Chimesfreedom recently reported on an upcoming new Johnny Cash album release called Out Among the Stars. The album features unreleased tracks from recording sessions at Columbia Records in 1981 and 1984. The video for the earlier announcement featured a snipped of one of the songs discovered by Cash’s son John Carter, “She Used to Love Me a Lot.” But now you may hear the song in its entirety.
The song is available for listening below. As Rolling Stone reports, the song sounds like vintage Johnny Cash. I like it. The album Out Among the Stars will hit the shelves and Internet on March 15, 2014.
One interesting point that the articles about the new song do not mention, is that another country icon released a version of “She Used to Love Me a Lot” in the 1980s. David Allan Coe had a hit with the song in 1985. The song — written by Dennis Morgan, Charles Quillen, and Kye Fleming — appeared on Coe’s 1984 album Darlin’, Darlin. Check out his version.
What do you think of “She Used to Love Me a Lot”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On January 13, 1962, groundbreaking comedian Ernie Kovacs died at the age of 42 in a car crash. His Chevrolet Covair crashed into a telephone pole in Los Angeles, California.
Some authorities surmised that he was lighting one of his trademark cigars when he lost control of his vehicle. His tombstone at Forest Lawn Cemetery is inscribed, “Ernie Kovacs 1919 – 1962 — Nothing In Moderation.”
The unique style of comedy that Kovacs brought to television and several movies is often cited as inspiring a number of later classic shows. You can see Kovacs in shows ranging from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In to Saturday Night Live to children’s shows like Sesame Street. And anytime you see the madcap antics of late night TV hosts like David Letterman or Conan O’Brien, you are seeing a little bit of the visual and surreal humor of Kovacs.
You may read more about the career of Ernie Kovacs on the Ernie Kovacs website, or you may watch an episode of The Ernie Kovacs Show from around 1962 below.
The car that Kovacs was driving, the Chevrolet Corvair, would go on to further fame when Ralph Nader crusaded to reveal safety problems with the car. What is your favorite clip of Ernie Kovacs? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chuck Cunningham was Richie’s older brother on Happy Days who famously ate sandwiches, dribbled basketballs, and then disappeared, never to be heard from again. The way his character vanished and was never mentioned again by this TV family eventually led to the name Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
What you may not remember about Chuck, though, is that he was played by two different actors. Gavan O’Herlihy initially played the character in the series, followed by Randolph Roberts. According to IMDb, O’Herlihy appeared as Chuck during the first season in seven episodes from January to March 1974. Later in the year, during the second season, Randolph Roberts appeared in two episodes as Chuck. [Update: The clip of a show with Chuck is no longer on YouTube, but if you find the series debut episode, “All the Way,” at around the 7:40 mark you may see O’Herlihy enjoying dinner with the Cunninghams. A brief part of the clip also appears in the TMZ video below.]
Reportedly, the reason the show eventually got rid of Chuck was that he was never a big character and the producers realized that Fonzie (Henry Winkler) had become the “big brother” to Richie (Ron Howard). Several websites note that Gary Marshall, the series creator, humorously stated that his response to the question about what happened to Chuck was that the character got a basketball scholarship in Outer Mongolia.
But why were there two Chucks in the series? In the following video, O’Herlihy, who had been a champion Irish tennis player, explains at around the 4:04 mark how Happy Days gave him his big break in acting. But after he realized that they expected his character to have a limited role, dropping in from college occasionally, he wanted to go on to other work. So apparently, the producers then brought in Roberts briefly before deciding to dump the character all together.
O’Herlihy went on to appear in a number of roles in films like Willow (1988), often playing a villain such as in a standout performance in Lonesome Dove (1989). By contrast, Roberts continued in some acting roles for a little more than a decade before leaving acting and, according to Wikipedia, becoming an education supervisor for ITT Technical Institute in San Diego.
On an additional note, technically, there were three Chuck Cunninghams. In the original Happy Days pilot version that appeared as a segment of Love, American Style (discussed in another post), Chuck was played by actor Ric Carrott. As in the Happy Days series, Chuck only appeared briefly in the Love, American Style episode (eating dinner). Carrott went on to appear in a number of TV shows during the 1970s as well as in small parts in a number of films before leaving acting. He may be best known for his work as Captain Chris Gentry on the Saturday morning kid’s show Space Academy.
Regarding the TV series Happy Days, it is interesting to speculate whether or not the show would have abandoned Chuck Cunningham had O’Herlihy stuck around, as it seems likely that the loss of the first actor hastened the character’s demise. One might image that if O’Herlihy had not left the character, the writers might have kept Chuck in the family, occasionally dropping by while he was at college and then off living somewhere else. Or maybe the series occasionally would have covered him playing basketball in Mongolia. 2015 Update: After this article was posted TMZ did a short segment on the Chuck Cunningham mystery where they caught Ron Howard with the question about what happened to Chuck. Check it out.
The Atlantic recently posted an interesting article about the famous scene from The Errand Boy (1961) where Jerry Lewis imitates an Executive in time to the music of Count Basie Orchestra’s “Blues in Hoss’s Flat.” I recall seeing the movie as a kid, and the wonderful Jerry Lewis scene has stayed with me ever since.
Apparently, many other remember the scene too, making it one of the most admired scenes from a panned movie. Seth MacFarlane negotiated with Lewis for permission to feature Peter Griffin on Family Guy recreating the scene. Another fan, Manoj Sharma, posted his tribute on Youtube, where he courageously recreates the scene in perfect time to Jerry Lewis in the background. Like Lewis’s original, this clip gives me a big smile. Check it out.
For more about the famous scene, make sure to check out The Atlantic article. The tune, “Blues in Hoss’s Flat,” was composed by Count Basie band member Frank Foster and is from Basie’s album whose title might have inspired Lewis, Chairman of the Board (1959).
What is your favorite Jerry Lewis movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In the video below, singer-songwriter Todd Snider tells a wonderful story about hanging out with Jerry Jeff Walker, who wrote the classic “Mr. Bojangles.” And then the songwriter himself — who was born born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942 in Oneonta, New York — appears with Snider to sing the song.
Video of Snider and Walker
It’s great to see Snider on stage with Walker, as they are both very talented artists who do not get near the acclaim they deserve. So it makes me happy to think of the two hanging out at a bar. Check it out.
The Inspiration for “Mr. Bojangles”
In the introduction, Snider jokes about how Walker came out of jail with the song. And he is telling the truth.
Although many mistakenly believe that the song is about the dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Walker was inspired to write the song by a different man. He met the real “Mr. Bojangles” in a New Orleans jail during the Fourth of July weekend in 1965.
I met him in a cell in New Orleans; I was down and out; He looked to me to be the eyes of age, As he spoke right out; He talked of life, talked of life, He laughed, clicked his heels and stepped.
Walker was in the slammer for public intoxication when he met the homeless man who inspired the song. The man did tell Walker the sad story about the dog, and then he danced.
He Said His Name “Bojangles”
According to Wikipedia, the man did tell Walker he went by the name “Mr. Bojangles.” Apparently, he used the name to conceal his real identity from the police.
A 2000 article in the Post and Courier newspaper, though, claims that after Walker met the man in jail, Walker later added the “Bojangles” name. The article says that Walker used a common name used by street dancers in New Orleans. By contrast, Walker’s biography supports that the man in jail did use the name “Bojangles.”
Either way, the song is one of the all-time classics. Many also may have been introduced to the song by Sammy Davis Jr.’s wonderful version. But I wonder whatever happened to the man who inspired the song and whether or not he ever knew a great song was written about him?
In the video below, Jerry Jeff Walker talks to Bruce Robison about writing “Mr. Bojangles” and plays the song. Check it out.
What is your favorite Jerry Jeff Walker song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chimesfreedom recently reported on an upcoming new Johnny Cash album release called Out Among the Stars. The album features unreleased tracks from recording sessions at Columbia Records in 1981 and 1984. The video for the earlier announcement featured a snipped of one of the songs discovered by Cash’s son John Carter, “She Used to Love Me a Lot.” But now you may hear the song in its entirety.
