LaVerne Goes Live, Hitchcock's Best, Chakiris Croons, Plus Pyewacket And A Stunt Queen Secret Song!

Think only today's singers are raunchy? That only they cross the line? Oh, hahahahaha! LaVern Baker laughs at you. In fact, "Think Twice," LaVern's duet with Jackie Wilson, was so racy it was banned outright - and that was in the late 60s. But some things are just too good to remain hidden. Give a listen:

Haven't heard of LaVern? She was a popular R&B queen in the 1950s who started out singing in nightclubs under the name "Little Miss Sharecropper." Like most legends, she couldn't, or wouldn't, leave well enough alone. Thank goodness. She was still truckin', as they used to say, live in Hollywood in 1991 in this Sassy Cheerful Exclusive!, the year she was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame.

Believe it or not, she sounded better than ever, maybe because she returned to her jazz and blues roots, especially on cuts like "Slow Rollin' Mama" and "I Cried A Tear." Oh, and in the song, "Saved," where she claims she no longer "smokes, cusses, drinks and dances the hootchie-coo," you get the distinct feeling that she's bending the truth a little. Yes, the song ends with her "stepping on to glory," but I'm sure she did it on her own terms.

Look, the couple below is making sweet love. Actually, it's a murder, but with Hitchcock, as you know, love, cruelty and death are one and the same.

Have you ever seen "Frenzy?" It's late-era Hitchcock, so not as well known, but it's one of my favorites, and the music by Ron Goodwin is appropriately upbeat, yet menacing. A track from that film can be heard in "Psycho: The Essential Alfred Hitchcock," a wonderful two-CD set which includes essential tracks not only from Bernard Herrmann, but Dimitri Tiomkin ("Dial 'M' For Murder," "Strangers On A Train"), Franz Waxman ("Suspicion," "Rear Window") and a host more going all the way back to music for 1935's "The 39 Steps." In other words, there's something for every Hitchcock fan to celebrate!

Meanwhile, who's the swaggy-looking dude leaning out of the truck cab below?

Why, it's our old friend George Chakiris: dancer, Academy Award-winning actor, singer and all-around nice guy. How do I know he's nice? Because me and my Cuban Luvuh met him briefly a few weeks ago at a tribute to his career. He could not have been more gentlemanly, and at seventy-nine years old, he still has a tall dancer's build - from a few feet away, you'd swear he was in his mid-forties. In fact, given the way he moved, I'm almost certain he can still do this:

Chakiris hasn't gotten his due as a singer - he was one of the few who wasn't dubbed in "West Side Story - and as we learned that night, it's what brought him his greatest pleasure besides dancing. "Memories Are Made Of This" - a Dancing Greek Cheerful Exclusive! - is one of his better LPs. The orchestrations are smart (it's Frank Sinatra's official Capitol band) and Chakiris' vocals are sharper and more confident than in past efforts, especially on "Witchcraft" and "A Taste Of Honey." Though he can tend to overuse his lower register for woo-woo-woo effect, this is a stylish LP from beginning to end.

Since Christmas is coming, shouldn't we celebrate a famous puss?

Yes, it's Pyewacket, the famous puss from "Bell, Book & Candle" (that other puss is awfully nice, too). It's a terrific movie, of course - not "great," necessarily, but perfectly pleasant - and the soundtrack by George Duning, believe it or or not, is a brightly fizzy listen for the holidays. No, really. Wonderful to listen to while hanging lights on the tree 'n' such. Or for cuddling your own little Pyewacket.

There are stunt queens - and then, guuuuuuurl, there are Stunt Quenns! The Secret Song File has to give it up for this pop singer's midnight dump earlier this week: an all-new CD, plus accompanying videos, out of nowhere. Who cares if it's any good or not, because at least this mess and this mess were pushed off the news cycle for a few hours.

Some of it's not bad, and it's definitely better than her last CD (which The Secret Song File listened to once, then promptly deleted). Are the videos good? Who knows - and they aren't here, but the music is. Yet the question remains, how will music's other pop divas one-up this?

Good God, what will Mariah do?!

Pull your own stunt in the comments, if you like.

Tis The Season With Bing, Abbe, Dimitri, Plus Exclusive Burlesque, More Herrmann And A Monster Secret Song!

Have you seen "It's A Wonderful Life" a million times? Me, too. By now, when I see bits of it here and there while switching channels during the holiday season, I'm reminded not so much of the movie's story or the actors, but where I was when I first saw it, or who I once watched it with - family, various friends throughout the years (once, I saw the awful/hilarious Ted Turner colorized version in which everyone seemed to have the exact same beige-sludge skin color) - and those memories are happy enough. I actually never need to see it again. Ever.

So I was surprised when I played the Dimitri Tiomkin soundtrack. It's happier and gentler then I remember, and I guarantee, if you play a few tracks at your next holiday gathering, people may not know what it is right off - but they'll know it's from an old movie they love. Just wait; the memories will come flooding back. To add to the fun, this CD also includes tracks from "Miracle On 34th Street" and a suite of music from 1951's "A Christmas Carol."

Bing Crosby, if he's remembered at all today, is mostly known for his Christmas LP with the Andrew Sisters and the movie "White Christmas" (a few of you might might recall him as an aging orange juice TV pitchman) (or performing a duet with, of all people, David Bowie) (I'm still trying to "un-see" that; they so didn't belong together).

But Crosby (he's the demure one in blue feathers with a sly Danny Kaye at his side) was a wildly popular singer in the 30's, 40's and 50's. His "Stephen Foster" LP - here in a gorgeous restored version - is a fine example of how effortlessly warm, even soothing, his vocal delivery could be - it's not quite sexy, but it's not neutered, either (like the dreary Perry Como, whom I loath).

There's a good selection of songs, including "I Dream Of Jeanie With The Long Brown Hair" (no, really); the only person I've ever heard singing that before is Bugs Bunny (this, apparently, is what Bugs was lampooning). For some reason, even though none of the numbers are Christmas songs, just hearing Crosby singing reminds me of the holidays.

Abbe Lane does not remind me of the holiday season, but this hot-cha Broadway and nightclub bombshell is welcome all year-round:

Did you know? She was "the swingingest sexpot in show business," and once said, "Jayne Mansfield may turn boys into men, but I take them from there." For those quotes alone, how can you not like her?

Of her marriage to Francesc "Cugat" de Deulofeu, the famed and notoriously volatile Cuban-born bandleader, she offered this terse sum-up, "Oh, those (gossip) columnists. He was never really jealous or mean. Just Latin."

And yet in 1992, she wrote the novel "But Where Is Love?" I haven't read it (yet), but it sounds like a deliciously campy roman a clef wherein Julie, a fictional Broadway beauty, falls helplessly in love with...Paco, a tyrannical and jealous Latin bandleader. Why didn't she just write her memoirs? Maybe they're coming (we can only hope). In the LP "The Many Sides of Abbe Lane," marvel at her vamping and cooing and teasing. She wasn't dubbed "Too Sexy For TV" for nothing.

Speaking of cooing and moaning and general carrying on, many kids these days seem to think they're, like, "soooooo hawt" - and more so than the previous generation, which is what I thought of my previous generation. And on and on.

But I'm beginning to think that all those young 1920's flapper girls and their rum-running boyfriends had it a lot hotter than any of us. Everything they did was illegal. Illegal hootch, cocaine for days, partying till dawn in secret speakeasy clubs, guys with tight pants, girls with sheer spangled dresses - they scandalized an entire nation which, just before them, was practically Victorian. And what did they listen too?

Find out in this jazzy Cheerful Exclusive!, which brings together a remarkable collection of music from the flapper girl era. There's singers like Cab Calloway, whose song "Minnie The Moocher" is still rousing (and haunting); Slim and Slam, who use hipster scat and vocalese improvisation (Slim was still performing in the 1970's), Louis Prima, Fats Waller and many more.

To get an idea of how revolutionary these songs were, imagine how the emergence of rock and roll and Elvis changed music forever. In this period, the switch was even more stark; from twittery 1800's-era numbers like "The Fountain Song" ("While strolling through the park one day, in the merry-merry month of May...") to hot, unexpurgated jazz. Give a listen. You'll be riveted.

Be joyful Herrmann-heads! It's time for parts 9 and 10 of the delicious 14-CD Herrmann overview at Fox. Included this time is Herrmann's only western score for "Garden Of Evil," a little-seen 1954 release with Gary Cooper and Susan Hayward.

The score is wonderful - it's Western to the nnth degree - but the movie itself? I forgot I saw it almost before it was over. The most I can recall are a few blink-and-you'll-miss-them scenes with this Latina tempress:

Oh, yes, mis queridos, it's Miss Rita Moreno, who played a character known only as "Cantina Singer." Happily, this release includes, for the first time, both of her numbers. There's also Herrmann's score for "The Egyptian," which sounds as grand as ever.

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me now? What'cha wearing? Really? Tee-hee. I'm only wearing culottes. Oh, don't say that! What are you, some kind of monster?"

As the Secret Song File knows, if you ask for a monster, make sure that's what you want! And, yes, that was a hint, though it may not help, because this talented Brit has barely been on the scene for a year (if that), but already, his groovy 4-song EP collection is catching fire. Just remember, sometimes a creature is spelled with a "k." And if that makes any sense at all, then ka-learly you've had too much eggnog.

Sometimes monsters stand under the mistletoe, so be careful!

Spread a little holiday cheer in the comments, if you like.