MEIN LIEBLING MEIN ROSE

    “Mein liebling mein rose…you’re right. It is a rather brutal language…”

    The greatest villain in an episode of “The Avengers” was Max Prendergast, he of the hard lumpy face and insinuating leer. He was played by Peter Jeffrey, a remarkably versatile actor who, in a previous episode, played the exact opposite of Max…an ineffectual mild-mannered Brit.  

    The episode, “The Joker,” is a masterpiece, easily as good as any Hammer horror film of that era, and in fact, most any suspense film. In another age, it would’ve been a B-movie playing on the double bill with another hour-long effort. Great care went into this one, to the point of actually recording a creepy German-language tune to be played “over and over…over and over…”  

    The song was so compelling, people began asking for it in record stores (you remember them…where people bought music). “What do you MEAN you don’t have it? Can’t you import it? What do you MEAN there’s no such record label? Next thing you’ll be telling me is that there’s no Carl Schmidt! 

    No. "Deutsche Phon" is not the same as "Deutsche Grammophon" and there actually is no Carl Schmidt. 

    Demand for the song was so great that a single was released (in July of 1967 on the Columbia label in the UK. The flip side was "Blue Danube.")

      Carl Schmidt was Mike Sammes, who fronted a fleet of singers (similar to the American groups such as the Anita Kerr Singers and Ray Conniff Singers).  They made many albums and backed many recording artists. The music was by Laurie Johnson (who wrote “The Avengers” theme song). The lyric was by scriptwriter-genius Brian Clemens, and it was translated into German by Leo Birnbaum. Those who are fluent in German sadly insist that the song title should be “Mein Liebling Meine Rose,” but that’s a minor morose. 

Mein Liebling Mein Rose - the melody has not lost its sweetness

TIME for TINA LOUISE and LINDA THORSON

How much is Tina Louise worth?
If you know eBay, or local record stores, you know that "movie star sings" albums from Lizabeth Scott, Rhonda Fleming, Goldie Hawn and others rarely reach $20.Goofier and scarcer items, like Anthony Quinn and Jack Webb lps don't generate $50.
Yet..."Time for Tina" topped out at $971 on eBay!
The album is even on CD, in stereo.
Ah...but that's the clue. "Real" collectors don't want CD stereo or mp3. The seller's vinyl was "deep groove mono," and there were six bidders at the $500 mark before a final few snipered it up to nearly $1000. Oooh "deep groove mono" from an obscure label known for classical music! The album was bought NOT for Tina Louise, but either to complete an "I own everything the label did" collection or to add to a "mmm, deep groove mono" pile. The album's condition had to be "minty." A reflection, perhaps, of the buyer. Another seller, seeing the hoopla, instantly tossed a vinyl stereo version on eBay thinking he'd cash in. Nope, he was as lost as the castaways on Gilligan's Island.
Two bonus tracks have been added...the two songs from an actress who popped onto the scene just a few years after "Gilligan's Island" left the air. It's Linda Thorson, who hoped to have a second career as a pop singer...after realizing that replacing Diana Rigg on "The Avengers" was not getting her rave reviews as an actress. You'll hear, here along with Tina, "Tara King" singing "Here I Am" and "Bad Time for Loving Me."
TINA AND TARA

HEY MRS. PEEL - and CATHY and TARA

"She stood in my living room holding a gun on me, saying 'How could we let you go free?' Hey Mrs. Peel!"
Is the subject of The Cretones' early 80's tune "Mrs. Peel" really the spy from The Avengers? "We set up a surveillance...supported quite discreetly by the CIA..."
Yes and no. The song might be going for a contrast between TV spy glamour and the real thing, or taking a daydream about Diana Rigg into the day's cold war headlines.
Whatever, the tug-job chorus is clear enough: "Hey Mrs. PEEL! Hey Mrs. PEEL!"
The Cretones, led by Mark Goldenberg, were a perverse band during their short career, capable of turning peculiar thoughts into acceptable new wave pop. More acceptable as sung by someone else. Their version of "Mad Love" didn't make it, but Linda Ronstadt's cover did. Linda also recorded Mark's song "Justine." I have a Japanese CD Mark did a while back, "The Spiders Web," and he's just recorded a new solo effort (details at his dot.com). He's been Jackson Browne's lead guitarist since 1994.
Since the average Rapidshare or Megauload links tend to die after four or six months, especially if folks don't go back into the archives here, I'm adding a few old favorites that had previously been posted: "Could I Leave You," a Sondheim number sung by Diana Rigg, "Kinky Boots" as done by the original Avengers duo of Honor Blackman (Cathy Gale) and Patrick MacNee (John Steed) and "Here I Am," performed by Linda Thorson (Mrs. Peel's replacement, Tara King).
MRS. PEEL
KINKY BOOTS
DIANA RIGG SINGS
HERE I AM: LINDA THORSON

MORE DIANA RIGG & THE AVENGERS

"Mrs. Peel, We're Needed...on the Ill Folks Blog again!"
Gracing us with an obscure gem, Diana Rigg sings Sondheim! It's not easy for even the best singers to handle the intricacies...so bravo for this appealing performance. The other Diana Rigg song is still alive and well in the archives. Emma's replacement, "Tara King" (Linda Thorson), helps pads things out with her pair. Songs, that is.

Back in the archives you'll find a 4-pack of Honor Blackman. Honor Blackman never pretended to be a singer, but her solo songs were received well. She assumed Patrick MacNee would have no problems either: “Patrick said he had no sense of rhythm and couldn’t sing but we thought that was absolute nonsense until we actually got there and found it was absolutely true!”

You get the silly novelty hit "Kinky Boots," which is the least sexy song ever to have "Kinky" in its title. And also part of the download, a bright stereo rendition of "The Avengers" theme from the composer himself, Laurie Johnson. You even get some oddball theme song versions, including one that samples dialogue from John and Emma.
There won't be a time when Steed's words don't ring true: "Mrs. Peel, We're Needed."

1. Diana Rigg "Could I Leave You?"
2. Avengers (Disco Version)
3. Avengers "Peel the Reel" theme song with dialogue
4. Avengers (Magnetic Remix)
5. Avengers (Impulsion Remix)
6. Avengers (Laurie Johnson & Orchestra)
7. Linda Thorson "Here I Am"
8. Linda Thorson "Bad Time to Stop Loving Me"
9. Patrick MacNee and Honor Blackman "Kinky Boots"

Emma 'bout ta download dis...
Update: This one timed out due to Rapidshare's "10 days of inactivity" purge. But...re-upped as singles...

KINKY BOOTS
DIANA RIGG "Could I Leave You"
LINDA THORSON "Here I Am"
4 Songs by Honor Blackman

THE AVENGERS & GET SMART

Honor Blackman (see April 19th posting) was the only 60's femme spy to release a whole album: "Everything I've Got." Here's another song to honor Blackman. Plus...
Some contemporaries tried for the singles charts.
Barbara Feldon, known for a sexy growl in hair-care commercials, and then "Get Smart," made references to both via "99."
When Linda Thorson joined The Avengers, sixties in full swing, she swung. Tara King could do one thing better than Emma Peel: sing a pop song. Of course, Emma would never have considered such a thing.
Always the trouper, when Diana Rigg, actress, was required to be nude on stage, she was nude. When she was required to sing, she sang. "Forget Yesterday" was recorded in 1972 during her run in "Jumpers."
And later she sang the number below, "Could I Leave You" in a Sondheim musical.
It's a slim entry because if Anne "Honey West" Francis and Stefanie "Girl from UNCLE" Powers sang, they kept it a secret. Maybe in the shower, only...
Honor sings EVERYTHING I'VE GOT
Diana Rigg
Linda Thorson
BARBARA FELDON sings 99

HONOR BLACKMAN SINGS

I AM PUSSY GALORE...HEAR MY ROAR. AND PURR.

Some find "celebrities who sing" awfully funny. 

Don't laugh at Honor Blackman. First of all, she'll beat the crap out of you. Even now. Second, when she recorded her lone album in late 1964, "Everything I've Got," she acknowledged in the liner notes that she was not a professional singer, was asked to give it a try (coming off her James Bond film fame) and so, what the fuck (I'm not quoting exactly) she did.

And she did good. Mostly.


No surprise that her most effective tracks were more spoken than sung, most notably a fierce and passionate reading of Charles Aznavour's venomously sulky "Tomorrow Is My Turn."

Like an actress working in Broadway musicals rather than a professional singer working in nightclubs (Gwen Verdon, Angela Lansbury and Chita Rivera would all be in that latter category) Honor Blackman puts over a tune with panache if not pitch-perfection. Show tunes with strong lyrics and a mild octave range shimmered under her sultry breath. Less successful, but kind of cute, is her attempt at pop via "World Without Love."

As Gomez Addams used to say: "That's FRENCH!" 

And so one must say "Merci" rather than "Mercy!" when this gutsy woman chose to take a shot at "C'est Droll," c'est seriously.
Here's fascinating Honor Blackman, who puts a bit of a thrill in the ill category of celebrity cash-in singing albums. 

Your four tracks in the zip file:
To Keep My Love Alive (murderous black humor from Broadway)
C'Est Drole (half spoken, half sad)
Tomorrow Is My Turn (easily the best version of this Aznavour grunt)
World Without Love (please...lock me away...)


Here's 4 From Galore