Friday, December 29, 2006

DEAD FOLKS 2006

Here's a tribute compilation to some famous people who swooped the planet in 2006.

Some people aren't here due to the space limits in keeping the download time manageable. Or, because no song by them was handy. Besides, using "Do the Freddie" for Freddie Laker, "Casper the Friendly Ghost" for Caspar Weinberger or "It All Depends on You" for June Allyson, would hardly do 'em justice.

A few choices are admittedly esoteric. I associate Glenn Ford with "Experiment in Terror" although the line "Who called the English teacher Daddy-o" from The Coasters' "Charlie Brown" might've been better for any "Blackboard Jungle" fans. Or I could've left him out entirely and included some singer I didn't care about but would be expected to include. Here's how it ended up:


1. "In Another World" by Ruth Brown, died November 17, age 78
2. "Whisper Not" by Anita O'Day, died November 23, age 87
3. "The Men in My Little Girl's Life" by Mike Douglas, died August 11, age 81
4. "Arnold Layne" by Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett who died July 7, age 60.
5. "Wasted Days..." by Freddy Fender, died October 14, age 69.
6. "Act Naturally" by Buck Owens, died March 25, age 76.
7. "Kiss of Fire" by Georgia Gibbs, died December 9, age 87
8. "I Feel Good" by James Brown, died December 25, age 73
9. "Gonna Fly Now" by Maynard Ferguson, died August 23, age 78
10. "Theme From Mike Hammer" for Mickey Spillane, died July 17, age 88 and
Darren McGavin, died February 25, age 83.
11. "You'll Never Find Another Love..." by Lou Rawls, died January 6, age 72
12. "Nothing from Nothing" by Billy Preston, died June 6, age 59
13. "Meanest Guy That Ever Lived" written and sung by Jack Palance, died November 10, age 87
14. "Andy Griffith Show" for Don Knotts, died February 24, age 81.
15. "Munsters" theme for Al Lewis, died February 3, age 82
16. "Experiment in Terror" by Al Caiola for Glenn Ford, died August 30, age 90.
17. "Burke's Law" by Al Caiola for Aaron Spelling, died June 23, age 83
18. "Miserable" by Anna Russell, died October 18, age 94
19. "Barney Miller" for Jack DeLeon (aka "Marty" the gay klepto), died October 16, age 81.
20. "Topper" theme for Robert Sterling, died May 30, age 88.
21. "MASH theme" by The MASH for Robert Altman, died November 20, age 81.
22. "Jeffersons" theme for Mike Evans, died December 14, at 57.
23. "Puttin' On the Ritz" shouted by Peter Boyle, died December 12, age 71
24. "Town Without Pity" by Gene Pitney, died April 5, age 66.
25. "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker, died May 25, age 64
26. "My Boomerang Won't Come Back" (unaltered take) by Charlie Drake, died Dec. 24, age 81
27. "Stagger Lee" by Wilson Pickett, died January 19, age 64.
28: "Dream Baby" by The Big O, for songwriter Cindy Walker, died March 23, age 87
Bonus track: "People Who Died" by Jim Carroll is dedicated to two execs at Atlantic Records (the label that released Jim's song) Ahmet Ertegun and Arif Mardin, and to anyone famous or not who you lost this year.
An illfolks salute to Dana Reeve, Jan Murray, Muriel Spark, Floyd Patterson, Barnard Hughes, Moira Shearer, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver, Jack Warden, Red Buttons, Lennie Weinrib and the comic/character actor Richard Stahl.
This post dedicated to "that most sporty of spirits," Robert Sterling.
DEAD? Didn't Even Know They Were Ill...via R-Share


UPDATE: This one died from lack of interest. Can't find the back-up on this one, so it'll be a long time before it turns up again.

2 comments:

  1. Jan Murray? Dead?
    Is Jack Carter Still alive? Oh God No.

    And I would have sworn Alexander Haig was a goner until I saw him on CNN the other day, I almost evacuated when I saw him, a living corpse, commenting on some poignant* issue of the day.

    *Main Entry: poi·gnant
    Pronunciation: 'poi-ny&nt sometimes 'poi(g)-n&nt
    Function: adjective
    1 : pungently pervasive (a poignant perfume)
    2 a (1) : painfully affecting the feelings : PIERCING (2) : deeply affecting : TOUCHING b : designed to make an impression : CUTTING (poignant satire)
    3 a : pleasurably stimulating b : being to the point : APT

    (my favorite word this month)

    Kind Regards,
    Pixelmutt

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  2. Poignant: "Pregnant with feeling." Definition to be found on an old Smothers Brothers record. Tommy: "We'd like to sing a song about a girl who was six months poignant."

    Jack Carter is still alive, and angry! He did not like his caricature in a new book called "Old Jewish Comedians."

    Jan Murray was born the same year as Phyllis Diller, who made yet another "Tonight Show" appearance in Jan. 2007. The woman will be 90 in July, and she still can spout 8 minutes worth of non-sequitor one-liners! A haaaaaa.

    ReplyDelete