Thursday, March 29, 2012
Forgotten Music -- Patti Page
Miss Patti Page, the Singin' Rage is still with us, but most people under 50 probably don't remember her. Those over 50 don't likely think about her much. But in the early '50s she was indeed the Singin' Rage, with songs like "Tennesse Waltz," which must have been #1 for months. One of my favorites was "Mr. and Mississippi." I was also quite fond of "Detour." One of her big hits was a novelty song about a doggie in a window. This one's probably not forgotten, and you might curse me for reminding you of it. But you'll never curse me for reminding you of the Singin' Rage.
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5 comments:
Drat you for that! "Doggie in the Window" is as bad as "Copacabana" to my mind.
Miss Page also acted in a few movies, including the egregiously awful version of the comic strip DONDI. I think it was Judith Crist who said, "Watch this and you'll know why David Janssen became a fugitive."
It had perhaps the least appearling child performer ever in the title role. I seem to remember Patti singing the title song ("Dondi, little Dondi") but that might be a hallucination. It's been a while since I've seen it.
Jeff
oops - my mistake.
Produced and directed by Albert Zugsmith, the film was released 26 March 1961.[5] Film historian Leonard Maltin asserted, “Watch this film, and you'll know why Janssen became a fugitive!”<
Jeff
One more: One of the films included in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.
Also Michael Medved before he became a "serious" conservative critic and, apparently, took his name off this classic book.
Jeff
Well, no, Michael Medved (and "serious" with quotation marks is only proper) was already establishing himself as a bootless scold, albeit his most widely-read contribution was as collaborator with David Wallechinsky on WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE CLASS OF '65? when his brother Harry published the first worst movies book...Michael apparently advised and/or served as first reader but otherwise didn't do much on that one, while the Medveds collaborated on THE GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS, which followed a few years later with essentially the same sort of content.
Yes Patti Page did make "Dondi" but she was also in one of America's classic films "Elmer Gantry" with Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, and Shirley Jones. In addition to "(How Much Is That) Doggie In The Window" Patti has recorded over 1,000 songs and sold more than 100,000,000 records in her career making her the top female recording artist ever. Her biggest hit "Tennessee Waltz" sold over 10,000,000 copies making it the biggest selling record by a female recording artist. Patti Page was and always will be "The Singing Rage".
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