
Hollywood On 52nd Street
Wild Is The Windis a song written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington for the 1957 film of the same name. The title song was was one of the five nominated songs at the 1958 Academy Awards and was originally performed by Johnny Mathis who also sang it at the Oscars. The movie starred Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn and Tony Franciosa. The film was a remake of the 1947 Italian film Fury and was adapted from the a novel by Vittorio Nino.
The Story: Wild Is the Wind is about a rancher who marries his Italian sister-in-law after the death of his wife, but she falls in love with his young ranch hand.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Almost In Your Arms is the love song from the 1958 romantic comedy Houseboat starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Peterson, Charles Herbert and Mimi Gibson. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans composed and wrote the music and lyrics.
The Story: Estranged husband Tom Winters returns home from Europe after his wife’s death and takes his three unwilling children to Washington DC where he works for the State Department. Unhappy, Robert runs away and is found by Cinzia Zaccardi, the daughter of a famous Italian conductor, who is also running away. Unbeknownst, Winters offers her a job as a maid and eventually she accepts. Sister-in-law offers Tom and the children her guest house which is destroyed by a train, the driver sells Winters his broken down houseboat, all move in and the fun begins. Eventually Tom and Cinzia get married and the rest is happily-ever-after.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Annie Ross was born Annabelle McCauley Allan Short to vaudeville parents on July 25, 1930 in Mitcham, London, England and was raised in Los Angeles, California by her aunt, singer Ella Logan. When she was seven years old she sang the “Bonnie Banks of o’ Loch Lomond” in Our Gang Follies of 1938 and played Judy Garland’s sister in Presenting Lily Mars. By the age of 14 she wrote the song “Let’s Fly” which won a songwriting contest and was recorded by Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers. By the end of her tenth grade she left school, went to Europe, changed her surname to Ross and quickly started her singing career.
Best known as a member of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Annie is one of the early practitioners of a singing style known as vocalese, that involves the setting of original lyrics to an instrumental jazz solo. Her 1952 treatment of saxophonist Wardell Gray’s “Twisted” is a classic example of vocalese.
During the Fifties she recorded her first album, Singin’ and Swingin’with the MJQ, followed by Annie By Candlelight, Sing A Song With Mulligan and A Gasser! with Zoot Sims. She recorded seven albums with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross between 1957 and 1962. Their first, Sing A Song Of Basie resulted in a success and the trio became an international hit. Ross left the group in 1962 and in 1964 opened her own nightclub, Annie’s Room, in London.
Ross is also an accomplished actress appearing in a number of films such as Superman III, Throw Momma From The Train, Wicker Man, and on stage Three Penny Opera and Side By Side By Sondheim.
Annie has been the recipient of the ASCAP Jazz Wall Of Fame, the NEA Jazz Masters Award and the MAC Award for Lifetime Achievement and performs regularly at The Metropolitan Room in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Janis Siegel was born July 23, 1952 in Brooklyn, New York. She first recorded in 1965 with a group called Young Generation for Red Bird records. By ’72 when the original Manhattan Transfer disbanded, founder Tim Hauser revamped adding Siegel and went on to international fame singing jazz, jazz-fusion, pop, R&B and doo-wop.
Her first solo album, “Experiment in White”, was released in 1981 followed by her sophomore project “At Home” that garnered a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. Siegel’s ongoing tenure with the Manhattan Transfer has won her 10 Grammy Awards and inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 1985, Siegel joined Jon Hendricks, Bobby McFerrin and Dianne Reeves in the group called Sing, Sing, Sing; has recorded eleven albums as a solo artist working with such jazz luminaries as Russell Malone, Joey DeFrancesco, Hank Crawford, Matt Wilson Victor Lewis and Michael Brecker among others. She has recorded twenty-eight albums as a member of The Manhattan Transfer.
Vocalist Janis Siegel is currently a member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra, while simultaneously performing with The Manhattan Transfer and continuing a solo career.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
When Did You Leave Heaven was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936 from the movie Sing Baby Sing. Richard A. Whiting and Walter Bullock composed the music and lyrics. Alice Faye, Adolphe Menjou, Gregory Ratoff, Ted Healy, Patsy Kelly and Paul Stanton.
The Story: Singer Joan Warren is fired from her job at the Ritz Club and seeks help from theatrical agent, Nicky Alexander. Taking her to Mr. Brewster, president of the Federal Broadcasting Company, she auditions but does not get the job due to upper class snobbery. Back at the club packing her bags she is convinced to audition for drunken actor Bruce Farraday. Pictures taken, scandal ensues and a radio contract is offered to Warren if Farraday will perform with her. Tricking Brewster into believing it to be true they plan to broadcast from Kansas City but Farraday exonerates Warren and honestly secures the radio contract for her.
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