To get this out of the way: I enjoy watching episodes of "The Honeymooners," but Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden threatening to hit his wife so hard she'll be knocked all the way to the moon is -- well "creepy" and "unfunny" don't really cover it, but there. That's been said.
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Like millions of others, my family watched Jackie Gleason's variety show on television. I didn't know then that Gleason had composed a 1952 hit song which was used as the program's theme.
I discovered this week that Gleason also composed "You're My Greatest Love," the theme song for "The Honeymooners." The comedian/actor/singer didn't read or write music but apparently he sang or hummed his compositions for assistants, who transcribed the music.
All this came to mind because while at the thrift store, I came across this record.
When I was a kid, there were a lot of "mood music" records around. Long-playing records, and then later sets of them, meant people could have background music for parties without paying for live music. People were also adjusting to the suburban lifestyle, in which there were themed LPs for cocktail hour, dinner, after-dinner dancing, and...well, romance. In the 1950s, an orchestra conductor named Paul Weston had a number of themed albums -- one was for sitting by a fireplace -- and it was easy work for record producers to follow suit with Jackie Gleason, famous from television, listed as conductor.
Gleason didn't conduct the orchestra named after him and he probably didn't even choose the musical selections. After a while the record companies stopped pretending and the newest album titles began with "Jackie Gleason Presents..." No matter; his famous neme sold albums.
Despite all the syrupy stuff, Jackie Gleason knew good music when he heard it, and he pulled together projects with musicians across several genres. Check out the big names listed on "Riff Jazz," for instance:
Could Gleason himself sing? Yes he could and he starred for nearly a year in the Broadway musical "Take Me Along," based on Eugene O'Neill's play "Ah, Wilderness!" Gleason's singing voice could be both a bit nasal and quite gravelly, with shouts taking the place of singing at times, but "Take Me Along" had 440 performances so clearly, audiences liked what the star was doing.
More camping and vamping... On "The Cavalcade of Stars"/"The Jackie Gleason Show," Gleason used to do a vaudeville-style segue that went "And awaaay we go!" and had a head down, elbow and knee up pose with it. This catchprase was expanded into a musical number:
To close for today: Did you know "Melancholy Serenade" has lyrics?Al Martino does the vocal for us:
Next week: I am excited about a library book!
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