How sad … and how strange …
Carly Simon lost both of her sisters to cancer just a day apart.
The three started out singing together as The Simon Sisters in the early 1960’s (and even charted once with their version of the children’s classic “Winkin’, Blinkin’ And Nod,” a #73 Billboard Hit in 1964.) The trio actually recorded three albums together.
Sister Joanna Simon, an opera singer, died of thyroid cancer on Wednesday (October 19th) at the age of 85. Her stage career began in 1962, while the group was still together, and she would go on to perform with the New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic, among others, until her semi-retirement in 1986. After that, she became a TV arts correspondent and won an Emmy in 1991 for a report on mental health’s effect on creativity.
Sister Lucy Simon passed away the following day (Thursday, October 20th), at the age of 82, of breast cancer.
Lucy made her mark as a Broadway composer, winning a Tony Award in 1991 for the music in “The Secret Garden.” She later worked on a series of musicals and scored the 1993 movie The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Prior to her death, she had been working on music for the upcoming production On Cedar Street.
Carly Simon, of course, took the pop music route, scoring huge hits in the 1970’s and 1980’s like “You’re So Vain” (#1, 1973), “Nobody Does It Better” (#2, 1977), “Mockingbird” (#3, 1974, a duet with her then-husband James Taylor), “You Belong To Me” (#6, 1978), “Jesse” (#6, 1980), “Haven’t Got Time For The Pain” (#7, 1974), “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” (#7, 1971), “Anticipation” (#10, 1972) and “The Right Thing To Do” (#10, 1973).
Our condolences go out to all of the members of the Simon family in what has to be an extremely difficult time. (kk)
>>>OK, now that's just about the coolest clip ever!!! No, I had NOT seen this before ... and wasn't even aware of its existence ... or of Andrew Gold's incredible memory of such a special event. (Talk about your Hollywood Royalty ... your Hollywood Elite!)
Can you imagine the privilege of being invited to such a prestigious event??? And at the age of 13, no less?!?!? Amazing! Wow ... what a childhood memory. (kk)
I first heard about Andy's visit at the Beatles event from ... ANDREW HIMSELF!
Probably the first year I was on the internet, my brother, Bill, had just seen Andrew perform with his band Bryndle the week previous and had gotten Andrew to sign his "All This and Heaven, Too" LP for me. I absolutely call it one of my Top 10 LPs for a desert island. It is SUPERB!
Anyway, they were all up talking to the audience after the show and Bill went up and was telling Andrew what a fan all four brothers were of his music and I think he gave Bill his email for me. The following week, we tried to contact him that way and sure enough, HE WROTE BACK! He had just played THE WHITE HOUSE that week! He told us about how shaky his hand was for the 1964 handshake with Paul. It was a true delight to get an email from him and have his autograph.
IF anyone loved his first LPs, you need the "Something New" CD of his 1973 demos released a year or so ago. It's a dream come true to hear more from him from that 70's period. I wish I had that email. I THINK I got it printed out (probably 2001), but no idea where it is.
Clark
Tom Cuddy sent us this link to 30 Brill Building favorites …
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/best-brill-building-30-timeless-135913836.html
Ironically, I heard Sammy Tallerico talking about a new Brill Building documentary that’s airing now … I forget where exactly … Netflix maybe??? I’ll have to check it out.
He says the documentary itself isn’t all that interesting or well done … but you just can’t beat the music … so you may want to search for this one as well.
(I have a couple of these documentaries on dvd – probably ran on PBS at some point in time – I’m not sure and can’t remember – but it really is quite amazing to think how, back in the day before groups were composing their own material, hit songs were being MANUFACTURED … LITERALLY … in a series of song-writing factories … who just kept churning out the hits in an unprecedented fashion. And these tunes are all still gold standards today to take measure of this era. (kk)
>>>Looks like KOB used to run off copies of their weekly survey chart on a mimeograph machine!!! (lol) kk
Well, I could smell that fabulous fragrance of Mimeograph Ink on paper even if only in the Memory Bank of My Mind!
CB (which stands for "Copy Boy!")
