This is one of my favorite bits that David Letterman has done. I saw it when it was done on air, many years ago, but figured that was it. I tried to track it down online, never having any great expectation of finding it -- for starters, I wasn't even quite sure how to search for it -- but never diminish the miracle of search and YouTube! A viewer sent a letter into Dave, making a quip about how he needs better shoes. And Letterman decided to respond to her...in person.
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I have spent countless hours watching old videos of What's My Line, jumping from one "mystery celebrity" guest to the next, sometimes for hours at a time, taking me late into the early morning. Perhaps because TV was in its infancy, the show was able to attract really remarkable guests, who would never today dream of appearing on a game show. However semi-famous you might think some of the celebrities might be on things like Dancing with the Stars, no, it doesn't compare to What's My Line. Two examples pop into mind -- Eleanor Roosevelt and Salvador Dali. That, folks, are famous celebrities. Here, in honor of Opening Day in baseball, is another. Someone known for being fairly shy, just on the good side of reclusive. Joe Dimaggio. What with the new movie, Oz: The Great and Powerful out in the theaters, it got me thinking about The Song. There have been a lot of wonderful interpretations of "Over the Rainbow," but this might be my favorite. That's because it's done by someone who should know. E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who wrote the song, along with composer Harold Arlen. I first came across this when I discovered The Songwriters series on DVD. It's a short-lived TV series (on PBS, I believe), where composers performed their own songs and told the stories behind them. There are two shows to a DVD, and it's highly-worth checking out if you like this sort of thing. I haven't seen them all, so I can't attest to everything, but my favorites are Sheldon Harnick and Kander & Ebb. The one with Alan Jay Lerner is pretty good, as well. (The Netflix user ratings for the series is just mediocre, but don't be thrown off by that. I suspect it's related to the production values being limited, and the songwriters not being Professional Performers. But the best of them sing the bejeepers out of their songs.) The one with Yip Harburg is a bit different. Unlike the others, he does almost no singing -- he knows his limitations -- but rather has a small combo of performers who do most of the honors. What he does provide are the entertaining stories about the songs. That makes it a touch less interesting than the other shows, though the songs themselves stand as pure gems. One of the rare exceptions on the show is the opening number, which is...okay, you can probably guess. As is clear, he's no singer. As is equally clear, he knows "Over the Rainbow" inside and out, down to its depths, and understands every tiny nook of it. When he sings it, it's not the wistful longing of something he wishes could be, the lovely interpretation we're generally used to, but a heart-breaking plea for a better world he achingly wants to be, actually, real. He really wants to know, literally, if birds can fly why, oh, why can't he ? No, Yip Harburg can't sing. All he can do is make you feel like you're hearing one of the best-known and best-loved songs for the first time, and fall in love with it. And interestingly, by the end, he's allowed himself to get so carried away by the song, in a way that is so touching and impressive, considering that he wrote it about 35 years earlier and had probably heard several thousand times. (Side note: His show is paired with Sheldon Harnick, which is appropriate because he was Harnick's hero and mentor. It was hearing Harburg and Burton Lane's Finian's Rainbow that got him interested in going to New York and becoming a lyricist.) Happily, I was able to track down a video of just this one song from the show. The DVD is worth it (combined, as I noted, with Harnick's which is great), but for the time being this saves you the time of watching his whole episode just for these three, magical minutes. The other day, I posted the video of a tremendous performance of "76 Trombones" by the barbershop chorus, Ambassadors of Harmony, when they won their second International Chorus Competition in 2009, from the Barbershop Harmony Society. It was remarkable singing combined with pure showmanship. Well, they won their third championship last year. This is that performance, a 12-minute medley of two songs. The first is the definition of simplicity itself, not an ounce of showmanship, just absolutely impeccable, breathtakingly gorgeous singing. "No Other Love" (no, not the Rodgers & Hammerstein song). But then...well, then, that's when they blast into a number that in a million years you would probably never pick it for a barbershop singing. "Step in Time" from the movie, Mary Poppins. And they have just one bejeepers of a fun time with it, as the showmanship explodes. Which won them championship. (Again, as before, I recommend watching this full-screen. You have to click on the YouTube link.) Here's an enjoyable segment with Stephen Colbert as the real Stephen Colbert being interviewed by his friend Jake Tapper on the latter's new CNN show. Among other things, they talk about Colbert's involvement in his sister's Congressional race, and Tapper's response years ago when told that Colbert would be doing a TV show. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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