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Post by Kapitan on Jul 24, 2023 11:57:45 GMT
I see that Italian crooners (crooning in Italian) don't generate much buzz. I can move on sooner than later if "Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)" doesn't capture the imagination!
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Post by kds on Jul 24, 2023 12:09:25 GMT
In all honesty, I'm not a gigantic fan of crooners in general.
This might be a bit of a deep cut, but every single time I hear Volare, I always think of Robert Wuhl's performance of the track in the early 80s comedy Hollywood Knights.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jul 24, 2023 18:29:04 GMT
I wasn't really familiar with this version either until I was working on a playlist solely made of Billboard 100 hits. I'm not sure I've even heard the Bobby Rydell version. I've played Dean Martin's on and off over the years, originally when I bought a greatest hits CD, now sometimes on Spotify. Best way I can describe it is it's a pleasant song to listen to.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 24, 2023 19:26:52 GMT
Bobby Rydell's version was pretty good. It was one of his biggest hits. His teenage fans seemed to like it:
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Post by lonelysummer on Jul 24, 2023 19:37:27 GMT
I remember going to a yard sale as a kid sometime in the mid 70's, and seeing an album with a center hole - very odd to my eyes. Mom bought it and took it home. I saw the same exact album cover in a thrift store recently - but different songs on the actual record. It was a budget label that specialized in re-recordings of then popular hits. I see now what the game was - make one generic album cover with a hole in the middle so you could see the songs titles on the record label. Yeah, that's cheaper than cheap!
The reason I bring this up, I remember Volare being one of the songs on the album. As the record played, mom and dad would comment on who had the hit version. "Splish Splash - that was Bobby Darin. Just a Dream was Jimmy Clanton." I loved Splish Splash. I think Little Star was on that album, too. The record label might have been Tops - I know I've seen 45 E.P.'s with that name on them.
I'm sure somewhere in the vinyl universe, someone collects these budget label "cover versions".
Oh, and I did like Volare. Good song in its many versions. I think Bob Dylan has a chapter on it in his new book.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 24, 2023 19:39:55 GMT
I think Little Star was on that album, too. Somebody is doing a little foreshadowing for the thread.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 25, 2023 12:36:58 GMT
The Elegants, "Little Star"If the second #1 on the Hot 100 was from an Italian crooner, the third was from Italian-American doo-woppers. The Elegants, in 1958 comprising Vito Picone, Arthur Venosa, Frank Tardogno, Carman Romano, and James Moschello, were teenagers from Staten Island, New York. Picone and Venosa wrote a tune based on the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," turning it into their 1958 single "Little Star." The song was #18 on the initial Hot 100 (Aug. 4), consistently climbing before topping the list for one week (Aug. 25). It returned to #2 and hung around the top five when Domenico Modugno returned to the top spot for four weeks, but it never topped the charts again. In fact, not only did the Elegants never top the charts again, but they never charted again. The group continued to work, including touring with luminaries such as Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Dion and the Belmonts, and Jerry Lee Lewis, but they never regained their early chart success. ( The song's Wikipedia entry claims this could be because they refused to pay payola to a prominent New York DJ.)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 25, 2023 13:20:44 GMT
"Little Star" is a good song. I like it. It's catchy and the vocals are very good. It seems like a good high/falsetto vocal always has a chance to appeal to the listener. While I never heard/read Brian Wilson comment on the song, I wonder if it's one he might've liked. I hear some BB/BW in "Little Star".
While "Little Star" is a good song, I'm wondering if August 1958 (when I was in diapers) was a relatively weak month for pop/rock & roll records. B.E. pointed it out and I agree with him that there are better Ricky Nelson songs than "Poor Little Fool". "Volare" and "Little Star" also have their moments, but these first three No. 1 records aren't exactly...earth-shattering. 
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 25, 2023 13:30:32 GMT
While "Little Star" is a good song, I'm wondering if August 1958 (when I was in diapers) was a relatively weak month for pop/rock & roll records. B.E. pointed it out and I agree with him that there are better Ricky Nelson songs than "Poor Little Fool". "Volare" and "Little Star" also have their moments, but these first three No. 1 records aren't exactly...earth-shattering. The rest of the top 20 from that Aug. 25, 1958, chart is below. Check out #19! 1. Little Star, Elegants 2. Volare, Modugno 3. Bird Dog, the Everly Bros 4. Just a Dream, Jimmy Clanton & His Rockets 5. My True Love, Jack Scott 6. Poor Little Fool, Nelson 7. Patricia, Perez Parado 8t. Born Too Late, the Ponytails 8t. Fever, Peggy Lee 10. When, Kalin Twins 11. Rebel 'rouser, Duane Eddy 12. Willie and the Hand Jive, Johnny Otis 13. Western Movies, the Olympics 14. Everybody Loves a Lover, Doris Day 15. Devoted to You, the Everly Bros 16. Splish Splash, Bobby Darin 17. Ginger Bread, Frankie Avalon 18. If Dreams Came True, Pat Boone 19. Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu), Dean Martin 20. Are You Really Mine, Jimmie Rodgers
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 25, 2023 13:41:58 GMT
Some quality there - the Everly Brothers, Peggy Lee's "Fever", "Rebel Rouser" rocks, and "Splish Splash" was a fun rock and roll record. A lot of ballads, too. I always found it interesting how the younger, almost teenage artists stood side-by-side with some of those older legends (Dean Martin, Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole were probably lurking).
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Post by kds on Jul 25, 2023 17:05:42 GMT
I don't think I'd ever heard this song before. It's a pretty decent late 50s pop song. Probably not anything I'd seek out, but if it snuck into a playlist on random, I probably wouldn't skip it.
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Post by jk on Jul 25, 2023 17:34:31 GMT
“Little Star” is my all-time favourite Italian-American doo-wop song, recorded back in the days when atmosphere and enthusiasm counted more than hitting the right notes every time.  |
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Post by lonelysummer on Jul 26, 2023 1:30:29 GMT
While "Little Star" is a good song, I'm wondering if August 1958 (when I was in diapers) was a relatively weak month for pop/rock & roll records. B.E. pointed it out and I agree with him that there are better Ricky Nelson songs than "Poor Little Fool". "Volare" and "Little Star" also have their moments, but these first three No. 1 records aren't exactly...earth-shattering. The rest of the top 20 from that Aug. 25, 1958, chart is below. Check out #19! 1. Little Star, Elegants 2. Volare, Modugno 3. Bird Dog, the Everly Bros 4. Just a Dream, Jimmy Clanton & His Rockets 5. My True Love, Jack Scott 6. Poor Little Fool, Nelson 7. Patricia, Perez Parado 8t. Born Too Late, the Ponytails 8t. Fever, Peggy Lee 10. When, Kalin Twins 11. Rebel 'rouser, Duane Eddy 12. Willie and the Hand Jive, Johnny Otis 13. Western Movies, the Olympics 14. Everybody Loves a Lover, Doris Day 15. Devoted to You, the Everly Bros 16. Splish Splash, Bobby Darin 17. Ginger Bread, Frankie Avalon 18. If Dreams Came True, Pat Boone 19. Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu), Dean Martin 20. Are You Really Mine, Jimmie Rodgers I find it very annoying in those rock documentaries how they make it seem like rock and roll came along and completely wiped all the "old fogie music" off the charts. Clearly, many old school crooners were still making the charts on a regular basis. Of course, the same shows make it seem like, once Led Zep, Cream, and other heavy rock came along in the late 60's, no one ever listened to sunshine pop or basic rock and roll again. "You'll never hear surf music again!"
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 26, 2023 11:27:24 GMT
I find it very annoying in those rock documentaries how they make it seem like rock and roll came along and completely wiped all the "old fogie music" off the charts. Clearly, many old school crooners were still making the charts on a regular basis. Of course, the same shows make it seem like, once Led Zep, Cream, and other heavy rock came along in the late 60's, no one ever listened to sunshine pop or basic rock and roll again. "You'll never hear surf music again!" I think there is a variation on that theme involving every new genre's emergence. I suppose it makes a better story: "and from the day [song/album] was released, the music industry changed. Everybody's radio was tuned to [whatever]." Not just the ones you mentioned, but disco killing rock and roll, punk killing bloated rock and roll, grunge killing hair metal, rap killing rock...none of the "dead" genres ever actually goes away, and the extent they do seems mostly to depend on people's willingness to go along with the story and pretend they agree.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 26, 2023 11:35:18 GMT
The rest of the top 20 from that Aug. 25, 1958, chart is below. Check out #19! 1. Little Star, Elegants 2. Volare, Modugno 3. Bird Dog, the Everly Bros 4. Just a Dream, Jimmy Clanton & His Rockets 5. My True Love, Jack Scott 6. Poor Little Fool, Nelson 7. Patricia, Perez Parado 8t. Born Too Late, the Ponytails 8t. Fever, Peggy Lee 10. When, Kalin Twins 11. Rebel 'rouser, Duane Eddy 12. Willie and the Hand Jive, Johnny Otis 13. Western Movies, the Olympics 14. Everybody Loves a Lover, Doris Day 15. Devoted to You, the Everly Bros 16. Splish Splash, Bobby Darin 17. Ginger Bread, Frankie Avalon 18. If Dreams Came True, Pat Boone 19. Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu), Dean Martin 20. Are You Really Mine, Jimmie Rodgers Of course, the same shows make it seem like, once Led Zep, Cream, and other heavy rock came along in the late 60's, no one ever listened to sunshine pop or basic rock and roll again. "You'll never hear surf music again!" I think this aspect ^ is going to make this thread fun. For the next ten years at least, we're gonna see the likes of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Louis Armstrong, and many of the "old fogie music" artists going head-to-head with the rock & rollers! It was a great era for AM radio. There was something for everyone.
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Sept 30, 2024 19:53:42 GMT
Sept 30, 2024 19:53:42 GMT
