The Short of It

Steyn On-line ^ | April 28, 2019 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

Luigi Francisco Varlaro was born one hundred years ago in the Bronx - April 21st 1919. And if your reaction to that is "Who?", well, he belonged to that generation of Italian-American male vocalists who felt obligated to anglicize their names - Frank Sinatra being the notable exception to the rule and, to most promoters and managers, the exception that proved the rule. So Luigi changed his moniker to "Don Cornell". On paper, "Don Cornell" isn't any blander a handle than, say, Tony Bennett or Dean Martin. But Don did less with his. He had an impressive run of Billboard Top 40 hits through the early Fifties, plus a Number One in the UK ("Hold My Hand"). But, as with other melodramatic Italiano balladeers, most of his catalogue falls in a strange twilight zone between the great timeless songs and the nostalgic where-were-you-when hits of the Fifties, so you don't hear them on either the oldies stations or the standards stations.

Nevertheless, for most of my disc-jockey days, I was very grateful to Mr Cornell, because, for radio pop quizzes, he provided a surefire audience stumper.

Question: What is the Top Ten hit record with the shortest title?

Answer: This - from Don Cornell in 1952, the unilettered "I".

No, not "I (Who Have Nothing)", the Leiber & Stoller song that provided a hit for Ben E King, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones et al, but "I (Who Have Nothing - Not Even a Parenthetic Sub-Title - Other Than a Single Letter)":

Don Cornell got to Number Seven on the Billboard charts with "I" . If you're wondering who wrote it, Mr Cornell's record credits the song to Milton Berle, Buddy Arnold and Robert Mellin. Yes, Milton Berle is that Milton Berle, Mister Television.

[MrEdd]

I like Steyn, but Stranger On The Shore has not been unsung since Acker Bilk. Roger Whittaker did a rendition which is well regarded.