Well, dear readers, as I begin the task of choosing the songs for our next Gardenia show, I realize just how crazy I am about the music of Cy Coleman. Whether his pop stuff, his jazzier stuff, or his Broadway stuff, Cy just had it, whatever that indefinable it is. So, when did I first fall in love with the music of Cy Coleman. As I think back on it, Witchcraft was the first Coleman song I ever heard, only I thought of it as a Sinatra song, and as much as I liked it (and I liked it enough to buy the 45rpm phonograph record), I never looked at the composer (and I was starting to do that back then). No, the first time I actively sought out his name was when I bought an LP at the A&P market in the ninety-nine cent bin entitled Pop Hit Party. I bought it for one reason and one reason only – it had the song from The Blob sung by The Five Blobs. Funnily, that was the first name I looked at on the album – who wrote that song and it was, of course, composed by Burt Bacharach, whose name I’d already sought out on another inspired by a movie song called Hot Spell as sung by Ernie Felice. But there was one other song on this compilation LP and when I heard it I went nuts – I played it about sixty times in a row – it was Tony Bennett singing a song called Firefly. I loved its tune so much that I immediately checked the name of the writer – Cy Coleman. And then, the next thing I knew I was watching The Ed Sullivan Show and Lucille Ball was a guest and she sang a song from the new Broadway musical she was starring in – Wildcat. The song was so catchy and wonderful and was called Hey, Look Me Over. The next day, I went out and bought the cast album and lo and behold and also behold and lo the composer was – Cy Coleman. That album was seldom off the record player and I not only adored Hey, Look Me Over, but also You’ve Come Home, What Takes My Fancy, and Tall Hope. Then came Little Me, which I actually went out and bought the sheet music book for. I was a fan for life by then, and Sweet Charity’s overture solidified that ten-fold. I just thought Mr. Coleman was the freshest, brassiest Broadway voice around. I finally met him when I produced a CD called Classical Broadway (coming soon from Kritzerland – a reissue of the Bay Cities CD), which had classical works by Harvey Schmidt, Charles Strouse, John Kander, and Cy. One day, the phone rang at Bay Cities and I answered it. “Let me talk to Bruce,” a voice said. I said it was me and then the voice said, “Call me Cy!” He then proceeded to play me Never Met A Man I Didn’t Like over the phone – he’d just gotten the mix. That was my introduction to Cy Coleman. And then years later I recorded the revival of Little Me directed by Rob Marshall and starring Martin Short and Faith Prince. By then I’d already produced an all Coleman CD with Randy Graff singing, and also included some cut Coleman on Lost In Boston and a couple of Coleman greats on the Emily and Alice album. In fact, I remember going to his apartment and playing him the Emily and Alice cuts and he was just delighted by them. He also loved Randy’s album and I guess maybe that’s why he trusted me to produce Little Me by myself – he’d produced a lot of his cast albums, but I told him that it had to be one person and I had a particular way I wanted to do it – and he allowed it and then was very pleased with the result. He was a great guy and I’m glad I got to work with and know him a bit. And now it’s a treat picking the great and not so well known Coleman songs for the show and I can’t wait to hear them sung by terrific people.
Yesterday was just the kind of day I needed. I got a decent night’s sleep, I was lazy, my engineer and I went to the Colony Theater to plan the recording of the Jason Graae show a week from today, I did some errands and whatnot, picked up one little package and no important envelope, did a mile and a half jog, and kept falling asleep. I also managed to watch two motion pictures on Blu and Ray from the BBS box set – Head, starring The Monkees, and A Safe Place directed by Henry Jaglom, starring Tuesday Weld and my pal Phil Proctor. Head, which I’d never seen, was quite bad, I thought, save for one stylish musical number with Davey Jones, which I think was written by Nilsson. The rest was just weird for its own sake and completely devoid of any laughs. The co-writer was Jack Nicholson and let’s just say he made the right career choice. The transfer was top-notch. I’ve never met a Henry Jaglom movie I didn’t loathe and A Safe Place didn’t change that, except I loathed it a little more than some of the others. I do love Tuesday Weld, but this film is such a pretentious, arty, and “foreign” mish-mash – I found it completely irritating, and not even the presence of Orson Welles could help it. I remember thinking that I was proud of myself for making it all the way through the soporific mess – until I paused the film to see that I was only forty minutes in. I did make it to the end, which even though it was only fifty-three more minutes, seemed like fifty-three hours.
I then had a work session with John Boswell, the thirteen-year-old and her folks. It actually went very quickly, and then the youngster wanted Genghis Cohen, so we went there and had a yummilicious dinner of the usual foodstuffs. It really is the best.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I need my beauty sleep.
Today, I have errands and whatnot to do, I have to brief the Kritzerland helper in what to do whilst I’m gone, including watching the home environment, I hope I’ll pick up a package or three and most importantly the important envelope, and then I’ll make sure I’ve got everything I need for the trip to New York, New York on Monday morning.
Tomorrow, I’ll pack, relax, and get to bed very early. I’ll be up at four to announce the new Kritzerland title and then I shall be on my way to the airport and then on my way to the city that never sleeps.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Virginia Reel, because today is the birthday of dear reader Danise. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Danise. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER DANISE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, do errands and whatnot, brief the helper, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, eat something light but amusing and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Cy Coleman songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland singing Firefly.