Tumbalalaika

An old Russian-Yiddish folk tune that only came into my life a few months ago. My sister Jodi requested it for our family songbook at the annual retreat in Monterey this year. I didn't get to adding it this time, but this mournful/hopeful love song still resonates. See a translation here.

Artist: The Barry Sisters
Year: Unknown, c. 1920s-1930s; Barry Sisters version, c. 1940s.
Rating: Warm

The Villain's Theme

Well, the mystery has been solved, as least, it seems so. Once again, my friend Buffy has saved the day. You may remember her sleuthing skills from the mystery of the Infernal Gallup. Now, she's helped us figure out what the hell that spooky, sneaky cartoon music is. A ringtone of the song is listed as "Cartoon Creeping Music" at AudioSparx. The real title turns out to be an appropriately-named composition called The Villain's Theme, and Amazon.Com credits it to Al Weber (and his Repetitious 88 Keys). However, the packaging on the "Memories" collection "Silent Film Music" available at Amazon credits him as Al Webber (with two b's).

Thing is, I don't think that Mr. Web(b)er is the originator of the piece, since this album, released in 1995, features music from other composers, all credited to Al (I don't think he can take credit for the William Tell Overture, for example). I think Webber and his Repetitious Keys performed all the tunes in this collection, but the piece was penned by somebody else. We also don't know how old it is yet. It could have been published anywhere from the late 19th Century to the early 1930s if it did feature in silent films.

The internets don't seem to have anything on this Al Webber guy, nor his 88 Repetitious Keys. Searches yield results for "A.L. Webber," but I don't imagine that the high-profile Andrew Lloyd Webber had to do compilation CDs for extra cash in the '90s. If anyone has any feedback or more information on this composition, please leave a comment!

Artist: Al Webber (and his 88 Repetitious Keys); composer unknown
Year: c. 19th Century to 1930s
Rating: Warm

Thanks, Buffy, for your ever present diligence, curiosity, and mad research skills!

Singin' In the Rain

Yes, my unconscious soundtrack can sometimes be rather predictable and dependent upon obvious environmental factors. This clip from the 1952 movie is so sweet though; it's hard to resist. And here's a link to one of the early recordings of the song from 1929.

Artist: Gene Kelly
Year: 1952
Year: (original) c. 1927, written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
Rating: Warm

Mack the Knife by Louis Armstrong

The Louis Armstrong version of this song is certainly the definitive in my mind, though I will admit that it usually morphs into the McDonald's commercial eventually.

Year (original): 1928 (Weill/Brecht)
Year (Armstrong): 1956
Rating: Luke Hot

Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody by David Lee Roth

This is just a damned catchy song. For some reason, the David Lee Roth video ain't available, so here's some dude playing drums to the song. He's pretty good!



And here's the Louis Prima version upon which David Lee Roth based his. Check out the wiki page for more info about the song, which evidently was written in the '20s.



Had no idea the Village People covered it, too, six years before David Lee Roth. Too funny not to include here.

Year (Roth): 1985
Rating: Warm

Year (Prima): 1956
Rating: Lukewarm

Year (Village People): 1979
Rating: Warm

The Prune Song by Frank Crumit and Harry DeCosta

An old Camp song based on this tune came into my head, and in researching it online, I discovered that it goes all the way back to 1928, written by Frank Crumit and Harry DeCosta. If you view the song at YouTube you can see the full lyrics - it's a real treat. My favorite verse is:

Prohibition worries us
But prunes don't sit and brood
For no matter how young a prune may be
It's always getting stewed

We ended the song with that last couplet in the version we sang at Camp, but it took several years of singing it throughout my childhood before I figured out that "stewed" was a euphemism for "drunk." Once I put that together, I loved the song even more.

Year: 1928
Rating: Warm (very)

I Wanna Be Loved By You by Marilyn Monroe

This classic American ditty was written by Stothart, Ruby, and Kalmar in 1928. I guess this is an appropriate song for Valentine's Day, though it's not a song, nor a holiday, that I care much for. The melody is snappy, but the words are about as sappy as you can get, and dare I say the message:

I couldn't aspire to anything higher/
Than, filled with desire, to make you my own.

leaves a lot to be desired, particularly for the woman who can't "aspire to anything higher" than snagging her man. Seeing Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag in the background of this clip is pretty great, though. I've never seen Some Like it Hot - is it any good?

Year (original): 1928
Year (Monroe): 1959
Rating: Lukewarm