Saturday, August 08, 2009
Mothers and Music
Thinking about my Mom today--six months since her death-- and a feature on NPR reminded me of my mother and music. We had no record player in our house until I got a turntable as a teenager. You would probably think my mother then got most of her music via radio, but it was actually TV. Early TV was full of music. My mother's favorite was Perry Como. She was a great dancer and so is my father. And I remember dancing in our tiny living room with her.
If your mother, living or dead, was coming to dinner tonight. What music would you play for her? What was her favorite?
Just a few of the show featuring singers in the 1950s
VARIETY SHOWS
Milton Berle
Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour
Your Show of Shows
Perry Como Show
Colgate Comedy Hour
Your Hit Parade
Jack Benny Show
People Are Funny
George Gobel Show
AND ALSO...
Arthur Godfrey
Ed Sullivan
Dinah Shore
Lawrence Welk
Red Skelton
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24 comments:
You've brought back some memories for me. I remember being thrilled when my father brought home our first "stereo" when I was a teenager, and he had even thought to buy a record for me--a Dave Clark Five album:) I was really touched, considering Dad's taste in music ran more towards Lawrence Welk or Glenn Miller. It's wonderful that Perry Como invokes such pleasant memories of your own mother.
Thanks for visiting my book review post on Wednesday; I'll have to check out the book you recommended--sounds intriguing!
My first album, given to me by my grandfather who bought the turn table was WEST SIDE STORY. I can still sing every word of it.
HURTING INSIDE by the Dave Clark Five was my favorite song. I think it was flip side.
We had radio, but then I'm older than you.
My mother sang when she worked around the house. Mostly old gospel hymnsl "Let the Lower Lights be Burning," "Love Lifted Me," "In the Garden." That kind of thing.
Yes, my mother sang a lot of hymns. But she liked to dance so it was more often that.
Hmmm, we had some Como records. Also soundtracks like Sound of Music. Many of the records my mom had would be considered Muzak nowadays. I helped her get into classical music and now she listens to our Houston NPR station which is also the classical station.
We had no record albums until I, and even more my brother, got interested in music. It was strictly something my parents listened to on TV or the radio in the big band era. I'm not sure why. Later, they liked Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond. But as a kid, it was those fifties icons on TV.
No question, my mom would choose Glenn Miller music. She has many favorites in big band, country, pop and jazz, but Glenn Miller gets her up and moving every time.
My father took dancing lessons from Arthur Murray Studios so they could dance to that music. I'd love to walk into one of those nightclubs and watch them.
My mother owned no music either and we finally got a forty-five player when she scrimped and saved(she raised three kids by herself with no help from dear old dad).
We started getting a few singles(the usual suspects: the Beatles, Stones, and such).
I remember playing one I had that was popular at the time(Bette Midler's Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy) and having Mom stick her head in the door, saying, "That song was popular when I was your age!"
Mostly she listened to gospel and country on television
While I would sidestep the premise of your question (for complicated reasons), I would be remiss if I did not applaud you for sharing the Perry Como clip. As a Pittsburgh boy, I remember the family's avid devotion to each weekly appearance of Mr. Como on television. He represents a bright, shining era in the golden age of television.
He's a singer that you seldom hear mentioned today and yet he was so popular. I listened to several clips and was impressed with the quality of his voice and his easy delivery. Perhaps he lacked a certain intensity or level of personal style in his presentation of material that would have allowed him to prevail.
Now in the northeast, I don't think we got much country or gospel. It was more individualized then.
Tennessee Ernie Ford's show was a major beachhead for country music on 1950s US network television, as was OZARK JUBILEE, though listening to the radio was more likely to expose one no matter where one was...WWVA, from Wheeling, WV, was a clear-channel monster that could be heard up and down the Eastern Seaboard at night, and my father's parents would listen to that in Barre, VT in the '40s and early '50s. In fact, since so much Hawaiian music was steel-guitar-dominated in those years, his parents also regularly tuned in to the Mutual station for HAWAII CALLS, which continued on the network till the early '70s...when not listening to THE GRAND OLD OPRY and other coutnry programming, locally or otherwise.
My mother was born and raised in West Virginia, but never cared much for country that didn't have a rockish inflection at least...she finally reached a point a few years ago wherein she decided she had Enough Elivs Presley, and she keeps a tape of a radio show I did for her birthday on my series that emphasized rockabilly...though I was amused that my folks, about six-eight years ago, had discovered/rediscovered the Eagles, and had purchased a few of their albums; my father was also caught up by the Kinks' "Picture Book" when it was used in an ad campaign (so, only running forty years slow or so). Meanwhile, my favorites of her records we had in my youth (most of hers had been "inherited" by her younger sister) were her Joe Turner and other early rock records, and a Glenn Miller Orchestra Pickwick anthology she'd picked up cheap while also picking up a Pickwick Beach Boys antho for me, at some Grant's or Zayre or Bradlee's or some such. (My father was responsible for the classical and jazz records I would also listen to.)
Two notable short (15 minute) and shortlived network music shows of the earlier '50s: HAZEL SCOTT and THE NAT "KING" COLE SHOW--the pioneers in African-American cast musical/variety shows.
Todd- as usual you are shown to be Nan Higginson on my email.
I've seen clips of Nat King Cole. Your parents passed on their eclectic tastes without a doubt.
And Perry Como did prevail in his time, and is remembered...he was, indeed, hugely popular. But most of his generation of singers just aren't played that often if they didn't become institutions, as Sinatra did (and Sinatra has a swagger that appeals to younger machismics). Don't hear Too many references to Vaughn Monroe or Steve and Eydie anymore, either...and, certainly, Porter Wagoner wasn't the only gospel performer on tv in the '60s...
Very few survive in any field. That's the lesson, Nan.
So, even though my name shows up on your blog from my pov as me, I pop up when you read them as Nan Higginson, still? Clearly, Blogger remains a triumph of engineering. (Well, actually I Am Nan Higginson, I just can't bring myself to face that yet.)
Well, again, I think if you asked most people who care about pop music who Perry Como was, they'd know. But most people don't care about any kind of music enough to worry about what's pleasant enough to put on right now, or leave on.
And in re: eclecticism, whether in literarature or music among so much else, as a certain crooner and a certain set of crooners (Mr. Williams and Mr. Faith's gang) were once so frequently heard to note, There's such a lot of world to see...(thanks, Mr. Mercer)...
My mother passed on twenty years ago this November, but she would have liked any singer from the Lawrence Welk Show or Glenn Miller. We always went to movie musicals together. I was 4 when we got the first TV on our street, and evening shows during part of the week had some form of musical entertainment. Of course, on Sunday evening it was the infamous Ed Sullivan. She liked classical music during the dinner hour when we had guests over.
Todd-The weird thing is, I never remember Nan appearing on here. I wonder how it happened. You are usually Nan, but not always. And sometimes other people are Nan. I am wondering Nan is the voice of God.
My mom was a TV music lover too. She loved the champagne music on Lawrence welk, and the grand ole opry.
If my old man came a'calling I would play a Beethoven symphony for him but now that you made me think, I don't have any memory of my mother ever listening to music or watching much TV once the nightly news went off.
One of the best musical showcases (along with other arts), not mentioned so far, on 1950s US network tv was OMNIBUS. And CBS's not dissimilar half-hour THE SEVEN LIVELY ARTS did the wonderful "What Is Jazz?"
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