Happy 74th, Bobby

This gives me the opportunity to ask myself a question that, quite frankly, I had not lost any sleep over trying to answer and that is "Was the movie Bye Bye Birdie really Bye Bye Bobby?". The reality is Bobby Rydell never had another major hit single after the film came out.

I never really understood why, but for two years, 1959 and 1960, Rydell was really a major star in the rock ‘n’ roll firmament, one of those "safe" vocalists like Frankie Avalon and Fabian that Dick Clark manufactured after Elvis was drafted in Clark’s blatant attempt to kill, or at least emasculate and domesticate, teen music tastes at that time.

He had a handful of hits, with Wild One, the song featured above as the one that ascended the highest on the charts, all the way to No. 2. Film producer Fred Kohlmar was so taken with Rydell and not only signed him to play Hugo, Ann Margret’s boyfriend, in the film musical Bye Bye Birdie but had the part completely rewritten from the stage version just for Rydell (on stage, the character of Hugo is not a speaking part).

So what did happen to Rydell? Like many other faded singers of the ‘50s and ‘60s (although it is worth noting here that the Rydell High School featured in both the stage and filmed versions of Grease is named after Bobby Rydell), he kept his career alive somewhat by performing in supper clubs and nightclubs, particularly in and around Las Vegas. He also maintains a high level of popularity in Australia. Don’t ask me why.

Unfortunately, health has become a problem for Rydell of late. He cancelled a planned Australian tour four years ago and in July 2012 he had double organ transplant surgery, having his liver and kidneys replaced. He did, however, play a three-night sold-out gig in Vegas in January 2013 and made good on his Australian tour in 2014.

Hope everything is well with you on the health front now, Bobby, and happy 74^th birthday.

Happy 76th, Al

I only have a few problems with this list. First and foremost, I am not that big a fan of Pacino’s Oscar-winning role in Scent of a Woman. I think he won that award because (1) the Academy felt he was long overdue for an Oscar (it marked the 20^th anniversary of his first nomination), (2) it was considered a major departure from his usual roles and (3) to be honest, the competition was not all that strong that year. But what I always admired about Pacino on screen is that he seemed to actually be the characters he was portraying, which, to me, is the hallmark of great acting. In Scent of a Woman, he was clearly acting the role. I would have substituted Pacino’s performance as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Too many filmgoers ignore the realization that Pacino is one of the finest interpreters of Shakespeare currently working today.

I would also put his Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon as No. 1 on my list and then thrown the collective Godfather series together for No. 2. Pacino’s scene with Diane Keaton at the wedding that opens the original The Godfather is as fine a piece of acting as anything in the second installment. I mean, c’mon, how can you really separate them?

At any rate, today is Al Pacino’s 76^th birthday.

Happy 74th, Barbra

I was a huge Barbra Streisand at this point in her career -- 1963.  I played her first four albums, the aptly named The Barbra Streisand Album and The Second Barbra Streisand Album as well as People and My Name Is Barbra, constantly. I was living in San Diego, Calif., at the time. By 1965 I had moved to New York City where Barbra had the city in the palm of her hand as the star of Funny Girl on Broadway. I looked upon the Winter Garden Theater, where the musical was being staged, as a shrine and many was the night I found myself at the stage door just watching as Streisand emerged. I saw the production at least eight times (which, incidentally, is nowhere close to as many times as I have seen Les Miserables.)

Three years later, I saw the film version and absolutely hated it. Mainly, I hated it because Omar Sharif was so badly miscast as Nicky Arnstein, who, as you can tell by this picture, looked nothing like Omar Sharif. But there was also something "off" about Barbra. She came across to me as no longer "a singer"; instead, she had become  "a star".

In the more than half-century since I purchased those first four Barbra Streisand albums, I have only bought two others, Stony End in 1971 The Broadway Album in 1985.

But there was one other memorable Streisand moment during these intervening years. It occurred in, of all places, Tempe, Ariz., during the filming of a misguided remake of A Star Is Born.  There is a sequence in the movie in which Streisand's character is on a concert tour and there are shots of concert goers giving her this incredibly wild reception. The filmmakers managed to get that crowd reaction by staging a rock concert at Sun Devil football stadium in Temple featuring Peter Frampton and Santana. In order to make sure the concert was a sellout, tickets were sold for $1.25. Because a lot of filming for the movie was taking place during the all-day concert, there were several delays between acts. During one of the more lengthy of these delays, Streisand, who had not performed live in several years, walked out on the stage and, with only a piano accompanying her, sang four songs. And she nailed it. She completely captivated the thousands of rockers who had come to see Santana and Frampton. She was spellbinding.

The day after the concert was set aside for us working journalist types to interview the principals involved in the film and during my interview with Streisand I asked her if the reception she had received from that audience had convinced her she might want to resume performing live. She looked at me as though I was crazy, then shrugged and said "Not so much."

Anyway, today Barbra Streisand celebrates her 74th birthday.

Happy 79th birthday, Lee Majors

I will always associate Lee Majors with his 6 Million Dollar Man television series and for temporarily providing Farrah Fawcett with a third name. For some reason I never think about him in connection with The Big Valley or The Fall Guy and I definitely didn't know, until I saw this interview, that he was up for the role of Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy.