, "Only around the edges, dear."

Remarkable, really. To celebrate, here's a sample of the talents of Margaret Whiting...

Margaret Whiting - Alone Together

Margaret Whiting - My Foolish Heart