clarkspicks.com

Jul 19 2008

Ginger Rogers: They All Laughed

Published by clarkspicks under jazz, movies, musical theater

George and Ira Gershwin’s They All Laughed, which has become a jazz standard, was written for the 1937 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, Shall We Dance. Since then Everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra to Bobby Darin has recorded it. Here is the original film version, with George Gershwin’s orchestrations, and Fred and Ginger dancing. Note that Ginger Rogers really does do at least part of what Fred does backwards and in heels.

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Cass Elliott: Make Your Own Kind Of Music

Published by clarkspicks under TV, folk

Cass Elliott was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1941. At the time, her mother thought her name was Ellen Naomi Cohen. Her stage name came about, first in high school, when she began calling herself “Cass,” taking the name from actress Peggy Cass. Elliott was the name of a friend, who died young. Cass transformed herself from an awkward high school kid to a show business professional by taking this new name and going out to do the job. She dropped out oh high school and went to New York to become an actress. Elliott got a part in The Music Man on Broadway, but was beat out by barbara Streisand at her next audition for the part of miss MarmelsteinI Can Get it For You Wholesale. She returned to school in 1962 and attended American University in Washington D.C. where she began singing in a trio called The Big Three.

After The Big Three broke up she sang briefly in a group called The Mugwumps which also included Denny Doherty, who went on to form The New Journeymen with John and Michelle Phillips. In 1965 Cass was vacationing in the Virgin Islands as were Doherty, John and Michelle. During that vacation Elliott was invited to become a permanent member of the group, which renamed itself The Mamas and the Papas. Trouble also started within the group at the moment of it’s renaming. Cass was in love with Denny, who had no interest in her, however Denny and Michelle began to have an affair on the night that the new group name was chosen.

The Mamas and the Papas had a great deal of commercial success, largely because of Cass Elliott’s powerful singing voice, which tended to dominate, and her charismatic personality. In 1968 the Mamas and the Papas broke up, due to the tensions caused by Denny and Michelle’s affair. Cass went on to have a solo career, which she craved.

On July 29, 1974, according to Michelle Phillips, Cass called her excitedly from her hotel room in London, where she had just done two performances at the Palladium to standing ovations each night. Cass was elated, feeling that she had reached the pinnacle of her career. That night she died in her sleep, of a heart attack.

Here is Mama Cass singing Make Your Own Kind Of Music at the Hollywood Palce. She is introduced by that night’s host, Sammy Davis, Jr.

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Mercedes Sosa: Gracias a la Vida

Published by clarkspicks under Nueva canción

Gracias a la Vida is the best known song by Chilean artist Violeta Parra. Parra, a poet, visual artist and folklorist, revived the popular tradition of the Peña, a kind of coffeehouse/artists collective/socialist political club, during the era of Salvador Allende in Chile. Peñas sprang up all over Chile at that time but were suppressed by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Mercedes Sosa is a popular singer of Nueva canción, new song, from Argentina. Nueva canción is a combination of Latin American folk music, rock and roll and socialist politics which arose in the 1950s and 60s. Sosa made Parra’s song popular throughout Latin America. Gracias a la Vida is known in the United States as the title song of Joan Baez’ 1974 Spanish language album.