March 2010 Archives

Dallas – The Music Story (1985)

  • Posted on March 14, 2010 at 10:18 pm
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Wow!!!  This is freakin’ horrible.  I managed to survive the over-synthesized theme song but by the time I got through the second song, “Who Killed Jock Ewing” sung by Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs for those of you who remember the show), I was ready to use this baby for target practice.  Some of the singing isn’t quite as bad because they bring in some 80′s country pop singers who actually have decent voices, but the songs themselves are just plain awful.  The first song on side two is “sung” by Howard Keel who played Clayton Farlow.  Whomever decided that Keel should attempt to sing should be soundly thrashed.

I found it particularly interesting that none of the shows main characters (Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, Victoria Principal, etc.) loaned their names to this project.  It’s not really that surprising after you give this thing a spin.

For those of you who are too young to remember, Dallas was the number one rated television show for several years.  The show ran from 1978 until 1991.  In reality it should never had lasted 14 seasons.  The show’s 9th season will always be remembered as the infamous “dream” season.  Patrick Duffy’s character, Bobby Ewing, was killed off at the end of season 8 but miraculously appears in the shower during that last episode of season 9.  It turns out that his wife, played by the yummy Victoria Principal, had dreamed the entire season.  Ugh!  One of the worst plot twists in the history of television and it was pretty much the end of Dallas as a top-rated show.

The thing that I’ll always remember about Dallas is that during it’s run, I met my future first wife, got married and then divorced.  In a shorter period of time than this show lasted.  It shouldn’t have surprised me though.  She loved this stupid show and of course that meant that I had to watch it too.  My ex thought Bobby was “dreamy” and that I was a complete bastard because I didn’t aspire to be the total wuss that his character was.  I tended to root for J.R. because his character was a total sleezeball and I knew it pissed her off.  Ahhh…the good old days.  If only I could understand what went wrong……

Tracks:

Side One

Side Two

Continue reading Dallas – The Music Story (1985)

David Rose and His Orchestra – The Stripper and Other Fun Songs for the Family (1962)

  • Posted on March 11, 2010 at 11:24 pm
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A nice find from Smiley’s Flea Market in Macon, GA.  The title is what caught my eye.  I don’t normally think of strippers as family fun but the thought was too intriguing to pass up.  ”That’s right Jimmy, tuck that dollar into the nice lady’s g-string”.  I know a little education at a young age would have helped make my first trip to a “Gentleman’s Club” a little less awkward.  Which brings me to my next inappropriate thought.  How exactly did he collect royalties every time his song was played in a nudie bar?  Hmmm….so many questions.

I did a little research on David Rose since I wasn’t familiar with him or his work.  It turns out that the guy was married to Martha Raye and then Judy Garland.  Holy crap!  I guess he was pretty famous.  Each marriage lasted three years which is pretty much the norm for Hollywood nuptials, even today.  According to Wikipedia, Judy had at least one abortion while she was married to Rose due to the insistence of her mother, her husband, and her employer, MGM studios.  Wow!  All religious views aside, that’s just disturbing.  In addition to his hit “The Stripper”, Rose wrote music for Bonanza,  Little House on the Prairie and was musical director for the Red Skelton Show during its entire 21 year run.

My initial thought was to include an old Betty Page striptease video along with this record but as I was perusing them, the whole idea just felt a little too pervy.  It’s not that I’m on a high moral horse so much as that I’ve always tried to keep this site somewhere around “PG”.  Even a fairly sanitized 1960′s striptease seems like a step over that line to “R” so I’ll forgo any video amusement this week.  (Ok, the Family Guy vasectomy video might have already broken that barrier). For those of you who feel the need for something a little more “adult” while listening to this album, I’ve heard that you might be able to find some risqué stuff on the internet.  Huh….seriously?

Tracks:

Side One

Side Two

Continue reading David Rose and His Orchestra – The Stripper and Other Fun Songs for the Family (1962)