Mel Tormé

            On Monday morning I finished working out the chords for the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            In my “Les millionaires” Movie Maker project I continued synchronizing the images in my photo-video with the rhythm and the meaning of the lyrics. I was about two-thirds of the way through the song. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since March 21. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice and it went out of tune during all but two of the songs. 

            I created some folders for photos in my SSD and deleted several images from my hard drive.

            I weighed 88.45 kilos before lunch. I had guacamole, potato chips and a glass of Garden Cocktail. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. At Yonge and Bloor a cyclist came up beside me and said, “A joke to share: Premier Ford rides his bike to the library.” I guess the joke was that both situations are unlikely. It was just weird how he introduced the joke with “A joke to share” like he was an alien who wasn’t fully aware of how human beings converse. 

            At Yonge and Dundas a cop car was at the front of the other cars waiting at the light. I moved up beside and ahead of the cop car and then rode on. But the cops pulled up beside me at around Yonge and Shooter. The driver said I should wait behind the cars and not go up beside them. I argued I was pretty sure I didn’t hold him back. I don’t think I was breaking the law but he just had a pet peeve and decided to single me out to get it off his chest. 

            I weighed 87.75 kilos at 17:55. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:51. 

            I played the old rehearsal cassette tape I tried a few days ago, this time with the microphone against the right speaker and plugged into my audio interface and recorded it in Audacity this time using Windows Direct Sound and it came through with less distortion than when I used WASAPI. Tomorrow I’ll digitize side 2. 

            I deleted several more images from my hard drive. 

            I heated some oven fries, warmed up the chili that I made yesterday and had them together while watching season 2, episode 7 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            Carol calls Don Rickles “Mr. Warmth” and then rolls her eyes.

            In the first sketch Carol and Nanette Fabray play close to term pregnant women at the doctor’s office. Their old doctor Zaslow is 93 and they are faithful to him until they meet his handsome young assistant. They lie to Zaslow that there is an emergency at the hospital, so they can be with the young doctor. 

            Mel Tormé sings “Take a Letter Miss Jones”, which I think he wrote.

            In the second sketch Don Rickles plays a disgruntled shoe salesman who has been threatened with firing if he doesn’t stop insulting the customers. He tries very hard to control himself but Nanette Fabray plays a very difficult customer and he finally blows up at her. Then he starts insulting his boss played by Harvey Korman who cracks up at Don’s ad libs. 

            The rest of the show is a Tin Pan Alley story set in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Don Rickles plays music publisher Harry Familiar. Two songwriters who don’t know each other come to sell their songs to Harry. One is Melvin Potts and the other is Phoebe Pannz. Melvin sings “Happy happy happy that’s what I am” and Harry tells him to get out. Phoebe sings “When we’re together don’t mind the weather. Never blue when I’m with you. When you are near me you always cheer me” then she starts crying. Melvin comes back because he forgot his music. Then they combine their songs, “Happy when we’re together. Happy don’t mind the weather. Happy never blue. That’s what I am when I’m with you”. Harry hears this and says it’s a hit. Phoebe and Melvin become the team of Potts and Pannz. Phoebe falls in love with Melvin. They write “Purple Passion” for Broadway star Blanche Du Kay. Blanche does a song and dance to “Listen to your Mama” and she runs off with Melvin. Phoebe gets drunk and sings “I’m Funny That Way” which seems to be an adaptation of “He’s Funny That Way” by Neil Moret and Richard Whiting”. Phoebe becomes a star while both Melvin and Blanche fall from grace because Melvin can’t write songs without Phoebe. Years later Phoebe sees Melvin begging in the snow and thinks it might be him but decides it isn’t and walks away, stepping on and crushing his ukelele as she goes. 

            Mel Tormé started singing professionally at the age of 4 with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra. From the age of 8 to 16 he acted on the radio programs The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong the All American Boy. At the age of 16 he published his first song, “Lament to Love” and it was a hit for Harry James. As a teenager he was the singer and drummer for Chico Marx’s band. He gained the nickname “The Velvet Fog” because of the quality of his singing voice. His other nicknames were “Gauze Jaws”, “Mr. Butterscotch”, and “The Blue Fox”. His vocal style was influenced by Ella Fitzgerald. He formed the vocal group The Mel-Tones and they had several hits. They were an influence on Manhattan Transfer. He had a number 1 hit with “Careless Hands” in 1949. He gained a reputation as a great music arranger. He wrote the music for “The Christmas Song” and didn’t consider it to be great. He won two jazz vocalist Grammy Awards. He wrote over 250 songs. He made his film debut in Higher and Higher in 1944. He co-starred in Good News and became a teen idol. He co-starred in Walk Like a Dragon, Pardon My Rhythm, Resisting Enemy Interrogation, Let’s Go Steady, The Big Operator, and Girls Town. He starred in Land of No Return. He hosted TV’s Top Tunes in 1951. He starred in The Mel Tormé Show from 1951 to 1952. He guest starred nine times on Night Court. He did Mountain Dew commercials. He wrote a negative biography of Judy Garland based on his experience as the musical director of her variety show and another about his friend the drummer Buddy Rich. He published the novel Wynner in 1978. He called Rock and Roll “Three chord manure”. Ethel Waters said he was the only white man who sang with the soul of a black man.