Posted on 12/13/2020 3:01:29 PM PST by Twotone
Some years ago, the late Mort Shuman, a marvelous composer and one of the first generation of rock'n'roll songwriters, took me to lunch. Mort had written "Why Must I Be A Teenager In Love?" and "Can't Get Used To Losing You" and a bunch of stuff for Elvis, including "Mess O' Blues", "Suspicion" and "Viva Las Vegas". But, like most successful music biz types, he wanted to talk about what he was doing next. So, after the usual pleasantries, he slid across the table a script bearing the title Save The Last Dance For Me - after his Number One hit for the Drifters.
"It's a musical," he said, "about the Cuban missile crisis."
Now I generally subscribe to Tim Rice's rule - that, if somebody says wow, what a great idea for a musical, it almost certainly isn't. But that doesn't mean the inverse applies - that, if something sounds like a terrible idea for a musical, it must be a surefire smash. So, when Mort said, "What do you think?", I was prepared to concede there might possibly be a great musical lurking somewhere in the Cuban missile crisis, but I was less persuaded that there was a great musical about the Cuban missile crisis set to all Mort's old pop hits of the period. "'Save The Last Dance For Me' doesn't address the Cuban missile crisis directly," explained Mort.
"That's true," I said.
"But it comments on it obliquely. I mean, it's literally the last dance. The last dance before the end of the world."
Hmm. "Suspicion" was also in the show, because it commented, equally obliquely, on the mutual suspicion between Kennedy and Krushchev or some such.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Elvis famously sang “Suspicious Minds.” The other song, “Suspicion,” was a hit for Terry Stafford. Did not know till now that Ekvis also sang it, though he probably sang 109s of songs.
>>Noël Regney: the first Noël to write an American Christmas classic, even if it took the Cuban missile crisis to inspire him.
Mel Blanc, famous Jewish comedian/voice actor named his son Noel Blanc without realizing that he’d named him White Christmas.
I knew he was in the army but I didn’t know he sang duets with a howitzer.
(Unique typo)
noël
bump
I like the Terry Stafford version better. And he had backup singers that warbled ooh ooh.
The first comment in this video claims her grandma was one of the backup singers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gzY-PrwwHk
He wrote Amarillo by Morning.
:)
“Do you hear what I hear?” is a line from “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” televised in 1958. (It has to do with the magi, and also with licorice.)
A great post! Thanks!
That must have been quite a shock having a dead guy take you to lunch. ;-)
I’ve probably heard this song a thousand times and never had any idea who wrote it or why. Thanks, Mark Stein, for enlightening me.
I don’t know how many songs Elvis recorded, but the numbers must be gigantic. Listening to his channel on XM the variety goes on forever.
What a charming piece.
I wonder if there’s a Spanish version. If there is, it must be very different, because Spanish has way too many syllables for English-origin melodies.
Fantastic article. Thank you.
What great music he wrote!
WOW.
Fun fact: Mort Shuman played Officer Miglioritti in “The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane,” starring Jodie Foster.
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