Tuesday, February 4, 2020

"The Stingiest Man in Town" Bonus!



Before we say goodbye (for now) to "The Stingiest Man in Town" from 1956, here's the studio recording of the Four Lads singing the title song.

It's a fun novelty number in which they give comic examples of how stingy Scrooge actually.

In the interest of overanalyzing everything, I think one of the verses is very interesting:

"He has a house that's very tall, with flowered paper in the hall. And for his mother's funeral, he cut the flowers off the wall"

Clever, yes, and I realize it's for purposes of this bit, but doesn't that imply that he was an adult already living in his current house when his mother died? The implication in the book is that his mother had died at some point when he was young (but not in childbirth), as his sister Fan only mentions their father.

The Ghost of Christmas Present in the special only says, "Your little sister came to take you home and your father had grown kinder."

But, who am I to get in the way of a good bit? Carry on!

As I had mentioned, this is more in the usual style of the Four Lads than the version actually performed in the show. That might just be because the audio is better on the record.

I notice that the label says it's with Camarata and his Orchestra, but the arrangement is by Ray Ellis, who was the Lads' usual arranger/conductor.

Give it a listen:




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