I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition is at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa to September 6th.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the veteran session keyboard player Mike Finnigan who has died at the age of seventy-six. While he has backed a wide spectrum of musicians (Joe Cocker, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Tower of Power, Keb' Mo, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Etta James, Rod Stewart and others) .... I instantly think of his organ playing on the Rainy Day, Dream Away and Still Raining, Still Dreaming medley from the Jimi Hendrix landmark 1968 album Electric Ladyland.
Also to the folksinger Nanci Griffith, a Grammy-winner whose songs were also popularized by other performers, who has died at the age of sixty-eight.
THE PASSING of the former Columbia Records president Walter Yetnikoff (at the age of eighty-seven) reminded me of the 1991 book by Ken Auletta titled Three Blind Mice— how the traditional big three TV networks were losing their status due to shaky business deals, a lack of focus on trends and — in the case of CBS — the eternal cost—cutting methods of its then-CEO, Larry Tisch.
At a breakfast meeting in the Beverly Hills Hotel, Larry Tisch scolded his division president for wanting to order a room-service bagel (rather than the suggested ½ grapefruit) due to cost. At each subsequent CBS board meeting, a miffed Yetnikoff always brought … a bagel with him. (I contacted Ken Auletta via his website and received this reply: “Your memory was better than mine. He was a character”).
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Juno the Klepto Cat— a California kitteh who drags neighborhood items to her family’s back yard … and is now a local celebrity.
FILM NOTES— a documentary released on Netflix entitled Pray Away chronicles the subject of gay conversion therapy … with some now admitting their methods were not only ineffective but also harmful to those it was purporting to help.
RECENTLY mention was made in this space of the sounding of the (rescued) foghorn of the Andrea Doria, sixty-five years to the day when it sunk into the Atlantic Ocean after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm in 1956.
It turns out the Stockholm (which went into service in 1948) is still a sailing vessel: albeit one whose ownership/name has changed several times, becoming the MV Astoria five years ago. It had been planned to be scrapped until last month: when it was sold to a group planning to use it as a cruise ship within Portugal.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Ozzy the Cat— an English kitteh who escaped from his family, yet was located (eight miles away), returning home … thirteen years later.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is an essay in National Review(!) on how conservatives should not lionize António Salazar— the dictator who ruled Portugal from 1932-1968 (all while dubiously claiming not to be a fascist).
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (no common questions).
FATHER-SON? — Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid) and businessman Elon Musk.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… his is a name practically unknown in the US, but whose songs for British performers in the 1960’s can still be heard today. Although this profile will focus on his pop songs, Tony Hatch has also written for TV, stage and his work can be heard in over one hundred films.
Born in 1939 in greater London, he attended the London Choir School at age ten, yet rather than attend a music college, he left school at age sixteen to work as a ‘tea boy’ at the music publishing house (in London’s Tin Pan Alley) for Robert Mellin— who wrote the lyrics for the classic ballad My One and Only Love. He eventually began writing his own songs and went to work for Top Rank Records — where his boss was (later) a famous A&R man for Decca Records, Dick Rowe. (Rowe is infamously known as the one who passed on the Beatles, though he did sign the Rolling Stones).
After Top Rank folded, Hatch found his calling at Pye Records, where he rose through the ranks, often writing songs under the pseudonym Mark Anthony (which continued until nearly 1964) while he also played piano on several of the label’s recordings under his real name. Some of his tunes wound-up being recorded by the likes of Bobby Rydell, Connie Francis and Chubby Checker. In time, he became a producer for several UK-based artists, most notably The Searchers (one of whose hits was the Tony Hatch written Sugar and Spice).
His most important collaboration came with an English singer (married to a French producer) who had far more success singing in French than in English and was seriously considering abandoning the English language market. Tony Hatch made his first visit to NYC in 1964, in search of material, yet she was unimpressed with what he returned with … until in desperation: he played a song he wrote (inspired by US soul music) … which he hadn’t thought was right for her.
Upon hearing it, Petula Clark loved it … and Downtown became an international hit, with just enough modernity to appeal to a rock audience, yet enough brassy-pop to appeal to an older audience. She went on to record several other Tony Hatch songs (Don’t Sleep in the Subway, Sign of the Times, My Love, and others) that led some writers to label them as Britain’s version of Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick.
In 1970, Tony Hatch left Pye Records and branched-out to musical theater, also writing for his wife Jackie Trent (who died in 2015). While little of his work since 1970 would be familiar to North Americans, he wrote for UK and Australian TV and musicals, some of his work appearing as TV theme songs. A song he wrote for the Stoke City pro soccer club (We’ll Be With You) is still sung by fans as the team plays home matches.
At age eighty-two, he and his wife live on the Spanish island of Menorca and he still writes. Besides those already mentioned: his work has been performed by artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney and Astrud Gilberto. And in 2013, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Two songs today …. one must be a Petula Clark tune, and my favorite of hers is Tony Hatch’s follow-up to Downtown… I Know a Place reached #3 in the US in 1965 and won her a second Grammy award.
A more surprising 1965 song that Tony Hatch did not write … yet played piano on and sang back-up vocals — was for a band Hatch signed to Pye Records … and was the first single that David Jones sang under his new name … David Bowie.