Your musical journey begins

The first songs that bounced from one side of the inside of my skull to the other were the already scratchy songs that my mother played. Some were 78 rpm, others were the early 45 rpm records with the big holes in the middle. Of course, these videos are coming, at least initially, from YouTube, so they aren't always the ideal background footage. This one, however, provides a bit of visual entertainment that's sure to tickle your eyeballs. The song is "Side by Side". The artist is Kay Starr.


What the heck is a gandy dancer? There were no album covers to accompany Mom's 78 rpm version of this Frankie Laine ditty. The lyrics, however, had me envisioning people with glue on the bottoms of their shoes. "Dance on the ceiling, dance on the wall. The Gandy Dancer's Ball."



I'd like to think that Patti Page's hit was responsible for my love of dogs. I remember loving the song, but when my father brought a dog home when I was about three years old, it frightened me to death. I must have cried and screamed a lot because my father took it away. That's the earliest I remember of him making me think he didn't like me.



Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I was afraid of the dog. Our neighbors (and owners of the shack we lived in on Weddington Street in North Hollywood) had a ginormous black Lab named Mickey Doodlebug. I'd spend a lot of time visiting Mrs. Kinney so I could put my little arms around that wonderful dog.
There were two songs we listened to every weekday on our first television set: "Laugh and Be Happy" and "Put Another Candle on My Birthday Cake." If you're under 40 or so, you probably never heard Sheriff John sing them on his daily "Lunch Brigade." I can tell you exactly where I was on January 20, 1954. I was sitting in front of the TV waiting for Sheriff John to wish me a happy fifth birthday -- personally. I hope you enjoy this wonderful tribute to Sheriff John Rovick:



Cartoon songs and commercial jingles. I have vague recollections of my mother or sister prompting me to sing the music that accompanied just about every television commercial and many of the cartoons. We all watched "Mighty Mouse", but nobody told us that almost the entire dialog was opera. You'd think that we would have absorbed an appreciation for the classical musical form. We didn't.
The music did inspire the late Andy Kaufman to feature the "Mighty Mouse Theme" in one of his most innovative "Saturday Night Live" skits.



OK, if you never had a chance to see "Mighty Mouse", here's your opportunity:



There's more to come. But for now . . .