DEBBIE REYNOLDS - AM I THAT EASY TO FORGET?

AM I THAT EASY TO FORGET?

DEBBIE REYNOLDS

SONGWRITER: CARL BELEW; W. STEVENSON & W. S. STEVENSON

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: AM I THAT EASY TO FORGET

LABEL: SONY MUSIC

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1975

Mary Frances Reynolds, better known as Debbie Reynolds(April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016), was an American actress and singer. Reynolds was born in El Paso, Texas. She starred in many television programs and movies. She also had many songs and albums during her career.

On December 28, 2016, Reynolds died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from a cerebral hemorrhage with hypertension being a factor, aged 84. This was one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died.

Her recording of the song "Tammy" (1957; from Tammy and the Bachelor), earned her a gold record, and was the best-selling single by a female vocalist in 1957. It was number one for five weeks on the Billboard pop charts. In the movie (the first of the Tammy film series), she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen.

Reynolds also scored two other top-25 Billboard hits with "A Very Special Love" (#20 in January 1958) and "Am I That Easy to Forget" (#25 in March 1960)—a pop-music version of a country-music hit made famous by Carl Belew(in 1959), Skeeter Davis (in 1960), and several years later by singer Engelbert Humperdinck.

In 1991, she released an album titled The Best of Debbie Reynolds.

Reynolds was first discovered by talent scouts from Warner Bros. and MGM who were at the 1948 Miss Burbank contest. Both companies wanted her to sign up with their studio and had to flip a coin to see which one got her. Warner won the coin toss, and she was with the studio for two years. When Warner Brothers stopped producing musicals, she moved to MGM.

With MGM, Reynolds regularly appeared in movie musicals during the 1950s and had several hit records during the period. Her song "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (featured in the film Two Weeks with Love (1950) and sung as a duet with co-star Carleton Carpenter) was the first soundtrack recording to become a top-of-the-chart gold record, reaching number three on the Billboard charts.

Gene Kelly, Reynolds, and Donald O'Connor during the Singin' in the Rain trailer(1952)

Her performance in the film greatly impressed the studio, which then gave her a co-starring role in what would become her highest-profile film, Singin' in the Rain(1952), a satire on movie making in Hollywood during the transition from silent to sound pictures. It co-starred Gene Kelly, whom she called a "great dancer and cinematic genius," adding, "He made me a star. I was 18 and he taught me how to dance and how to work hard and be dedicated." In 1956, she appeared in Bundle of Joy with her then-husband, Eddie Fisher.

Her starring role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown(1964) led to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Reynolds noted that she initially had issues with its director, Charles Walters. "He didn't want me," she said. "He wanted Shirley MacLaine," who at the time was unable to take the role. "He said 'You are totally wrong for the part." But six weeks into production, he reversed his opinion. "He came to me and said, "I have to admit that I was wrong. You are playing the role really well. I'm pleased." Reynolds also played in Goodbye Charlie, a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's play Goodbye, Charlie and also starred Tony Curtis and Pat Boone.

She next portrayed Jeanine Deckers in The Singing Nun(1966). In what Reynolds once called the "stupidest mistake of my entire career", she made headlines in 1970 after instigating a fight with the NBC television network over cigarette advertising on her weekly television show. Although she was television's highest paid female performer at the time, she quit the show for breaking its contract: I was shocked to discover that the initial commercial aired during the premiere of my new series was devoted to a nationally advertised brand of cigarette (Pall Mall). I fully outlined my personal feelings concerning cigarette advertising... that I will not be a party to such commercials which I consider directly opposed to health and well-being.

Marquee listing Reynolds's world premiere at the Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, December 1962

For ten years, she headlined for about three months a year in Las Vegas's Riviera Hotel. She enjoyed live shows even though that type of performing "was extremely strenuous," she said.

With a performing schedule of two shows a night, seven nights a week, it's probably the toughest kind of show business. But in my opinion, the most rewarding. I like the feeling of being able to change stage bits and business when I want. You can't do that in motion pictures or TV.

As part of her nightclub act, Reynolds was noted for doing impressions of celebrities such as Eva and Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mae West, Barbra Streisand, Phyllis Diller, and Bette Davis. Her impersonation of Davis was inspired following their co-starring roles in the 1956 film, The Catered Affair. Reynolds had started doing stage impersonations as a teenager; her impersonation of Betty Hutton was performed as a singing number during the Miss Burbank contest in 1948.

Reynolds' last album was a Christmas record with Donald O'Connor entitled Chrissy the Christmas Mouse arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo.

They say you've found somebody new

But that won't stop my loving you

I just can't let you walk away

Forget the love I had for you

Guess I could find somebody, too

But I don't want no one but you

How could you leave without regret?

Am I that easy to forget?

Before you leave be sure you find

You want her (his) love much more than mine

'Cause I'll just say we've never met

If I'm that easy to forget

Before you leave be sure you find

You want her (his) love much more than mine

'Cause I'll just say we've never met

If I'm that easy to forget

If I'm that easy to forget.