So without further ado, lets get back to the audio. This time its Scott Walker performing ‘Mathilde’ from Jacques Brel.

Yeah, call me a repeat offender since I’ve already posted these tunes before, in a way. However, the performance and the stylings show how Brel is an influence to many people.

Also, don’t you just love a performance that’s being introduced by the Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul herself?.

Imagine Sammy and friends doing a medley of “Chim Chim Cheree” and “The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly On The Plain.”

I don’t know what’s funnier. When the lads speak in their Newcastle Northern-English accents, or the great translation in Swedish. Especially when Sammy says “Ni driver med mig!”

You can’t miss Scott Walker’s baritone and how singers like Jarvis Cocker, Morrissey and David Bowie have all been influenced by his unique voice. I just liked the fact that when he went solo, he released 3 albums simply titled “Scott.” Whats the hurt in that?

What some people may not realize is that The Walker Brothers were not even real brothers. It was all marketing, kinda like how all of The Ramones weren’t related. But like The Webb Brothers (who are related), the band had more chart success in the UK than the US. Maybe its because you had other bands like The Everyl and Righteous Brothers over here who some may have thought were similar, but the songs here are more moody and better in a lyrical sense.

Dig this early music video from the guys and don’t giggle when Scott makes emotional hand gestures.

But I digress…. Andy Williams (another classic singer who I’ll focus on in later posts) had a show that lasted from 1962-1967 which was kinda like those Bob Hope specials we used to watch as kids. You had some comedy sketches, some singing and some whatever else. Its a “Variety Show” for a reason.

I have a feeling you won’t see shows like this ever again now that Bob Hope is no longer with us. Sure, there may be the over-produced Christmas Special with (insert underwhelming entertainer here), but I can’t really see these coming back anytime soon. Stuff like this makes me want to pick up those DVD copies of ‘The Andy Williams Show’, ‘The Dean Martin Comedy Hour’ and of course, ‘This is Tom Jones.’

Now that we have the internet, MTV and our short attention/multi-tasking culture, variety shows like this where the talent is full and the activity is limited don’t have much of an audience as once the act repeats itself, you change the channel or skip the program on your Tivo. However, now that you have the internet, and great sites like YouTube, you can enjoy the special moments like this as they sing ‘The Language of Love’ for The Andy Williams Show.

In any case, music shows like Hullabaloo gave him a chance here in 1965 with the song “I Love Being Here With You.”

I can sorta understand why he went back to acting after going through this performance, it sounds like talking more than singing. In any case, he has a spot in my book for some record-hunting at some point. Here’s to George!

NOTE: You may have to go directly to YouTube to watch this as the uploader asked the video to not be embedded in blogs. Respect.

Here comes another somewhat foreign post, but its Petula Clark. Yes, the woman who brought us the tune ‘Downtown’ also sang songs in French. In fact, you could call her the “British Nana Mouskouri.”

After the success of her French recordings, she ventured into German, Spanish and even Italian songs that garnerd her worldwide acclaim. She even did some songs penned by Serge Gainsbourg. I wonder what would have happened if she took the place of Bridgit Bardot or Jane Birkin? Maybe songs like ‘” or “” would have sounded a bit mroe innocent.

In any case, soon after the success of her European tunes, a composer approached her with an English song that was originally intended for The Drifters, that song soon became her signature hit, ‘Downtown.’

Let’s take a look back at this scopitone of Ms Clark performing one of those French songs.

Brel was the quintessential French Cabaret singer from the 50’s until his death in the late 70’s. For those who love Edith Piaf and those other classic torchlight French singers, Jacques is the man.

He was such an influence not only to Scott Walker, but his songs were also performed in English by people like Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Robyn Hitchcock, Cyndi Lauper, Nana Mouskouri, Olivia Newton-John, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Vinton and Andy Williams.

Grab a glass of pernod or cafe creme, light up one of your cherished Gauloises and engulf yourself in the dark-yet-lovely poetry of Jacques Brel Brel.

This time its Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim performing a medley of duets on a tv show from November 1967. I especially love Frank’s Intro as he’s fiddling with a cigarette in his hands and says:

The instrument – guitar
The beat – Bossa Nova
The artist – One of the inventors of this exciting, all new sound, Antonio Carlos Jobim.

This is a great intro to one of my favorite albums of all-time (I have both the LP and CD – I’m such a nerd). I’d highly recommend purchasing it for your bachelor pad, study hall, next party, office cube, home collection or whatever. I love the fact that Frank seems to one-up Jobim by referring to himself in his full name as well.

So sit back, relax, pull up a wicker chair and, sure, take a smoke break like Frank does in the performance.

Okay, I’m lazy this week because of some business meetings I need to attend, so I’m posting some tracks from Nana Mouskouri again. I just can’t get enough of this voice.

I bought this in the dollar vinyl bin at Amoeba Music. Its made for the French-Canadian market as the LP’s made in Canada and every song is in French. There’s something kitschy yet exotic about hearing a Greek bouzouki backing up a French voice in the track ‘Quatre Soleils.’

Nana’s version of ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ rival’s Catherine Deneuve’s starlet pipes while ‘The Girl Frolm Ipanema’ is right on-par with Astrud Gilberto’s echo-y samba.

I’ll post some videos this week since I’ll be busy, but the content will keep on coming.

Try It Yourself	Listen
La Fille D’Ipanema	Download audio file (la-fille-de-ipanema.mp3)
Les Parapluies De Cherbourg	Download audio file (les-parapluies-de-cherbourg.mp3)
Quatre Soleils	Download audio file (quatre-soleils.mp3)

Peter Sellers was a comic genius. A bit ADD at times, but more or less, a classic ahead of his time.

The first two Pink panther films (The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark) showcase his slapstick side, Dr. Strangelove displayed his range of characterizations, The Party was amazing improv and Being There was his coup de grace.

He also recorded music – if you could call it that. It wasn’t Grammy-winning songwriting, but the point was brilliant comic material for its time. He did an album of duets with his then crush, Sophia Loren. She does some songs herself as does Peter. There’s even some comic sketches on it with his wide array of British voices. However, its the duets that stand out the most.

Here’s a description of the songs I’ve selected from the back of the album. The songs showcase his beginning as a radio play comic:

All I can say is that if you don’t know who Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren are, then you might just as well traipse upstairs again, clamber right back in between those sheets and stay there, you poor old soul. For if you think for one solitary minute that I’m going to tell you, you’ve got another think coming.

Goodness Gracious Me! is a light-hearted ditty with cardiac references which introduces Miss Sophia Loren (brought to you, incidentally, at great expense and no small loss of life as a singer.) It is a joy to discover that her singing voice is commensurate with her physical charms, radiating a warmth and vitality almost equal to that of Vesuvius, in whose shadow she was raised. Also evident is that sparking sense of fun which was first given full rein in “The Millionairess.” The periodic injections indicative of surprise are provided by Mr. Peter Sellers, whhile the music is supplied – as is in most of the other items – by Mr. Ronald Goodwin and his Orchestra, fresh from their triumphal tour of the breakaway province of Katanga and the offshore islands of Matsu and Quemoy.

I Fell In Love With An Englishman sings Miss Loren. She keeps a remarkably straight bat in the process and we think that she will “hit you for six.”

Bangers And Mash can, perhaps, be described as a gastronomic romance in song.

One interesting thing to note, the song “Goodness Gracious Me”, where Sellers poses as an Indian doctor and Loren as his patient, was released as a single to publicise the film, The Millionairess, and became a chart hit. The song also gave its name to “Goodness Gracious Me,” a popular UK radio and television sketch show from the late 1990s, and a modernised form of the tune with bhangra elements was used as the theme for the program. The comedy sketch show explored the conflict and integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life. Some reversed the roles to view the British from an Indian perspective while others poked fun at Indian stereotypes.

Enjoy the tracks below and then you may understand when Peter once told his daughter soon after divorcing his wife “Oh, of course I love you sweetheart. Just not as much as I love Sophia Loren.”

Try It Yourself	Listen
Bangers and Mash	Download audio file (bangers-and-mash.mp3)
Goodness Gracious Me	Download audio file (goodness-gracious-me.mp3)
I Fell In Love With An Englishman	Download audio file (i-fell-in-love-with-an-englishman.mp3)