I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat

Steyn On-line ^ | October 15, 2017 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

One hundred years ago today - October 15th 1917 - a man called Alan Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania. You probably don't know his name, and, if you think you know your songwriters, you may be confusing him with his older brother Jay Livingston, who with Ray Evans wrote "Que Sera Sera", "Mona Lisa", "Buttons and Bows" and the urban Christmas song "Silver Bells". Jay's kid brother doesn't have a song catalogue like that, but one way or another we owe a lot of the late 20th century's best known music to him. For one, Alan Livingston was central to the most spectacular comeback in American popular music. As I wrote two years ago:

I'm not sure what the opposite of having the world on a string is, but whatever you call it that's the situation Frank was in in early 1953. "Sinatra had hit bottom, and I mean bottom," said Alan Livingston, vice-president of A&R at Capitol and co-writer of "I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat" (a song that Frank, oddly enough, never got around to). "He couldn't get a record contract, and he literally, at that point, could not get a booking in a nightclub. It was that bad - he was broke, and in a terrible state of mind."

But Livingston thought he had a future, even if nobody else did. So he announced he'd signed Sinatra at the national sales convention in Colorado - and the entire room groaned.

[ConorMacNessa]

Ping.

[DJ Frisat]

Good read! Learned a lot about Alan Livingston, and was delighted by the music video at the end.

Mark Steyn never fails to amuse me...

[Fiddlstix]

I Remember the song very well. It would've been 1947-1948 if my memory is working. It became popular to say "I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat".
Good Times

[Bigg Red]

I have heard that song, but I thought the saying originated with a cartoon. Seem to recall the expression was used by a caged bird, Tweetie Bird, I think. The cat was Sylvester. I have always disliked cartoons, even as a child, so I could be wrong about this.

[odawg]

I don’t understand how Steyn connects him to “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. It was written by Robbie Robertson.

[Fiddlstix]

Here's the original. It was very popular on the radio back then.
BTW. I was wrong about the date. It was 1951

1951 HITS ARCHIVE: I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat - Mel Blanc

(I could swear I heard the song on the radio prior to 1951. I guess my memory is slipping)

[Intolerant in NJ]

Bump.....

[PAR35]

Anyone who watched The Godfather knows how Sinatra got his career back on track.

[right way right]

Did it involve a horse head in a bed?

[Bigg Red]

Okay, thanks.

[doubled]

bfl

[John Milner]

The Band were a Capitol Records group.

[John Milner]

An interesting side story about Alan Livingston and the legendary Beatles Yesterday and Today “Butcher” cover.

http://rarebeatles.com/album2/discog/livleter.htm

[bitt]

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