An audio magazine I used to get, back when audio magazines existed, had a memorably succinct review of a CD release of a Mitch Miller Christmas Album — “Welcome to Hell.” Jonathan and Darlene Edwards paid tribute to the unforgettable music of Mitch Miller, as only they could, in “Baby Bumble Bee.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/AUG/BabyBumbleBee.mp3]Darlene’s friend, the late Jo Stafford, can be seen with Frank Sinatra in this old film clip, performing “I’ll Never Smile Again,” a song I featured at this link.
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I was almost on the floor, laughing at this after the initial shock of its superb awfulness wore off, and I listened to it again and could fully appreciate the exquisite pain of the lyrics.
That was great! How can somebody with a great voice manage to sing off-key like that? and why doesn’t it work the other way? I sing horribly off-key, so shouldn’t I be able to “pretend” to sing on-key like Jo Stafford? 🙁 Nah, I’m doomed to sound like Darlene Edwards (actually, even worse) for the rest of my days! So Is No. 1 daughter Molly, but she’s not as bad. We watched “Titaniic” the other day, and she did a loud, heartless imitation of Celine Dion that was almost spot-on!