TIMELESS SPIRAL—Frances Faye

Known for his bisexual chic just before the AIDS pandemic broke up the party, cabaret singer and recording artist Peter Allen managed to record duets with some of the most popular lesbians of his time: Dusty Springfield backed him up on “Back Doors Crying”, Lesley Gore on “She Loves to Hear the Music”, and Frances Faye on “Just A Gigolo.” Though I was familiar with Dusty and Lesley, Frances Faye came as a revelation. Her sassy, upbeat, comic delivery scored this side of sophisticated. Recently, I was watching Bruce Weber’s Chop Suey (2001) and was pleased to see his tribute to Frances Faye, if not startled to discover she played the madam in Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby (1978).

As Bob Downe writes at YouTube: “Frances Faye (1912-1991) was one of the world's most loved and enduring nightclub entertainers, with a career spanning the late 1920s to 1980. She hit her stride on New York's 52nd Street in the '30s, becoming known as the ‘Zazou-zaz’ gal as she thumped the piano and belted out her funny, racy blues and jazz songs.”

Here's rare footage of Frances from 1942, singing and playing her own hit composition, “Well All Right!”, which became a hit for the Andrew Sisters.



Do you think brandy is fattening? Here Frances teams up with Martha Raye and Bing Crosby for a hot scat session.



Frances Faye rarely appeared on TV. One amazing exception was her 1956 NBC duet with Mel Torme singing from Porgy and Bess.



In 1960 she appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show where she sang a medley of “Darktown Strutter’s Ball” and “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.” As Bob Downe notes at YouTube, Frances Faye was riding high in 1960. She had shattered Peggy Lee's record at New York's Basin Street East and had released perhaps the greatest Live album ever made: Caught In the Act, recorded at the Thunderbird in Las Vegas.



Also in 1960, she appeared on Hugh Hefner’s Playboy’s Penthouse, singing "The Man I Love", "Just In Time", "Shimmy Like My Sister Kate" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." This performance is a perfect example of Faye's famous double entendres and references to homosexuality and lesbianism. An admitted bisexual herself, involved with lifelong partner Teri Shepherd, Faye frequently hinted at this frequently in her act. On national television, she would often playfully alter pronouns in love songs or weave her girlfriend's name into the lyrics of song. For instance, in this performance she's inserted "it's a Teri, Teri day" into "The Man I Love" and in her Ed Sullivan performance she sang "why do all the boys treat Teri so right" in "Shimmy Like My Sister Kate."





In yet another rare 1968 live broadcast of her act at the Lido in Melbourne, Australia, Faye sang “The Man I Love”, “What Now My Love”, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball”, and a grooved up, boogaloo version of her signature tune, “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate”. She excels at mining humor from truncated lyrics.



Is it true that when you're pretty it doesn't matter how you wear your hair?

TIMELESS SPIRAL—"I'm Still Here" x 6

In the final act of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, the leading characters' emotional troubles are reflected as a string of vaudeville-style numbers before returning to the theatre for the end of the reunion party. The plum supporting role of Carlotta Campion, the seen-it-all ex-Follies girl who sings the showstopping "I'm Still Here," was created by Yvonne De Carlo in 1971, and has subsequently often been given to a celebrated veteran performer. What follows are some of my favorites.

Yvonne DeCarlo from the 1979 Follies television special:



Yvonne DeCarlo on David Frost:



Eartha Kitt at the Olivier Awards during her run in Follies in the late 1980s:



Eartha Kitt at a 1986 Canadian Concert, Redux and Even More Relevant:



Shirley MacLaine from Postcards From The Edge:



Carol Burnett at the 1985 Lincoln Center "Follies in Concert."

TIMELESS SPIRAL—"Sway" x 5

Dean Martin:



Perry Como:



Julie London:



Peter Cincotti:



Michael Buble:

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Mike Black Offers Three YouTube Favorites

Long-time bud Mike Black—with whom I have spun a vinyl or two—offers three YouTube oldie goldies. Thanks, Mike!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Up Above My Head



Millie Small: My Boy Lollipop



Bobby Vee: The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Five Flavors of Late Night Ice Cream

Fujiya & Miyagi—"Knickerbocker". Vanilla, strawberry, knickerbocker glory.

Fujiya and Miyagi - Knickerbocker


Friendly Fires—"On Board". Funky and cute and ready for the starting gun.



Firewater—"Borneo". You gotta love a group that out-and-out identifies President Bush as a monkey.



Devlin & Darko—DJ version of "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, whose own animated video can be found on YouTube. If only I could whistle.



Datarock—"I Used To Dance With My Daddy" (by Parallax). I love Paris, don't you?

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Video Oatmeal For Breakfast

Think of these as four plump juicy raisins to brighten up your morning oatmeal. They got me boppin' around my kitchen.

The Black Ghosts: "Any Way You Choose To Give It"—Save your broken umbrellas; they might come in handy. This "romantic goth" group will be featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming film Twilight.



Born Ruffians: "I Need A Life." Three self-professed geeks with sweet chops.



Bondo do Role: "Office Boy"—Think B-52s bopping around to Portuguese gay slang.



Black Kids: "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You." Face it: Why should I?

I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance with You

TIMELESS SPIRAL—The Buckinghams

"It's always time to die, but these discs with their timeless spiral hold an instant of eternity."—Julio Cortazar, Diary of Andrés Fava (Archipelago Books, New York, 2005:5).

Julio Cortazar was referencing Laurence Olivier's recording of Henry V when he authored that comment, and yet his equation of a record spinning on a turntable as a "timeless spiral" speaks to all recordings over time, extending—albeit somewhat anachronistically—into our modern digital age where the physical record and turntable (though rendered obsolete) still address the human need to capture time in the essence of music, and the human soul via the image of the ever continuous spiral. Late last night, insomniatic, I soothed myself with nostalgia. In my mid-50s, nostalgia has become the drug that I look to score, as I savor days gone by as readily as a late-night cup of hot tea. Between Bedazzled TV and YouTube, I got high on the garage rock of the '60s and for a few moments in the wee hours of the night felt all of 16 again; "an instant of eternity" indeed.

When I was a teenager, one of my favorite groups influenced by the British Invasion was The Buckinghams, out of Chicago. Their romantic pop pulsed through their lead singer Dennis Tufano, on whom I had a not-so-secret crush. Named after Chicago's infamous Buckingham Fountain, both The Buckinghams and Dennis Tufano are still around; the Buckinghams capitalizing on nostalgia and reaching back to the sound of their greatest hits, and Tufano channeling the lounge splashes of Bobby Darin. To initiate a sidebar here on The Evening Class that I'll call "Timeless Spiral", ladies and gentlemen I offer up: The Buckinghams!









At Last.Fm you can listen (for free) to "Susan", "Back In Love Again", "Mercy Mercy Mercy", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "I'll Go Crazy", "I Call Your Name", "I've Been Wrong Before", and "Where Did You Come From?"

"The Time Of My Life", "You Make Me Feel So Good", "You Misunderstand Me", and "I Don't Wanna Cry", though YouTube videos, are footage of records spinning, underscoring the essential experience of the timeless spiral, where by listening you'll just have to conjure up your own images, your own memories. Enjoy!