Halloween Songs: Monster Mash

Monster Mash is a Halloween song that has continued to be a hit since its release in 1962. One night while Bobby “Boris” Pickett was performing with his band, he decided to do a monologue imitation of horror movie actor Boris Karloff to the song “Little Darlin” by the Diamonds.   The monologue was such an Read More

Profile of a Performer: Patsy Cline

I have several friends that are huge Patsy Cline fans, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at her life and career. Wikipedia says, “Cline was known for her rich tone, emotionally expressive and bold contralto voice, and her role as a country music industry pioneer. Along with Kitty Wells, she Read More

Broadway Composers: Kalmar and Ruby

Kalmar and Ruby are another famous songwriting team of the first half of the 20th Century. The team consisted of lyricist Bert Kalmar and composer Harry Ruby. Bert Kalmar was born on February 10, 1884 in New York City. Harry Ruby was also born in New York City, on October 29, 1895.  Both men began Read More

Broadway Composers: Kern and Hammerstein

Just as Richard Rodgers was part of the Rodgers and Hart collaboration, prior before he joined Oscar Hammerstein, so was Hammerstein part of a writing partnership also. Kern and Hammerstein was a duo that consisted of Jerome Kern as the composer and Oscar Hammerstein II as the lyricist. They are best known for their book Read More

Broadway Composers: Rodgers and Hart

Long before there was Rodgers and Hammerstein, there was Rodgers and Hart. The duo consisted of composer Richard Rogers and lyricist Lorenz Hart.  They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart’s death in 1943. Rodgers and Hart first met when they were both students at Columbia University Read More