I have always loved hearing the Stories Behind The Songs … so when I heard a vintage American Top 40 a couple of weekends ago playing on the Sirius/XM 70’s Channel, I was thrilled to learn the origins of the 1963 Tony Bennett hit, “I Wanna Be Around.”
Our Songfacts buddy Carl Wiser also recaps the unusual circumstances as to how a housewife in Youngstown, Ohio, came up with the idea for the song as well as the lyrics for the opening line: “I wanna be around to pick up the pieces when somebody breaks your heart.” She sent her idea (written on either a brown paper bag or an old desk calendar, depending on which version of the story you choose to believe) to noted songwriter Johnny Mercer, essentially telling him that nobody was writing good songs anymore and emphasizing her belief that THIS might make the basis of an excellent “revenge” love song.
Although it took him several years to do so, not only did Mercer complete the song, (all inspired by the one line that cosmetician Sadie Vimmerstedt sent him), he even put her name on the songwriting credits as its cowriter, earning her royalties when Tony Bennett recorded it in 1962. (And Tony Bennett wasn’t the only one to do this tune … Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin also jumped at the chance to record it, as did dozens and dozens of others over the years!)
When the song was nominated for three Grammy awards in 1964 (including the prestigious Song Of The Year award), Mercer flew Sadie out to attend the ceremonies and accompany him as his guest. (Sadly, it lost to “The Days Of Wine And Roses.”) … but what an INCREDIBLE story!!!
You can read about the whole thing right here:
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tony-bennett/i-wanna-be-around
More here: https://bloggingtonybennett.com/tag/sadie-vimmerstedt/
And, thanks to Shannon G. Lynn and our FH Buddy Scott Paton, both former American Top 40 employees, you can listen to Casey Kasem tell the story just like I did here …
Shannon has (in Scott’s words) “done the heroic, if not impossible task of rescuing and often restoring every single episode of AT40 as well as numerous other syndicated radio shows from radio's more glorious days. When you're listening to a vintage show on the air today, odds are Shannon had his hands on it.”
You can browse thru those archives here:
http://www.charismusicgroup.com/shows.htm
54 years ago, when Clint Eastwood was 36, he starred in the western
classic, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."
Some may remember the film and the
story. Others may reflect on the theme song for that movie.
The composer Ennio Morricone died on
July 6, 2020, at the age of 92.
Eli Wallach died in 2014 at age 98
while Lee Van Cleef died in 1989 at 64.
For those who might enjoy seeing how
that theme was performed, this is your lucky day.
Hard to forget that opening sound
track and it's been used in a number of TV commercials.
It's definitely haunting and was
created using the magic of an electronic keyboard.
But who knew that a woman was
responsible for the whaa whaa whaa and the whistling?
Enjoy this 54-year-old relic from the
past brought to you by the female conductor ...
Gary Pike
While this is certainly not the origins of this unmistakable movie theme song, but rather a creative way of interpreting and recreating some of these unusual sounds in a “live” environment (whistling WAS a big part of the hit version … and those “whaa whaa whaa”’s were performed on harmonica), we’ve run a few clips here before of recent performances of this song … it seems to have gained considerable popularity of late and truly has become a classic … one of the clips I’ve seen was even done completely a cappella with no real instrumentation at all.
The song was written by Ennio Morricone, who was approached by his former schoolmate, Sergio Leone, who was now a noted film director. Sergio asked Ennio to compose some music for one of his films, “A Fistful of Dollars” (also starring Clint Eastwood) in the mid-‘60’s. The arrangement worked out so well that the two continued to collaborate on future Leone films.
In the process, the teaming of Leone, Morricone and Eastwood created a new film genre that became known as “The Spaghetti Western” … “cowboy” movies filmed in Italy, with Eastwood always portraying the unnamed (Man With No Name) vigilante anti-hero.
In the 1967 film “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,” Morricone’s title theme was performed with Bruno Nicolai conducting the orchestra. The tune became so memorable and iconic that American composer and orchestra leader Hugo Montenegro decided to record his own version of the tune.
The recording was completed in a single day. Those opening notes were played on an ocarina by musician Art Smith, followed by a harmonica bit provided by musician Tommy Morgan. Following the cue provided by Morricone’s original version, the strange instrumentation also includes electric guitar, electric violin, drums, a soprano recorder, piccolo trumpet, chimes, the whistling of Muzzy Marcellino and “lyrics” like “wah wah wah,” “who who who” “go go go eh go” sung by a choir, who were joined by Montenegro’s own grunting of “rep rup rep rup rep,” all accompanied by a steady beat that grabs you from the very first note.
RCA Records decided to release the track as a single and, Incredibly, it became a HUGE #2 Smash in the Spring of 1968. (Interestingly enough, it was held out of the #1 position by ANOTHER movie theme, “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel, from the film “The Graduate.” (kk)
Grab your uke!!!
This is one of my favorite recently created versions … who knew the song was this revered???
A short while back I mentioned a book written by singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop that set out to collect the original handwritten lyrics (and stories behind the songs) of some of the biggest hits of our era.
Having just obtained a copy of the book, I have to share one of my very favorites with you …
“One night in 1967, Richard Addrissi’s brother, Don, proposed to his girlfriend. “Will there ever come a time when you grow tired of me?” she asked. He looked into her eyes and said, “Never, my love.”
He drove home, awakened his brother, and told him he had a great idea for a song As cowriter Richard recalled, “I set a cup of coffee down on the rough draft and it made a ring. My mother had some bacon on a paper towel, and she slapped it down on top of the song … “Here, Eat. You’ve got to put something in your stomach when you’re writing.” And I remember turning around and saying, “Mom, this is our hit song!”
And there you have it … bacon grease, coffee stain and all!!!
Stephen’s book is called “Songs In The Rough” but is now out of print. (I was able to find a copy easy enough on both Amazon and eBay.) Other rock classics profiled in the book include songs dating back as far as “You Are My Sunshine” and “This Land Is Your Land,” mid ’50’s classics like “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” … ‘60’s gems like “Hello, Mary Lou,” “Penny Lane,” “This Diamond Ring,” “Daydream Believer” and “Purple Haze” … ‘70’s hits like “I Think I Love You,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” “The Way We Were” and “Stayin’ Alive” (as well as Stephen’s own, “On And On”) and ‘80’s hits like “Sussudio,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and “I Touch Myself” by The Divinyls.
A fun and educational read. (kk)
You’ll Find More Stories Behind The Songs (from ForgottenHits.com) …
http://forgottenhits.com/the_stories_behind_the_songs
http://forgottenhits.com/more_stories_behind_the_songs__and_the_remakes
http://forgottenhits.com/last_kiss_the_incredible_convoluted_story_behind_this_1_classic_hit
http://forgottenhits.com/the_story_behind_the_warmth_of_the_sun
