Hawaii Wicky Wacky, Anita in Japan, Plus Sondheim Dipped In Jazz And A Luminous Topiary Secret Song!

The face says "wassup," the arms say "gun show," the picture says "Made in Hawaii." And so he is. It's Jason Mamoa. Yes, it's true, your favorite "Games Of Thrones" (and "Baywatch") actor was born in the Aloha state (along with several more Hollywood stars and a certain politician). Which is just a roundabout way of saying that Hawaii sure seems like a fun place (I've never been). It even sounds like fun.

Or at least it does in this terrific Lei-It-On-Me Cheerful Exclusive!, "Hawaii On Broadway," a somewhat misleading title since this swingin' compilation brings together stars from the pop music world and movies, too. 

Start the New Year With Peggy, Sophie, D'Angelo, Plus More Herrmann And A Sparky Secret Song!

Oh, snap! Is it really 2013? Yes, it is. Now before you go on thinking how super-modern you are, just imagine 1913 - and how super-modern they thought they were in comparison to the fuddy-duddys of 1813.

A hundred years from now in 2113, will we finally be living on Mars? Will Beiber-Fever be lost to time? And will we still be listening to Miss Peggy Lee? We might be, especially if her 1963 LP "In Love Again" - a Cheerful Exclusive! just for you - is still around to play...on what? An MP3 player? Naw. That'll be so-o-o-o dunzo by 2113, I'm sure.

There's a lot of fine tunes in this Peggy LP. She even dares to take on "Unforgettable," Nat King Cole's signature tune (and does quite well by it, thankyouverymuch). By the way, do you think Peggy's fashions worn in the photo above will still be around in another hundred years? Hmmm. The hat, maybe. The gloves, a provisional yes, but only if truly hotcha! drag queens still exist (as we know they will). But really, I just hope and pray that room divider beads, like the ones Peggy's peeping out from below, are still in vogue. They set such a mood, don't you think?

Speaking of turn-of-the-century, the one and only Sophie Tucker bridged the eras from the 1800's to the 1900's, so there's no reason she can't continue streaking toward infinity and beyond, right?

In Sophie Tucker's "The Last Of The Red Hot Mamas Greatest Hits" - a bawdy Cheerful Exclusive! for you and yours - the Mama in question takes you back to vaudeville's and burlesque's earliest days, a time when the girls knew how to shake it for their supper while remaining (almost) entirely clothed.

Innuendo is the name of the game in songs like "You've Gotta See Mama Ev'ry Night" and "Fifty Million Frenchman Can't Be Wrong," and no one delivers them with as much sass as Sophie. Plus, she does what I think is a definitive version of "After You've Gone," wringing all the emotion from the lyric, but with a bracing frankness and lack of sentiment.

In the future, will people still want to bompity-bomp while listening to fuck sex music from a certain hot piece below?

They might, because even though D'Angelo has stumbled a few times over the course of his career - drugs, money woes, etc. - he's still enormously popular in an age when Teddy Pendergrass-like bompity-bomp music is in short supply. Now that he's "back," so to speak, and in fighting trim, he's only gaining new followers.

His live concert recording in Stockholm is mesmerizing. And with song titles like "Gettin' Ready," "Left & Right," and "Brown Sugar," he's just as playfully innuendo-laden as Sophie Tucker. No, really. Listen to "Left & Right." Sophie would have been proud (and then she'd have stolen it for her own act).

Will movies like "Blue Jeans" (aka "Blue Denim") make it into the next millennium? That's a tough one.

To be honest, it's a big, flabby pile of cornball - an allegedly "daring" movie about abortion, though the word is never said out loud - so it's hard to make a case for why anyone would bother watching it, save for fans of Brandon de Wilde, the noted child actor ("Shane" got him an Oscar nomination) who made a surprisingly successful transition to adult roles (in "Hud" opposite Paul Newman), only to die in a tragic car accident in 1972 at the age of 30.

Still, there's another reason the movie might be remembered, and that's for Bernard Herrmann's genuinely moving score, the highlight of this next installment in Herrmann's 14 CD Fox series.

The Secret Song File is timeless, and so isn't much worried about this or that millennium. Guys will always be looking, leering, hoping. It's just the way things are. Oh, and people are certain to still be listening to music and partaking of ganja, both of which figure prominently in our discussion today.

Why, you ask? Because the best little alterna-electro group you probably haven't heard of yet encourages its listeners to indulge in a bong hit or two before playing their tunes, and even named one of their songs after said plant. Not only that, they really (heart) you.  But I can say no more. I could, but I mustn't.

It's the Year of the Snake! Do with that what you will. 

Have a totally awesome 2013, m'k?

Tallulah's Eve, Sophie's Spice, Plus Keating's All-Stars, Beverly's Yesterday And A Duo Movie Secret Song!

Tallulah Bankhead does Bette Davis does Tallulah Bankhead. Got that? No, this is not a new version of "Victor/Victoria," but Tallulah playing the lead role in this Cheerful Exclusive!, "All About Eve," a delicious 1952 radio play version of the classic movie. Tallulah nails it with her own sassy, inimitable style (of course), as if she were the only actress to ever play the role.

And why not? Davis had already played plenty of movie roles which Bankhead had originated on stage, like "The Little Foxes," so here was her chance to do Davis one better. Not that Tallulah would have cared much about the comparison. She was  completely unique and she knew it, and by all accounts, too sanguine to care seriously about a movie "career," the result being that she's usually remembered by movie audiences for only one role, her turn as an epically witty, jaded lady - or  Bankhead playing herself, as many thought - in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat."

Sure, there's campy fun to be had listening to this "All About Eve," but the camp value wears off fast and Bankhead's skill as an actress jumps to the forefront. It's remarkable how modern her rendition is - there's little, if anything, about it that's "affected" - and how direct and emotionally genuine she can be. Even lines that you thought were forever beholden to the Bette Davis canon - and you know which one I'm talking about in this case - spring to life in an entirely new fashion. It's a great performance.

Have you heard of Johnny Keating? I hadn't till I happened upon "English Jazz - Johnny Keating And All-Stars," in which this wowza Scottish jazz musician, composer and performer conducts an orchestra of trumpets, tubas, bongos and more.

The tunes, all original compositions by Keating and others, have the playful buoyancy of swing and bebop and the orchestra is tight. Oh, and Keating was self-taught, by the way, and by the time he was in his late teens, he was already composing and arranging for Big Band leaders. And, yes, he's still kickin' and performing to this day. Hooray!

I really wish I'd had the chance to see Sophie Tucker live. Preferably when she was older, when her performances were a part of her skin and the jeweled barbs dropping from her mouth had a lived-in sting.

And, yes, this is another Cheerful Exclusive!, so sit tight and prepare to have this definitive "bawdy dame" tell you how it is in songs like "No One Man Is Ever Going To Worry Me" and "You Can't Deep Freeze A Red-Hot Mama." She doesn't really sing, of course, as much as sing-speak, and you can practically feel the entire history of vaudeville in her intonations and in the way she delivers a zinger with unrivaled, old school ka-pow. And when you hear her perform "I'm Having More Fun Since I'm Sixty," trust me, you believe her.

I've always had a soft spot for jazz legend Beverly Kenney, probably because every time I hear her, I can't quite place who it is - because I assume I'm listening to some fantastic new jazz-vocal performer.

That's how contemporary her sound is - still! - even in 1960's "Like Yesterday." Just listen to her take on "Sentimental Journey" or "A Sunday Kind Of Love," which feel spontaneous and quietly heart-breaking. If ever there was a jazz singer who felt as if she were singing just for you, it's Kenney. Her career, commencing just as rock was coming into its own, sadly never took off. She committed suicide at age 28, leaving behind only a handful of LPs and "Like Yesterday" is one of the best.

Sometimes the Secret Song File has to work much too hard. Sometimes people just aren't even interested, like the distracted guy below, who's probably thinking about saunas and such, and how much he'll have to pay off a certain pesky masseuse (or two) (or three). Talk about frustrating! It's enough to make you want to move to Bangor, or maybe even Northern Ireland (cough-cough).

Wherever you go, be sure to pass through a few doors, maybe two (cough) and maybe catch a flick at the local cinema (cough-cough). While you're there, revel in this spanking new, indie rock-electronica band's latest. It's so good, you may even think that something good can work, at least for the moment. Just don't go finger-slurping on any sauna-loving guys. They won't care, I tell you, they won't!

It's good to know where your best shot is, don't you think?

Titter and gab in the comments if you're moved!