Over on my pal Mark Evanier's site, with the passing of Steve Lawrence, he posted a piece here that featured a brief story about the recording Lawrence and his wife Eydie Gormé made of the song "Hallelujah" (not the similarly-titled song by Leonard Cohen), and included a video of them singing it on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. As it happens, back in 2013, I posted the interesting tale of them recording the song. I left out their names until the very end, and embedded their single, to see if people could guess who recorded it. The reason for "quiz" of sorts, was that in 1979, although Steve and Eydie had had very successful careers (singly and together), they no longer were getting the airplay on AM pop radio that they had in their hey-day. They felt that there was almost an intentional boycott of them, not being considered remotely hip enough for the radio, and that if their names were attached to a new record, that would automatically mean it would get nowhere. So, they tried something. They recorded a new single, "Hallelujah" (which had been a Eurovision pop song winner), but didn't release it with their real names. Instead, the song was put out under the name 'Parker & Penny.' They didn't disguise their voices -- once you know who it is, you can clearly hear it. But it was nonetheless kept a secret. It not only got on the radio, but also started to do pretty well, moving up the charts and hitting #46. Then word finally got out who actually had recorded the song. And airplay dried up. Whether there is pure coincidence in all this, that the song would have gotten on the air under their real names, and whether it simply reached its peak at #46, who knows? But the circumstantial evidence does seem to support their belief. Here's a short version of the song that they performed in Cannes, France. (The video that Mark posted is much longer, for those who want to see it.) The day after I posted my story about Steve and Eydie's "secret" recording, I wrote a follow-up piece about Eurovision because, as it happened, that year's contest ended that very night. And I also posted the year's winning song. What I just realized, though, is that I never posted the original, winning Eurovision performance of "Hallelujah." (I thought I had, but I searched my site and couldn't find it. Perhaps it's there, but I just can't find.) So, I thought it was time to rectify that. First, though, a word about Eurovision for those who missed my article on it in 2013 -- Eurovision is sort of Europe's pop music equivalent of the Olympics/World Cup soccer/Oscars -- only glitzier. I'm not kidding. The show is still going on -- it began in 1956 and with some time off for the pandemic is nearing its 70th year. This year's contest is next month, on May 11. (The host will be Graham Norton, whose talk show on BBC America I've written about a lot, and whose hosted the undertaking for quite a few years.) Back when I first wrote about it 11 years ago, the TV extravaganza cost $23 million. You didn't read that wrong. Yes, $23 million for pop song contest. And 125 million people watched that year's worldwide broadcast from Malmo, Sweden. I can only assume the price tag has gone way up. And you may have thought American Idol was a bit much. "Once again without fail," the AP wrote about the contest, "it produced a mix of bubble-gum pop songs, somber ballads, bagpipes, accordions and bizarrely kitsch musical productions." How bizarrely kitschy is it? When I wrote about the show in 2013, the third-place finisher from Ukraine was Zlata Ognevich with her song "Gravity." As the A.P. wrote, "Ognevich was carried onstage in Saturday night's finals by the tallest man in the U.S. – Ukrainian-born Igor Vovkovinskiy. Vovkovinskiy – who stands 7 feet, 8 inches – wobbled onstage in a fur and feathers, placing the fairy-like Ognevich on a rock where she stood for the rest of the performance." Or this about the 13th-place finisher: "Romanian opera singer Cezar gave one of the more remarkable performances. He resembled a Dracula reborn as a high-pitched vocalist, attempting a crossover opera pop number with techno beats and pyrotechnics." It's all done by country, with numerous rounds and a convoluted point system that makes the Electoral College seem sane and rational. And includes a jury and telephone call-in votes. (You can find the rules here.) Anyway, that finally brings us to the point of all this, the song "Hallelujah," which as I said won Eurovision in 1979. The country that entered it may seem a surprise, given from the song's title what seems to be the semi-religious nature of the number. It may indeed have a religious underpinning, but not the religion most people likely think, since it's from Israel. The performance by Eurovision standards especially is absolutely low-key, sung pleasantly by a group of four called Milk and Honey, featuring Gali Atari. So, here's the original Eurovision version of "Hallelujah." (By the way, I love their choreography at the 1:42 mark. It gives The Temptations a run for their money.)
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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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