frank sinatra as that footloose and frequently un-employed man-about-town, rocky fortune, in 'the oyster shucker' . . .
i was reading a post on the 'nostra' blog about nostalgia, and it got me thinking about my past a bit.
my mom is the biggest bobby-soxer i've ever known and she still gets all gooey just talking about 'frankie'. she was the singer in my dad's jazz band and kinda quit to raise the youngins. but she made sure she wasn't left behind. she dragged my 6mos-old-diapered-ass across country, and did the same when my sis came into it. we did 'one nite stands' for 6-8mos out of the yr til i was 10.
there was hardly an interstate then, it was almost all two lane backtop, especially out west. it made for long boring drives in the middle of nowhere.
my job was that of radio operator. i remember rainy late nights searching the dial for any radio show, and finding these wonderful worlds of texas rangers, star troopers, cool detectives and scary monsters. that was my job, keep dad awake.
years later my friends and i would sit at the lakefront at night, drink strawberry hill and at midnight listen to 'bleaker theater' on 'KAAY' out of little rock, (it's now a gospel station). they would play the really cool sci-fi stuff from 'x-minus one' and '2000 plus'. but the only way to get my grimy fingers on them was in the bargain bin from old armed forces recordings, if you were lucky.
things have changed tho, and while building my archive from all the otr mp3s on the net, i ran into frank sinatra as 'rocky fortune'.
rocky ran for two seasons in the late '40s. he is a chronically un-employed smart-ass, that knows all the cops on a first name basis, happens to be in the right place and solves the weekly crime. it is so hokey it is great, (it was written by the two guys responsible for 'x minus one' a few yrs later).
when i found this i was thrown back in time. i could imagine my parents watching that huge radio like it was alive, and hanging onto every word, waiting for the next excitingly silly episode of 'rocky fortune'. at least i know mom did . . .
ok, i think i'm finished here for now . . .
except,
the words to nearly every frankie song
frankie sings 'the way you look tonight'
radio lovers is a good place to start if ya like old time radio (otr).
6 comments:
Apparently (I don't really remember this) when I was little I would belt out Frank's song "All the Way" and it always cracked up my parents...
good choice, i still sing 'summer wind' at family kareoke reunions. . .
i remember waking up for skool, crawling out my room and there would be a dozen people sleeping on the floor while the stereo blasted 'fly me to the moon'. there i was, picking over bodies, looking for my mom to ask where my lunch was.
it was a bitter life, and then it went downhill, but i still take sinatra to skool
Absolutely loved your story!
I miss drinking Strawberry Hill and Boones Farm Apple wine.
My parents were into Country Western music - I didn't hear anything else until Elvis and the Beatles showed up on The Ed Sullivan Show. My dad hated all of the rock n' rollers. I do still enjoy Hank Williams Sr., Faron Young and Marty Robbins.
I enjoy listening to most kinds of music, unlike my parents.
i love the romace of hank sr, his songs were so heart-felt, unlike the commercial country pablum today. i still listen to the few lp's of hank's i have. . . who is the new hank?
Yep, I agree with you about Hank Sr. I belive he was a very sad person and an alcoholic - I guess that's nothing new - those two go hand in hand (sadness and alcohol).
I don't know who the the new Hank would be. I just had a feeling you would know about those guys!
I was into Vince Gil(sP) and Brooks and Dunn for awhile but they are old news now. Even Faith Hill is old news.
I have a tendency to be drawn back to the 80's rock and pop.
You're so cute!
now stop that!
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