85..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1Iah57nQJQQ

=( Such a sweet voice

One of the voices of my childhood.

RIP.



Yeah, me too. I have vague remembrances of black and white TV and watching vocalists like Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como and Andy Williams with my parents. As the narrator says in the Woody Allen movie Radio Days,"The voices are getting dimmer".

Final thought: I remember seeing a very young Woody Allen do stand-up on the Ed Sullivan show. As I recall, he was funny as hell.

Patti Page was a star in her day in a genre of music unknown and unfamiliar to many members of this forum. I've let it be known here that I often browse through old LPs at local thrift shops. I often see old albums by Miss Page in the piles. Maybe next time, I'll pick one up.
Whitefang

Yeah, I recall seeing Allen on Sullivan, & yes, he was a great standup comic. A lot of the major comedians got their big breaks on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan's show was probably the most visible display of American popular culture in the 50's & 60's. The archives must be immense, & a real national treasure. Who else could get away with mixing ventriloquists with guys spinning plates with tap dancers with The Beatles?

RIP Patti...You Don't Know Me was recorded by many of our greatest singers and you were definitely one of them!

She was one of the good ones.
Sad to hear this but many good childhood memories of her music.

Randy

RIP
Allegheny Moon is the one I associate with her but I don`t know if it`s the first version.
She was one of those who always reminds me that there are `people who can sing` and then there are `singers`.

Hey Skip,

We used to refer to "Female Vocalists" and "Chick Singers". Definitions below.

Female Vocalist:

1. Has some level of formal vocal training.
2. Can read music.
3. Can make her wishes known to the band by speaking the language of Music*.

Chick Singer:

1. Memorizes words
2. Can carry a tune and sing on-key.

* I once had a chick singer tell me to "make it go back and forth". She was asking for "movement in fourths", but did not speak the language at all.

Joke:

Q. How can you tell when there's a chick singer knocking on the door?

A. She can never find her key and no matter how many times you "turn around" and "open it up", she still doesn't know when to "come in".

You could almost divide those two by genre. Chick singers do pop. Female vocalists do everything else

Yeah. I would probably agree with that in most instances. Some vocalists can sing literally anything. However, in many instances their voice is almost too well trained to sing Pop.

Several years ago, someone made a copy of a CD for me. It was Kiri Te Kanawa, the opera singer singing jazz standards. They had recorded the CD with a really killer combo comprised of Andre Previn (my all time favorite jazz pianist) on piano, Ray Brown on upright bass and Louie Belsen on drums. All are (were) really stellar jazz musicians. The recording absolutely sucked! Although Kiri did have a beautiful voice, it was clear that she had never sung in swing time. Her singing was stiff and not jazzy at all. The best part of the CD was listening to her backup combo swingin' like crazy. I'll bet they were looking at each other and laughing.

That sounds like a kid I knew in high school. He always wanted to front a rock band, and he DID have a very good voice. Trouble was, he sounded too much like Perry Como!

He would have done well in today's world of Michael Buble and his ilk. I have NO idea what's ever become of him.
Whitefang

The musical Oklahoma is a great example of a bunch of broadway singers dressed up as cowboys who can't sing a country lick to save their souls. The vocals are great but just sound fake. Sometimes people with great voices love a genre and want to give it their all, but it's just not the right choice for them. They should stick to what they are good at (ie. country, rock, jazz, blues, pop, etc.). There are those that can cross-over because they are great singers, but it is weird when you witness the not-a-good-fit phenomenon...

That`s not always about singing ability, rather it`s articulation. Similar to someone who usually plays classical music in a rock or blues setting, the notes are all there but voiced in a totally wrong way.

+1 but that's the unusual part, the guy has a great voice and singing ability and even articulates and breathes as well as any trained singer, but he just doesn't fit the genre. It's not the Grand Old Opera, it's the Grand Old Opre. What maybe works for some of John Denvers' tunes is a bit to classical for Hank Williams Sr. or Jr.'s stuff...in bebop, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, or in Rock and Roll it's like Perry Como singing a rendition of Satisfaction. Is it because some singers are maybe picking on material better left alone?


It brings back a memory of mine that haunts me till this day. I was singing Karoke at Harvey's in Tahoe and did a great job on Orbisons' Pretty Woman with lots of applause. So this guy comes up and offers to buy me and my lady drinks if I would sing his favorite Huey Lewis song. I knew and liked the song and said OK but I had never rehearsed or tried to sing it before. Got some applause and he bought the Mai Tai's and said it was great, but I knew I would never do it again as it just wasn't the right song for me.

paraphrasing Clint Eastwood; A man's got to know his limitations.

Does anyone here remember seeing the "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" skit years ago when Joe Piscopo impersonated FRANK SINATRA singing a medley of rock'n'roll hits?

It was hilarious, and also a good example of what we're now discussing.
Whitefang

The two chicks doing their clang clang clang went the bell lounge act and Bill Murray doing his lounge act were classics along with Joe Piscopo doing Frank!

Oh ya I think I`ve had a little misstep or two...when I lived in Taipei a singer friend of mine (now lives in Doha, fine jazz vocalist) was moving to China and asked if I wanted to replace her at the clubs she regularly sang at. I was in a classic rock/blues band at the time. Well this turned out to be material from the American standard songbook-BOY was that a mistake. I didn`t have to wait for the club owners to say anything-one or two of them did anyway, something to the effect of, `whatever you do don`t bring him back`.

Hey Skip,

That must have been a tough gig for you. Did you at least have a chart to work from?

Hey, we've all been there, Man.

Skip,

You know, sometimes I really am stupid. It just dawned on me that this was a vocal gig for you, not a guitar gig. I regret my lack of attention to detail.