Anti-Valentine Specialists!

 Doris Day...Romance on the High Seas...

and "Put 'Em in a Box"

(Doris was 24!).

 Bobby....and "After You're Gone."

 Peggy... and "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me,"

that Irving Berlin classic.

Frank..."You'll Get Yours,"

one of the only songs of "that" type 

that he recorded.

Playlist for Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015: Not Your Average Valentine!

 Last Valentines Day?  Yup, I did the prerequisite hour of love songs...all the big Rodgers and Hammerstein ballads, the Lerner and Loewes, the "don't throw bouquets at me's," the "if I loved you's," the stuff you have to see your dentist right after (because of the sugar and all)....and it was pretty dang sappy.  I'm just not that type a gal, okay?  I've always preferred the acerbic anti-love character song...the "No Way Are You Gettin' Away With That" tune, the "Never Wear that Purple Tie Again, if You Want to Live" anthem, the "You're Nuts if You Think I'm in..." love song.  So that's what we're doing, 2 hours of Anti-Valentines Day Songs on 2 on the Aisle!

We've got stuff from musicals....like The Pajama Game, Promises Promises, Goldilocks (3 from that one!  Banner!), and Hello Dolly! Solo stuff from Darin, Lee, Day, Sinatra, Bennett...and even some Harry James.  Everybody recorded this stuff, so I am evidently not alone in my regard for it....Just wait til you hear Audra get all outta sorts with "Down with Love!"  And you thought I was bitter!?

Which leads me to my last point: Don't read in.  Not everything a DJ plays has extra special meaning, okay?  I mean, that's what my therapist said, anyway.

XOX 


Lovesick (Sherie Rene Scott, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
I'm Not at all in Love (Janis Paige, The Pajama Game)
I'm Glad I'm Single (Ensemble, The Gay Life)
No One'll Ever Love You (Elaine Stritch, Don Ameche, Goldilocks)
I Hate Men (Patricia Morison, Kiss Me, Kate)
She's Not Enough Woman for Me (Richard Kiley Leonard Stone, Redhead)
I Resolve (Barbara Baxley, She Loves Me)
Shakespeare Lied (Hiram Sherman, Brenda Vaccaro, How Now Dow Jones)
She is Not Thinking of Me (Daniel Massey, Gigi)
Thinking of No One But Me (Dee Hoty, George Irving, Me and My Girl)
It Takes a Woman (David Burns, Ensemble, Hello, Dolly)
You'll Get Yours (Frank Sinatra)
Put 'Em in a Box, Tie 'Em with a Ribbon, and Throw 'Em in the Deep Blue Sea
                   (Doris Day, Romance on the High Seas)
Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me (Peggy Lee, Black Coffee)
After You've Gone (Bobby Darin)
I Wanna Be Around (Tony Bennett)
Down with Love (Audra McDonald)
That'll Be the Day (Ensemble, The Happiest Girl in the World)
Abracadabra (June Havoc, Mexican Hayride)
I Can't Be in Love (Don Ameche, Goldilocks)
What You Don't Know About Women (Kay McClelland, Randy Graff, City of Angels)
I'm Through with Love (Marilyn Monroe, Some Like it Hot)
Moon Song (Annette Hanshaw)
Who's Sorry Now (Harry James and His Orchestra featuring Willie Smith)
Goody Goody (Julie London)
But Not for Me (Chet Backer)
I'm All I've Got (Michele Lee, Bravo Giovanni)
It's a Helluva Way to Run a Love Affair (Shirl Conway, Plain and Fancy)
The Beast in You (Elaine Stritch, Goldilocks)
Single Man Drought (Melissa Weil, Jennifer SImard, I Love You, You're Perfect,
                     Now Change)
Be Good or Be Gone (Debra Monk, Pump Boys and Dinettes)
Getting Married Today (Beth Howland, Company)
I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Kristin Chenowith, Promises Promises)
Safe, Sane and Single (Ensemble, Five Guys Named Moe)
I'll Be Glad When You're Dead (You Rascal You) (Ensemble, Bullets Over Broadway)
So Long, Dearie (Carol Channing, Hello Dolly)  

I'm Tired.

Madeline Kahn...Lily Von Shtupp,

in Blazing Saddles, 1974.

The Producers: If You've Got It...Flaunt It, Baby! Flaunt It!

 The Producers opened in 2001, 

and proceeded to run for over 2,500 performances.

Nathan Lane, as Max Bialystock and Mathew Broderick, as Leo Bloom.

 Cady Huffman as Swedish Bombshell Secretary,

Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yansen Tallen Hallen Svaden Swanson.

 "Prisoners of Love,"

from the 2005 movie version.

Nathan, Director/Choreographer Susan Stroman,

Mathew, and Creator Mel Brooks.

All About Applause...

 Lauren Bacall as Margo Channing,

in the original 1970 Broadway production...

she snagged a Best Actress Tony for her efforts.

 The backstage scene (In a caftan! It really was 1970!)

with Brandon Maggart, Ann Williams, and Len Cariou on the right.

 Directed and Choreographed by Ron Field,

who would go on to do the original Broadway version of Cabaret,

Zorba, Rags and several television specials.

Costumes... Ray Aghayan.

And a still from the 1950 movie...All About Eve.

Gary Merrill, Bette Davis, Celeste Holm, and Hugh Marlowe.

Missing from the shot, but rarely from the plot,

Anne Baxter as Eve.

Chicago: It's a Looooong Story

 Back in 1926, Maurine Dallas Watkins wrote a play called "Chicago"...

based on two unrelated crimes of 1924,

involving Beulah Annan and Belva Gaetner.

It reached Broadway, and proved popular enough to be turned

into a silent movie, called "Roxie Hart," 

starring Phyllis Haver (above).

 In 1942, they did it again!

A movie with Ginger Rogers, as a brunette...

 and a rather distraught looking Adolphe Menjou

as Billy Flynn.

Bob Fosse entered the "picture" when Gwen Verdon

came across the 1926 play and thought it might make a good musical.

The original 1975 production starred

Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera and...

 Jerry Orbach, as Billy Flynn.

 In 2002, another movie...

with Rene Zellwegger and Catherine Zeta-Jones,

NOT dubbed.  

(Can ya tell?)

 

Queen Latifah as Mama Morton...

This movie had a $45,000,000 budget.

Makes you wonder about that first silent movie version

and its budget...$300?

Playlist for Sunday, February 8, 2015: Fasten Your Seatbelts!

When the boss makes a request, uh...is it really a request? If the boss in question here were Kevin Spacey, I would definitely use a stronger word than "request" here...So guess what? We're doing it!  And "it" is Chicago. I can't play my very favorite number from this show ("Cell Block Tango") due to its language, but I CAN play "When You're Good to Mama" and "I Can't Do It Alone" with minor adjustments...and hey, if it keeps the boss happy, then "it ain't been in vain for nothin'".

And speaking of "Singin' in the Rain,"  (I'm sure you picked up on that segue...)...I found Judy Garland's version of that song, which totally pre-dates Gene's use of it in the 1952 smash, from Little Nellie Kelly...yup, Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown actually wrote it waaaaay back, for The Hollywood Review of 1929.  Ditto "Good Morning," which we'll hear Judy and Mickey Rooney do, from Babes in Arms, 1939.  Judy was 17, and working with her (later hated) director, Busby Berkeley.  Love this jazzy rendition, tho it IS hard to get Gene and Debbie and Donald overturning that couch out of my head!

And just a little trivia about Applause...When Charles Strouse and his partner in musical crime, Lee Adams, had the insanely brilliant idea to turn "All About Eve" into a musical, they had a problem: Twentieth Century refused to let them use the script or even the title of that Bette Davis movie. They COULD use the short story the movie was based on,"The Wisdom of Eve," but what about all those incredible lines that were now off limits? Armed with Comden and Green to write the book, the quartet began by updating the story to the 1970s, tossing out acerbic Addison DeWitt, adding a gay hair-dresser...and placing the focus on Margo Channing, not Eve Harrington.  In the end, Twentieth Century capitulated and let them use the movie script, but by then...Well, they did manage to write "Fasten Your Seatbelts" at the last minute, a line no Margo should ever go without!  


Overture & All That Jazz (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago)
Backstage Babble (Ensemble, Applause)
Who's That Girl? (Lauren Bacall, Applause)
Fasten Your Seatbelts (Lauren Bacall, Ensemble, Applause)
Applause (Bonnie Franklin, Applause)
The Slice (Robert Hooks, Ensemble, Hallelujah, Baby!)
My Own Morning (Leslie Uggams, Hallelujah, Baby!)
Feet Do Yo' Stuff (Ensemble, Hallelujah, Baby!)
Talking to Yourself (Leslie Uggams, Robert Hooks, Allen Case, Hallelujah, Baby!)
I Can't Do It Alone (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago)
Nowadays (Rene Zellwegger, Chicago)
When You're Good to Mama (Queen Latifah, Chicago)
Good Mornin' (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Babes in Arms)
Singin' in the Rain (Judy Garland, Little Nellie Kelly)
We Just Couldn't Say Goodnight (Annette Hanshaw)
Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please (Ethel Merman, Panama Hattie)
A Guy What Takes His Time (Marlene Dietrich)
I'm Tired (Madeline Kahn, Blazing Saddles)
Welcome to the Night (John Lithgow, Ensemble, Sweet Smell of Success)
I Cannot Hear the City (Brian D'Arcy James, Sweet Smell of Success)
Don't Look Now (John Lithgow, Sweet Smell of Success)
Dirt (Ensemble, Sweet Smell of Success)
Why Can't the English? (Rex Harrison, My Fair Lady)
With a Little Bit of Luck (Stanley Holloway, My Fair Lady)
Wouldn't It Be Lovely? (Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady)
You Did It (Rex Harrison, Robert Coote, My Fair Lady)
When You've Got It, Flaunt It (Cady Huffman, The Producers)
Betrayed (Nathan Lane, The Producers)
Prisoners of Love (Nathan Lane, Mathew Broderick, Ensemble, The Producers)