It started when I was very small. I always remember my parents’ apartments (and later on, our house) being filled with music from the radio and phonograph players we owned. Car rides always featured music as well (Make Believe Ballroom on Sundays on our way to our grandparents.
I remember yellow and red colored children’s LPS. One of them was for Passover and it had “The Frog Song” on one side.
I remember watching Peter Pan with Mary Martin on TV and Amahl and the Night Visitors as well. Later on, there was a revival of Annie Get Your Gun with Ethel Merman (Old Fashioned Wedding was written especially for that production).
My first showtune albums were Fiddler on the Roof and South Pacific (I still have them!).
I loved the TV variety shows and specials. Carol Burnett was a special favorite. The Bell Telephone Hour had great music specials too.
I remember first seeing Oscar Peterson on a salute to Irving Berlin with Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme. That started my affinity for Oscar’s wonderful piano playing.
Tony Bennett and Lena Horne did a medley of Harold Arlen songs on another special. I still have the cassette tape with this great duet.
Movies were another great way of my getting my showtune fix. I loved Oliver, The King and I, Guys and Dolls, and Hans Christian Anderson (first written for the screen). Then there were those fantastic Disney musicals, especially Mary Poppins. Feed the Birds still brings chills down my spine.
I always enjoyed listening to jazz and pop vocal versions of showtunes. Which led me in late 2001 to visit the Institute for Jazz Studies @ Rutgers, Newark. I was originally doing research on Oscar Peterson for an article. But, to make a long story short, through a series of fortuitous circumstances, I am now finishing my first book–on jazz. I put Oscar P. on the back burner — for now.
