FAINT HEART NEVER WON FAIR LADY

As a firm believer in the music of the spheres, in the curative powers of cheerful dance and song, and as an enemy of dissonance and discord everywhere, I wish to celebrate the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which gave late Victorian England and the whole world a wonderful abundance of melodic music, rib-tickling comedy and innocent pleasure.

Gilbert

Sullivan

W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) was a formidable dramatist and poet noted for his Bab Ballads anthology of comic verse. Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) was more self-effacing but he was a musical child prodigy, who had already written incidental music for 2 Shakespeare plays, a ballet, a cello concerto and much church music. They were brought together by the dynamic impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte (1844-1901) who believed the London theatre would be receptive to English operetta rather than the risqué French fare then familiar to the West End.

Gilbert and Sullivan (“G&S”) collaborated, with some interruptions, from 1871 to 1896, They produced 14 Savoy Operas, named after the Savoy Theatre which D’Oyly Carte built and opened to house them in 1880. The Savoy Operas were immensely successful, most notably HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe, The Mikado and The Gondoliers. Indeed, so substantial were the profits they generated that D’Oyly Carte was able to acquire the land adjoining his theatre and erect the palatial Savoy Hotel which opened in 1889, for long London’s best luxury hotel.

                                       Richard D’Oyly Carte

Sullivan was often berated by the snooty music establishment for “wasting” his talent on the popular genre of operetta, when he might have rivalled Brahms in composing concertos and symphonies. Yet he had a great lyric talent as can be seen in his Overture to the Yeomen of the Guard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv7plNo0j18&ab_channel=AcademyofSt.MartinintheFields-Topic

Gilbert was renowned for his “topsy-turvy” plots, the more far-fetched the better, involving fairies, peers, pirates, long-lost children, executioners and emperors. Typical is Faint Heart from Iolanthe where the Lord Chancellor is steeled by fellow-peers to propose to a pretty ward of court.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQqgoHklUs4&ab_channel=FriendsofthePeccadilloPlayers

From the same opera is the mock-patriotic song, When Britain really ruled the waves parodying the House of Lords:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyimj8CEypU&ab_channel=D%27OyleCarteOperaCompany-Topic.

Gilbert gloried in alliteration and word-play – this from The Mikado:

To sit in Solemn silence in a dull, dark dock

In a pestilential prison with a life-long lock

Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block!

Gilbert’s speciality was the patter-song, a satirical song with an ever-rising tempo. Now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Navee from HMS Pinafore is a typical example. WH Smith, bookseller and Tory MP, became known as “Pinafore” Smith when he was appointed to run the Admiralty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfao1s3Tiek&ab_channel=StratfordFestival.

Sometimes Gilbert contented himself with a comic song attacking contemporary targets, constantly updated by new generations of singer – famously, I’ve got a little list from The Mikado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NLV24qTnlg&ab_channel=OperaAustralia

G&S have a wry look at equality with the delightful There was a king from The Gondoliers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie4OwwmFj8o&ab_channel=Gilbert%26SullivanAustin

One could go on forever selecting one’s favourites, so let me sign off with two lovely songs from The Gondoliers and The Mikado. - Take a pair of sparkling eyes and He’s going to marry Yum Yum!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FMldbPNZzg&ab_channel=stevethetenor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnaHqL4bkX8&ab_channel=jlf180

Both Gilbert and Sullivan were deservedly knighted. Sullivan produced an opera Ivanhoe which was a moderate success but the Savoy Operas were their apogee.  D’Oyly Carte retained the copyrights and their touring companies delighted audiences in the UK, USA, Australia and elsewhere for generations. Schoolmasters and many “Savoyards” could recite the operas backwards but fashions change and expensive touring ended when the UK Arts Council withdrew their grant in 1982.

 G&S’s Savoy Operas were for many a highly agreeable stepping stone weaning them to Grand Opera and opening up the world of music to much larger audiences. Their influence on the American musical was considerable with patter-songs from Rodgers and Hart (Zip) or Cole Porter (Anything Goes) widely enjoyed.

Let’s lift our glasses in gratitude to Gilbert and Sullivan!

 

 

SMD

1.11.22

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

ROCK REMEMBERED

As I loll around in my delightful Samos hotel, over-eating and drinking, my mind, never other than flippant, flits to the pop and rock music of my misspent youth mainly of 1955 – 1965 vintage – OK, “retro-rock nostalgia” you may sniff. I can happily consign to oblivion all thought of Brexit, the EU, Trump, Iranian clerics and their hideous retinues and instead get my feet tapping with those golden oldies which particularly appealed to me. You will all have quite different favourites!

1.       Singing the Blues by Tommy Steele. (1956)

Although Bill Haley had made some impression, it took home-grown Tommy Steele to make the critical breakthrough and open up the UK rock scene with this cheery number. Suddenly I recall everyone was whistling and singing this song in school corridors (I was 14). Tommy never repeated this smash-hit but he was very popular as a “cockney sparra”, regularly filled the London Palladium and had a long run in the West End hit “Half a Sixpence”, the musical adaptation of “Kipps’ by H G Wells.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDXnBdlKlVw

2.       Can’t Help Falling in Love with You by Elvis Presley (1969)

Elvis dominated the rock scene in the late 1950s, and although this is a much later number, his mastery of the romantic ballad went hand in hand with his more energetic efforts. The deep tones of his unmistakable voice send hearts a-quiver still and many a lovelorn suitor will emulate The King and sing this great song to their suitably grateful beloved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGJnTaP6anOU

3.       Rave On by Buddy Holly (1958)

Texan Buddy Holly and the Crickets entered the rock scene in 1955 and despite his geeky appearance and horn-rims was soon second only to Elvis in popular esteem. His Peggy Sue songs were iconic and he produced hit after hit. His death at 22 in an air crash was a huge shock to all his admirers. Rave On gives a flavour of his unforgettable talent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUV-QxwlRM

4.       Good Golly, Miss Molly (1958) by Little Richard

Little Richard was rock personified. Endlessly dynamic, dressed garishly and with a voice which hit notes in the stratosphere, he would stand in front of a piano, hit keys with the heel of his boots, scream out the lyrics and grin demonically at his rapt audience. Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally and Lucille were part of his standard repertoire along with Good Golly, Miss Molly – all of which, of course, our dear parents hated. Young women threw their underwear to him in yearning tribute. He was a true pioneer and a major influence on a generation of rockers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ6akiGRcL8

5.        Wonderful World by Sam Cooke (1960)

Sam Cooke was a talented singer and song-writer who moved over to rock, and later soul, from gospel singing. His Wonderful World is his most memorable number and his easy delivery style was much admired. His early promise never blossomed as he was shot dead by a lady motel manager in Los Angeles in 1964 after a drunken fracas, a premature finale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4GLAKEjU4w

6.       The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals (1964)

This rock classic formed part of the British Invasion of the US pop world in the wake of the Beatles. The 5-member Animals hailed from the North East of England and the best-known members were Alan Price and Eric Burdon. The song itself is an adaptation of an old English folk-tune, reset to New Orleans. There were other Animals hits like We gotta get out of this Place and Please don’t let me be Misunderstood but The Rising Sun is a tremendous anthem, if a trifle louche.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sB3Fjw3Uvc

7.       Let It Be by The Beatles (1970)

The Beatles were an irresistible force from 1963 to 1970 and early Beatles tracks much enlivened our undergraduate parties. They produced songs of quality and presented them in original ways. By about 1966 they abandoned deafening live concert performances and worked on studio albums. Their interests wandered off to psychedelia, Indian mysticism and drug culture and lost me. But at their best they were incomparable. Let it Be was their rueful farewell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYfEBY9NM4

8.       A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum (1967)

This obscure English band produced a debut single which is one of the all-time greats. Its purported debt to Bach, the Baroque and god knows who else, elevates its status to higher levels than perhaps it deserves, but in any event it is highly enjoyable and easily evokes the spirit of the Sixties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3iPP-tHdA

9.       Tonight I celebrate my Love for You by Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson (1983)

This number unaccountably caught my attention in the 1980s when I had long moved away from rock and pop and was much happier with Purcell, Handel and Mozart. I liked the tune and the romance of it all, and recall the late, great Terry Wogan poking gentle fun at Bryson’s mother who had inflicted the name “Peabo” on his innocent son!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GOLnWz_Osc

1 Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh (1986)

Again a one-off for me, simply a great song which gave me pleasure. Chris de Burgh was an unlikely pop star being the scion of a prosperous Anglo-Irish military family. He still performs and has a wide audience, less in the UK than on far-flung foreign shores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Jcs45GhxU

My 10 selections will not please everyone but so be it. I hope there are moments of pleasure for you all as you share my look back to the good old days and their fragrant memories!

SMD

14.07.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON

It is one of the more agreeable facets of human existence that we are able to dream, to imagine ourselves in other places and in other incarnations, to taste fame and fortune as in a fairy tale or to be the victor of a titanic mythological contest. Some such reveries place us in palaces or vast mansions, to roles to which we aspire but will never experience: but other daydreams are more realistic and place us in more familiar territory, our homes, our streets our shopping malls or our jobs. Hollywood was the most successful purveyor of all these dreams for a century and has left an indelible mark on our collective psyche.

Such thoughts have been brought on by the passing a few days ago of Doris Day at the grand old age of 97, a star of stars and the most successful female performer of her time. Already a much admired big-band singer, her screen persona was as American as apple pie, confident and energetic, the tomboy girl-next-door. She exuded wholesome innocence and yet also an understated whispery allure, enormously fortified by her genuine singing ability.

Doris Day

I first saw Doris in It’s Magic in about 1950, her film debut, in a modest cinema in Aberdeen called The Grand Central, long gone, and she shone brightly, well supported by such reliable faces as Jack Carson, Oscar Levant and S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall. In the early 1950s she delighted with nostalgic pieces like Tea for Two, On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon co-starring with Gordon McRae. Her career moved up a notch with the hit Calamity Jane (1953) with Howard Keel. Her delivery of rollicking numbers like The Windy City and The Deadwood Stage were memorable but the best song was Secret Love with Doris in classic torch song mode.

Doris as Calamity Jane

Doris exuded the optimism and unchallenged attitudes of America in the Eisenhower era, when all obstacles could be overcome and all peaks climbed. Her apogee was actually in the early 1960s with her popular comedies playing opposite Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Rod Taylor, James Gardner and above all Rock Hudson, with whom she had a unique chemistry. Films like Pillow Talk, That Touch of Mink and Move over, Darling epitomized the genre, with Doris enjoying a sexless battle of the sexes and the public loved her. From 1960-64 Doris was ranked the biggest star in America eclipsing all others.

Inevitably tastes changed and stronger meat was demanded: Doris gradually lost her audience, latterly being derided as “the oldest virgin in America”. She made her last film in 1968 but carried on with her TV show. Her third, of 4 wholly unsatisfactory husbands, had embezzled her $30m fortune and she was broke. She had to work hard to rebuild her finances and eventually retired to Carmel, California devoting herself to animal charities. The media said she was reclusive, but she saw plenty of her friends – declining intrusive interviews was her call and entirely rational. Given her tempestuous private life, she would doubtless echo Madame de Stael in the early 19^th century “The more I see of men, the better I like dogs.” Brigitte Bardot followed the same road. Let’s allow Doris her privacy and happily celebrate her brilliant talent and life-enhancing career.

Our next purveyor of dreams is The Eurovision Song Contest, whose final throes are on Saturday – indeed its motto is “Dare to Dream”. This year it comes from Tel Aviv and her more Orthodox citizens will be astonished by the invasion of vast numbers of gays, trans-sexuals and bohemians to attend, commentate upon and perform at this peculiar SongFest. Last year’s winner was Israeli 25-year old Netta, a very well-built lady, who sang “Toy” wearing Micky Mouse ears and bounced about like a demented chicken. This is part of an increasingly eccentric Eurovision tradition – who can forget bearded trans-sexual Conchita Wurst who wowed us in 2014, the pride of Austria!

Netta, triumphant in 2018

                                                                

Heroically I managed to watch the first semi-finals last night, 2 hours and 10 minutes of torture, as the dire singers from 17 nations displayed their wares. I somehow kept awake and kept my scores and quite how dismal Slovenia and tuneless San Marino got through escapes me. Maybe 5 of the songs were passable. The lighting effects are flattering and we watched the girl from Australia (that well-known European country), dressed like a Christmas-tree fairy, rise through the clouds on high wires singing her ditty. Tomorrow a further 18 hit the semis and Saturday’s grand final will feature 26 contestants. I may have lost the will to live by then or will have slipped into a catatonic trance, so I cannot promise to cover the story further. Eurovision always springs surprises and even if the Balkans all vote for each other, the Scandinavians ditto and Greece and Cyprus scratch each other’s backs, my tip for the week is that the juries will be seduced by the French entry “Roi” sung by Bilal Hassani, the young gentleman below. Oh….. and by the way, the unpopular UK will gather in nul points!

Bilal Hassani, tipped singer for France

The Eurovision contestants and their fans will have their dreams of fame and fortune, as will those in all manner of global talent show. Their dreams will be very unlike the dreams of Doris Day and her followers – different aspirations, different values and quite different worlds.

SMD

15.05.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

IDOLS OF FRENCH SONG

  

I am not sure why there is a distance between pop music in Britain and in France but that distance is very evident. Perhaps Britain has been much more influenced by America and youth culture, where once Britain was the exemplar and later became the follower. By contrast French pop music was resolutely European, more passionate and adult and less easily melodic. I would like to celebrate 10 fine singers in French.

1.       Jean Sablon was in the old music-hall tradition of rueful songs, siffleurs and the provision of one’s own sound effects. He enjoyed enormous popularity from 1930-70 and we played his songs on old 78s, not least his charming revival of Le Fiacre, with the clip-clopping of horses’ hooves.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0AIIxmofbw

2.       Maurice Chevalier was the epitome of the Parisian boulevardier with his jaunty air, boater and trade-mark exaggerated Gallic tones. His stage persona was built up over many years as after great fame in Paris as a performer and as the lover, muse and partner of Mistinguett, he became a Hollywood star in 1929. Louise was his signature tune but the English-speaking world remembered him best for his charm in the musical Gigi which I watched being filmed in the Tuileries Gardens in 1957.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGSE90RycI

3.       Charles Trenet was a singer/songwriter who wrote almost 1,000 songs of all kinds. We remember his Boum! But his name was immortalized by his classic La Mer the stereotypical French ballad, composed in 1943 but not performed until 1946. Its easy rhythms and soaring heights have delighted world audiences since.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztkUuunI7g

4.       Edith Piaf was a phenomenon, tiny in stature, far from glamourous, living a turbulent private life but possessing a highly distinctive and powerful voice. I saw her in 1961 at the Olympia, Boulevard des Capucines. She hobbled onto the stage in a plain black dress and without much ceremony belted out La Vie en Rose, Milord and her defiant song Je ne regrette rien earning rapturous plaudits.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcTS05J6BSo

5.       Yves Montand was the Italian son of a Communist broom maker who fled to the Midi from fascist Italy. Yves had film-star good looks and he was more of an actor than a singer. His songs in praise of Paris like A Paris appealed to a wide audience but I preferred his classic numbers like Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves). I found it hard to stomach Montand’s wildly leftist politics but he distinguished himself in later life as the conspiring villager César Soubeyran in the Marcel Pagnol linked movies Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources of 1986.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRe1U17n5OY

6.       Jacques Brel, was proudly Belgian, though performing widely in the Francophone world. He sang with evident emotion and the theatricality of his performance marked him out from more routine singers and enraptured his fans. Rather toothy and thick-lipped, he cared little for cosmetic assistance and emoted powerfully in songs like Amsterdam or Ne me quitte pas making him the unrivalled king of the chanson.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_bq5mStroM

7.       Serge Gainsbourg courted controversy all his life. Of Jewish-Ukrainian origin, he adopted the name “Serge” to acknowledge his Slavic affinities, and “Gainsbourg” as a tribute to the painter he most admired, Thomas Gainsborough. Gainsbourg had a wide talent as a poet, painter, pianist, actor and singer and was the lover of celebrities like Juliette Greco and Brigitte Bardot. In 1968 he fell for the English actress Jane Birkin and they enjoyed a succès de scandale with the orgasm-punctuated Je t’aime…..moi non plus. He shocked and amused his public but then overstepped the mark by appearing drunk and foul-mouthed at interviews. He sank in esteem and died in 1991 but his posthumous reputation has steadily grown.

www.youtube./watch?v=k3Fa4lOQfbA

8.       Georges Guétary was born Lambros Vorlou to Greek parents in Alexandria, Egypt and this exotic background helped as he ascended in the music and cabaret circuit in Paris. British audiences took to him as lead in the operetta Bless the Bride which started a long run in London in 1947. The song La Belle Marguerite was repeatedly played on record by my dear mother and I picked up Guétary’s faux Franglais accent! He went on to sing and dance in Gene Kelly’s film An American in Paris but he did not make it in Hollywood.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=la+belle+marguerite+georges+guetary+bless+the+bride

9.       Charles Aznavour was a huge star in France and world-wide. His soulful expression, his sad tenor voice made this French- Armenian an unforgettable performer. I saw him sing at Carnegie Hall, New York, in 1986 and of course he sang She, The Old-fashioned ways and my favourite Yesterday, when I was young. He had a long career, dying at 94, and was ever a proud champion of Armenians.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GtzB8cfkh0

10.   Les Compagnons de la Chanson was a well-known group after the war but by no means in the top echelon. They recorded The Three Bells (Les Trois Cloches) in 1946 – it became a hit for Piaf – and their recording became popular in Britain in about 1952.   Certainly, my mother enjoyed the song on a scratchy 78rpm and the group’s close harmony and insistent “boom – boom” were thought of as quintessentially French. Its pleasures were simple.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=les+compagnons+de+la+chanson+the+three+bells

I am conscious that this selection is Anglo-centric and probably well removed from a selection from a native Frenchman. Nevertheless, French pop music has great admirers on this side of the Channel!

SMD

26.03.19

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2019.

WITTY AND WINNING LYRICS

Many a popular song is most famous for its tune rather than its words, which often as not, do little more than rhyme moon with June or croon. Yet there are songs whose lyrics reward listening to – and I attach my selection of 12 I enjoy, together with someone’s interpretation. I found that 5 of my 12 were written by Cole Porter (1891-1964), who was worldly and “sophisticated”; he often got it right when, unusually in a songwriter, he fitted his own music to his own lyrics. He was truly a Prince of Lyricists.

Cole Porter

    

(1)   My Mammy (1924) by Joe Young and Sam Lewis

My first song breaks all my own rules. The mother-fixated lyrics are thickly schmaltzy, and only partly memorable – I’d walk a million miles for one of your smiles – incomparable Al Jolson performs it in black-face, wholly non-PC and upsetting to most blacks and he offends the observant Jewish community by impersonating a synagogue cantor who prefers popular music. Yet 90 years ago, Jolson socked it to ‘em with enormous panache in the attached finale to the first talkie The Jazz Singer in 1927. What a star!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIaj7FNHnjQ

(2)   You’re getting to be a Habit with Me. (1932) by Harry Warren and Al Dubin

This was a classic for many years but often ran into censorship problems as it was thought to refer to and glamorise drug-taking. Oh, I can’t stay away, I must have you every day, As regularly as coffee or tea, You’ve got me in your clutches and I can’t get free – in any event it was beautifully sung by Frank Sinatra in 1956.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvTOGhaXXJY

(3)   Miss Otis Regrets (1934) by Cole Porter

Written for a long-forgotten early Cole Porter musical, this song’s humour is decidedly black. Miss Otis loves but is betrayed by her lover, whom she shoots dead, only herself to be lynched by a mob which storms her jail. Her dying words – Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today! Flamboyant Douglas Byng, who appeared as the butler in the original London show, made this his cabaret signature tune for many years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgrMfMwLGEg

(4)   It Ain’t Necessarily So (1935) by George and Ira Gershwin

Sung by the demonic tempter Sportin’ Life in Gershwin’s opera-musical Porgy and Bess, this was certainly a subversive number in its time, casting aspersions on the veracity of the stories of David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale and the discovery of baby Moses in the rushes by Pharaoh’s daughter. The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, it ain’t necessarily so – would not play well even now with Trump’s cohorts in Hicksville! Cab Calloway gives his version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBOgH5f36cQ

(5)   Always True to you Darling in my fashion (1948) by Cole Porter

I have long enjoyed this cynical ditty from Cole Porter’s smash hit show “Kiss me Kate” later made a film in 1956. Ann Miller, the dynamic dark-haired dancer, for whom I carried a torch, combined charmingly with Tommy Rall on the screen, confessing her possibly justifiable indiscretions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3WGkx1MYDQ

(6)   Brush up your Shakespeare (1948) by Cole Porter

Another from the “Kiss me Kate” movie, with the two gangsters trying to collect a bookie’s debt from Howard Keel giving him some friendly advice on the merits of the Bard. Typical verbal felicity from Cole Porter, not all of whose allusions will perhaps have been understood by his audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPduoU826ew

(7)   Little Things Mean a Lot (1953) by Edith Lindeman and Carl Stutz

This true-to-life song topped the charts and appealed to one’s mother’s or grandmother’s generation in the pre-Wimmins’ Lib 1950s. Blow me a kiss from across the room, Say I look nice when I’m not, A line a day when you’re far away, Little things mean a lot. This song, with its generous sentiments, should be on the school curriculum!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7SzKv2uLU

(8)   I’ve Grown accustomed to her Face (1956) by Alan J Lerner and Frederick Loewe

“My Fair Lady”, based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, was a huge success on Broadway and London: The 1964 film was lavishly dressed and elicited wonderful performances from Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins. This tender love song, which ends the show, marks the crack in the selfish lifestyle of Higgins and the taming of rebellious Eliza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d73PQOkFTFc

(9)   What a swell Party (1956) by Cole Porter

This was an older Porter number, revived for his major swansong, the sparkling original score and screenplay for High Society. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were never better than in this boozy duet, capping the other’s comments and alluding to a comical café society. This French champagne, So good for the brain, Your mine, bon ami, A liberty, Fraternity!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x65-nLCBouE

(10) Zip (1957) by Cole Porter

Another older number, revived for the musical Pal Joey, where torch singer/stripper Rita Hayworth gave good value playing opposite Frank Sinatra. Rita manages to mention Walter Lippman, the Giants, Schopenhauer, Plato, Cato, Freud, Dorothy Dix not to mention Charley’s Aunt and Whistler’s Mother as she wittily stars as the Broad with the broad, broad mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZJfcyQ3oM

(11) Yes, I Remember it Well (1958) by Alan J Lerner and Frederick Loewe

Impossible to overlook this delightful duet between the ageing boulevardier Maurice Chevalier and his erstwhile lover Hermione Gingold, as they reminisce by the beach at Deauville in the charming “Gigi” adapted from the tale by Colette. It is a snapshot of affectionate old age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sISWPzEqHLQ

(12)         Somewhere (1957) by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein

“West Side Story” broke new ground in the musical genre, more democratic and more socially serious. The Romeo and Juliet plot of the lovers from warring gangs in New York and this great love song must have resonance in a Europe beset by migrants, most of whom just want peace and quiet and open air, Somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BQMgCy-n6U

SMD

19.08.17

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2017

BRITISH SONGBIRDS

Popular music thrives in so many guises but I am struck by the high success rate of female singers. In the US they have had Ella Fitzgerald or Whitney Houston hitting the highest of high notes, Germany and later the US were wowed by the throaty tones of Marlene Dietrich and the French were blasted out of their seats by diminutive Edith Piaf. Since the 1940s Britain has had her share of songstresses and I here celebrate four very different artistes, Vera Lynn, Alma Cogan, Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black.

Vera during WW2 and Vera at 100

Dame Vera Lynn (1917- ) celebrated her 100^th birthday on 20 March and has long been an “icon” in the words of the popular press. A well-known vocalist with dance bands in the 1930s she became The Forces’ Sweetheart during the war. Toothy and smiling she entertained the troops most famously in Burma and India, in the jungle around Kohima. Her strong penetrating voice illuminated classics like A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, The White Cliffs of Dover and most of all nostalgic We’ll meet Again. My dear father adored Vera along with a million other fans.

Vera kept singing for decades after the War and had a notable hit with Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart in the early 1950s. The daughter of an East End plumber, her image was wholly different from today’s pop divas. She spoke Home Counties English clearly, wore hats and adopted a middle-class lifestyle. A compilation album of her greatest songs topped the charts 5 years ago; she was revered by the military, hobnobbed with Mrs Thatcher and was showered with honours including the CH and being created a Dame. On 20 March her image was projected onto The White Cliffs in tribute. A National Treasure is an overworked expression but she has won that prize hands down.

Alma Cogan

Moving on to the 1950s and early 1960s, Alma Cogan (1932 – 66) was an ubiquitous presence in radio and TV shows and her records, principally covers of American artistes, sold very well. The pop-songs of her era were simple lyrical pieces which people hummed or whistled – Where will the Dimple Be?, Dreamboat or I’ve Got the Bell-bottom Blues are typical examples. Alma would give a lively rendition of these songs in her characteristic voice with a trade-mark giggly catch in it.

Alma was also renowned for her frocks. Huge hooped confections, unsparing of sequins and tightly busted showed off her ample charms and a high bee-hive hairdo completed the image. Alma was the daughter of observant Jewish-Romanians and her father was an itinerant haberdasher from Whitechapel. However Alma was educated at a Catholic convent school in Reading and was wholly secular. In her heyday, she shared a flat in Kensington High Street with her widowed mother and they threw showbiz parties patronised by the likes of Princess Margaret, Noel Coward, Bruce Forsyth, Michael Caine, Frankie Vaughan and other celebrities.

The advent of the Beatles and the transformation of the pop scene from 1963 made Alma look square and unfashionable and she lost her UK audience, although she remained popular in Sweden, Germany and Japan. Curiously she became very close to John Lennon, 8 years her junior. Visibly ailing in 1965, she died of ovarian cancer in London in 1966. She was only 34 and had given great pleasure in her short career.

Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) was a more complex character. Born Mary O’Brien to a Scots-Irish tax accountant and a mother from Tralee, she was brought up in High Wycombe. The family were keen on music but was dysfunctional, a perfectionist father battling against a more easy-going mother. Dusty was a tomboy, suffering from severe mood swings. There were many instances of food and crockery being thrown around.

Entering showbiz in an all-girl quartet, The Lana Sisters, she joined up with her brother Tom and another to form The Springfields, who enjoyed some success in the folk circuit before Dusty went solo in 1963. Her husky soul-music voice became instantly popular and she produced a line of hits up to 1969 – I Only had to be with You, Wishin’ n’ Hopin’, You Don’t have to Say you love Me, Son of a Preacher Man. This was to be the apex of her career.

Dusty was a great admirer of US Motown black music and she went to Memphis to record an album which she hoped would break new ground. The album’s sales were disappointing although critically well-received.  Dusty’s personal demons asserted themselves. With her career treading water, she took to drink and suffered psychological illness, self-harm becoming a problem. She was very reticent about her sexuality but she had passionate lesbian relationships, some ending in sinister violence and physical injuries.

She returned to the UK in 1983 and had a partial comeback singing with The Pet Shop Boys. Much praised as one of the finest female rock singers in the world, her diva persona frightened off record companies. In 1994 breast cancer was diagnosed and her last performance was in 1995. She lived her last years quietly in Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire and died there in 1999. She was 59, her early promise largely unfulfilled.

Cilla Black in the 1960s

Cilla Black (1943 – 2015) was born Priscilla White in the Scotland Road area of Liverpool. She worked as a waitress at The Cavern, the venue much frequented by The Beatles in the 1960s. Her own impromptu performances were noticed and encouraged by the Fab Four and she eventually signed up with high-flying Brian Epstein as her manager. In 1964 she recorded her most famous song, a Burt Bacharach number intended for Dionne Warwick, which became Cilla’s trademark, Anyone who had a Heart. It was an enormous success and the flipside of the disc You’re my World was also a chart-topper.

Cilla toured the pop circuit until 1971. Personally I did not think Cilla’s voice matched Dusty Springfield’s nor was she as energetic a performer as Lulu but she did have oodles of warm personality which was to serve her well. Her version of the Beatles’ classic The Long and Winding Road was also much admired and she had a hit with another Bacharach song Alfie.

She might then have sunk into obscurity. She hosted her own BBC pop programme Cilla from 1968-76 and there was a doomed attempt to make her a comedy actress. Then LWT found the ideal vehicle for her in Blind Date which ran for 20 years from 1983 to 2003. This show tried to match up aspiring males with compatible girls and was decidedly down-market but was largely kept afloat by Cilla’s irrepressible Scouse good humour, her empathy with the contestants and her bubbly personality. These qualities were also in evidence in the other hit show she hosted Surprise, Surprise.

Cilla died of a stroke and a fall at her villa in Estepona, Spain in 2015, aged 72. Her Liverpool and North West England audience referred to her as “Our Cilla” in much the way Northerners dubbed Gracie Fields “Our Gracie” in the 1930s. This was a great and affectionate compliment.

My four singers were above all entertainers and they daily lightened the steps of their followers. Who could ask for anything more?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcunREYzNY          Vera Lynn

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP5TsJAyFJc            Alma Cogan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uonH7CcextM          Dusty Springfield

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUxn6JLwdDY          Cilla Black

SMD

29.03.17

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2017