Podcast 24!

Here is yet another brand new Podcast from the World of Wonder! Right in the heat of the summer comes this jam packed podcast full of clips from the likes of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Muffs, Elvis, Art Carney, Herman's Hermits, Steve Martin, Fishbone, Sonny and Cher and more! This one is a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Dartman's Wacky Podcast #24

A Solo Carpenter

Just the other night, I was talking with my Uncle while looking through a gigantic collection of records and the topic of The Carpenters came up. He had just finished reading a tell-all biography about Karen and was filling me in on some of the gory details. (He has the distinction of going to school with both of the Carpenters when they were wee youngsters) In the book, they apparently talk about Karen's one solo album at length. He had never known about it. Of course, I did. I told him that I had had a copy of it somewhere. Well, it didn't take me too long to find it. Here's a little background on it: In 1979, Richard Carpenter was being treated for an addiction to prescription pills so The Carpenters went on a hiatus. Karen wanted to remain productive and record songs and did that for the next year, recording an album with producer, Phil Ramone and Billy Joel's back-up band. After completing the album, Karen played it to A&M executives and her brother Richard. The response to the album was not what she had hoped. She devastated and was coaxed into the decision to not to release the album. Quincy Jones argued with A&M Records for the album's release, but Herb Alpert (the head of the label) called it un-releaseable. Cut to a phone conversation between Karen and Phil Ramone on February 3, 1983. In the course of the conversation, the solo album was brought up with Karen stating. " That album is fucking great!" The next morning she died. Thirteen years later, in 1996, the album was released. The songs on the album remain the way Karen wished it to be mixed. Many fans have determined that the album should have been released in 1980 as it is a solid work and contains some of the best work Karen has done in her career. The same fans completely disagree with the negative opinion that A&M executives and Richard Carpenter had about the album. Still others agree with the original decision. Decide for yourself if it should have been released or not when you take a listen to it here at the World of Wonder. Here is "Karen Carpenter". Enjoy!

Karen Carpenter

An Open Letter To Mike Douglas

Growing up in the late seventies and early eighties, I was exposed to a variety of celebrity talk shows. While there are still daytime talk shows on today, they are nothing like the "golden era" of the daytime talk show. With the likes of Merv Griffen, Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas, the daytime talk show was an event. Mike Douglas was one of the more exciting ones due to the amazing guests he would have on. We all are familiar with the entire week he devoted to John Lennon and Yoko Ono but that's just the tip of the ice berg. He never "played it safe" and just had people on that were promoting their new album or movie or tv show. He had people on that he admired and that had a message. And in between all those hip guests, you could always count on Mike to sing a song of his own. Over the course of his career, Mike Douglas would release several albums (including a Christmas one that we posted one holiday season a while back) but my favorite is one entitled, "Dear Mike, Please Sing". I share that fabulous album with you now. Enjoy!

Mike Douglas-Dear Mike, Please Sing

The Best of The World of Wonder: A Little Ditty About Jack and Shirley

After their 1956 marriage, movie musical star Shirley Jones and stage musical star Jack Cassidy recorded a duet album of operetta songs, Speaking of Love, and a studio-cast album of Brigadoon for Columbia Records in 1957. In 1959, they returned to Columbia for With Love From Hollywood, a companion piece to Speaking of Love in which they revived songs from Hollywood movies released between 1934 and 1948, songs written by Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Ted Koehler, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and Rodgers & Hart. Jones, who had a history with Rodgers & Hammerstein, beautifully interpreted their "It Might as Well Be Spring" from State Fair as a solo, while Cassidy on his own had fun with Porter's "Nina" from the underrated score to The Pirate. Frank DeVol (TV's Happy Kine) treated the songs for what they were, movie songs, employing alternately playful and lushly sentimental string-filled arrangements. Here is that great album! Enjoy!

Shirley Jones & Jack Cassidy - With Love From Hollywood

The Gong Show Goddess Can Sing!

If you mention the name Jaye P. Morgan to anyone from my generation, they will undoubtedly think of "The Gong Show." She was a regular celebrity panelist on that show and for youngsters of the late seventies, we just accepted that Jaye P. Morgan was famous for something even if we didn't know what. We knew she could sing because she appeared on "The Muppet Show" and sang several songs including "That Old Black Magic". We kind of thought she was more than just a panelist on a game show when she played herself in an episode of "The Odd Couple" where Felix writes a song for her to sing in her lounge act. (the quirky "Happy and Peppy and Bursting with Joy"! When Jaye P. sang it, she slowed it down to a sultry ballad that infuriated Felix!) But it wasn't until I was going through my dad's record collection one day a few years back that I realized that she was, in fact, a true blue bone-a-fide songstress. For those of you who still don't believe it, here's a little background info: In 1951, a year after graduating from Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, Los Angeles, California (incidentally, this is where she was given the infamous moniker - she was her class treasurer and her peers named her after the famous banker Jaye P. Morgan - her real name is Mary Margaret Morgan) she made a recording of the song "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" which made it to the Top Ten. Soon after, she received an RCA Victor recording contract and she had five hits in one year, including "That's All I Want from You," her biggest hit, which reached #3 on the charts. Other notable hits included "The Longest Walk" and "Pepper Hot Baby". From 1954 to 1955, she was a vocalist on the television show "Stop the Music." In 1956 she had her own television show, named for her, and guested on a number of other variety shows as well. She was a charter member of the Robert Q. Lewis "gang" on Lewis's popular weekday show on CBS, and was featured on a special episode of The Jackie Gleason Show in which Lewis's entire company substituted for the vacationing Gleason. After a period in the 1960s when she did very little in the entertainment field, confining herself to a small number of night club appearances, she returned to the public eye in the 1970s, mainly as an actress. This brings us to where we came in with her appearing on "The Odd Couple", "The Muppet Show" and, of course, "The Gong Show". To help you believe even more, I present for you that album that I found in my father's collection. Here is Jaye P. Morgan with her 1958 album, "Just You Just Me." Enjoy!
One last note - the orchestra leader on this album is the legendary Frank DeVol - That's Happy Kyne to all of you Fernwood 2-nite fans!

Jaye P Morgan-Just You Just Me