So, how many besides me woke up with a Turkey Hangover this morning? Love, love, love the turkey holiday. My holiday started on Wednesday when we drove to Denver to celebrate Thanksgiving with one of my sisters and her family. For that long drive in I brought along Sing Cowboy Sing: The Gene Autry Collection which contains eighty-six songs on three CDs. If you are not a big fan of Gene Autry it is not a good idea to listen to what seems like every single song he ever recorded in one sitting. Sometimes it got a little painful.
This collection includes his hit songs, That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine, Sioux City Sue, Here Comes Santa Claus, South of the Border, Rudolph The Red Nose-Reindeer, and Back in the Saddle Again, but it also includes songs from his radio show Melody Ranch which was on the air for sixteen years (1940-1956). Since new songs had to be written for each show there are some clunkers that have not aged that well mixed in with ones that are a total surprise:
Yep, Gene Autry recorded a hit version of Blueberry Hill back in 1941. I associate Blueberry Hill with Fats Domino so listening to a version that was recorded 15 years before Domino's hit recording was a revelation. It turns out that Blueberry Hill was written by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis, and Larry Stock in 1940 and recorded by six big bands including the Glenn Miller Band, the Kay Kyser Orchestra, Gene Krupa and his Orchestra, and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. The first band to release a recording of the song in 1940 was the Sammy Kaye Orchestra with vocalist Tommy Ryan so that is the version I have below (Since this is an orchestra, Tommy Ryan doesn't begin to sing until 1:30 into the recording.):
But let's end this post with the definitive recording of Blueberry Hill. The one Richie Cunningham is thinking of every time he sings the lyric, " I found my thrill," in the television show Happy Days.
Domino's version is always a rocking good time.
2 comments:
That's a lot of Gene Autry you had with you! Turkey and Autry-- the perfect holiday combo for you, eh? Me? I like my turkey with cranberry sauce!
I like cranberry sauce with my turkey, too...and stuffing...and gravy....and mashed potatoes...and candied yams...and that green bean casserole with fried onions on top...and wine...and....pretty much everything I ate Thursday.
As for Gene Autry, he was only invited along because his CD collection happened to be at the library and I thought there were enough songs listed on them to get me to Denver. There were but by the time we got there our romance was over. Poor Gene.
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