STEVE'S SONGS

STEVE’S SONGS
I always look forward to the first Thursday of the month, when Steve Barkhurst entertains us, playing his keyboard and singing. His theme today was “Country” music and “Patriotic” songs - his salute to the Fourth, and month of July.
Steve started out playing “The Entertainer” a piano tune written by Scott Joplin in 1902. It is one of the classics of Ragtime. It is sub-titled “A rag time two step” - a dance step - popular until about 1911. “The Entertainer” was the theme song for the 1973 film - “The Sting”. It won an Oscar. You also hear the tune on ice cream trucks, used to attract children. Steve praised Scott Joplin for his talent as a composer.
Steve mentioned George (“No Show”) Jones, and told us about his sad life. “No Show” got his nickname because he missed so many performances - a result of his wild lifestyle. And yet, they referred to him as “the greatest country singer”. He is responsible for more than 150 hits during his career - both as a solo artist and in duets with other singers. He was married four times. His second wife (1969-1975) was Tammy Wynette. He is still an active recording artist, and a touring country singer, even though he is in his seventies. He credits his current wife, Nancy, for saving him from being destroyed by alcohol and drugs.
Steve played, and sang, Hank William’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, (this was quite fitting, with all of the marital infidelity reported in the news lately!) made famous by Patsy Cline. Hank wrote, and recorded, the song in 1952. It was released in 1953, after Hank’s death. Steve went on to explain about Hank’s tragic death. On January 1, 1953, he was due to play in Canton, Ohio. He couldn’t fly there because of bad weather. He hired a chauffeur in Knoxville for the trip. Before leaving, he injected himself with vitamin B-12 and morphine. Steve said that Hank had his chauffer make two more stops en-route. Hank talked personnel at the hospitals into additional injections. When the 17 year old driver stopped for gas in West Virginia, he found Hank dead in the back seat. Hank Williams was 29!
Steve played and sang “Hey Good Lookin”. Hank Williams wrote and recorded the song in 1951. This version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. Cole Porter wrote the original version of the song in 1943. It was sung by Ethel Merman in the Broadway Musical, “Something For The Boys”. In 1951, Hank Williams wrote a variation of “Hey Good Lookin”, and he has received the credit for “Hey good Lookin” ever since!
Steve played “King of the Road” by Roger Miller. This was a #1 hit in 1964. Roger Miller started out playing the fiddle and the guitar, along with his singing. Later, he was known as a composer.
Steve talked about Johnny Cash, and how he met him in 1960, at Don Ho’s night club in Honolulu. Steve went on to play “I Walk the Line”. It was written by Johnny Cash and recorded in 1956. The song was his first number one hit. It spent six weeks at the top spot on the U.S. country charts, and reached number 19 on the pop music charts. “Rolling Stone” ranked the song at number 30 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1956, a million copies of this song were sold. Cash also wrote 150 religious songs.
Steve talked about Josh White. He was blind, and sang blues and folk music. In 1954, he recorded “One Meat Ball” (15 cents) and the first African American to sell a million copies. His career lasted for more than 40 years.
George M. Cohen:- Steve said that “Cohan wrote more patriotic songs than anyone.” His real birth date is a legend. The only record of his birth is his baptismal certificate. It states that he was born On July3, 1878. His family insisted that George was born on July 4th! If true, he had something in common with the three presidents - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Adams and Jefferson died on the same day - July 4, 1826 - 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Monroe died on July 4, 1831.
Cohan’s parents, Jerry and Nellie, were vaudeville troupers. They took George and his sister on tours with them. He had very little formal education. He got his start playing the violin in theatre -pit bands.
When George was eleven, he and his sister Josie joined their parents in the family song and dance act, as The Four Cohans. The family group was so popular that they were probably the highest paid group in vaudeville - $1,000 a week - in 1890. (This is the same year that my Dad Raymond Marks L’Amoreaux was born - in Hillsdale Michigan)
Cohan composed his first Broadway musical, “The Governor’s Son” in 1901. He wrote many more Broadway plays. Cohan visited the White House in 1940, and President Roosevelt presented him with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his creating “Over There” - the only American composer to receive such an honor. He also wrote “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” Cohan wrote more patriotic songs than anyone. He wrote the music for the film Yankee Doodle Dandy starring Jimmy Cagney. It received an Academy Award. George M. Cohan was married twice, and had three children by his second wife. He died on November 5, 1942 at age 64.
Steve played and sang “America the Beautiful. We all joined him in the singing. He went on to explain some of the background for the song. The words are from a poem written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893. The
Music was composed by Samuel A. Ward - a church organist and a choirmaster. Bates wrote her poem after being inspired from a view atop Pike’s Peak. She went back to her hotel room in Colorado Springs, and put her vision into words. It isn’t clear whether she was staying at the Historic Broadmoor or Antlers Hotel - also a historic facility. The combined writings of Bates and Ward were published in 1910, and titled “America the Beautiful”.
Steve wound up his program by introducing “God Bless America”. We sang it along with him. It is a patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 (the year of my birth ), and he revised it in 1938. Kate Smith introduced the revision on November 11, 1938, on her radio show.
God Bless America is often sung at sporting events, some times in place of our National Anthem. Celine Dion has received a lot of recognition for singing “God Bless America.” The song was also recorded by Daniel Rodriguez, New York City’s “singing cop”, after the September 11, 2001 attack.
Steve always signs off his program by singing “All of Me”. The melody, and words, are “catching“. I find that I am humming and/or singing it to myself for days afterwards. The song was written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931. It was first recorded by Belle Baker, and by many other singers since then.
RCL - 7/5/09.