I am just so sad about the passing of Ellie Greenwich. A few years ago, at a Burt Bacharach show at Radio City, I turned to emscee and said, "So basically he wrote every song ever written."A mild exaggeration (though it seemed true at that moment). The rest were written by Ellie and Jeff, Carole and Gerry, Barry and Cynthia, Mike and Jerry. These weren't just records. They weren't just the wond...
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I contend that there is one moment in cinema history when John Wayne was sexy, and this is it. (The Quiet Man, 1952, directed by John Ford.) It helps, of course, that his wooing partner was the radiant colleen Maureen O"Hara (who in fact recorded albums of Irish music).The Quiet Man music was by Victor Young (composer of, among others, "When I Fall in Love," "Sweet Sue," "Street of Dreams," "Lo...
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You'd have to see my copy of his first LP, possession of my adolescent years, to understand-- the cover barely holding together, the outline of the record worn through. The record player could just keep repeating one side of the album over and over; you could lie on your bed and drift off. ("And then leaning on your window sill he'll say one day you caused his will to weaken with your love and ...
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Obit Girl is back.SAN JUAN — Salsa band leader Joe Cuba, dubbed the "Father of Latin Boogaloo" for weaving a fluid, bilingual mix of musical influences, died Sunday in New York City, a member of his group said. He was 78. Born Gilberto Miguell Calderon in 1931 in New York to a family from Puerto Rico, the bandleader and conga player helped change the sound of salsa in the 1960s. Until then, mo.
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Word has come that Blossom Dearie, jazz singer, pianist, she of the beguilingly soft and witty voice, has passed away in New York at 84. She sounded like no one else, had divine taste, and was performing at cabarets as recently as a few years ago.Here she is with one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's more whimsical songs:Some of you youngsters may know her from Schoolhouse Rock:I myself am partial t...
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Is there any way to talk about Audrey Hepburn without repeating the same adjectives that are in every mention of Audrey Hepburn? (What prompts this, you might ask. She passed away on January 20, 1993, which I remember because 1/20 my birthday, and I heard the news as I was planning an Inauguration party.) Elegant, winsome, stylish, enchanting-- the patron saint of fashion. (After many years of ...
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Eartha Kitt-- legend, activist, catwoman, chanteuse-- has died at 81.On Christmas Day.
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I'm going to hop into the wayback machine with emscee and visit the '60s.In late '68, Promises, Promises, a musical adaptation (by Bacharach-David) of the brilliant and beloved movie The Apartment, opened on Broadway. Promises is neither brilliant nor, as far as I know, beloved, though it did feature Jerry Orbach and a winsome ingenue named Jill O'Hara, and the lovely duet "I'll Never Fall in L...
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Someone pretty cool has been writing the Times's obit heads. Like this one:Edie Adams, Actress and Singer (and Flirt With a Cigar), Dies at 81Don't you love that parenthesis? Some of us actually remember Adams's Muriel cigar commercials. Here's one with (now, that I didn't remember) Stan Getz:Funny, though. The woman had a fine career in theater (Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner—she won a Tony; Eileen S.
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