"I'll Begin Again" - Sammy Davis, Jr. (1972)

"I'll Begin Again" (1972)

Now

Sammy Davis, Jr.

MGM Records

As mentioned last time, Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded a version of the Leslie Bricusse song "I'll Begin Again" from the 1970 movie "Scrooge."

Here it is, from his 1972 album "Now":

This particular album is noteworthy for featuring Sammy's astonishingly popular hit single of "The Candy Man," which was another Leslie Bricusse song this one co-written with Anthony Newley and from the movie "Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971).

The flipside of "The Candy Man" was "I Want to Be Happy," a standard that first appeared in the Broadway show "No, No, Nannette" in 1925. What's interesting is that Tony Bennett included the song on his "Love Story" album. So, Tony Bennett and Sammy Davis, Jr. each had albums within a year of each other that contained both "I'll Begin Again" and "I Want to Be Happy." Hmmm...

Sammy's "I'll Begin Again" also appeared on this single from 1971:

But apparently his Ecology label for Motown didn't go anywhere and some tracks he had recorded for an unreleased album wound up over at MGM.

When I was a kid, it seemed that Sammy Davis, Jr. was everywhere. He popped up on every TV show in the manner of those famous-for-being-famous celebrities so prevalent in the 1970s.

As I got older, however, I came to appreciate the depth of his talent, which was astonishing.

In addition to singing and dancing, he could act and was a brilliant impressionist.

He handles songs like "I'll Begin Again" quite easily, but that's only the tip of his iceberg!

"I'll Begin Again" - Tony Bennett (1971)

"I'll Begin Again" (1971)

Tony Bennett 

Columbia Records

Another song from Leslie Bricusse's score from the 1970 movie musical "Scrooge" to get some other recordings is "I'll Begin Again," the song that Albert Finney sings/croaks toward the end of the film.

Tony Bennett had a single of the tune on Columbia Records in 1971.

Give it a listen:

I think this song suits Tony very well. He had already become more of a song stylist by this point, not exactly talk-singing, but sort of. Hard to believe this was 50 years ago and he only just retired.

I saw that he recently revealed that he's been battling Alzheimer's Disease for a few years. I hope he gets to enjoy retirement for a while. He's pleased a lot of people for a lot of years!

There were also versions of "I'll Begin Again" by Sammy Davis, Jr. on MGM Records and Jim Nabors, Tony Bennett's Columbia labelmate. 

Tony's version of was also included on his "Love Story" album à la Henry Mancini and "Love Story" was the flipside of the single. "Love Story" was a minor hit for Tony.

The "adult contemporary" artists of the day did a lot of the same songs. Andy Williams never got in the "Scrooge" act, though!

"Thank You Very Much" - Henry Mancini and his Orchestra and Chorus (1971)

"Thank You Very Much" (1971)

Mancini Plays the Theme from "Love Story"

Henry Mancini and his Orchestra and Chorus

RCA Victor

We stay with the "Scrooge" (1970) soundtrack with this version of the Oscar-nominated "Thank You Very Much" by Henry Mancini from 1971.

Henry Mancini was, of course, a top composer for movies and TV, with credits including the memeorabke themes from the "Peter Gunn" TV series and "The Pink Panther" films, but he also recorded a lot of songs from movies that he didn't write.

He had a number one hit with "LOve Theme from Romeo and Juliet" in 1969 and another hit with "LOve Story" in 1971.

He also recorded tons of albims from for RCA Victor, so it's no surprise that he had an album called "Mancini Plays the Theme from 'Love Story'" in 1971.

The album featured popular songs from recent movies, including Leslie Bricusse's "Thank you Very Much" from the previous year's "Scrooge."

Give it a listen:

Guest critic Betty Rubble sums up this cut:

"You... You/Once Upon a December" - Michael Chertock (1998)

"You... You/Once Upon a December" (1998)

Christmas at the Movies

Michael Chertock

Telarc

Here's a cut from the 1998 album "Christmas at the Movies" by pianist Michael Chertock.

I've had the CD since it first came out and it's really nice, but due to my OSD, this particular track has always been my favorite because it features the song "You... You" from the 1970 musical version of "Scrooge."

This haunting song by Leslie Bricusse is kinda/sorta "sung" by Albert Finney while thinking about his lost love.

It's mashed up here with the similar sounding "Once Upon a December" from the 1997 animated feature "Anastasia."

An interesting tie-in with this song is that the lyrics (not heard here) are by Lynn Ahrens, who also wrote the lyrics for "A Christmas Carol: The Musical." Throw in that Kelsey Grammer who played Scrooge in the TV-movie of that musical also does voicework in "Anastasia" and you come back around again!

In any event, give it a listen:

"Uncle Mistletoe" - Eddy Howard and his Orchestra (1949)

"Uncle Mistletoe"(1949)

Eddy Howard and his Orchestra

Mercury Records

So, as mentioned, the song "Scrooge" recorded by Roye Goodrich made me think of the song "Ebenezer Scrooge" recorded by Eddy Howard. And this in turn made me think of "Uncle Mistletoe," also recorded by Eddy Howard!

Uncle Mistletoe is not a Scrooge-like character, but doesn't he totally look like a reformed Scrooge?

Here he is keeping the Santa line moving along:

I don't have any firsthand Uncle Mistletoe experience, but apparently he was well-known in the Chicago area as the holiday mascot for Marshall Field's department store.

He was created in response to Montgomery Ward's Christmas mascot, a young fellow known as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!

Uncle M's song from 1949 obviously was nowhere near as popular as Rudolph's from the same year, but they did get it recorded by the Three Suns on RCA Victor and Owen Bradley on Coral in addition to Eddy Howard on Mercury.

Here's Eddy's record:

Also non-Scroogey for Uncle Mistletoe is that he avoided a Belle situation by marrying Aunt Holly!

"Scrooge" - Roye Goodrich with the Holidays (1952) - Part 3

A few thoughts about the song "Scrooge" as recorded by Roye Goodrich and the Holidays for King Records in 1952...

The song seems pretty obscure. I think it was just recorded that one time. And that one time being on the independent King label by an unknown artist, if it didn't catch on, it was gone.

I'm presuming the publishers would have love to have had the song recorded by name artists on bigger labels.

Flash-forward a year to 1953 and a very similar song, "Ebenezer Scrooge" (discussed here) was making the rounds and got recorded by Teresa Brewer on Coral and Eddy Howard on Mercury. And that song went nowhere either!

The two songs are really similar. Coincidence? At this point who knows?

What probably is a coincidence is that the flip side of Roye Goodrich's record is called "Home for the Holidays," but it's not the same song as "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays," which was published in 1954, a couple of years later.

That song became a holiday standard when it was recorded that year by Perry Como!

In any event, as a bonus here's Roye Goodrich with Holidays' recording of "Home for the Holidays":

"Scrooge" - Roye Goodrich with the Holidays (1952) - Part 2

If you got a chance to listen to King Records' 1952 release of "Scrooge" by Roye Goodrich with the Holidays, I hope you liked it!

Finding little obscure gems like that really scratches an itch for me!

Here's what "Billboard" Magazine said about this release in its November 22, 1952 issue:

I don't know anything about Roye Goodrich, but he sounds very 1952 on this record!

They seemed to be going for the big pre-rock type sound I associate with Columbia Records and the productions of Mitch Miller and Ray Conniff.

He reminds me of somebody? Don Cherry, maybe?

"Billboard" nails it with this review from the August 22, 1952 issue of an earlier Rooye Goodrich release:

It actually surprised me a bit to hear this style on a record from King, as I associate them with country artists like Moon Mullican and Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas, as that's what they're best-remembered for these days.

In any event, it doesn't seem that Roye Goodrich's career never really went anywhere. It was probably already stalled out, but the emergence of rock and roll put his type of singing out of business.

For fun, here's Roye with the overdone "Jungle Drums":