Early Burt Special, Part 8

Well, after who knows how many posts, the "Early Burt" series is burt! I mean, back. I was starting to worry.

We begin with the 1954 Barry Frank single Mama, Don't Cry at My Wedding, released on the hit-sound-alike label Bell. The conductor is Burt F. Bacharach, and, as far as I know, this is Burt's first appearance on disc as performer. I wonder if he did the arrangement? Will we ever know?


















I edited the louder clicks out of it--some smaller clicks remain. It's not always possible to get 'em all. Keep in mind, of course, that Burt did not write the tune....

Mama Don't Cry at My Wedding (Hudgins), Barry Frank with Burt F. Bacharach and Orchestra, 1954.

Next, from 1957, Burt and Hal's theme for Jerry Lewis' Sad Sack. Not a bad tune at all, and I like the way the bridge carries on the main musical motive (musicology's term for "motif"). AABA, with the As in twelve-bar blues form:


















Sad Sack (Bacharach-David), Jerry Lewis with Sonny Burke's Orch. and Chorus, 1957.

We jump ahead three years to 1960 and Larry Hall's A Girl Like You, written by Burt with lyrics by Anne Croswell. Orchestra directed by guitar wizard Al Caiola:


















A Girl Like You (Burt Bacharach-Anne Croswell), Larry Hall with Al Caiola, 1960.

This next one was a hit for Jane Morgan in 1959. Not classic Hal-Burt, but pretty catchy:

With Open Arms (Bacharach-David), Jane Morgan with Orchestra Dir. by Frank Hunter, 1959. From Kapp 45.

Next, Presents from the Past, a 3/4 country weeper from 1957. As you might guess, I've always wanted to type "3/4 country weeper." This melody is impossible to remove from one's musical mind once it has been allowed entrance:

Presents from the Past (Bacharach-David), Cathy Carr with Don Belloc Orch. and Chorus, 1957. From Quality label 45 (Canada).

And we close with Another Time, Another Place, a number that may or may not be a Hal-Burt song. Patti Page's 1958 single was credited to Burt and Hal, as you can see here:

(No image)

O.K., forget that. Blogger just stopped doing photos. Anyway, Burt and Hal were credited on her version. However, on two other versions, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans are listed. AND... Jay and Ray's names show up on the sheet music.

So, the Burt/Hal credit on the Patti Page 45 was probably a mistake. But we don't know for certain.

Anyway, here's Don Cherry's nice rendition of what may or may not be a Burt and Hal ballad from the movie of the same name. (Whatever I just wrote):

Another Time, Another Place, Don Cherry with Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1958. From Columbia label 45.

That's it until the next "Early Burt Special"! (Early Burt Special theme music, fade)


Lee

Cleveland, continued

Well, a Cleveland native named Robert G. commented at the FMU post I just wrote up. I think he puts it quite well:

"As a Clevelander, I'd like to point out to Danny that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would suck no matter where it was put. Just because it was put in Cleveland, doesn't mean that Cleveland is the cause for its suckiness.

Man, do I hate East Coast/NYC elitism like that. I hate that I have to go around prepared just in case someone wants to tell me that my home city is a piece of crap."

As a native of Toledo, I know where Robert is coming from! Believe me, I know.

By the way, Robert's bluntness is refreshing. I've lived in central Ohio so long, I've forgotten that there are areas of Ohio (such as my home city) in which people speak their minds without apology. And why shouldn't we?

I wish my sore throat would get less sore. Dang it.

Lee

Late Halloween tracks! (Buwa-ha-haaaa!!)

Late tracks! Get it? Two music files that missed the deadline by a couple of days.

The first track is courtesy of Don K.--thanks, Don! According to the Internet Movie Database, "David Rose, composer of light orchestral music such as "Holiday For Strings" was originally hired to write the score. He was relieved of his contract by producer Dore Schary in December 1955 when Schary discovered avant-garde electronic music creators Louis and Bebe Barron in a nightclub in Greenwich Village, New York and hired them on the spot. The only confirmed piece of music still remaining from Rose's discarded original score is his Main Title Theme, which he released as a single on MGM Records in 1956."

And that's what you'll be hearing, followed by Don Cherry's 1958 Halloween novelty Big Bad Wolf.

You'll love these with all your fright!

Late Halloween Tracks (Two Music Files That Missed the DEADline)

In other news, I have a sore throat, body aches, and a fever. Looks like I caught my foster mom's cold. Feels like it, I mean.


Lee

Photos to see; rumors to roll our eyes at

Ernie, who just pointed out the double-noun error in my last post, has some of his own photos up at his site, and they are terrific. Please check them out. (Click "Ernie" link.)

The Cleveland shots are especially nice, though my favorite is the Rodan-esque vulture.

And there are other nice shots taken in my home state of Ohio. (4,800 in all? Dang!) You know, the state that magically determines who the president will be, and other absurd media-invented rumors.

Oh, and I guess we're going to determine who controls Congress. Yeah, sure.

Gosh, what awesome powers we possess. (Insert eye-rolling icon.)



Lee

Merry Halloween!!

Your blogger in October, 2004, as Zorntap the Alien.















Someone put a spell on the Dell!

And... my Halloween Suite is complete. A complete suite. Sweet.

I gave myself a little more time this time--three hours, maybe. Though some of that was devoted to getting my dang Dell to accept the output of my Alesis Photon 25 MIDI controller. I almost gave up on the project. But, after several tries, I heard sound! Yee-haa! Blessed sound!

And, more importantly, I saw notes! Blessed notes! One after the other, popping up like magic on my composing software.

And, so, I was able to complete the suite. Which you can listen to by following the following link and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Halloween Suite, by Lee Hartsfeld (2006)

The four sections are:

1. Phone Calls from the Dead

2. Herrmannesque No. 1

3. Herrmannesque No. 2

and

4. Ghosts on the Loose


Enjoy!

Lee

'Twas the day before Halloween

Halloween are almost here. And I continue to be busier than a mosquito at a nudist convention. Oh, well. It's a good kind of busy, because it means my new computer will be up and running within... a couple of weeks? Yeah, about. I'd explain what I just said, but I'm too pooped to explain anything.

If I were Ohio SOS/Chief Elections Officer, I'd be too stuck-up to explain anything. But I'm Lee. I am not above accountability. And... what the heck is up with Blogger's photo feature? Why isn't it working this time? So help me, I'll go to my free photo account if Blogger continues with this....

Ah, here they are. I knew all along Blogger would come through. I never lost faith for a moment. (Ahem.)

Lee of little faith.

Anyway, I hope to complete my Halloween Suite. Which means working faster than fast. I'll be recycling an old piece and calling it Poltergeists on the Loose. Or Ghosts on the.... It's a sad day when a composer is reduced to ripping himself off.

Just for the record, I don't believe in ghosts, EVP, reincarnation, ESP, VHF (no, wait--I believe in that), flying saucers from outer space, The Columbus Dispatch's absurd assertion that Ohio's chief elections officer Ken Blackwell had nothing to do with the 2004 election in Ohio, or that The Simpsons functions in any meaningful way as satire. I find psuedoscience and the paranormal interesting only insomuch as people actually believe in weird, proofless garbage like Fox's Ghosthunters series (the best comedy presently on the air). What scares me is not so much that people are willing to believe in fantastic things sans evidence, but that people are becoming so willing to reject things which are supported by tons of data. That's scary.

Such as Darwin's world-changing theory, which the majority of Americans--or so it was claimed on the news--don't believe. People support teaching alternate (i.e., crank) theories in public schools along with Darwin. Wonderful.

Much of the problem is that the average person doesn't understand that a theory is something that has been painstakingly proven, vice something pulled out of someone's rump on a lark. People will say, "But it's only a theory!" Because the popular definition of "theory" is the opposite of the scholarly definition. Just as zero (a concept that modern science would not exist without) is popularly defined as "nothing."

By the way, the last time I checked at Wackopedia, both definitions of zero were to be found on their pages--the valid one and the false one. I gave them much mock-praise in a post. What do they do with the time they're supposed to spend on editing? Not that I care, but....

You want stuff to be scared about at Halloween? I can think of a number of terrifying tidbits from surreal life. Look at the way in which fact and opinion are treated as one and the same on (and off) the Internet. Observe how the truth is fast becoming a thing of popular consensus vice something determined through long, objective, and painstaking investigation.

Objective? What's that? Something you adopt in business to make more money?

Maybe tomorrow I'll dress up as a Valid Argument. People will run in terror. People always flee from the unknown.

"Oh, my God! What are you?" "I'm a carefully-proven fact." "Ewwww! Stay away from me!"

EVP, by the way, is Electronic Voice Phenomena. I think that's what it's called. Ghost voices captured on tape. I wonder if, nowadays, ghost voices are captured on CDs and DVDs?

With every new explosion of technology comes a period of updating all the superstitious crap we hold dear. We live in an age of high-definition spirits. But they're still 2-D, since 3-D movies and TV never caught on.



Lee

A comment from Gloria Parker, writer of "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus"!

I hope I spelled that right....

Anyway, I got this nice message yesterday from Miss Parker--she left it at the March 16, 2006 post, The Return of 'Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus.' She said:

"Hi! This is Gloria Parker & Patricia Smith was my pen name when I wrote Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus!I liked your explan-aladojus and yes Disney was quite atrocious! Thanks! Please visit www.missgloriaparker.com for more info. about my "Super Song" God Bless You!"

So cool to hear from Gloria. Please check out the Mar. 16 post (link above), and meanwhile I'll try to get that post's link to the 1950 recording back up and running. It's a terrific song and an exceedingly pleasant performance (by Alan Holmes and His New Tones). And please check out Gloria's site!

This blog is of the firm opinion that Disney pulled a fast one on Gloria (read: theft). A fourteen-syllable slang expression? Oh, sure. Furthermore, both songs contain lyrics that center around the magical properties of the title word. Coincidence? Yeah, right. And if the melody to this 1950 recording sounds significantly different than the Disney ditty to your ears, try this little trick: imagine the earlier strain without the jazzy syncopation, i.e. in straight eighth notes. And in the same tempo as the later song. Suddenly, they don't sound so very different!

When I have the time, I'll do a MIDI arrangement to demonstrate what I'm talking about. What isn't that apparent on the surface becomes way obvious with a little analysis. Shame on Disney.

Gloria has a fascinating bio. From the leader of an all-girl band, to an appearance in Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, in which she played musical glasses, to guest spots with David Letterman and John Stewart! The lady has talent. (That is to say, "outsider music" fans need not bother. She's a professional musician, and a gifted one.)

In fact, I just found one of her sides (on the Ferris label) at eBay. I can't wait to get it from the USPS.

We hear from the most interesting people at this blog....


















Lee

They're coming to take it away, ha-haaa!!!

This is me, hauling a king-sized mattress with our John Derre tractor (and a rope). The right mattress handle had just broken. Or left, if you were facing that side of the object:















The other handle broke shortly thereafter, so I flipped the mattress over and used the opposite handles. They held up until I'd gotten the thing to the shed. At which point, one of them snapped, just as before. Very spooky.

All of this had been predicted by Nostradamus in one of his vaguely-worded prophecies more than 400 years ago. (Wooo-eeeee-oooooo!!)

A local junk-hauling service called Got Junk? will be coming by to take it away, ha-haaa. Along with an old military-style file cabinet, and... just a whole lot of junk. We've got junk.

My room and my foster mom's room are almost completely swapped, leaving the cats confused but not too upset. They've been through change before. And came out the better for it.

Change is good. Especially when you're using a vending machine that doesn't take bills.



Lee