By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger (Re-posted by popular request from 2012)
We don’t need to reproduce the lyrics when posting a song from the 1940’s. The big bands all had vocalists who valued clear pronunciation. Frank Sinatra had to lose his Hoboken accent and he took diction lessons. He took great pride in the presentation of clear lyrics, and so did June Christy who sang with the Stan Kenton Orchestra.
Kenton performed big band jazz arrangements, and Ms. Christy was known as a jazz singer. As a college student in the 1960’s, I played in the FDU jazz band, and, although we were about done with the big bands, we loved to play those Stan Kenton charts.
June Christy (1925-1990) was from Decatur, Illinois. She started out as a band singer when she was 29 years old. This song is from the album “Ladies of the 1940’s.” And, all kisses aside, I decided on this song because it’s been a long, long time since we had a ’40’s era tune on Blogfinger.
Note the precision in Kenton’s sax section: 5 musicians sounding like one.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net Reposted from September, 2012 on BF.
I once met Mickey Spillane, the American writer of noir detective novels starring Mike Hammer. Spillane actually was a tough guy who looked like he could be a private eye or a private dick with a run-down office and a babe with long legs for a secretary.
I love that Mike Hammer image, and sometimes I put on my trench coat over a rumpled suit and wait in my office for a tough case to show up. It’s not easy making a living that way, and it’s not healthy either, chain smoking unfiltered cigarettes, sipping bourbon all day and packing a piece.
Then finally the big case showed up. Unfortunately it wasn’t a dame who brought the goods. It was Ogrover, a commenter on our blog “Noir Finger.” He was like “deep throat” because I never heard his voice or seen his face. He showed up by email, hidden in the shadows of my hard drive. Anyhow, OGrover had a mystery for me to solve.
Monument in Auditorium Square Park—hidden in plain sight.
It seems he was slinking around Auditorium Square Park when he spotted a possible crime scene. A plaque in the ground, at the corner of Pitman Ave. and Pilgrim Pathway. It was old and spooky, and no one had stolen it yet. OGrover moved slowly closer and closer and then he saw what it said: “Red Oak — State Tree New Jersey Tercentenary–1964. Presented by the Woman’s Club of Ocean Grove.”
OG scratched his head and wondered if he, an octogenarian, had been around for the tercentenary. But that thought quickly vanished as he stared up at the tree. It was a reddish Norway Maple. “Holy mackerel!” thought OG. “This is a fishy case for Noir Finger.”
Red Oak tree. NOT!
I left Pussy Galore in the office and walked down by the Great Auditorium — talk about haunted houses! Rattling around inside are the ghosts of President Grant, John Phillip Sousa, and the KKK.
I surveyed the situation and discovered that the Red Oak was indeed gone — instead there was a Norway maple.
“Holy fish oils! What the Heck Avenue happened? Were we going to have another unsolved crime in Ocean Grove? Should we call the coppers? No way — I’ll handle this one myself.”
I emailed OG and agreed to take the case. He replied, “Piqued your interest?” Then he says, “I have a real hard time believing I’m the first to even notice it since 1964 lol.”
“OG,” I said, “Nobody says ‘piqued’ in Ocean Grove. And nobody ever said ‘lol’ to Noir Finger. After all, we are ‘noir,’ and don’t you forget it. What a turkey!”
So, with the amount of dough that OG was paying, I had to get an answer fast. So I contacted this old hand in town from the HSOG who calls himself “Anonymous,” a name that will be hard to trace, but not impossible. He actually cracked the case, so I give him credit — mystery solved.
It seems that the “Woman’s Club of Ocean Grove” planted the red oak for obvious historic and natural reasons (oaks do well at the shore). Then the oak died (so much for doing well at the shore,) and some genius replaced it with a maple. We don’t know who did or why, but we will keep looking.
Meanwhile, the “Woman’s Club of Ocean Grove” disbanded* about 20 years ago, and we are still searching for survivors. Noir Finger will stay on the case until we get some answers. We’re open to suggestions.
SOUNDTRACK: By a noir sort of guy who likes to hang around bars at 2:45 a.m.:
See the comment below from Tom and Pegi. Pegi has resurrected the old WCOG.* And note that the correct spelling is Woman’s not Women’s.
POST SCRIPT: What good is a Mike Hammer story without a bit of sex ? I came upon a blogger who has been to Ocean Grove and who imagined a young woman staying at the Victorian OG Women’s Club Hotel, a building which still exists in town. I love her poem–click on link below:
The Women’s Club Hotel (est. 1870), Ocean Grove, NJ
(Plaque reads: A Respectable Hotel for Chaperoned Single Gentlewomen)
From her album “Pickin’ On Nancy Sinatra: A Bluegrass Tribute.” The song is “Summer Wine.” Nancy worked on this album with Lee Hazlewood, but this cut is strictly instrumental. Solo by Dennis Caplinger. Ms. Sinatra also has recorded a duet of this song with Mr. Hazlewood. I like the bluegrass version. —PG
This Disney song is on everybody’s favorite list. When the Disney cruise ship comes into port, it is playing this song. But Tammy Scheffer, a young jazz singer, provides a new twist. Tammy was raised in Israel, but now she lives in Brooklyn, NY where she composes, teaches and performs a style of music which she calls “contemporary jazz.” She works with musicians who share her interest in finding new sounds and musical techniques. Our featured selection is from her first CD (2010) : “Wake Up, Fall Asleep.”
This song, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” starts out with the melody, but then heads off into the starry night with an instrumental section featuring an alto sax and Tammy’s vocal interpretations. Then, at the end, it returns to earth with a soft landing.
Reposted from August 21, 2012 —By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
Feb 10, 2013. Last March we posted an article about the group Fun. (above) which just won the Grammy for best song. Our link is below. Tonight one of the group thanked their families who allowed them to live at home during the years when they made no money.
Bobby Vee was born (1943) in North Dakota. He started his career when he was fourteen and he modeled his style after Buddy Holly. In 1959, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens died in a plane crash while en route to a concert. Bobby Vee was summoned to Moorhead, Minnesota to fill in for Holly at that concert. The 16 year old Vee assembled a band and had an acclaimed appearance.
After that he had a successful career which included 38 “top 100” hits . In the Martin Scorsese film* (2005) about Bob Dylan’s life, “No Direction Home,” Dylan mentioned that he was an admirer of Vee during the time when Dylan was finding his musical way as a performer and songwriter.
This song, “Take Good Care of My Baby” was an early hit (no, he wasn’t singing about a pregnant girlfriend,) along with “Devil or Angel,” “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” and the mega-hit “Rubber Ball.” And don’t confuse Bobby Vee with Bobby Vinton, another singer from that era.
*Incidentally, if you like Dylan’s music, ” No Direction Home” is a superb documentary which is not only about music but also it is set during a turbulent time in America, 1961-1966. If you, like me and many in the music business, weren’t sure at first if Dylan was terrible or wonderful, this film is a revelation.
Nancy LaMott (1951-1995) was a cabaret singer who, according to Jonathan Schwartz, was on the verge of great fame when she passed at the age of 44. This song is from her Christmas album: “All Those Christmas Cliches.” —PG
Now that we’ve been slammed hard by a hurricane, we have something in common with New Orleans.
We already shared a few common traits. Both our towns sit next to large bodies of water, and both have lots of gay people. In both towns, for some reason, people like to walk down the middle of the street.
But the contrasts are more striking. New Orleans doesn’t have a beach. Ocean Grove didn’t invent jazz. New Orleans is famous for masked Zulus in feathered headdresses riding on Mardi Gras floats. Ocean Grove has auditorium ushers marching in the 4th of July parade in sneakers and khaki shorts.
We Ocean Grovers call our town God’s Square Mile, whereas the people of New Orleans . . . well, they march to a different drummer.
The hurricane
New Orleans has a mixed drink called a “hurricane,” an industrial-strength amalgam of rum, fruit juice and who knows what else — grenadine or some such thing. You buy one of these in most any bar in the Vieux Carré and then you go carousing down Bourbon Street, openly and unregenerately slurping. When your big “hurricane glass” is empty, you just veer into another bar and say, “Fill ‘er up.” It’s not only legal to drink on the street in New Orleans, it’s pretty much encouraged. We Grovers do something similar, but with ice cream cones.
Here’s a song expressing the rakish, debauched attitude so commonly thought-of as New Orleanian. It is sung by the perfect ambassador for that delightfully dissolute city: Dr. John. The song, “Such a Night,” is based on a rather cute rationalization — “If I don’t do it somebody else will” — repeated over and over, as if the singer is trying to convince himself of its validity.
The new home at the northern corner of Ocean Avenue at Ocean Pathway continues to evolve slowly:
New construction—Ocean Avenue at Ocean Pathway. October 14, 2012. Photos by Paul Goldfinger
Moving westward up the Pathway, on the same side of the street, work proceeds at the Manchester site where 25 Ocean Pathway is making progress. It will have 7 bedrooms, 6.5 baths (this means that 6 1/2 people can go simultaneously, perhaps breaking a Guinness record for a single family house). Also there will be 2 fireplaces (where you can roast marshmallows while waiting for a bathroom to become available) – -totaling 4,476 square feet.
There is a sign outside which says that the Manchester Inn contained two historic Victorian homes built in 1890 during the Ocean Grove “period of significance.” The sign says that the designs for #25 and #27 are based on old photographs and maps and were approved by the HPC. — Paul Goldfinger
25 Ocean Pathway. Ocean Grove, NJ. October 14, 2012. PG
SOUNDTRACK: We don’t know if those two fireplaces will be roaring by Christmas, but we can imagine it. Here are Frankie S and Old Red Eyes who are predicting a marshmallow world.:
