Open thread 5/10/21
I had almost forgotten this one, but once Brenda started to sing I remembered most of the words – in particular that great line, “Come in daughter, that’s enough for tonight.” When I looked up the lyrics to the song, though, it’s rendered as, “Come here, darlin’, that’s enough for tonight.” That makes less sense, and that’s not what I heard in 1960 and it’s not what I hear now.
And why does everyone in the audience seem to be chewing gum? Was the whole audience given free gum as some kind of promotional gimmick, or did everyone chew gum constantly anyway back in 1960?
And although I’ve never thought of this as a telephone song, whoever designed the backdrops for the show seemed to think it was. I also perceive her as lip-syncing. That was very common back then for technical reasons, but there’s no question Brenda Lee could have knocked it out of the park singing live:
Lee was one of the biggest singers of the 60s in terms of charting hits, surpassed in that decade only by Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Ray Charles. She had been singing professionally since childhood (she’s only about 15 here) and supporting her impoverished family, much like the Bee Gees. Also, like the Bee Gees, when she was a child her family was so poor that she had to share a bed with two of her siblings.
That was the Dick Clark Saturday night show, coming from the Little Theater just off Times Square. It was sponsored by Beechnut Spearmint gum. That’s why the audience are chewing gum, and wearing “IFIC” buttons, because that gum was “Flavorific”.
Love her prim dress and hair combined with the sultry voice and flirtatious song. Good for her to lift her family out of poverty. She seems as if she was born with self-confidence.
I’m glad I was motivated to fuel the car to full. Local gas is trucked in from Bainbridge, GA.
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2021/05/10/breaking-state-of-emergency-declared-in-17-states-and-d-c-after-pipeline-cyberattack-n377425
Brenda Lee was featured in the Ken Burns Country Music doc many of us have mentioned here. My god, what a BIG voice and such a petite package.
Brenda Lee at 12 years old! Dynamite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Puat6Mwpc&t=17s
I’d observe that her dancing didn’t improve much in the intervening three years.
And why does everyone in the audience seem to be chewing gum?
Because that’s what adolescents did in 1960 in the intervals between cigarettes.
tcrosse:
Thanks! That must be it.
She was from my neck of the woods, and I had cousins who slept 3 in a bed. Remember, they were born before the pill came along, and big families were more common. They may have been poor, but there was also a richness to their lives. The planted gardens, collected eggs, and milked the cow. They also had an outdoor toilet and cooked on a woodstove, which also heated the upstairs through a floor vent.
I#ll take them over the spoiled brat antifa types anyday.
Art Deco:
I don’t know where you were in 1960, but although I was younger than the kids in this clip I was certainly an observer. No, gum chewing wasn’t as universal as in this clip, and the first commenter on the thread, tcrosse, has it right. The show was sponsored by Beechnut gum.
Jeanne:
That style dress was really popular. It was called a shirtwaist, and we all had them. It was like a buttoned blouse that grew.
That style dress was really popular. It was called a shirtwaist, and we all had them.
Pity. It’s unattractive.
I don’t know where you were in 1960
Neither do I.
“Lee became acquainted with country star Red Foley and with his manager, Dub Albritten. Connected and hardworking, Albritten made things happen for the youngster. . . . Just barely a teenager, young Lee began touring, facing huge audiences and some controversy. Albritten took her to France, where he spread the rumor that Lee was in reality a 32-year-old midget instead of a 12-year-old girl. The furor resulted in a windfall of favorable publicity when audiences and reviewers alike heard how good the young songstress was on stage. Consequently she became a headliner in Europe before she had sizeable hits in her home country.”
From encyclopedia dot com
The article said she was four feet eleven inches tall.
Shania Eileen Twain is another rags and hard luck to riches story. She sang covers of Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams in bars for $20 a night starting at age eight to help put food on the table.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=docaVYtxUls&list=PLF917F212A74BE4A7
Both parents were killed in car crash when she was 22 and singing at a Canadian resort, but she had a house full of younger siblings, half-siblings, and step-siblings to support. Later she married a rock and roll uber producer/promoter that really commercialized her.
A Las Vegas performance of her biggest hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtaiFcRFmVY
Not bad for a 49 year old mother. Almost completely lost her voice to Lyme’s disease and had to re-train her voice. Has lived in Switzerland for some time.
I recall listening on a rig in Venezuela to Brenda Lee’s singing “Cincinnati, Ohio.” (Or as my father would have said, “Cincinnat-uh.” ) I’ve looked through her albums, and haven’t located her recording it. So much for my supposed great memory. Though, as she sang mostly Country from the 1970’s on, and this is a Country song- albeit about a city- so it would have been in character for her to record it.
I’m not the only one to notice the gum-chewing.
I was never that impressed with Brenda Lee’s voice. Here is a good voice from that era. Dee Dee Sharp sings I Will Follow Him. Yes, it’s just a cover, as Peggy March made the song famous, but it showcases Dee Dee Sharp’s voice.
Art Deco:
Art Deco: arbiter extraordinaire of style and taste. Actually, those dresses were often quite lovely if worn by someone taller. Brenda Lee was indeed four feet nine inches and the dress doesn’t suit her; it does look dowdy on her, and did on some people. It also was an exceptionally plain version of the genre. A lot depended on the fabric and the cut of the collar/neck area, as well as the fullness of the skirt.
Actually, those dresses were often quite lovely if worn by someone taller.
https://alchetron.com/cdn/pugsley-addams-c3bce0b2-5a1d-4fc0-9965-651ccac23d3-resize-750.jpg
TommyJay: That Vegas performance is fabulous. Wow.
Twain and Lee – 2 terrific singers. Wonderful to revisit them. As far as gum chewing, that’s one good thing about mask wearing. I can chew gum with abandon!
Art Deco:
Who knew you had a career on the big screen, statistically improbable, but there it is.
https://youtu.be/pWdd6_ZxX8c
I agree with Neo about the shirtwaist. Brenda Lee was very short and somewhat pudgy. That dress made her look as wide as she was tall. A more narrow, or possibly longer, skirt might have helped. Tall women can often get away with styles that don’t look good on our shorter sisters. It’s one of the few advantages of being tall.
Eva Marie,
It ain’t high art, but I would have paid to see that performance live.
Recall Neo’s telephone song by Jim Croce with the lyric,
She’s livin’ in L. A.
With my best old ex-friend Ray
Shania Twain literally and legally swapped husbands with her “best old ex-friend” Marie. She lives in Switzerland because her second husband is a Swiss Nestle executive.
From the Wikipedia link: “Her father died in 1953 in a construction accident, and by the time she turned ten she was the primary breadwinner of her family, through singing at events and on local radio and television shows.”
Holy smokes. Primary breadwinner at just 10 years old. Talk about growing up fast …
I was out enjoying the somewhat rare sunny/summery weather this afternoon, and the financial markets went to hell after a decent morning. An intraday whipsaw, albeit a modest one.
From Briefing.com
Growth stocks simply looked awful today on no specific macro catalyst, but some investors blamed the horrendous reaction to The Trade Desk’s (TTD 489.60, -171.83, -26.0%) earnings report, Citigroup downgrading Alphabet (GOOG 2340.66, -57.03, -2.4%) and Facebook (FB 305.97, -13.11, -4.1%) to Neutral from Buy, and the early preference towards cyclical stocks as potential catalysts.
Cyclicals in favor, Growth out. Inflation and interest rates are a concern.
Looked to me like Brenda was chewing gum too at the end.
The claims of Sydney Powell, et al, that the vote in 2020 has been electronically manipulated has been controversial. Michigan attorney Matt Deperno, who was on the Antrim Co case in that state, says he concretely knows how Dominion machines manufactured vote tally flipping in many states, including more than half a dozen others. Crucially, he’s found modem devices in these machines, and local and state wide intranets, which, once tapped, exposes the entire net to internet.
Here’s the podcast of his interview with Pete Santilli, radio host, https://rumble.com/vguk9d-attorney-deperno-we-have-proven-that-dominion-machines-flipped-votes-in-202.html
As elsewhere, the state establishment Republicans are the biggest obstacles to transparency and accountability.