ALMA COGAN - the giggle laugh and squeak girl - Early Bacharach: KEEP ME IN MIND

I was flipping through a bunch of old magazines stacked in the closet (and I really should've gotten down off the shelf and into a chair).  In a 1955 issue of "London Life," there was a very nice picture of Alma Cogan: 

Remember when a songstress didn't show her crotch or stick out her tongue? When the attention might focus on her smile and on her face? 

Born in the dismal Whitechapel section of London (made famous by Jack the Ripper), she was Jewish, but assimilated quite well, even attending St Joseph's Convent School, mostly because it was a good school. 

When she was in 20, she began to appear on radio, and her singing style had her variously described as "the girl with the giggle in her voice," or chuckle or laugh. A music writer named Dominic Salerno, who prefers the nom-de-snark of Serene Dominic, amended this: "In fact, Cogan's voice had a frequent squeak to it that some listeners might liken more to a fingernail agasint a chalkboard than a laughing kewpie doll." Not my favorite put-down from Dominic. I prefer a line about a singer who he said needed "a huddle with her vocal coach" to find the right key. 

The giggle was spontaneous in one of her early hits, "If I Had a Golden Umbrella" (1953). She kept it and modified it, using it a bit like the hitch you hear in the baby-doll vocals of Gwen Verdon, or the more pronounced yodel-yip of Ethel Merman. With those women, it may have involved trying to sing and breathe at the same time, or generate more power for a high note.  A similar quirk can be heard sometimes with Jimmy Webb, who can't expel without a huff. Singing the word "maniac" (which doesn't come up too often in lyrics) he turns it into "mainy-hack," to get it out. Hah! 

In 1955, Burt Bacharach put music to lyrics by Jack Wolf: "Keep Me In Mind." Wolf's more famous lyric is "I'm a Fool to Want You," but this piece did fairly well for Patti Page, and across the pond, for Alma Cogan. This little trifle was enough encouragement to keep Burt experimenting with different lyricists and pushing toward a full-time career as a songwriter. 

As for Cogan, she was now a full-time singing star, and would soon be joined by another Jewish-British songbird, Helen Shapiro, in scoring hit singles. Alma's musical style started with covers of material sung in America by Teresa Brewer, Patti Page and others. When Beatlemania hit, her Connie Francis-type personality seemed a bit old school, enough for John Lennon to aim some of his sharp wit in her direction. When he actually met Cogan, he fell for her. At least, for a while. One of his many heartbreaks was when Alma died of ovarian cancer at 34. 

Quite a few still carry a torch for the girl with the giggle in her voice.

KEEP ME IN MIND - no password, Rapidgator greed link, or porn ads or sulky whine for "nice comments"