Teasing the Korean

Don't forget the follow-up, "Mediocre."

As a lifelong Chipmunks fan, I'd delighted to see that Ross Bagdasarian made the cut, but Lennon and McCartney did not.

Shearing didn't invent block chords, but the quintet sound featured block chords on piano, with the vibes doubling the top line and the guitar doubling the bottom line, i.e., playing the line an octave lower. It is a classic sound that was often imitated. I knew the sound before I knew the name George Shearing.

I loves me that Columbia reverb you hear on Tony, Johnny, and Eydie!

Do you know his 1957 album The Beat of My Heart with Art Blakey, Sabu, Chico Hamilton, and Candido? The out-takes from that album sprinkled over years' worth of LPs, including the San Francisco album in the early 1960s.

Tony's entire discography features tunes that were used on LPs many years after they were recorded, for whatever that's worth.

Gene Roddenberry infamously added a terrible lyric to Alexander Courage's original series Star Trek theme. It is my understanding that the Roddenberry estate routinely collects half of the earnings from the tune, just because Roddenberry scribbled sub-standard lyrics on a bar napkin to go with the tune. Courage was furious. He said he would have been fine with the idea if competent lyrics had been added, but he was not at all OK with Roddenberry's lyrics. I would imagine that the specifics may vary from one situation to another, depending on the agreement. Thinking of Duke Ellington in particular, most of whose "songs" started life as instrumentals.

Why? Tony was relatively plugged in for a pop-oriented jazz singer, or a jazz-oriented pop singer, depending on your politics.

From his earlier quintet period on MGM - which was his "jazzier" period - I have often found You're Hearing George Shearing, which was a comp that included "East of the Sun" and "September in the Rain," two that were early hits for him. From the Capitol period - which is when he did lots of pop hybrid records with quintet plus orchestra - you're likely to find albums such as Velvet Carpet and anything with the word "satin" in the title. George Gruntz did some classical/jazz hybrid LPs. Jacques Lousier did at least five volumes of Play Bach, in which Bach compositions are played by Loussier's piano trio. They date from a period in the 1960s in which baroque music in general and Bach in particular were experiencing a comeback of sorts. The Swingle Singers and Wendy Carlos famously participated in the festivities.

Shearing was criticized for doing a lot of jazz/pop hybrid records, but in my experience, his playing was generally admired.

Love Leslie Gore. My favorite Leslie Gore track is this wonderful Phil Spector ripoff. You need the single version, with the sleigh bells and additional background vocals. The LP version is lame in comparison.

It may have been done at a Sears photography studio! Remember those? My wife's band in the 1990s did their promo shots at Sears. They were made to look like warm family portraits, despite the fact that the band wore heavy make-up and and 70s glam fashions!

It seems weird to wear bright polyester in nature, unless they were trying to avoid getting shot by hunters who may have mistaken them for deer.

I remember going to see Bobby Palermo - "Florida's Neil Diamond" - at the Ramada Inn on US Hwy 19 in Clearwater. On the weekends, he did a big show, with a backing combo; but during the week, he sang, played keyboards, and did his own sound and lights, pretty much everything except serve drinks and bus tables.

Eric's theme, at least while I was in Beantown: Horace Silver's "Peace" by Tommy Flanagan.

Right? It's so bad it's almost brilliant. It borders on polka in a few passages.

Two Boston legends in one week. Also, the great Brother Cleve. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/13/lifestyle/thank-you-brother-cleve-godfather-local-cocktail-scene/ Eric Jackson was a big part of my Boston experience. My wife worked for WGBH and said what a nice guy he was. I met him on a few occasions. He built an addition on his house for his LP collection. My kind of guy. RIP.

This version of the Ides of March's "Vehicle," performed by Omaha-based cocktail lounge act the Links, is unbelievable.

Yeah, that's a great one, less so for Oscar Peterson than for the album's MPS fondue party aesthetic. Also love his mistitled Soul Espagnole, an album of mostly Brazilian tunes.

Just when I think I've seen every variation on this album.

I love The Columbia album of Cole Porter by Michel Legrand.

Never knew about this!!!

Riddle's intros alone on Sinatra's Wee Small Hours album are amazing. I have long been tempted to create files of just the intros and listen to them in a row.

As I wrote in another thread, I think Ella's Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart Songbook albums are marred by the sub-par arrangements of Buddy Bregman. As a result, those are my least favorite of the bunch. This is unfortunate, as Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart are among my favorite songwriters of that era. Oh well.

I should add that I lifted Oscar's coda to Billie Holiday's "East of the Sun" for my solo piano arrangement of "All the Way."