Edie Adams...

Top, in Wonderful Town, with Roz Russell.  Bottom, with hubby Ernie Kovacs.

Playlist for Sunday, February 16, 2014: Love is the Reason for it All!

Jumping on the Valentine's Day bandwagon, this Sunday's playlist is all about LOVE.  From the sappy to the sublime, the schmaltzy to the splendiferous, so you can just imagine...We'll hear from the iconic musicals, like Oklahoma, Camelot, and Brigadoon, as well as the also-rans, like Sail Away, Goldilocks and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, cuz they all sing about Love.

I'll try to keep the sweetness level down with a good deal of character songs. So along with "So in Love," from Kiss Me Kate, we'll hear "I Can't Be in Love," from Goldilocks to counterbalance the mood!  Favorite track has be "My Funny Valentine," sung by Kim Novak in the movie version of Pal Joey...she's breathy, she's smoky, she's not a singer.  But she's wonderful.  And remember, this song was actually first sung by a child star, Mitzi Green, in Babes in Arms...because it's a "let's put on a show" musical, and she was singing to her crush, a boy named "Valentine!"  But you already knew that, right?

OXOX, Me!


Love is a Many Splendored Thing (Ensemble, Forever Plaid)
Love is the Reason for It All (Shirley Booth, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
She Loves Me (Daniel Massey, She Loves Me)
A Little Bit in Love (Edie Adams, Wonderful Town)
I Am in Love (Peter Cookson, Can Can)
I Can't Be in Love (Don Ameche, Goldilocks)
You're Just in Love (Ethel Merman, Russell Nype, Call Me Madam)
People Will Say We're in Love (Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts, Oklahoma)
So In Love (Patricia Morison, Kiss Me Kate)
I Loved You Once in Silence (Julie Andrews, Camelot)
He Loves and She Loves (Fred Astaire, Funny Face)
My Funny Valentine (Kim Novack, Pal Joey)
Almost Like Being in Love (Gene Kelly, Brigadoon)
Beatnik Love Affair (Grover Dale, Sail Away)
Lovesick (Sherie Rene Scott, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Love is Here to Stay (Bobby Short, K-RA-ZY about Gershwin)
Love Sneaks In (John Lithgow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Prisoners of Love (Ensemble, The Producers)

Le Jazz Hot!

Julie Andrews...the Victor part of Victor/Victoria!

Ethel and Irving!

At work on Annie Get Your Gun....The Merm and The Berlin, 1946.

Hirschfeld's drawing of No Strings..

Noelle Adam, Alvin Epstein, Diahann Carroll, and Richard Kiley, 1962.

Fit as a Fiddle, and Ready for Love!

Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly, singing a song that was a hit single for Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians. 

Playlist for Sunday, February 9, 2014: Just So Classic!

From Cole Porter to Frank Loesser to Richard Rodgers, this show has classics, with a capital CLASS.  I felt the urge to merge with Kiss Me Kate, Guys and Dolls, plus a lot of other old favorites this week, so that's what we're doing.  So many favorites, I can't pick just one, although in hunting for a Cyril Ritchard goodie (done as a request, but who doesn't want to play Cyril!?!?), I found that peculiar little "Oh My Mysterious Lady" from Peter Pan.  It's when Captain Hook is momentarily fooled into thinking Peter Pan is a lady (and of course he is, cuz it's Mary Martin, for lord's sake)...so it's, shall we say, comic relief.  Cyril slayed me when I was only 5 years old, back in Kindergarten.  My favorite villian, bar none.

Our Movie Musical Corner has samples from Singin' in the Rain and Top Hat.  Those selections held surprises...when I researched "Fit as a Fiddle" and "Singin' in the Rain," I found they were very old songs, done by several different performers in several different shows. They have a history as long as your arm...

Next week, a Broadway Valentine show.  I'll try not to get too sappy!


Le Jazz Hot (Julie Andrews, Victor/Victoria)
Another Op'nin', Another Show (Ensemble, Kiss Me Kate)
Tom, Dick or Harry (Lisa Kirk, Ensemble, Kiss Me Kate)
Bianca (Harold Lang, Kiss Me Kate)
Take Back Your Mink (Vivian Blaine, Guys and Dolls)
Guys and Dolls (Sam Levene, Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, Guys and Dolls)
It Never Entered My Mind (Shirley Ross, Higher and Higher)
They Say It's Wonderful (Ethel Merman, Annie Get Your Gun)
La La La (Noelle Adam, Alvin Epstein, No Strings)
Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Singin' in the Rain)
Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails (Fred Astaire, Top Hat)
Fit as a Fiddle (Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Singin' in the Rain)
I Don't Remember You/Sometimes a Day Goes By (Robert Cuccioli, Jim Walton,
                             And the World Goes Round)
But Not For Me (Bobby Short, Girl Crazy)
I'll Never Be Jealous Again (Reta Shaw, Eddie Foy, Jr., The Pajama Game)
Oh, My Mysterious Lady (Cyril Ritchard, Mary Martin, Peter Pan)