Very Happy Indeed
Boy howdy, is this a find and a treat. From The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, here are two terrific numbers from the Frank Loesser musical, The Most Happy Fella, with the show’s stars Jo Sullivan (no relation to Ed, but she was Loesser's wife) and Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera baritone Robert Weede, along with the company.
(To expand a bit on Ed Sullivan’s telling of the plot – what he refers to about grape farmer Tony tricking waitress Rosabella is that they’d been exchanging basically “mail order bride” pen letters for months, and when Tony finally sent a photo of himself, it was actually one of his much-younger employees.
The first song is the charming “Happy to Make Your Acquaintance, and the second is one of the show’s breakout hits, the big production number “Big D.” (The other hit was “Standing on the Corner.) Plus, they include quite a bit of dialogue.
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