Gong Hey Fat Choy!

Happy New Year to our Chinese chums - as the Year of the Bitch hands over to the Year of the Pig!

To help cheer in this "year of prosperity" (apparently), how about a few appropriately pork-flavoured songs? Such as these...

...from the Andrews Sisters:

Andrews Sisters - Booglie Wooglie Piggy

...Vic Damone:

Vic Damone - Cincinatti Dancing Pig

...the sublime Bessie Smith:

Bessie Smith - Gimme a Pigfoot

...and, best of the lot - an entire "porcine musical extravaganza" [that we went to see back in 2011]! It's Betty Blue Eyes. Of course:

Betty Blue Eyes theatrical trailer

All about Chinese New Year

The memory of all that; no, no they can't take that away from me

Another trouper bites the dust...

Farewell, then, to the man who Frank Sinatra described as having "the best set of pipes in the business" - the fantabulosa Vic Damone, just about the last of the original great crooners [there's only Tony Bennett left now...].

By way of a tribute (and Gershwin being most appropriate for "St Hallmark's Day"), here is the man himself at his showbiz best:

Vic Damone - Gershwin Medley: But Not For Me, Fascinatin' Rhythm and They Can't Take That Away From Me

RIP Vito Rocco Farinola (aka Vic Damone, 12th June 1928 - 11th February 2018)

More of Mr Damone here, here and here.

Pull out the stopper, we'll have a whopper

Monday again? Oh, dear...

Despite the fact I am not heading for the office this morning, today and tomorrow are dedicated "study days" for the latest useless qualification I am supposed to get for work. So it's just as bad. Worse, in fact, because there is the permanent temptation of the garden to hand. At least I can smoke at my desk, however!

Plus, I have access to the best soundtracks for my studies - such as anything featuring birthday boy Mr Vic Damone [a great survivor; he blows out 89 candles today]! On this Tacky Music Monday, here is the man himself as part of a "crooner triumvirate" with Mr Andy Williams and Mr Bobby Darin, and their Broadway Medley:

Andy Williams, Vic Damone & Bobby Darin - Broadway Medley

Faboo.

Have a good week, y'all!

Vic Damone (born Vito Rocco Farinola, 12th June 1928)

A simpering, whimpering child again

Many happy returns to one of the great survivors, Mr Vic Damone.

Celebrating his 84th birthday today, Vito Rocco Farinola was for many decades the mainstay of the Vegas crooner circuit, and in his heyday he was one of the biggest names in American pop.

With a catalogue of over 2,000 songs including An Affair to Remember, On The Street Where You Live, Gigi, Ebb Tide, Why Was I Born and You're Breaking My Heart, the man remained (and remains) wildly popular. He only (reluctantly) retired from performing ten years ago...

Here he is duetting with the much-missed Elizabeth Montgomery on Hollywood Palace in 1966, with a most appropriate number, given the lady's most famous role - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered:

Elizabeth Montgomery and Vic Damone - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Magical!

Vic Damone official website

The best set of pipes in the business

Who knew that the consummate crooner (and heartthrob in the early 50s) Vic Damone was still alive?

The 83-year-old former Vito Rocco Farinola was discovered as a teenager by the classic comedian and entertainer Milton Berle, who pushed him in the direction of his first recording contract. In the 40s and 50s Mr Damone had numerous hits, including On the Street Where You Live, I Have But One Heart, Vagabond Shoes and An Affair To Remember, and was (briefly) considered a serious rival for Frank Sinatra.

As with so many crooners, the rock'n'roll era and the Swinging Sixties were not kind to Mr Damone's career and inevitably he ended up in debt and in Vegas, performing in casinos. But that turned out to be no bad thing in the MOR-dominated early 1970s, when a combination of touring and covers albums rejuvenated his career as a jobbing vocalist.

Facts about Vic Damone:

• He has recorded over 2,000 songs in his seven-decade career, only retiring in 2002.
• Frank Sinatra said that Damone had "the best set of pipes in the business".
• Wife number four (of five) was the lovely Diahann Carroll (later the magnificent Dominique Devereaux in Dynasty).
• In 1997, Damone received the "Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

And speaking of Sammy Cahn, here's one of his songs - a perfect piece of "Sunday Music" - beautifully sung by Vic Damone...

Vic Damone - Wonder Why

Wonder Why
Wonder why I'm not myself of late
Been feeling strangely great
I wonder why

I suppose some genius could explain
Why I walk in the rain
Just let him try

I guess there is a simple explanation
Unless I've come up with a new sensation
It could be that she's caught up with me
And all this mystery I'm speaking of
Is simply that I went and fell in love

Wonder why I haven't been the same
Since I first heard your name
I wonder why

And what's more, I do peculiar things
Like gaze at wedding rings
I wonder why

What makes a man with two left feet a dancer
It takes a wiser man, I guess, to answer
It could be that she's caught up with me
And all this mystery I'm speaking of
Is simply that I went and fell in love.

Many happy returns!

http://www.vicdamone.com/