Fonzie Says "Honk"

Louis Live!

Here's my third and last Louis Prima post this month. It is an amazing live record recorded at the height of Louis' fame back in the late fifties. Louis and his partner/wife, Keeley Smith, had multi-million dollar contracts with both the Sahara and the Desert Inn at Las Vegas. They played there exclusively every night of the week. The shows were always sell outs and no two performances were ever the same. To get a little taste of this excitement to the rest of the world, Capitol Records recorded one of their shows at the Sahara and released it as "Las Vegas - Prima Style". The result is a party on a platter. It's obvious that this is only part of the live show and the cuts are noticable. And there are sections where the song sounds like they may have cut out a solo or two (common practice in LP days). However, this is still a must have for any fan of Louis Prima. This is the real "Wildest". Enjoy!

Las Vegas-Prima Style

Louis Prima Answers The Call!

Louis Prima is an American Icon. Of course, being part Italian I think it's manditory for me to think that. As a bold, talented, ambitious youngster, Prima rose from the rank-and-file of musicians in the training ground of New Orleans in 1934 and headed for the "Big Time" in the city of New York. After a few weeks the Louis Prima Band became a smash hit in the small-but-jumping club,"Famous Door" and before long, the entire 52nd Street, between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, was renamed "Swing Street." A whole new era of music began, with Louis coining such expressions as "swing" and other "hep" sayings like "solid jack," "crazy man," and many more. A few years passed and Louis hit the charts with "Angelina." It started the whole country talking about pizza, veal parmegiana, pasta fagiole, and antipasto. One smash came after another, like, "Josephina," "Please No Squeeza Da Banana," "Bacciagaloop, Makes Love on the Stoop" and "Felicia No Capicia." When Elvis Presley was asked where he got the wiggle, he replied, "From Louis Prima, of course." Louis down-sized the big band to a small group and added the sounds and talents of the great sax-man Sam Butera and vocalist, Keely Smith. He performed magic again by developing a shuffle beat, combined with a New Orleans southern rock sound, added the wailing sax and for comedic value, transformed the vocalist into the dead-pan partner that he could play off of. The string of hits that followed included "Just a Gigolo - I Ain't Got Nobody," "Buona Sera," "Black Magic," "Zooma, Zooma," "When You're Smilin'," and on and on. Louis Prima was not just Louis Prima - he was the "Big Daddy" of them all! One of his best albums (that include most of his fore mentioned hits) was 'The Call of The Wildest". What's even better than the album is the hilarious cover of Louis singing to a moose! I present it for you now. Enjoy!

Call of The Wildest

Weird Science Re-Up!

On June 23 I posted the soundtrack to the great 80s film, "Weird Science". After receiving numerous complaints about the file not opening, I tried to download and unzip it myself, only to find that it was true: the file was corrupt. As a result, I posted a comment saying that I was on tour and was unable to re-up it for a while. Due to some amazing circumstances, I was able to re-up the file and bring you the restored version. So, here for you now is the soundtrack to "Weird Science"! (I've also gone back to the original post and changed it there too!) enjoy!

Weird Science OST

The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center of The Philippines presents "Thriller"

Indiana Jones Raids Your Ears

I was kind of bummed that when Spielberg and Lucas came to New Haven to film parts of the new Indiana Jones movie I was on tour in San Diego (I'm still there). It's still kind of cool to know that when I see the film I'll recognize the places that are just 15 minutes from my house! Anyway, in the great tradition of The Story of Star Wars, The Story of The Empire Strikes Back and The Story of Return of The Jedi, here is "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Movie on Record". Released by Colombia Records in 1981, this was the best way to bring the film home with you - remember, this was before going to the video store or watching films on-line were even thought of. (not to mention that Spielberg and Lucas once made an announcement that they would never release the film to television, cable or home releases) Out of all of these story records, this one is by far the best. It even won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album at the 1982 Grammy Awards. I present it for you now. Here is "Raiders of The Lost Ark: The Movie on Record". Enjoy!

Raiders of The Lost Ark: The Movie on Record

Telly Wonders About Love . . .

If you like this, you should check out my Telly post from last year.

Singles Collection: Celebrity Edition - Episode 6

They finally released the entire first season of "Welcome Back Kotter" on DVD this week. I've been waiting for them to do this for a long time. I always loved this show. I did a 10 year stint at a high school where I worked as a Resource Room Tutor and believe it or not, I used a lot of techniques I learned from this show. Anyway, my copy came in the mail earlier this week and I'll soon have it cued up and ready to watch. In the meantime, I thought that I would post this single released by Gabe Kaplan to cash in on the Kotter craze back in the 70s. The first side is called "Up Your Nose" and is a disco-ish boogie that really makes you think that Gabe should just stick to comedy. Which he does on the flip side, a stand up bit about Bicentennial Minutes called, "Bye-Centennial Minutes". If you weren't around in 1976 I'll explain what a Bicentennial Minute is. Just like the "The More You Know" ads from the late 90s, the Bicentennial Minutes were short little minute commercials that featured celebrities talking about the history of our country over it's past 200 years. If you were around then, the B side of this single gets a laugh. If you weren't, I'd imagine that you won't get it. But I'll let you be the judge of that. Here is Gabe Kaplan's 1977 single, "Up Your Nose" along with it's B-Side, "Bye-Centennial Minutes" and the picture sleeve that it came in. Enjoy!

Gabe Kaplan-Up Your Nose/Bye-Centennial Minutes