Sultry

[rejectomorph]

The first really hot day of the year has, as usual, left me unable to do much more than wish I had nothing at all to do. So I do as little as possible. There are dishes in the sink (no, we don't have a functioning dishwasher) while I slug out at YouTube listening to (Just a) Gigolo in the original Italian, sung by Daniele Serra. Anyone who has only heard David Lee Roth or the Louis Prima version he imitated, or even the American hit record by Bing Crosby in the 1930s, this is an ear opener. Tango!

The video has lovely graphics, but here's something more to look at: Model Aeroplane Contest, ca.1910, from the Bain Collection at the Library of Congress. The glass negative appears to have been damaged, but that doesn't matter. The moment remains perfect, as I'm sure it was.

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

the heat hasn't hit here yet, but it can't be long before it does.

that Serra song is amazing! i wouldn't have recognized it at all without the identifying title and commentary. wow.

[rejectomorph]

Until I came across that YouTube posting, I'd had no idea that the composer was Italian or that the song had been written as a tango.

gigolo

[marseille.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard the version of the song that you mentioned, but one night on the radio I heard the 50's pop version by Louis Prima, and found out just where David Lee Roth stole his version!

Re: gigolo

[rejectomorph]

Diamond Cubic Zirconia Dave is a truly shameless imitator.

Here's Bing Crosby's 1931 version, which is much closer than Prima/Roth's version to the 1929 Serra version I linked to in the post.