Jackie Gleason and a few other stars

While waiting for some Herb, I thought I might continue the recent post by Brunswick with MY favorite Jackie Gleason LP - "Music, Martinis, and Memories" released in 1957. Possibly less well known than his "Music for Modern Lovers" (his first album), this was his fifth album for Capitol Records, and it is satisfyingly filled with richly orchestrated lounge music.

Jackie Gleason surely had some musical aptitude but he was not a musician himself. Reports are that his participation in his recordings was less than active. Horn player Bobby Hackett said to journalist Harry Currie, "He was the guy who brought the checks."

Continuing in that vein, Phil Silvers was not really a musician either. People of my generation remember him as Sgt. Bilko delivering authoritative multi-syllabic gibberish and that's what he does on this album, accompanied by a brass band. Not many know that Phil Silvers was an amateur musician though and would play a trombone in his Beverly Hills back yard. Max Factor (Jr.) knew - he lived next door.

And, Walter Brennan wasn't a musician. He was an old-time actor from Massachusetts that is remembered (again by my generation) as a crusty old curmudgeon in the Old West movies or as West Virginia hillbilly Grandpappy Amos on TV. I can still hear him yelling for "Pepino", the Mexican worker he picked up when the McCoys moved to California. I wonder if he knew pepino translates as cucumber. Anyway, thankfully he doesn't sing on this album.

William Holden doesn't sing either. He hung out with musicians and "conceptualized" much of the music on this album. On an oddness scale of one to ten, ten being oddest, this is about an eight. He is best remembered as a movie star and (buying into one of the conspiracy theories) the guy who was murdered by his coffee table.