MY WORLD IS CHANGING. THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE. I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT. MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF. THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF THE NEW YEAR.
12 1504 6556 1242 835 130
Sept 3 1094 5886 830 1083 174
6 432 4129 456 1008 110
9 1208 6222 1136 1168 82
13 392 3905 389 1140 20
14 480 4374 454 1054 52
15 1197 6001 1090 1283 142
Summary: It's getting worse.
My desktop is full of Trump jokes, so today, I'm dumping them on you. This posting will be presented bass ackward, starting with where The Donald needs to be dumped today, Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was exactly 50 years ago when I last visited this city. Well not quite, for a city needs 100,000 residents and Lake Charles then had a population of almost 80,000. Want to guess what it is today? Approaching 80,000.
Why should Trump be in Lake Charles? Well, don't presidents visit sites suffering from catastrophic damage? Sure, almost always it's after it's safe, but if he can so quickly get over COVID-19, a mere Category 2 hurricane should not be a problem for him. The middle of Hurricane Delta's eye will actually pass over Lake Arthur, located around 40 miles east of Lake Charles, early this evening.
Next, my song #81, and here are the finalists, all popular during my teenage years:
- Love is a Many Splendored Thing: The Four Aces
- The Great Pretender: The Platters
- Young Love: Sonny James
- White Sport Coat: Marty Robbins
- In the Still of the Night: The Five Satins
- Rainbow: Russ Hamilton
- 26 Miles: Four Preps
Love is a Many Splendored Thing (more recently from PBS) came from the film by that name in 1955. with William Holden and Jennifer Jones, shot on location in Hong Kong, very unusual for its day. Received eight Academy Awards nominations, winning three, including for this song. Turned out that they personally hated each other and Jones ate raw garlic during their love scenes. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 53%/57% ratings.
The Great Pretender in 1955 was The Platters first national hit. They were one of the performers in 1956 of the first major rock and roll motion picture, Rock Around the Clock. The song was written by their manager, Buck Ram, in the bathroom of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. While the group ran into innumerable problems and fought each other for decades, The Platters today (well, next year) maintain an active tour schedule. Next, on 20 November 2020 in the Andiomo Celebrity Showroom, Warren, Maine.
Young Love has been released several times since 1956, with the Sonny James' version reaching #1 and Tab Hunter's in 1957. That year also came In the Still of the Night, written by Fred Parris for his Five Satins. You heard this song in The Buddy Holly Story, Dirty Dancing and American Grafitti, and by Boyz II Men. The group, still with lead Parris appeared on PBS in 2017. And, yup, they are still touring.
Marty Robbins wrote A White Sport Coat in 20 minutes while being transported in a car, after noticing some high school students dressed for a prom. He recorded more than 500 songs, most he wrote himself, and was covered by the best...Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc. Incredibly enough, he was a professional NASCAR race driver, finishing in the top 10 six times. He once almost sacrificed himself by ramming his car into a wall rather than a distressed car in front of him.
26 Miles (Santa Catalina) was written by Four Prep's lead singer Bruce Belland mostly because he broke his ankle, tried to learn how to play a uke while in isolation, learned four chords, resulting in this song, which became popular just about the time I was graduating from high school in 1958. You might say this was the first surfing song, for it inspired Brian Wilson of the Beachboys.
I'll end with Rainbow by Russ Hamilton as #81, and only because I love rainbows. He is from Liverpool and was the first of his breed to score a hit in the USA. That was in 1957. This is from where the Beatles came.
I got too many of him. I'll just dump the rest into trash, and spare you further agony. Except for one more to encourage you to VOTE!!!
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