Monthly Archives: February 2015

COMING UP – WEEK 11 PREVIEW

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Week 11

These are the songs I picked between 5 September and 11 September 2014. I’ll talk about them next time.

Easy to Love* – Lee Wiley with Paul Weston & His Orchestra …  It is not as she was older or wiser, she was only 18, and yet she knew this was a long-term investment relationship. Love was a profit, not a requirement.

If I Were A Bell – Ernestine Jackson

Dance Sequence – A Woman in Love – Renee Renoir, Ruben De Fuentes … I believe we tend to romanticise the times in which we grew up, but we glamorise the era in which our parents lived.

You Gotta Have A Gimmick – Faith Dane, Betty Bruce & Roxanne Arlen

Everything’s Coming Up Roses – Ethel Merman … I believe when Ethel Merman created the role of Mama Rose, she injected a lot of her own personality. I don’t think La Merman was as ruthless and aggressive as the real Rose, but I think she gave the character that charming no-nonsense quality that became Mama Rose’s main trait.

The Donkey Serenade – Mario Lanza

Put On Your Sunday Clothes – Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Dodge, Carol Channing, Igors Gavon, Alice Playten, Ensemble

* Top 10 Contender

WEEK 10 – 29 AUGUST TO 4 SEPTEMBER 2014

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64 FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2014

I’m The Greatest Star – Barbra Streisand – Top Ten Contender

064 Funny Girl-The Original Soundtrack Recording

“Funny Girl” is the first movie I ever remember watching.

I didn’t become familiar with its soundtrack until many years later when Fernando, a friend back home, introduced me to it. Most of the songs on this show have been favourites of mine for years, and I’m sure, a few will sneak onto this list.

Although this version of I’m The Greatest Star comes from the film’s soundtrack, I’d like to tell you a little story regarding the Broadway Original Cast recording.

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COMING UP – WEEK 10 PREVIEW

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Week 10

These are the songs I picked between 29 August and 4 September 2014. I’ll talk about them next time.

I’m The Greatest Star * – Barbra Streisand … The seller described it as a unique item that included one ticket stub and autographs from Barbra Streisand and Sydney Chaplin.

Dime – Rubén Blades

Love Walked In – Virginia Verrill & Jon Hall

In Our United State – Bob Fosse

Who Cares? – Marueen McGovern, Larry Kert … Bill was as charming and convincing as Wintergreen. However, Hilary was no Mary Turner.

The Varsity Drag ** – Ann Morrison

Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now – Nina Simone … This rendition of Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now floored me when I first heard it. Her delivery is so soulful.

* Top 10 Contender

** Top 10 Fast-Tracked

WEEK 09 – 22 AUGUST TO 28 AUGUST 2014

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57 FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 2014

The Grotto (Get Out of Town/My Heart Belongs to Daddy/Just One of Those Things) – Orchestra

057 Evil Under the Sun (Music from the Original Soundtrack)

Allow me to remind you that one of the reasons I’m making this list is to include songs that have touched me during the first 50 years of my life. So, there’s a story behind every song I pick. Bear with me as I tell you another story from my younger years.

For many years in the 1980s and early 1990s, my father owned a video store in a mini-mall near our house. “Galeria Electronica” started selling small household appliances and audio equipment, maybe TV sets? I can’t remember well, but within a year, it became a bookstore/video store business. I used to work there occasionally, on weekends or whenever I was on university holidays. I can’t remember much of the day-to-day operation, or what I did exactly, but I remember I used to watch many of the movies we traded. Yes, traded.

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COMING UP NEXT – WEEK 09 PREVIEW

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Week 09

These are the songs I picked between 22 August and 28 August 2014. I’ll talk about them next time.

The Grotto (Get Out of Town/My Heart Belongs to Daddy/Just One of Those Things)  – Orchestra

Now You Know *  – Craig Rubano with Marsh Hanson … It was as if the last vestige of having been 25, full of irrelevant opinions and a distorted perception of my contribution to humanity, was finally subsiding. 

Blue Skies  – Ella Fitzgerald

Not Every Day of the Week (reprise)  – Peter Frechette, Veanne Cox

Prologue – Follies  – Orchestra – Featuring Bernadette Peters … The only song I knew from the show was “I’m Still Here”, which has been sung by every woman over 60 who has ever had a cabaret act.

Stuff Like That There  – Bette Midler … God bless Bette Midler! The woman can take a song and make it sound as if it was written just for her.

Silky Thoughts/Cool Hand Luke  – Orchestra

* Top 10 Contender