Crooner Culture

(Yep, I’m a cheeseball. But not one of those ones you get from Hickory Farms. I mean, I like those, but I’m just not one of them. Anywho, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!)

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TheStar.com | entertainment | They’re making it a groovy Christmas
To more conventional folk, Frank and Dino and Sammy are not in exactly the same league as Rudolph and Donner and Blitzen, Toronto will definitely be in a swinging, singing holiday mood this year thanks to those crazy cats from Mirvish Productions.
They’re bringing in a special, sparkly seasonal treat this year called Christmas With the Rat Pack, which will light up the Princess of Wales Theatre with a special sort of merriment for 10 performances only from Dec. 20 through 31.
Tickets can be booked by calling 416-872-1212 or going to www.mirvish.com

Just …read more

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As part of b5media’s music channel list project, our theme this time around is “Top 10 artists/bands to invite to the holiday office party” and of course, I’m going to list crooners! This has to be one of those “alive or dead” things for this category, but here we go:
10. Marilyn Monroe – Yes, she’s a female crooner, and oh man, you can’t help but imagine she’d be a blast at a holiday party, maybe even drinking a Royal Stretch. I have a feeling she’d likely be the one making photocopies of her butt on the xerox machine, but what …read more

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Actor Joe Mantegna, who played Dean Martin in HBO’s “The Rat Pack” bought the rights to Dean’s biography back in September of 2006, supposedly to make a movie of the famed crooner’s life.
“Mantegna and his producing partner, Danny Ramm, bought the film rights to Memories are Made of This, a biographical memoir written by Martin’s daughter, Deana Martin. – USA Today“
I tried checking IMDB for details on this, and the only thing I came up with was a supposed film made in 2003 that had no info on it. I’d love to see Mantegna play him again, but it seems …read more

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This one’s from “The Ratpack – Boys Night Out”
I simply love this collection!
Amazon Review:

Boys Night Out suggests the accompaniment to a PG-13-rated bachelor party, with an implied narrative arc and a stack of appreciative tunes about, er, dames. Frank, Dean and Sammy are heard mostly in solo settings, but the upbeat mood and brassy arrangements make for a cohesive Three Musketeers atmosphere. The 19-track disc offers some real nuggets for Sinatra fans (the little-heard near-title track, two visits to Guys and Dolls from the Reprise Repertory Theater set on which the Rat Pack’s leader took the Nathan Detroit role he’d …read more

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Ol’ Blue Eyes is back at it again – spiritually scouring the web through me for Rat Pack tribute sites to share with you all. Check these out!

The Rat Pack Show – Shows in England
The Rat Pack is Back – Vegas show (MUST see in my opinion – I saw these guys when they were traveling, and they were PHENOMENAL!)
The Rat Pack Revue
The Gang Guys – Austrian Rat Pack
Rat Pack Memories – The ULTIMATE Rat Pack fan site!

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This cracked me up from the very beginning… “Schenectady” is about 15 minutes down the road from me, and when people use that city in a joke, it just is too hilarious to me. I didn’t know much about Foster Brooks until getting into Dean Martin and the “clean comedy” of the era – simply because I was born about 40 years too late to know it, but this is just hilarious. Especially given that Foster Brooks never drank, but he sure as hell knew how to play drunk! And the fact that Dean’s sitting there with a hankie and …read more

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I just love how back in the day, during live television, the stars of the show did the commercials. It made for kind of “uninterrupted television” and always was sort of unpredictable for the viewer. This clip’s a commercial that Joey Bishop and Regis Philbin did for Hai Karate Cologne. (Yes, many jokes have been made about that stuff over the years, but this is a great clip!)

I love how the woman at the end, with her big ol’ teeth, says, “Delicious.” She looks like she’s about to attack Joey, and he gives her the “Hai!” karate chop!
This post is …read more

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Two items this morning, one that floored me…
First, the last surviving member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop, has passed away at 89.
An adept ad-libber with a dry, underplayed sense of humor, Bishop achieved his greatest fame in the ’60s. He was master of ceremonies for President Kennedy’s inaugural gala and joined Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford for the Rat Pack’s historic “Summit” meetings on stage at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. – LA Times

This brings me to the story of the Sands in Atlantic City. Sinatra and the Rat Pack frequented the East …read more

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For some reason, “Mr. Bojangles” always makes me a little “mushy” when I hear it. But only the version of the beloved Sammy Davis, Jr.
This video shows Sammy in the 1980’s doing a version for television’s “Night of 100 Stars”.

It’s funny, we actually have a sort of celebrity from my hometown by the name of Louis Velez who has done one of the absolute best Sammy Davis, Jr. impressions on the planet for a great many years now. (It was one of my birthday presents this past year, to see “The Rat Pack” show a local theater when they came …read more

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