I realise that one or two of you may have got a little anxious when December's instalment of Julie London's Calendar Girl album did not appear yesterday. Yes George, I'm talking to you.
Worry not. Julie will make an appearance on the first of the month except when this clashes with a regular series. When this occurs she will appear the following day or as soon as possible thereafter.
Glad we cleared that up.
Here is Julie and the Pete King Orchestra with Warm December a song written by Bob Russell.
Wishful thinking Bob
According to T'Interweb the jazz standard Cry Me a River , written by Arthur Hamilton, has been recorded by well over 50 artists.
Here are 3 versions for your listening pleasure and I would be interested in any views as to which is the best, or if you think there are better versions out there.
Your September Gurl albeit a day later than expected is of course none other than Ms Julie London.
It looks as though she is fishing this month and appears to be sensibly attired just in case she falls in.
September may by the 9th month but I make it this is the 11th installment from her Calendar Girl album with only October to go.
Some of you will probably be familiar with this months song September in the Rain..Controversially it is actually dry for once in Glasgow as I write this.
A popular song about nostalgia (which ain't what it used to be) it was written by Harry Warren and Al Dublin and first turned up in the 1937 film Melody for Two where it was sung by James Melton.
Wiki lists at least 50 versions from the likes of Frank Sinatra and Doris Day to Annie Lennox, Rod Stewart and Jools Holland & Paul Weller
According to the sleevenotes Julie's version is pleasing enough to make you go out and buy your own raincloud..... or maybe not
The final monthly instalment from Julie London's Calendar Girl album - or is it?
You may recall that this series started in November last year given it was one of the September/October holiday purchases.
Given that we are currently on holiday again at the moment it seems appropriate for the series to conclude now.
Julie is wearing traditional Halloween attire I see. As an aside, Halloween appears to be much more of a thing with our American friends than on this side of the Pond. Here a few kids go out guising and that's about it. Annoyingly Trick or Treat now appears to have entered into the vernacular.
This October is a song written by her husband Bobby Troup and is according to the sleeve notes a bouncy effort which would have made Larry Hart (who he? -Ed) proud
I hope that some of you have enjoyed this indulgence or maybe even parts of it. I suspect that only Alyson and perhaps Brian have made it to the bitter end.
I was about to say that Julie London is going for the summer look by sporting a bikini given that it is now August but it has been her outfit of choice on a number of months including some distinctly unseasonable.
This month's offering is Time for August a song written by some boy called Arthur Hamilton.It would seem to sponsor the demure notion that a girl should have anew boyfriend every month and at the end of the year she is twelve times as happy.
Maybees aye or maybees naw.
Next month Julie wears something more autumnal - or maybees not
Those of you tuning in for my proposed new Noisy Music Monday series may be a bit surprised to see Julie London. Although if that rocket went off it would probably be pretty loud.
The reason being that songs from Julie's Calendar Girl album appear on the first of the month and existing series trump new ones. Something noisy next Monday, promise.
This moths offering is Sleigh Ride in July a song by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen.
The album blurb says: It's sad to report that no month is safe for a girl. The girl in this tune got her's right in the middle of July. But the weather was good.
No, me neither
Sorry George, I couldn't resist it. Plus Brian made me do it, or at the very least actively encourged me because let's face it after posting all the other songs on the Calendar Girl album on the first (or second) of the month over the last year the completist in me couldn't miss out this song penned by Arthur Hamilton the man who gave us Cry Me a River.
Plus it also allows me to feature Julie's many topical but risque costumes in their entirity.
And also when reading a post over at Rigid Digit's place I discovered that a band called The Kick once released a song called Julie London.
One thing's for sure and that is Julie will catch her death if she gets caught in an April shower dressed like that!
We are now halfway through the Julie London Calendar Girl series given that we started in November. Somewhat illogical I'll grant you but given that the CD was purchased in October there is some warped logic in there somewhere.
I'm reliably informed that the song I'll Remember April is somewhat of a jazz standard although I was not aware of it. It has been covered by loads of folk -too numerous for me to mention so here is the skinny
The March instalment from Julie London's Calendar Girl album.
That's quite an outfit for Spring cleaning!
Julie may be melancholy but I can't say that I am as we are off for a long weekend up North today.
Balmacara tonight and Ballachulish tomorrow. I suspect that the charity shops of Fort William may well get a visit.
All I can find out about the song is that it was composed by Herman Saunders and Dory Langdon especially for the album.
Given that we started in November we will be half way through the year of tunes in April.
It's the first of the month again so it is time for the February number on Julie London's Calendar Girl album.Wonder wht the big heart is for.
We are a third of the way there already George. February Brings the Rain sings Julie. I'll settle for that given that we have had a bit of snow during the week. Plus it is really good to finally see the back of January.
I don't have much intel on this one I'm afraid other than it was written by Bobby Troup and it was recorded with The Pete King Orchestra in 1956.
It was also the b-side of the wonderful Cry Me a River.
That's us until next month.
A potential monthly series in the offing following the purchase of two albums on the one CD by Julie London in a Nairn charity shop.
The second album is called Your Number Please but it is the first Calendar Girl which gives the monthly option as it contains a song for every month of the year plus one called The Thirteenth Month thrown in for good measure. It was originally released as far back as 1956 on the Liberty label.
It may well depend on my ability to separately source the twelve monthly pictures or more realistically whether I actually remember to feature it on the 1st of the month.
The first post holiday RDMH post saw a slow start in votes followed by a veritable upsurge.
As a Weggie I am of course disappointed that Spinning Coin with Metranome River lost out 7-2 to Edinburgh's Motorcycle Boy with Big Rock Candy Mountain. That takes the running total to River 2 Mountain 2.
This week we focus on two female American vocalists with possibly the greatest voices of their respective eras.
We start back in the 50's with the great Julie London from Santa Rosa, Californiawith the definitive version of the often covered Cry Me a River.
From the 50's we move to the 00's , 2000 to be precise , with Wild Mountain Berries a track from the album Beneath the Country Underdogfrom the equally great Atlanta born but Chicago basedKelly Hogan.
Two different areas, two different styles, two great songs and two great voices
(A characteristically gigantic temple of the LDS, this one on Brigham City)
George writes
Utah this week and I am going to do my very best to avoid making inane childish comments regarding a major organisation based in the 11th least densely populated state in the USA. And one reason is because Utah is absolutely fascinating regarding its natural phenomena. For example, the picture below is a snapshot of a forest, but amazingly that forest that appears to consist solely of one species of tree is actually one gigantic root system, giving rise to 47 000 trunks. It is 80 000 years old! So it predates any humans on the continent by 50 00 years.
(Pando aspen grove)
If that is not sufficiently interesting, Salt Lake City is home to a factory producing up to
20 000 rubber chickens every year. The same company also makes plastic dog crap and fart whistles.
First song. I love this video, and you will too
The second song will absolutely not be I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City by Julie London but I suspect my thrawn friend will make it available below my ramblings. It will also not be the Beach Boys song about Salt Lake City, it’s one of their “painting-by-numbers” tracks. It is by Evan P Donohue, from an album called Late Autumn Cassette, a collection of lo-fi ramshackle songs that manages to steer clear of being too clever or twee and too rubbish.
Did you know that the Great Salt Lake (ie the body of water near Salt Lake City) is a terminal lake ie no rivers flow out of it? As are the Caspian Sea,the Dead Sea and the Aral Sea (which has been all but killed by diverting its rivers to such an extent it now has only 10% of its 1960 area of 68 000 km2 ).
The people of Utah eat twice the amount of green Jell-o (that is common jelly to people in the UK) than the rest of the USA. And add grated carrot to it. Do they not have custard there?
And there’s more. For example, Bryce Canyon is “a hell of a place to lose a cow” according the person it is named after. And it’s not a canyon but a series of natural amphitheatres made by tall thin rocks (known as hoodoos).
Music. I found a track on Bandcamp called Spanish Fork, and given that it’s by a bloke from Provo, Utah, I am sure that the name of the city in Utah gave the song its name. Yours for $200. That is not a typo. The mighty Dave Donner and The Dynamites come to the rescue with a fine rock-y Americana track, Utah. The album is free, from Bandcamp. The vocal is endearingly slightly off-key, the music is well played, some nice songs, go on, splash out….(but not in an onanistic way).
And the first ever KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) opened in Utah. There used to a KFC in Birmingham, England, called Karachi Fried Chicken; it did a great plate of veg samosa and chips.
So that’s Utah, And yet again I have seen more stunning, beautiful scenery, and I am coming to the conclusion that the USA is, visually, absolutely fascinating and fantastic. And I also discovered why members of the Church of Latter Day Saints are called mormons, but I think they don’t like it very much, but it did not seem offensive to me.
CC writes.
George, I'm afraid you will have to wait until the 1st of August for more Julie London.
By way of consolation here is Marty Robbins
I can vouch for the excellent samosas in Karachi Fried Chicken
Long suffering readers will know that I often acknowledge the advent of the month of May with a track by Imelda May.
However slightly less long suffering readers will be aware that since November I have been marking the beginning of every month with the relevant track from Julie London's Calendar Girl album.
This would have featured yesterday had it not clashed with George's State of the Union series.
Glad we've got all that out the way
I've got very little information on People Who Are Born in May other than the following blurb from the CD booklet : This is a new tune from Earl Brent and is far-and-away the merriest exercise in the album. The lyric is especially optimistic if you happen to have been born in May.It's nicely accentuated with strings.
There you have it
Wishful thinking on Julie's part
Two months for the price of one this time round
For the second month running Julie finds herself relegated from the 1st to the 2nd but given yesterday's post I'm sure she would have understood.
June in January is a song with music by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Leo Robin which was first published in 1934. It first appeared in the film Hear in My Heart where it was performed by Bing Crosby.
Many others have covered it including Dean Martin, Guy Lombardo and Jo Stafford
We are now a quarter of the way through Calendar Girl - only another nine to go George!
One day late again this month, but it's surely the bride's prerogative to be late.
Although it has to be said that Julie doesn't really have the air of a blushing June Bride (there's a band's name in that sentence somewhere).
Written by Hoagy Carmichael and Paul Francis Webster the album's blurb describes Memphis in June thus: A rural remembrance done with grace and style. Julie makes your heart leap with the thought of Boss Crump and sweet oleanders
Maybees aye and maybees naw.
Boss Crump was apparently a Democratic politician who from 1910 to 1954 was "the Boss "of Memphis. A precursor to Mr Springsteen then. An oleander is a drought tolerant,evergreen shrub ranging in colour from white to red.
Every day's a school day.
Deep down I always knew that Cry Me a River by Julie London would beat Kelly Hogan with Wild Mountain Berries and she duly did by 7 votes to 2. However, it was encouraging to note the positive feedback for Ms Hogan and that as Rol noted it was harder than folk thought it would be.
The scores on the doors are now River 3 Mountain 2
This week it is Northern Soul versus Southern Soul with two songs taken from compilations.
On the river front and representing the South we have the great O.V. Wright with Everybody Knows (The River Song) from Down and Out - The Sad Soul of the Black South.
I knew I had Love on a Mountain Top by Robert Knight somewhereand I finally tracked it down on The Best Northern Soul All- Nighter ... Ever!
A few months ago I posted versions of Cry Me a River by Diana Krall, Kim Edgar and Julie London here
Drew, quite rightly, took me to task for not featuring the version by Neasden's Queen of Soul Mari Wilson.
The reason for this was reasonably simple - I did not have it at the time.
This has since been rectified with the purchasing of her 1983 album Showpeople.(£1.99 Oxfam).
I have also included her biggest hit Just What I Always Wanted her only song to trouble the top 20 peaking at no 8.
30 years on it still sounds pretty good to me.
I had a notion that Tracey Ullman had also covered this but it seems that I was getting mixed up with her cover of Kirsty MacColl's They Don't Know.
Old age, it doesn't come itself
