From Bacharach & David no less. This is from their musical PROMISES PROMISES. There are some brilliant songs in that show and then...
there is "Turkey Lurkey Time" and it's even more horrifying than that title. Get ready to throw a drumstick at your monitor.
Truly, what were they thinking???
13 comments :
Will you be seeing the revival in New York?
How did they find a black person who can't sing or dance????
It is, however, not supposed to be a "good song," but a song-within-the-story, a piece of Christmas (not Thanksgiving, listen to the lyrics) revelry put on by secretaries for a drunken office party. And a vehicle for amazing (in fact, classic) Michael Bennett choreography.
See Seth Rudetsky talk about the number at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4u70p_SSi0 , where he starts right off describing it as "the worst number in the world, and the most brilliant."
I re-FUSE to even listen to a song that rhymes "turkey" with "lurkey."
Eh, it's *really* a Christmas song, also redeemed by Michael Bennett's brilliant choreography. If you want to hear second-rate Bacharach/David, listen to the LOST HORIZON soundtrack.
I like the purty ladies, even though they're all 80 years old by now.
I don't eat meat and I don't eat yardbird....this number only strengthens my convictions.
The choreography=Luthern Church takes a walk on the wild side after too much communion wine?
Somebody cue up PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC WHITEBOY.
Drumstick? Hell, I threw a whole turkey at my screen. You owe me a new monitor, Levine.
To "Anonymous": I didn't see anyone that couldn't dance and I didn't hear any bum notes. As for finding Black people that can't sing or dance, well, there are tons of them! I didn't see anything to support your thesis. For leaden African-American dancing, look at "Dancing on the Ceiling" by Lionel Richie. Richie can write, sing but his dancing here is pretty awful. If the person here in question was as lousy as Anonymous (can I can ya Nonny?) says, I think what he/she (can I call ya "Heesh") meant was how did that person pass the audition process; African-Americans don't sing and dance instinctively, if my dancing is ANY gauge.
I agree with Rinaldo's assessment and it seems that the clips of this song seem to use the same choreography, so it appears that it was an effective first act closer.
As for being a groovy out-of-sight Soul tune, it ai not that, but it is much better than "Slide, Boy, Slide" off the original cast album of "House of Flowers". As for "corporate" music, if you will, there are some real dillys out there, with lovely titles such as, "Rappin' About Gas" and "Up Came Oil", which were composed for the employees of respective corporations. In that spirit, "TLT" succeeds (exceeds) horribly well.
Ref probably has the same beef that I do about "A-Tisket, A-Tasket". Truthfully, what can one do to rhyme "basket" in a song that is supposed to be sung by a young girl?
"I lost my yellow basket,
I dropped it near a tree,
I don't think I can ask it,
Oh, dearie, dearie me..."
I don't know if it's been posted, but you HAVE to see and hear this song performed by teenagers. It's a scene in the movie "Camp", about a performing arts summer program for young people.
Now that this has been identified as a "Christmas" rather than Thanksgiving song, how many Thanksgiving-related songs are there?
One that mentions the name of the holiday in the opening line is a 1929 song called "Big City Blues," from the now-lost musical "Fox Movietone Follies." (One of its composers, Con Conrad, would win the initial Academy Award for Best Song five years later for "The Continental.") Perhaps the best-remembered recording of it was made by Annette Hanshaw, a contemporary of Ruth Etting with more of a jazz feel. Here's Hanshaw's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzn1IxRoLPE
A happy Thanksgiving to all...and a reminder not to invite Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza over for turkey and wine. Especially if you have a toy collection.
wv: "perse" -- where a lady in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn keeps her money.
I think I'll use that phrase this Christmas dinnertime.
WV: nunch = a light daytime snack at the convent.
I'm obsessed with "Turkey Lurkey Time." It's one of Broadway's most famous showstoppers. Promises Promises has mostly small songs, and Neil Simon wasn't sure how the first act was closing. Michael Bennett asked to work up the number and came up with the highlight of the show.
It also helped make Donna McKecknie into a star. She writers in her autobiography that originally they wanted everyone to dance like office workers would dance, but that wasn't playing. So they made it super-professional. If it hadn't worked, it probably would have been cut, and since most of Donna's lines had been cut as well, she might as well not have been in the show.
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