GA Russell

Happy Birthday Randy!

Jim, I don't have PayPal, so I'll put a check in the mail Monday. What is the address?

Happy Birthday Jack!

Happy Birthday Whitey!

I didn't realize that Crazy Legs Hirsch was in Unchained. Here's Hy Zaret's LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Hy Zaret, 99; lyricist for hit tune 'Unchained Melody' From Times Staff and Wire Reports July 4, 2007 Lyricist Hy Zaret, who wrote the haunting words to "Unchained Melody," one of the most frequently recorded songs of the 20th century, has died at the age of 99. Zaret died Monday at his home in Westport, Conn., about a month before his 100th birthday, his son, Robert Zaret, told the Associated Press. He wrote the lyrics for many songs and advertising jingles, but his biggest hit was "Unchained Melody," written with composer Alex North for a 1955 prison movie called "Unchained," starring Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. It brought Zaret and North an Academy Award nomination for best original song. Zaret refused the producer's request to work the word "unchained" into the lyrics, instead writing to express the feelings of a lover who has "hungered for your touch a long, lonely time." The song was recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Lena Horne, U2, Guy Lombardo, Vito & the Salutations, Willie Nelson and Joni Mitchell, who incorporated fragments into her song "Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody." An instrumental version was a No. 1 hit in 1955 for Les Baxter, while a vocal version by Al Hibbler reached No. 3 the same year. But most baby boomers remember the song from the Righteous Brothers' version. The record, produced by Phil Spector, reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart in 1965 and was a hit again 25 years later when it was used on the soundtrack of the film "Ghost," with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. In all, "Unchained Melody" was recorded more than 300 times, according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which listed it in 1999 as one of the 25 most performed musical works of the 20th century. "Although I had had success as a pop songwriter, I hesitated when Alex, whom I knew from our days as soldier songwriters in World War II, called me … to ask me to write a lyric for a movie theme he was working on," Zaret told Billboard magazine in 1991, a few months before North died. "I hesitated because I was busy writing songs that gave me enough income to fund me so I could continue to create musical public service announcements, work I was extremely proud of and for which I didn't get a penny. I was spending 85% of my career writing these spots, while using the other 15% to earn a living…. "I agreed to do the lyric, and in two days had it completed. It's unusual, because the title of the song is never used in the lyric. In the film, Todd Duncan sang the song as a prisoner with a cigar in his mouth." Among other songs Zaret collaborated on were "My Sister and I," a hit in 1941 for Jimmy Dorsey; "So Long, for a While," the theme song for the radio and TV show "Your Hit Parade"; "Dedicated to You"; and the Andrews Sisters' "One Meat Ball." "He had some big, big hits," said Jim Steinblatt, an assistant vice president at ASCAP. Born Aug. 21, 1907, in New York, Zaret graduated from West Virginia University and Brooklyn Law School. In later years, Zaret had to fend off the claims by another man, electrical engineer William Stirrat, who said he wrote the "Unchained Melody" lyrics as a teenager in the 1930s and even legally changed his name to Hy Zaret. Robert Zaret and Steinblatt both said the dispute was resolved completely in favor of the real Zaret, who continued to receive all royalties. Steinblatt said Stirrat died in 2004.

Here's a brief AP obit: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288119,00.html Bill Pinkney, Last Surviving, Original Drifter, Dead at 81 Thursday, July 05, 2007 AP Bill Pinkney DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Bill Pinkney, the last survivor of the original members of the musical group The Drifters, has died. He was 81. Pinkney was found dead Wednesday at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, Daytona Beach Police spokesman Jimmie Flynt said. The death was not considered suspicious, he said. Pinkney was scheduled to perform for U.S. Independence Day festivities there. The Drifters, whose hits include "Under the Boardwalk," "Up on the Roof," and "Save the Last Dance For Me," still performed Wednesday night. An announcement about Pinkney's death was made after the show, said the group's publicist, Donnie Lowery. Pinkney, born in Dalzell, S.C., was not with The Drifters when they recorded their biggest hits. He left in the band in 1958 because of an argument over cash. His distinctive bass voice can be heard on the group's version of the holiday classic "White Christmas." Even though he left the group, Pinkney didn't let go of The Drifters' name. He fought for laws allowing performers or bands to claim an affiliation with a classic group like The Drifters or The Coasters only if at least one member recorded with the original group. The Drifters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Pinkney was a World War II veteran and pitched for the New York Blue Sox of the Negro Baseball League in the late 1940s and early '50s.

Week 2 picks: http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4088732.htm

Here's an article from today's Winnipeg Sun about Westwood's status: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Win...311941-sun.html

John, David Naylor of the Globe has written a column discussing your point: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Unless I'm mistaken, Windmills of My Mind was a Skye release. Unless I'm confusing it with another record, I remember listening to it when it came out. I looked for it when I placed my dccblowout.com order in April, but I didn't see it.

Happy Birthday WD45!

The league now has only two players left who played for the American teams in the 90s - Damon Allen (Memphis Mad Dogs) and Anthony Calvillo (Las Vegas Posse). Of course Joe Horn (also Memphis) is still in the NFL. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...308886-sun.html

The America's Cup competition hasn't been between nations for a while. The Alinghi skipper is from New Zealand! Watching sailing on TV is an acquired taste. Until you get in the groove, it's like watching grass grow. But I remember one America's Cup race about fifteen years ago that was incredible. The one boat won by just a few feet! And of course there is no accelerator on the boats, so both crews just set their sails and hoped for the best as they slowly cruised past the finish line side by side. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...portsOther/home

Twenty years ago I was into minimalism for a while. I went to see Philip Glass a couple of times and Steve Reich once. I recently got an album called Stoa which came out a year ago by a German band called Nik Bartsch's Ronin. It's exciting. Bartsch is the pianist and composer. The quintet also has contrabass and bass clarinets, bass, drums and percussion. The drummer and percussionist play important roles on the album. The result is Philip Glass music that swings. I really enjoy it. The band is on a brief tour of North America. They played Vancouver last night, and will play the Montreal Jazz Festival at Cabaret JPR tonight at 9:00 pm. Tomorrow night they will be in New York City at Joe's Pub at 7:30 pm. I wish I could go!

After listening a great deal to The Last Concert for the past six weeks, I opened up The Abashiri Concert today and played the first disc. It's great! I don't find it as exciting as The Last Concert, but that doesn't mean it's not excellent. It's so much better than so many of the new albums I've heard over the last couple of years. I think I like Roger Kellaway's playing more than George Cables'. Cables plays interesting chords, but Kellaway had a bouncier feel throughout that evening. I'm going to listen to this plenty before I move on to Disc 2.

Pinball Clemons is signing old friends. Noel Prefontaine was injured in the game Thursday. To replace him temporarily, the Argos have signed retired NFL kicker Steve Christie. Christie was a college teammate of Clemons at William & Mary. He played fifteen years in the NFL, the last in 2004. The Argos also signed Mookie Mitchell, who was cut by the Eskimos last week. I like Mitchell, but I don't expect him to have much left. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Happy Birthday Robert!

Here are the game summaries for Week 1: British Columbia Lions 24....Toronto Argonauts 22 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4087280.htm Edmonton Eskimos 39....Winnipeg Blue Bombers 39 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4087338.htm Saskatchewan Roughriders 16....Montreal Alouettes 7 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4087702.htm Calgary Stampeders 37....Hamilton Tiger-Cats 9 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4087849.htm ***** Two updates from the Hot Stove League thread: I said then that I have no faith in Jim Popp as Montreal's head coach. He is a career personnel guy, with no coaching experience except when he has appointed himself. The Als' offense stunk against the Riders. They didn't score anything. The Riders conceded three safety touches and a single point on a missed field goal. So if something doesn't happen soon, Popp may be gone very quickly as the head coach. The Montreal fans won't have patience, and I don't think Larry Smith will either. Do you remember that when I met Bob Young, the owner of the Ticats, I asked him how he could trade DJ Flick for Rocky Butler? The Ticats released Butler last week. The Sask announcers were talking about what a steal that deal was. PS - I have to wonder how much longer Sean Fleming and Troy Westwood are for this league. I don't think they can be counted on anymore.

Thanks for all your efforts Jim! I'm looking forward to contributing to the next fund drive. You don't miss your water...

A lot has happened while the board was down. I'll first list some pre-season analyses before they disappear: Montreal Alouettes http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086881.htm Toronto Argonauts http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086872.htm Hamilton Tiger-Cats http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086895.htm Winnipeg Blue Bombers http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086858.htm Saskatchewan Roughriders http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086894.htm Calgary Stampeders http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086886.htm Edmonton Eskimos http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086890.htm British Columbia Lions http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4086877.htm The Globe's picks for the final standings. Winnipeg is picked both first and last! http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

The Eskimos cut Mookie Mitchell. The Argos put Eric Crouch on the nine-week injured list. The Stampeders sent Coby Rhinehart to the Als for future considerations. They also sent RB Wes Cates to Sask for Rob Lazeo. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Here's an interesting article from Reuters today: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286194,00.html Apple's iTunes Now Third-Largest Music Retailer in U.S. Friday, June 22, 2007 NEW YORK — Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) digital music store iTunes is now the third-largest music retailer in the United States with 10 percent market share, overtaking Amazon.com (AMZN) in the first quarter, according to a survey released Friday. The NPD Group report highlights the growing strength of digital music in the U.S. market as physical sales of compact discs continue to slide. Apple's iTunes is third behind market leader Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) with a 15.8 percent share, and Best Buy Co Inc. (BBY) with a 13.8 percent share, according to the survey of 40,000 people aged 13 and older. Both of those retailers mostly sell music in the CD format. Online store bestbuy.com has a 1.1 percent market share with sales of both CDs and digital music.. Amazon.com Inc. dropped to fourth with a 6.7 percent share. Its sales increased but not as fast as rivals. Amazon also sells music mainly in the CD format, but last month it started selling digital music but without copy protection software such as that used by iTunes. NPD said the iTunes digital music store had benefited from sales of Apple's iPod digital music player during the holiday season. The vast majority of digital songs and albums bought on iTunes will only play on iPods, as well as the iTunes PC application. iTunes last month rolled out a new service called iTunes Plus which sells higher quality digital songs without copy protection at a premium price. NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said that iTunes had also benefited from the slowdown in CD sales, the dominant format for recorded music sales. According to sales data from Nielsen SoundScan, first quarter sales of music CDs were down by more than 20 percent year-on-year, a trend analysts don't expect to change. "With only a couple of weeks remaining in the second quarter, industry CD sales have shown only marginal improvement over first quarter levels," said Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Capital in a note to clients on Thursday. Though Wal-Mart is the top U.S. music retailer, it carries a relatively narrow selection of CDs. Some analysts believe its rivals are likely to consider a similar strategy. "Anecdotally we're hearing they're beginning to think about cutting back on retail space for physical (music)," said Crupnick. "But in the near term retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are going to continue to be powerhouses."

Ticats over Bombers 24-20. Hallelujah! Jason Maas looked healthy and had a good game. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home ***** The Blue Bombers moved closer to selling the team to David Asper today. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home I'm surprised, because the team doesn't need the money, from what I've read. ***** Roughriders over Stampeders 23-21 The Sask quarterbacks were again unimpressive. Akili Smith had another good outing for the Stamps, but Henry Burris remains their starting QB. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gam...4283502-cp.html ***** The Eskimos cut Josh Ranek today. So who will be their running back this year? http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Edm...4282547-cp.html ***** The Als cut Donnovan Carter and Keith Stokes. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home ***** I love the week leading up to the CFL's Opening Night. Many of the papers publish pre-season previews. I'll post links to all that I find.

Happy Birthday Parkertown!

It's not clear in today's LA Times obit if Medress was the lead singer on The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but even if he wasn't I thought you find the rest of his career interesting: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Hank Medress, 68; pop music producer, a member of the Tokens From Times Staff and Wire Reports June 21, 2007 Hank Medress, 68, who sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with the pop vocal group the Tokens and went on to produce hits for such groups as the Chiffons and Tony Orlando and Dawn, died of lung cancer Monday in New York, according to publicist Diana D'Angelo. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," a catchy, doo-wop tune based on a traditional Zulu melody and a reworking of the Weavers' 1950s folk version of "Wimoweh," was a No. 1 single for the Tokens in 1961. The Tokens originated at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1955 when Medress, Neil Sedaka and two other students joined to become the Linc-Tones. After little success, Sedaka left in 1958 for a solo career. Following several lineup shuffles, the Tokens were formed in 1960 by Medress, Jay Siegel and brothers Mitch and Phil Margo (Joseph Venneri was later added). Their first single, "Tonight I Fell in Love," reached No. 15 on the pop charts in 1961. The Tokens had several more modest hits in the '60s and started their own label, B.T. Puppy Records. It was the Chiffons who caused Medress to leave his singing career behind. He produced three top-10 hits for the 1960s girl group: "Sweet Talkin' Guy," "One Fine Day" and "He's So Fine." Medress left the Tokens in 1970, and later that year he and producing partner Dave Appell teamed up with Tony Orlando and Dawn on "Candida" and "Knock Three Times." In the late '80s Medress produced Buster Poindexter's self-titled album and "Hot, Hot, Hot" single. In addition to producing other records, he worked for EMI Music Publishing and recently served as a consultant to SoundExchange, a nonprofit organization that helps recording artists collect royalties.