I used to walk in the shade, with those blues on parade

Yes. Back to work again, dammit!

Another weekend gone too soon... Never mind, eh? Here (in the estimable company of Mr Nat King Cole) on this Tacky Music Monday is the faboo Tony Martin (who departed for Fabulon @adecadeago today) to cheer things up very nicely indeed!

Nat King Cole and Tony Martin - On The Sunny Side Of The Street [Ed Sullivan Show, 1956]

Have a good week, peeps.

Unforgettable in every way

One hundred years ago, a man with one of the most beautiful, instantly-recognisable voices in history was born.

Nathaniel Adams Coles was a bit of a child prodigy - he learned how to play the church organ at 4 years old, and was taking piano lessons at twelve. When he was fifteen, Cole dropped out of high school to pursue a music career, eventually achieving a modicum of success with the King Cole Trio. However, it was this song that first made his name, becoming a huge radio hit for him way back in 1940:

Nat King Cole - Sweet Lorraine

The hits just kept coming from then on, including these:

Nat King Cole - Nature Boy

Nat King Cole - Mona Lisa

Nat King Cole - When I Fall In Love

Nat King Cole - Unforgettable

He broke new ground by being not only the first black person to have his own radio show in the 1940s, but also (ten years later) the first African-American-hosted television show. However, the deeply-embedded racism of American society was never far away. His TV show was eventually cancelled due to the reluctance of companies to sponsor it [to which Nat responded: "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."]; this was on top of the experience he had when he moved to the the exclusive Los Angeles neighbourhood of Hancock Park in 1948 - he and his wife Maria faced daily harassment, which culminated in someone burning the word "Nigger" into their lawn and poisoning the family dog. Eventually (after criticism from the NAACP for playing to segregated audiences, and after he himself had been subject to an assault on stage), Nat became a prominent spokesperson for the Civil Rights Movement.



His musical legacy is huge - he sold 50 million records in a career that spanned from 1940 to his death in 1965, and beyond (his daughter Natalie's posthumous duets with her dad being most lauded) - but this is probably my favourite...

Nat King Cole - Lets Face The Music and Dance

Perfect "Sunday Music"...

Nat King Cole (born Nathaniel Adams Coles, 17th March 1919 – 15th February 1965)

Pat Him On The Po-Po?

Remarkably, it is not just Her Maj's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 - today marks 60 years since the very first "official music chart" was published in the UK.

A helluva lot of water has passed under the bridge since those "innocent" days. I'm not quite sure what anyone in 1952 might have made of the likes of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj or Maroon 5... nor indeed what any of the benighted yoof of today would make of the records that made up that very first Top 5.

I know which selection I'd prefer!

5. Guy Mitchell:

Guy Mitchell - Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-Po)

4. Bing Crosby:

Bing Crosby - The Isle Of Innisfree

3. Nat King Cole:

Nat King Cole - Somewhere Along The Way

2. Jo Stafford:

Jo Stafford - You Belong To Me

1. Al Martino:

Al Martino - Here In My Heart

I can hear you all singing along...

First ever chart

The Great Riddle

Today would have been the 90th birthday of the magnificent Nelson Riddle, bandleader, composer and orchestrator of some of the greatest musical moments of the 20th century (including his work with house favourites such as Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith).

In 1950, Riddle was hired by composer Les Baxter to write arrangements for a recording session with Nat King Cole at Capitol Records. Although one of the songs Riddle had arranged, Mona Lisa soon became the biggest selling single of Cole's career, the work was credited to Baxter. However, once Cole learned the identity of the arrangement's creator, he sought out Riddle's work for other sessions, and thus began a successful partnership that furthered the careers of both men at Capitol.

Nat "King" Cole - Mona Lisa

Mr Riddle was called upon to arrange sessions for Frank Sinatra in 1953, when the great man had just jumped ship from his old record label. Their collaborations were a huge success and he is often credited with relaunching the singer's slumping career - and a long and fruitful partnership between the two artists was born.

Frank Sinatra w/ Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra - Moonlight In Vermont

In the 60s he worked closely with the amazing Ella Fitzgerald, notably on several of her American Songbooks, such as that dedicated to Jerome Kern:

Ella Fitzgerald w/ Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra - All The Things You Are

In the 1970s he concentrated most significantly on film and TV themes, including Route 66, episodes of Batman and other television series, and motion pictures including The Great Gatsby, Robin and the 7 Hoods and the original Ocean's Eleven.

Then in the 80s, Mr Riddle made a resurgence in the unlikely company of rock/country singer Miss Linda Ronstadt - and their collaboration produced three hit albums, the last of which was released in the year of Mr Riddle's death in 1985 (so he never saw it win a Grammy).

Linda Ronstadt - What's New

RIP a musical luminary...

Nelson Riddle official website

"The melody haunts my reverie, and I am once again with you..."

Here at Dolores Delargo Towers we adore and avidly collect a category of entertainment that comes under the heading of "Sunday Music". And today, on the 110th anniversary of his birth it is time to celebrate one of the great masters of that genre Mr Hoagy Carmichael!

In his eight-decade career as a songwriter Mr Carmichael collaborated with just about everyone who was anyone in the music industry, including his best friend Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, George Gershwin, Fred Astaire, Yip Harburg, Frank Loesser and long-term musical partner Johnny Mercer.

Hoagy the actor appeared in a number of top Hollywood films, including Topper (with Cary Grant), To Have and Have Not (with Bogart and Bacall) and Young Man With A Horn, the bio-pic of his friend Bix.

By the time of his death in 1981, he was lauded by generations of fans as one of the greatest composers in American history. An incredible career indeed!

Facts about Hoagy Carmichael:

• He was christened with that peculiar first name because his mother was friendly with a circus troupe called "The Hoaglands".
• His 1943 song I'm a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin' Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the song with the longest title.
• He composed a song for the original Flintstones cartoon - Yabba-Dabba-Dabba-Dabba-Doo.
• John Lennon cited Hoagy Carmichael as his favourite songwriter.

Here's the beautifully-crafted tonsils of Nat King Cole crooning Hoagy's classic Stardust:

Nat King Cole - Stardust

With another take on the tune, Glenn Miller adds his own inimitable panache with his big band version:

Glenn Miller - Stardust

Next we turn to another Carmichael standard Georgia On My Mind, and this lovely version by the incomparable Ray Charles, who made the song his own:

Ray Charles - Georgia on my Mind

And here Aretha Franklin gives us a brilliant version of Hoagy's torch song Skylark:

Aretha Franklin - Skylark

Back in 1991, Bette Midler paid tribute to his song Billy-a-Dick in the wonderful film For the Boys (here being used as a soundtrack for some amateur tap-dancers - the only video out there!):

Bette Midler - Billy-a-Dick

Most remarkably of all, in addition to his jazz/swing/blues standards Hoagy Carmichael also wrote this camp classic for the Marilyn Monroe movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Take it away, Miss Jane Russell!

Jane Russell - Ain't There Anyone Here For Love?

Hoagy Carmichael biography