Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy.

Saturday is April 1. You know what that means.

How did the tradition begin? From history.com:

Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

This week’s theme? Don’t be a fool. That’s right. You guessed it!

Now don’t laugh. It’s all good.

Let’s get started with the King.

Opening with Elvis is never a bad way to get the ball rolling.

So here he is with…”Fool!”

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

No.

Great song.

Sad song.

It’s one of several a despondent Elvis recorded after his divorce from Priscilla.

If we ever do a theme on love gone wrong this one’s definitely in.

We move on.

Of course. How could we foolishly forget.

Here’s Elvis with one of his many, many, many gold records, “Now and then, there’s a Fool Such as I.”

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Wait.

Wait.

Wait a minute!

No.

No? That was a million times and more seller. What are you talking about, no?

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Great song. Just not our opener.

So what’s left?

Hmm.

This song dates back to 1940, recorded by Glenn Miller, and also Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra.

Ricky Nelson enjoyed the biggest hit with this tune, reaching #12 on the Billboard chart in 1963. Nelson sped up the song with an early rock and roll style. Elvis emulated the Ricky Nelson approach when he recorded his version in 1971 for an album released in 1972.

The album “Elvis NOW” not surprisingly went gold.

This next song topped at #5 in 1956 for Frankie Lymon and the Teengers, an all-teen group, and made Frankie Lymon, 13 at the time,  a star of the early rock and roll era.
Lymon went solo the following year. His career quickly fell apart. So it did for others in the group as well.

Lymon died in 1968 of  a heroin overdose.

In 1964 the Beach Boys had a  monster hit with “Fun Fun Fun.” It, of course, had to have a “B” side that was later released with a new intro.

Are you playing along?

Is he going to do this?

Is he going to do it next?

An absolute must for this theme.

Any guesses?

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Our next performer was one off the greatest entertainers of our time period. From his obituary in the NY Times:

The showman was born in a Harlem tenement, grew up in vaudeville from the age of 3 and never went to school. His talents as a mime, comedian, trumpet player, drummer, pianist and vibraphonist as well as singer and dancer were shaped from his childhood and made him one of the nation’s first black performers to gain mainstream acclaim.

With heavy jewelry around his neck and on his fingers, and clad in a snug jumpsuit or tuxedo, the short, slim showman with a broken nose, defiant jaw and big, crooked smile had a rakish charm that energized stages for decades. He sold out leading nightclubs and concert halls.

The triumphs were punctuated by sometimes ugly controversies – abuse and slurs by whites, particularly over his marriage to a white actress, May Britt; resentment by blacks over what they viewed as his white life style, and widespread skepticism over his mid-1950’s conversion to Judaism.

Mr. Davis also endured major health setbacks. He lost his left eye in a near-fatal 1954 auto crash, had reconstructive hip surgery in 1985 that enabled him to dance again, and was told last year that he had throat cancer. He underwent eight weeks of radiation treatments for a carcinoma growing behind his vocal cords, until his doctors said the cancer was in remission. He had smoked heavily for many years.

The debilitating illness and treatment prompted 26 of his fellow entertainers to salute his courage and longtime efforts to lower racial barriers in a two-and-a-half-hour television tribute on Feb. 4. The frail but indomitable Mr. Davis, whose voice was only a husky whisper, did not speak, but he rose to do a brief soft-shoe step to a standing ovation.

Only a year earlier, he had announced his defeat of alcohol and cocaine.

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

We close with this oldie from 1974.

Save

Save

Save

Save