Sunday, January 21, 2007

Because I Couldn't Resist

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bill . . . I'd almost forgotten those commercials.

Unknown said...

How could anyone forget them?

Unknown said...

Indeed. I'm going to have to get my Slim Whitman CD out and play it.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't you find a clip from MARS ATTACKS with all the Martians writhing in pain while Sylvia Sidney sits there enraptured?

Also, congrats on the Edgar nomination. Durn near about time. And MURDER AMONG THE OWLS will be on there next year for Best Novel.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Scott! And I didn't show the ending because, well, I didn't think about that.

Anonymous said...

Indeed. I'm going to have to get my Slim Whitman CD out and play it.

What, you don't have the 8-track?

Where did Slim get that hairdo? And what are his eyes looking at?

I always loved that ad - how his records were supposedly at the top of the British charts more weeks than Elvis and The Beatles.

Yeah, right.

Benjie said...

Now I've got to dust of the old sequin-encrusted suit and pop another 8-track into the dashboard. My favorite is Slim's "El Paso City".

Unknown said...

Jeff, you are so cynical. Here's what Colin Larkin has to say in The Virgin Encyclopedia of 50s Music: ["Rose Marie"] gave Slim Whitman 11 consecutive weeks at the top of the UK charts." (I might add that the flip side, "China Doll," written by The Pride of Mexia, Cindy Walker, was a huge hit in its own right.)

Furthermore, Larkin says, "His 1976 album, The Very Best of Slim Whitman, entered the UK album charts at #1 and was followed by The Red River Valley (#1) and Home on the Range (#2). So Slim ("the first country star to top the bill at the London Palladium") was big in Britain, much bigger than in the U.S.

Anonymous said...

I, for one, am convinced . . . the "Singin' Starduster" must have been bigger than Frankie Laine.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure I'd go that far.