SUGAR TOWN

NANCY SINATRA

SONGWRITER: LEE HAZLEWOOD

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: SUGAR

LABEL: REPRISE RECORDS

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1967

Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940) is an American singer and actress. She is the elder daughter of Frank Sinatra and Nancy (née Barbato) Sinatra, and is widely known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".

Other defining recordings include "Sugar Town", the 1967 number one "Somethin' Stupid" (a duet with her father), the title song from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, several collaborations with Lee Hazlewood, such as "Jackson", "Summer Wine" and her cover of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". Nancy Sinatra began her career as a singer and actress in November 1957 with an appearance on her father's ABC-TV variety series, but initially achieved success only in Europe and Japan. In early 1966 she had a transatlantic number-one hit with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". She appeared on TV in high boots, and with colorfully dressed go-go dancers, creating a popular and enduring image of the Swinging Sixties. The song was written by Lee Hazlewood, who wrote and produced most of her hits and sang with her on several duets, including "Some Velvet Morning". In 1966 and 1967, Sinatra charted with 13 titles, all of which featured Billy Strange as arranger and conductor.

Sinatra also had a brief acting career in the mid-1960s, including a co-starring role with Elvis Presley in the movie Speedway, and with Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels. In Marriage on the Rocks, Frank and Nancy Sinatra played a fictional father and daughter.

Sugar Town" is a song written by songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood and first recorded by American singer Nancy Sinatra in 1966. As a single released under the Reprise label, it peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1966, while reaching number one on the Easy Listening chart in January 1967. It became a gold record. The song was included on Nancy Sinatra's LP, Sugar, also released in 1966, and was featured in her 1967 TV special Movin' with Nancy, released on home video in 2000.

Like other songs Hazlewood wrote, "Sugar Town" was deliberately enigmatic: directed to a young audience, yet outwardly tame enough to receive radio play (though he denied that he had ever used LSD, or regularly partaken in drugs in general). He explained, "You had to make the lyric dingy enough where the kids knew what you were talking about—and they did. Double entendre. But not much more if you wanted to get it played on the radio. We used to have lotsa of trouble with lyrics, but I think it’s fun to keep it hidden a little bit."

The B-side to "Sugar Town" was "Summer Wine", a popular duet also written by, and featuring, Hazlewood

I got some troubles, but they won't last

I'm gonna lay right down here in the grass

And pretty soon all my troubles will pass

'cause I'm in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo

Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

I never had a dog that liked me some

Never had a friend or wanted one

So I just lay back and laugh at the sun

'cause I'm in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo

Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

Yesterday it rained in Tennessee

I heard it also rained in Tallahassee

But not a drop fell on little old me

'cause I was in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo

Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

If I had a million dollars or tem

I'd give to ya, world, and then

You'd go away and let me spend

My life in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo

Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

la-la-la-la to end.

BEGIN THE BEGUINE

 ELEANOR POWEL & FRED ASTAIRE

SONGWRITER: COLE PORTER

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

SPECTACLE: BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 

 PART:  2

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1935

Johnny Brett (Fred Astaire) and King Shaw (George Murphy) are a dance team so down on their luck that they work in a dance hall for no money. Meanwhile, Clare Bennett (Eleanor Powell) is a big Broadway star. Owing to a case of mistaken identity, Shaw is offered the chance to be Clare's dancing partner in a new Broadway show, when it was really Johnny's dancing that producer Bob Casey (Frank Morgan) saw and wanted. The partnership breaks up, but Johnny still helps out King, who lets his newfound success go to his head. Clare eventually realizes that Johnny, not King, is the better dancer, and she falls in love after having lunch with him. When Shaw gets drunk on opening night, Johnny steps in and saves the show with a brilliant performance, though he lets King think he did it himself. Clare later tells King the truth. Just before the next show, Clare discovers King drunk again, and Johnny becomes the permanent replacement. After the show, they find out that King was pretending to be drunk so that Johnny would get the job.

Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899– June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer, and television presenter. He is widely considered the most influential dancer in the history of film.

His stage and subsequent film and television careers spanned a total of 76 years. He starred in more than 10 Broadway and West End musicals, made 31 musical films, four television specials, and issued numerous recordings. As a dancer, his most outstanding traits were his uncanny sense of rhythm, his perfectionism, and his innovation. His most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers, with whom he co-starred in a series of ten Hollywood musicals. The American Film Institute named Astaire the fifth greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in 100 Years... 100 Stars.

Gene Kelly, another renowned star of filmed dance, said that "the history of dance on film begins with Astaire." Later, he asserted that Astaire was "the only one of today's dancers who will be remembered." Beyond film and television, many dancers and choreographers, including Rudolf Nureyev, Sammy Davis Jr., Michael Jackson, Gregory Hines, Mikhail Baryshnikov, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Madhuri Dixit, and Bob Fosse, who called Astaire his "idol", also acknowledged his influence.

Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, Powell began studying ballet when she was six and was dancing at nightclubs in Atlantic City before she was a teenager. At the age of sixteen, she began studying tap and started appearing in musical revues on Broadway. She made her Hollywood debut as a featured dancer in the movie George White's Scandals(1935).

She was known as one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, appearing in a series of musical vehicles tailored especially for her talents, including Born to Dance(1936), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and Rosalie (1937). In 1965, she was named the World’s Greatest Tap Dancer by the Dance Masters of America. 

When they begin the beguine

It brings back the sound of music so tender

It brings back a night of tropical splendor

It brings back a memory evergreen

I'm with you once more under the stars

And down by the shore an orchestra's playing

And even the palms seem to be swaying

When they begin the beguine

To live it again is past all endeavor

Except when that tune clutches my heart

And there we are swearing to love forever

And promising never, never to part

What moments divine, what rapture serene

Till clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted

And now when I hear people curse the chance that was wasted

I know but too well what they mean

So don't let them begin the beguine

Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember

Let it sleep like a dead desire I only remember

When they begin the beguine

Oh yes, let them begin the beguine, make them play

Till the stars that were there before remain above you

Till you whisper to me once more, "Darling, I love you"

And we suddenly know what heaven we're in
When they begin the beguine

When they begin the beguine, oh

Oh, the beguine..

(HOW MUCH IS) THAT DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW

PATTI PAGE

SONGWRITER: BOB MERRILL

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: THE DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW

LABEL: MERCURY

GENRE: SOUNDTRACK

YEAR: 1953

Clara Ann Fowler(November 8, 1927– January 1, 2013), known by her stage name Patti Page, was an American singer of pop and country music and occasional actress. She was the top-charting female vocalist and best-selling female artist of the 1950s, selling over 100 million records during a six-decade long career. She was often introduced as "the Singin' Rage, Miss Patti Page". New York WNEW disc-jockey William B. Williams introduced her as "A Page in my life called Patti".

Page signed with Mercury Records in 1947, and became their first successful female artist, starting with 1948's "Confess". In 1950, she had her first million-selling single "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming", and would eventually have 14 additional million-selling singles between 1950 and 1965.

Page's signature song, "Tennessee Waltz", was one of the biggest-selling singles of the 20th century, and is recognized today as one of the official songs of the state of Tennessee. It spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard magazine's Best-Sellers List in 1950/51. Page had three additional Nº1 hit singles between 1950 and 1953, "All My Love (Bolero)", "I Went to Your Wedding", and "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window".

Unlike most other pop singers, Page blended country music styles into many of her songs. As a result of this crossover appeal, many of Page's singles appeared on the Billboard Country Chart. In the 1970s, she shifted her style more toward country music and began having even more success on the country charts, ending up as one of the few vocalists to have charted in five separate decades.

With the rise of Rock and Roll in the 1950s, mainstream popular music record sales began to decline. Page was among the few pop singers who were able to maintain popularity, continuing to have hits well into the 1960s, with "Old Cape Cod", "Allegheny Moon", "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)", and "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte".

In 1997, Patti Page was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. She was posthumously honored with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2013.

"(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" is a popular novelty song.

It is published as having been written by Bob Merrill in 1952 and loosely based on the folk tune Carnival of Venice. This song is also loosely based on the song "Oh, where, oh, where, has my little dog gone?"

The best-known version of the song was the original, recorded by Patti Page on December 18, 1952, and released in January 1953 by Mercury Records as catalog numbers 70070 (78 rpm) and 70070X45 (45 rpm) under the title "The Doggie in the Window", with the flip side being "My Jealous Eyes". It reached Nº 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts in 1953, and sold over two million copies. Mercury, however, had poor distribution in the United Kingdom. Therefore, a recording by Lita Roza was the one most widely heard in the UK, reaching Nº 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1953. It distinguished Roza as the first British woman to have a number-one hit in the UK chart. It was also the first song with a question in the title to reach number 1. 

[Chorus]

How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)

The one with the waggly tail

How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)

I do hope that doggie's for sale

[Verse 1]

I must take a trip to California

And leave my poor sweetheart alone

If he has a dog, he won't be lonesome

And the doggie will have a good home

[Chorus]

How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)

The one with the waggly tail

How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)

I do hope that doggie's for sale

[Verse 2]

I read in the paper there are robbers (Arf, arf)

With flashlights that shine in the dark

My love needs a doggie to protect him

And scare them away with one bark

I don't want a bunny or a kitty

I don't want a parrot that talks

I don't want a bowl of little fishies

He can't take a goldfish for a walk

[Chorus]

How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)

The one with the waggly tail

How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)

I do hope that doggie's for sale.

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.