fjb, local currency: solo 1992-1998 (fayettenam)

the human hearts, civics (tight ship)

the human hearts on myspace

nothing painted blue, taste the flavor (shrimper)

info on older band and solo work; I have no idea who compiled the scarily complete discographies

10.15.2007

Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding (1967, Peter Tewksbury)

As choice-of-suitors movies go, this weakish Sandra Dee vehicle is far worse than Tom, Dick, and Harry (1941, Garson Kanin at the top of his game), but slightly better than that film's musical remake, The Girl Most Likely (1957, Mitchell Leisen at the bottom of his). Dee, like Tuesday Weld, is more interesting to watch than her featherweight reputation suggests, and I'm never displeased to see Celeste Holm, but Brit director Tewksbury, on this evidence, soured into a cut-rate Richard Lester soon after the charming Emil & The Detectives.

The film mertis this note mainly because of the song used as the main number in Dee's character's nightclub act (kind of an Ann-Margaret spoof, don't ask how it bears on the story): "Walk Tall (Like A Man)" which recently resurfaced, in a version by the 2 of Clubs (no "the," apparently) as Disc One, Track One of Rhino's Girl Groups box. I have no idea how this Vance/Pockriss* tune jumped from a Fraternity Records 7" that just scratched the Hot 100 to a hack sex-comedy from the waning years of the studio system, but slightly more digging reveals that 2 of Clubs were themselves covering a flop single by one Verdelle Smith, a Capitol pop-soul singer I'm not sure I had ever heard of before. (I suppose this info is in the Rhino booklet, but that's long packed away.)

(*Their songs included "Itsy-Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polkadot Bikini," "Johnny Angel," and "Fortune Teller"; also "My Little Corner of the World," recorded by Anita Bryant and Yo La Tengo.)