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From the archives, this week's contestant is David Hempling. from San Francisco. It's a very easy hidden song to get. As for the hidden composer style, it's clear after hearing the answer, but I didn't find it typical for that composer, so I missed it.
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Lest anyone think that Randy Rainbow would have little to write about after Trump left office, perish the thought. He has a new song just out, one of his more scathing, which is saying a lot. If the song it's based on isn't familiar, it's "Dance Ten, Looks Three" from A Chorus Line. From the archives. This week's contestant is Allison Tolz from Montreal, Quebec. And I didn't get either the hidden song or composer style. It's a tough one. I will say, though, that my first guess for composer style was one of the three that the contestant thought it might be -- and the correct answer has a connection to them. So, I made another guess and was right. When composer Bruce Adolph slowed the piece down, I did guess the hidden song right before host Fred Child gave a big clue -- though that doesn't count either. I'll add that, once knowing what the hidden song is, and it's very famous, I still had a very difficult time picking it out. There are a few places where you have a chance of guessing it -- but if you do, and get the composer style, too...hat's off!
After a brief detour, we return to close out our fest with singer Jo Stafford and her husband, pianist-composer Paul Weston who put out a series of "alter ego" comedy albums as the woefully off-key Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. As I mentioned before, Stafford and Weston's career had its peak in the 40s and 50s, with her even having success into the 1960s with a couple of TV series. However, their careers went much father, even with "Jonathan and Darlene." And that's what we have here today as a sort of bonus finale -- two of their songs released as a single in 1977. (In fact, they even had a subsequent album in 1982!) Most of the Jonathan and Darlene albums were mangling classic standards. But here we have them doing the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive" and the anthem made famous by Helen Reddy, "I Am Woman." By the way, it's also worth noting that when the ZAZ team of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker (who would soon go on to make Airplane! and The Naked Gun, among others) made their first film, Kentucky Fried Movie in that same 1977, they used the Jonathan and Darlene Edwards' recording of "Carioca" in the opening and closing credits. Here, though, is "Stayin' Alive." And released on the flip side, this their mangling of "I Am Woman." Listen closely near the beginning at the 20-second mark when "Darlene" has some trouble with the lyrics, though quickly recovers. From the archive. The contestants are Lynda and Doug Miller from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. If you don’t get the hidden song, you’re not trying. I’d even say that it you don’t get it within three seconds you need a refresher course. As for the composer style, it came down to two possibilities – though I had three in mind, but eliminated one whose works I don’t know quite well enough to guess -- and actually, there it should have been a fourth person, who foolishly I didn’t think of. And I missed it, because it was that “third” who I just didn't know well-enough and so eliminated..
We interrupt our Jo Stafford-Paul Weston Fest for an old song parody from Randy Rainbow. In fact, I don't think I've posted this before -- it may be old enough that it came before I came upon the fellow. The song is about Steve Bannon, and it's too remarkably-appropriate for today and Bannon's conviction to not post it. This is even more impressive when you reaiize it's from almost five years ago, August, 2017. All the better, it's a funny song with good lyrics and particularly top-notch editing. Even if there was nothing else, the title alone is good enough. |
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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.    
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