Well, dear readers, you won’t believe it – I can barely believe it myself and yet it is true. I woke up this morning to a new month, July to be exact. June is no longer bustin’ out all over. July is here and along with it the heat of summer. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, we’ve got the summer heat here at haineshisway.com. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too? Let’s all send good vibes to the month of July or, at the very least, good xylophones, so that the month of July can send us good vibes or xylophones in return. What the hell am I talking about?
Yesterday we recorded the last vocal for our new CD, with Mr. Jason Graae turning in a stellar performance of I Was a Teenage Rock-and-Roll Horror Medley. What a fun album this will be. Dear readers Laura and Sandra came by and watched (they’re longtime fans of Mr. Graae) and we all had a fine time. Now we’ve got some instruments to add, then we mix and the whole affair should be in the can and ready to master within the next couple of weeks.
Last night our very own Donald Feltham and our very own me went to the Gardenia nightclub to see my friend Linden Waddell and company perform a show called Naked Women – Baring Souls Through Songs. Donald picked me up at seven-fifteen so that we’d arrive a half-hour before showtime at eight. We entered the club and were dismayed to see that there were only eight people in the audience. About fifteen minutes later there were about twelve people and then we realized that the show wasn’t until nine. By nine the joint was sold out. Pre show Donald and I talked of many things, of cabbages and kings. I always like to talk about cabbages and kings prior to my viewing a nightclub show. We especially had a good time making fun of sweet and sour cabbage and King Henry V. In any case, the show was lots of fun, very funny at times, with lots of good songs, several of which I’d recorded (a few songs from my recording of Hey, Love, the Mary Rodgers revue – including my favorite, At the Same Time, which I also included on Unsung Musicals III). Linden sounded great and her cohorts, Barbara Passolt and Molly Beck Ferguson were also very good. After the show, I ran into a lady who’d worked on The Creature Wasn’t Nice. As Mr. Sondheim would have said, “Small world, isn’t it?”
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I start talking about fershluganah cabbages and kings again.
In honor of July, let us repring the Meltz and Ernest paean to this month of months, shall we? Has anyone noticed that I just wrote repring when I meant to write reprint? What in tarnation is repring? I mean, I like it, but what is it, fish? In any case, let us repring the Meltz and Ernest classic, A Song for July.
A SONG FOR JULY Music by Hinky Meltz Lyrics by Ernest Ernest
There are many songs for April
There are many songs for May
June is bustin’ out with songs
You’ll be singing them all day.
All the other months are covered but I’ve discovered
One that’s not…
Yes, I do believe that there is a month
That the songsmiths done forgot…
So, we’re gonna rectify that
‘Cause we don’t know why that
Is…
So, here’s a song for July
A month of music and mirth and laughter and legs
A song for July
With all those sparklers and songs you won’t be down in the dregs
There’s fireworks, parades
There are wieners on the barbecue.
Everything’s color-coordinated
In red, white and blue
It’s true
So, here’s a song for July
A month of dancing and fun and smooching and slaw
A song for July
With all that dancing and fun you’d think there would be a law
There’s swimming in the pool
There’s a party on the patio.
Everyone’s wearing their little swimsuits
And no one feels low
You know
Why should July be slighted
Why should July be put upon?
I think July should be knighted
It’s Sir July from now on.
So, here’s a song for July
A month of romance and love and fondling and corn
A song for July
With all that romance and love we should be blowing the horn
There’s sunshine all day long
People lounge and chat and play
Everything’s lazy and really laid back
The skies are blue and never gray
So keep your April June and May
July is my idea of heaven above
So, here’s a song for July
A lovely song for July
Because the month of July’s
The month I love.
I just love that song. It’s got that thing, that certain thing. It’s got locomotion. It’s got verve and zip and vigor and vim, not necessarily in that order. It is lacking a cabbage and there doesn’t seem to be a king, but one can’t have everything, can one?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must get in my automobile and drive to destinations near and far and also far and near, I must do errand and write and make phone calls and write, and then I must eat various and sundried foodstuffs. Today’s topic of discussion: Since I was mentioning Unsung Musicals, what are your favorite obscure songs from musicals – either from that series of albums or not. I’ll list a few – Disneyland and Smile from Smile, the already mentioned At the Same Time from both Hey, Love and Freaky Friday, One Promise Come True from The Yearling – well, I’ll let you take over from here. Post away, my pretties and I’ll be checking back often.