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It's hard not to close out Opening Day with what I think is the best (and perhaps most famous) song from the baseball musical Damn Yankees. What you gotta have? "You gotta have "Heart." (Contrary to what they wrote below, the title of the song is "Heart.")
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Continuing our celebration of Opening Day, this is a fun song from the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which was adapted into an animated TV special. And we'll end our St. Patrick's Day Fest with a bonus video -- it's a four-song medley, from the original cast album of the Broadway show George M! which is based on the life of George M. Cohan. And I include it admittedly in part because it includes the earlier-embedded song "Ring to the Name of Rosie," which pops in third. (Note: despite what the person posting this below writes, that is not Bernadette Peters in the first song of the medley. She was indeed in the show, as Cohan's younger sister Josie, but this first singer is Jill O'Hara, whose character Agnes Nolan becomes Cohan's second wife. Just to throw in a tidbit of Broadway history, only a few months later, Jill O'Hara -- a fine name on St. Patrick's Day -- graduated from this small role to starring in the musical Promises, Promises, and with co-star Jerry Orbach introduced the hit song, "What Do You Get When You Fall in Love?") Another St. Patrick's Day annual tradition -- and for decades, by the way, long before the Internet thing, as a personal tradition -- this is the song, "Ring to the Name of Rose," performed here by a school glee club. Now, I know that on the surface it appears that I'm posting this because of its connection to the Irish Rose. And that's a good theory, and a reasonable connection. And it holds, but then, if that was solely the case I'd probably instead post the song, "My Wild Irish Rose." In fact, I'm posting it because today, St. Patrick's Day, is the birthday of my grandmother -- and her name was Rose. Family history dating back to 1895 being what it is, when my Grandma Rose was born, there's an uncertainty if there was any St. Patrick's Day connection to my grandmother being named Rose because of the day. The general assumption (other than from my grandmother) is "no," but that's not a sure thing. However, what is sure is that my grandmother absolutely loved being born on St. Patrick's Day, and the connection that her name was Rose. So, that's good enough for me. By the way, there's another interesting thing about this song -- who wrote it. It's a lovely, sweet number, and not remotely the kind of song we associate with the loud, boisterous work of its composer-lyricist -- best known for "You're a Grand Old Flag," "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Give My Regards to Broadway." That would, of course, be George M. Cohan. Besides, this gives me the chance to play a song from the great Mills Bros... This is an appearance by Julie Andrews and her husband Blake Edwards on The Dick Cavett Show, where he eventually gets her to sing “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.” My assumption is that, despite her protestations, it was set-up, but I’m not 100% sure because she says she’s not sure if she’d remember the words – and Cavett replies that just in case, they made up cue cards. And she expresses surprises when she sees them. I hold to my assumption, but it seems pretty off-the-cuff for real. Whatever it is – oh, man, the ease with which she just tosses the song off with such simplicity and texture. Thank goodness she's able to transcend Dick Cavett being Dick Cavett at his worst, trying to horn in. (At his best, he’s informed, thoughtful and extremely interesting.) I mean, yipes, he asks her how low a note can she sing, and then competes with her! -- at which point (because his voice is just naturally lower) she stops, so we never get to find out. And then he starts singing "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," until she makes an off-handed comment – not upset, but it sort of jolts him out of his reverie, and he finally stops. Still, it's the singing here that's transcendent. Most especially in it ease. By the way, if you haven’t seen it, a few months back PBS aired a terrific documentary on Blake Edwards, done for their American Masters series, which Julie Andrews narrates. The title is “Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames.” It may get run on one of their PBS+ channels, But if you have a PBS subscription and account, you can watch it on the PBS Passport section of their website. This is a fun (and extremely good) impromptu performance by Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe at Joe's Pub -- an intimate music venue and restaurant at the Public Theater in New York City -- where they recreate their number "The Confrontation" from the movie of the musical Les Miserables. They start a bit light-hearted, but then their craft kicks in and takes over. The person posting this notes that there were several videos taken of this at the time and posted, none of the ideal. Cameras would be shaky, or bad audio. But then writes, "So I did an edit that utilises the sound from the best sounding one, and all three camera perspectives I could find." The result is seamless. |
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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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