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What a Wonderful World
Steyn On-line ^ | April 15, 2018 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 04/16/2018 5:56:12 AM PDT by Twotone

Edited on 04/16/2018 9:01:45 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

I don't know about you but, whenever I see trees of green, red roses too, I think to myself:

Tell that fat bastard to go [bleep] himself.. Why do we give a [bleep]..? Screw 'em all.

More of that anon. But, before we get to those four-letter fanfares, half-a-century ago this month - April 1968 - something rather unusual happened in the UK Top 40: An American got to Number One.


TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: marksteyn; satchmo
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Some very interesting (& funny) musical history about one of my favorite songs.
1 posted on 04/16/2018 5:56:12 AM PDT by Twotone
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To: Twotone

>>That hadn’t happened in a while: Ever since Scott McKenzie went to San Francisco with flowers in his hair the previous summer, the Yanks had been frosted out of the top spot in Britain. Whether Londoners (Manfred Mann with “Mighty Quinn”, Love Affair with “Everlasting Love”), Scousers (the Beatles with “Hello, Goodbye” and “Lady Madonna”), Northerners (Georgie Fame, “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde”), East Midlanders (Long John Baldry, “Let the Heartaches Begin”), Wiltshire lads (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, “The Legend of Xanadu” - our co-Song of the Week #112), semi-Aussies (the Bee Gees, “Massachusetts”), Anglo-Indians (Engelbert with “The Last Waltz” and Cliff with “Congratulations”), or West Indians with a token Ceylonese (the Foundations, “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You”), the Number One pop stars were all British subjects

Ah but Mighty Quinn was written by Bob Dylan. Everlasting Love was written by Buzz Cason. Each was American with a long history of writing and performing.

Cason’s journey brought him into the Crickets (post Buddy Holly), also writing a song that would later be covered by the Beatles, U2, and Pearl Jam (Solider of Love), writing his biggest hit Everlasting Love, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Cason


2 posted on 04/16/2018 6:02:26 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Ads for Chappaquiddick warn of scenes of tobacco use. What about the hazards of drunk driving?)
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To: Twotone

>>It’s a genuine standard, a late addition to the Great American Songbook, in the sense that zillions of singers take a crack at it - Anne Murray, Joey Ramone, Céline Dion, Shane MacGowan, Ziggy Marley - which is more than can be said of “Green Tambourine” or “Tighten Up” or the other hits of ‘68.

Well Tighten Up became a standard too, recorded originally by Archie Bell and the Drells but subsequently covered by James Brown and many others...


3 posted on 04/16/2018 6:06:18 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Ads for Chappaquiddick warn of scenes of tobacco use. What about the hazards of drunk driving?)
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To: a fool in paradise

I saw Archie Bell and the Drells at the Bamboo Hut on Galveston Beach during the summer of ‘67 or ‘68. They did the “Tighten up” about 10 times. The instrumentals on the recording and at that performance were by the Texas Southern University Tornadoes. Archie spoke the limited lyrics and the Drells did the fancy steps ala the Temptations. They wore lime green jackets with lemon yellow slacks and white shoes.


4 posted on 04/16/2018 6:18:53 AM PDT by MisterArtery
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To: Twotone

The song accompanies a YouTube video, a slow motion helicopter hog hunt in Texas. Must see.


5 posted on 04/16/2018 6:20:28 AM PDT by lurk
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To: Twotone
What a wonderful world column.
6 posted on 04/16/2018 6:23:51 AM PDT by StAntKnee (Add your own danged sarc tag)
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To: Twotone

Think I first heard it play on Monlighting. Womb with a View


7 posted on 04/16/2018 6:26:34 AM PDT by SMGFan (Sarah Michelle Gellar is on twitter @SarahMGellar)
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To: Twotone

Very interesting history. I always wondered why I had never heard that old song until a relative few years ago.

There are a number of artists who are nothing here and major stars in the UK and vice versa.

One day, I went to pick up my son at a church youth group thing. They were finishing off the night reading Trivial Pursuit questions. The question was something like “This artist is the third highest selling artist in the UK and virtually unheard of in the United States.”

I blurted out “Cliff Richard.” instantly impressing 20 high school kids with my intense knowledge of completely trivial things.


8 posted on 04/16/2018 6:28:39 AM PDT by cyclotic ( WeÂ’re the first ones taxed, the last ones considered and the first ones punished)
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To: Twotone

I feel ‘aged’ reading this thread.


9 posted on 04/16/2018 6:29:56 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: Twotone

Bump for later when I have the time.


10 posted on 04/16/2018 6:30:39 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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Louis Armstrong did it the best.


11 posted on 04/16/2018 6:34:32 AM PDT by Clutch Martin (Hot sauce aside, every culture has its pancakes, just as every culture has its noodle.)
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To: Twotone

The melody seems to have been adapted from “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”


12 posted on 04/16/2018 6:37:03 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: MisterArtery

I met Archie Bell on an elevator at a Holiday Inn in downtown Raleigh North Carolina in 1973 maybe 74 spring. He was playing at the Holiday Inn. I invited him up to the room to a PJ party (that’s Purple Jesus which is basically grain alcohol in a bunch of canned fruit). Lots of women lots of guys & Archie comes in the room takes one look around opens his briefcase and starts passing out bumper stickers and 8x10 glossies, even had a sip.

And that’s my Archie Bell story.


13 posted on 04/16/2018 6:41:34 AM PDT by Clutch Martin (Hot sauce aside, every culture has its pancakes, just as every culture has its noodle.)
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To: Twotone
I like this tune from Satchmo--and it was a bigger hit in this country than "Wonderful World":

West End Blues--Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five (1928)

14 posted on 04/16/2018 6:48:04 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Clutch Martin

Archie Bell is the older brother of Ricky Bell, one of the greatest tailbacks to play for the USC Trojans. He died of cardiomyositis, a rare heart ailment, at the age of 29.


15 posted on 04/16/2018 6:59:52 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: StAntKnee
This is a really, really good column.

Makes me nostalgic, but not enough to so watch Good Morning, Vietnam.

Still a great article from Steyn.

16 posted on 04/16/2018 7:19:15 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: a fool in paradise

The Ramones covered it as only the Ramones could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-3ox-6WhBA


17 posted on 04/16/2018 7:19:18 AM PDT by heterosupremacist (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. - (Thomas Jefferson))
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To: Twotone

Record company execs are the Spawn of Satan.... ha ha.


18 posted on 04/16/2018 7:19:57 AM PDT by Enchante (FusionGPS "dirty dossier" scandal links Hillary, FBI, CIA, Dept of Justice... "Deep State" is real)
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To: cyclotic
“This artist is the third highest selling artist in the UK and virtually unheard of in the United States.”
I blurted out “Cliff Richard.” instantly impressing 20 high school kids with my intense knowledge of completely trivial things.

Vera Lynn, one of the bestselling artists in the UK during the 20th century, is also virtually unknown in the US. She turned 101 last month.

19 posted on 04/16/2018 7:36:23 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Fiji Hill

Leo Sayer is another. He has 15 top 40 singles in the UK and 5 in the US.


20 posted on 04/16/2018 7:47:18 AM PDT by cyclotic ( WeÂ’re the first ones taxed, the last ones considered and the first ones punished)
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