Some things that shouldn't add up sometimes add up quite nicely. For example, take one part Jane Powell...
Add a bucketful of blazing Technicolor...
Toss in some Gower Champion choreography in which the dancers both walk and dance on water.
And while you're at it, throw in some tunes - by the "Meet Me in St. Louis" songwriting team, Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine - and have the whole thing stirred together by Mitchell Leisen, the legendary director who began his career in silent movies and was one of the founding fathers of screwball comedy (his films were "elegantly smutty," as he liked to say).
What do you get? Definitely one of the strangest (and most surreal) of Old Hollywood musicals, and in 1957, one of the last to come down the pike. At turns giggly, jaw-dropping and hilariously un-PC, as the kids say, it's also the only movie musical I can recall that has an unsympathetic leading heroine - and the only one to feature a crooning Cliff Robertson (say what?)
And yet somehow it works! If you haven't seen it, give it a go. Someone - or perhaps everyone - was smoking who-knows-what when this was put together, because there's no other explanation. How are the songs? Just as odd. Bouncily arranged by Nelson Riddle, they range from caustic, proto-Sondheim tunes, like "We Gotta Keep Up With The Joneses," to casually racist ditties, like "Crazy Horse" ("My name is Hole-in-the-Head!" sings a cute little Native-American boy). In other words, it's both a Jumpin' Jane Cheerful Exclusive! and a must.
Who's career as a big band singer, movie and TV star stretched over 50 years?
If you guessed Fran Warren, you're right. And, yes, you can also add Sexploitation Queen to her resume, too, for her performance as the cranky mom in "Toys Are Not For Children," a beloved 1972 psycho-sexual drama extraordinaire. Fran really did do it all!
Have you ever entertained your co-workers by singing with your bestie at office parties? As a general rule, you shouldn't do that (no, really, don't). But if you have, then you've got something in common with The Caravelles.
Yes, it's true, that's how UK gal singers Louise Wilkinson and Andrea Simpson got their start in the early-1960s. At times, their near-spooky harmonies may remind you of Patience and Prudence, but listen closer, because they do manage to stand out on their own as a bizarre hybrid of jazz and girl group rock. This wonderful collection is a fascinating chronicle of rock and pop and its uneasy infancy. As a bonus, the gals named themselves after a French airline, because why not?
Lounging about today, The Secret Song File was wondering if some things get better with age. On one hand, no, they get much worse.
On the other, they actually do get better, even if they earned initial fame from a cheeseball reality competition show and lost first place to this tiresome bit of fluff (whom we never heard from again). Our boy's all grown up now and his new CD's fun. No, really. Fun in a good way.
Because "Fun In A Good Way" is my middle name! Wheeeee!
Have giggles 'n' fun 'n' such in the comments, if you like.
