Last night, on David Letterman’s next-to-last Late Show With David Letterman, Bob Dylan appeared as the final regular musical guest for the show. Dylan performed the appropriately named “The Night We Called It a Day” from his latest album of jazz standards, Shadows In The Night.
Some reviewers have claimed Dylan’s performance was “bizarre,” noting the way Dylan stands distant when the retiring host greets him. Other reviewers have labeled the performance “beautiful” and “haunting.” Probably only Bob Dylan, who first appeared with Letterman in 1984, could provoke such a diverse reaction, but in my mind, it was a nice musical sendoff to one of the all-time greats of late night.
Interesting, after Letterman introduced Dylan as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan sang a cover song, as “The Night We Called It a Day” was written by Matt Dennis and Tom Adair in 1941. In 1942, Frank Sinatra released the song as his first solo recording.
What did you think of Dylan’s performance of “The Night We Called It a Day”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Starting in the early 1980s, I haunted the used record stores of Cleveland searching for any music related to Bruce Springsteen. At the time, the Boss had released only a handful of albums, and it seemed like forever between new releases. So, I soon discovered bootlegs with their unusual titles and cheap cover art on the outside and hidden gems inside.
An Accidental Discovery
On one occasion, I found a full-sized 45-rpm album with only two songs on it. The record said it was by “Bruce Springstone” and was titled “Live at Bedrock.” But I figured it was a clever bootleg. I took the 12-inch single home and listened to the first song on side one, “Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones.”
It was definitely in the spirit of Bruce Springsteen. It had a chatty introduction like the ones I had heard on the bootlegs. And there was the saxophone playing a big part just like it was Clarence Clemons. Plus, the wailing at the end was all “Backstreets.” Yet, I soon realized the voice was not actually Springsteen. But I still loved it.
Then I flipped it over to listen to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” I liked it even better than the A side.
Who Was Bruce Springstone?
In those days, we did not have the Internet to answer every question we had. So it would be years before I found out more about Bruce Springstone.
The record, which was released in September 1982, featured Tom Chalkley. He was a Baltimore journalist and editorial cartoonist who also drew the picture on the back of the record showing “Springstone” sliding into home plate carrying his guitar.
The idea for the record came when Chalkley and some childhood friends were playing music at a party and began goofing on Bruce Springsteen’s style. So Chalkley and his friend Craig Hankin arranged the music and released the 12-inch single with Chalkley singing and Hankin playing rhythm guitar on “Meet the Flintstones.”
“Take Me Out to the Ballgame”
Chalkley and Hankin needed a B-side for their Flintstones cover song. So, Chalkley found inspiration when he saw the 1927 lyrics for the verses to”Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on sheet music in a store. He thought that the name Nelly Kelly sounded just like a Springsteen heroine (a 1908 version featured the name Katie Casey).
So, using the little-known verse lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” they made the record. Among others, rock guitarist Tommy Keene played lead guitar and Ron Holloway filled in for Clarence Clemons’s saxophone
In case you are just used to hearing the chorus of the song, here is how the opening Nelly Kelly verse to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” sounded when sung by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in the movie Take Me Out to the Ballgame(1949).
Response to the Bruce Springstone Record
The album was originally released by Clean Cuts, a local jazz label, but today it is still in print by Rhino. At the time of the record’s release, Bruce Springstone’s version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “Meet the Flintstones” received airplay on various radio stations. Reportedly, Bruce Springsteen sent Chalkley a postcard complimenting his work.
Springstone’s “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was even featured in the 1995-96 Guinness Book of Sports Records for Longest Continuous Airplay of a Sports-Related Song. It was played more than 57,000 times straight.
Hanna-Barbara approved the use of “Meet the Flintstones.” But the company complained when MTV was going to show a video that Chalkley and Hanklin made.
Chalkley did write some other songs in the Springsteen style like one called “Ugga Bugga” (excerpt below), but Bruce Springstone never released another album.
People remain curious about Bruce Springstone, so much so that a few years ago Chalkley launched a Kickstarter campaign with Craig Hankin to raise money to create a graphic comic book about the record. Or, as they describe it, the book is about “the bonds of friendship, creativity, youthful ambition and, of course, the staying power of a well-crafted novelty hit.” The book will be called, If I’d Known Back Then: A Graphic Memoir.
Chalkley and Hankin received the money they needed from the Kickstarter campaign to create the book, so it is too late to pitch in now. The book is not out yet, so it appears they are still working on the project.
Meanwhile, Chalkley and Hankin continue to make music. Here, in 2015 they created a video for their 1979 song “Jackie” for the Small Guitar in Motion Project.
But their legacy will always be as Bruce Springstone for me. Who would have guessed that thirty years after its release, we would still be talking about this parody record I purchased by accident? Which song by Bruce Springstone do you like best? Leave your two cents in the comments.
May 24 is the anniversary of the 1883 opening of the Brooklyn Bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River. At the time, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge was seen as a great human achievement, resulting in the longest suspension bridge by more than 50% over any existing bridge. Well over a century later, it is still beautiful and fun to walk across.
The bridge has appeared in a number of movies, such as Moonstruck (1987), The Siege (1998), Godzilla (1998), and I Am Legend (2007).
The Brooklyn Bridge still has a pretty good movie record, and you may also check it out online with a live videocam. The bridge also appears in songs. For example, Frank Sinatra sang the song, “The Brooklyn Bridge.” Similarly, the bridge recently appeared in Lee Dewyze’s jazzy “Brooklyn Bridge.”
Below is Sinatra’s “The Brooklyn Bridge,” which was written by Sammy Cahn. The song was recorded for the movie It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), which also features Sinatra on the Bridge. The song was released as a B-side in 1947.
For more about the Brooklyn Bridge and its historical significance, a History Channel documentary in their Modern Marvels series tells the story of the bridge. [2015 Update: Unfortunately, that video is no longer available on YouTube, but below is a preview for the Ken Burns documentary about the bridge.]
After George Jones passed away, a number of articles about him recalled a famous quote from Frank Sinatra where Sinatra called George Jones “the second-best singer” in the world. The Kennedy Center uses the quote on its page about Jones, and after Jones’s death, The Atlantic used the “second-best” quote in its headline. Some articles asserted that Sinatra said that Jones was the second-best “white” singer, implying that Sinatra recognized the great history of great non-white singers, and others claimed Sinatra used the qualification “in America,” while Philly.com claimed that Sinatra added the qualification “male.” While Jones is a great singer and any one of these statements is high praise coming from Ol’ Blue Eyes, it also raises the question about who did Sinatra then think was “the best”?
Most articles did not answer that question and encouraged or left the impression that Sinatra meant that he himself was the best singer. For example, Examiner.com and NBC’s Today Show website stated the quote about Sinatra saying Jones was the second-best “white” singer with both adding, “No prizes for guessing first place,” as if it should be obvious that Sinatra’s ego would lead him to put himself in the top spot. George Jones’s own website implies that Sinatra saved the top spot for himself: “Frank Sinatra famously (and coyly) referred to Jones as ‘the second greatest singer in America.'” The legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards made the same mistake in his otherwise touching statement about the passing of the great country singer: “Sinatra called him the second best singer ever. (The number one obviously being Frank!).”
But Sinatra did not put himself in the top spot, which he reserved for Tony Bennett. I have not found a reliable source for Sinatra’s entire quote about George Jones and Tony Bennett to verify whether Sinatra used any of the qualifications such as “white,” “in America,” or “male.” But other sources give us a good idea who Sinatra put in the first place spot. Throughout his career, Sinatra often claimed that Tony Bennett was the best singer, so it does make the most sense that he was ranking Jones in the second slot not because of himself but because of his love for Bennett. For example, a 1965 Tony Bennett album featured this quote from Sinatra: “For my money Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business.” Frank Sinatra, even in death, does not need me to defend his ego. But these articles in their attempts to praise the great George Jones unfortunately made Frank Sinatra sound like an egomaniac (or more of one than he was) and slighted Tony Bennett at the same time.
So to right this wrong, watch this video of Tony Bennett singing “Body and Soul” with Amy Winehouse and note what a great singer he is (as well as what a great singer the late Winehouse was). Their duet on “Body and Soul” appeared on Bennett’s 2011 Duets II album.
Who is your favorite singer of all-time? Leave your two cents in the comments.
May 24 is the 
album.
