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Reset Forty-Nine, Day Thirty-Eight
Jul. 1st, 2023 08:04 amWhat is it with me and dinner these days? I didn't eat it again Friday night. I think I did eat something, but I can't recall what it was, and it wasn't dinner because the fixings for that are still there. Although the air conditioner has been running, keeping the apartment tolerable, I still know it's really hot outside and that is effecting my mind. Instead of doing any actual things Friday I just fell down an old music rabbit hole at YouTube and listened to dozens of records from the 1920s through the 1950s. My Idernet connection got very slow, too, probably due to the heat, so I re-listened to most of the stuff without interruptions many times after it had loaded.
I also discovered something I hadn't known. The song "As Time Goes By" is so closely associated with Dooley Wilson's version in the 1942 movie "Casablanca" that I'd bet that most people, like me, have no idea that the original recording of the song in 1931 was by, of all people, Rudy Vallee! That's right, the rather comical 1920s crooner with the megaphone who was so often parodied in all those old Warner Brothers cartoons from the 1940s. I suspect that those cartoons are the main reason he was not entirely forgotten within a couple of decades, like most of his crooning contemporaries. His version of the song uses the long introductory verse, which I had never heard before, the movie version consisting only of the chorus and bridge. To someone who grew up with Dooley Wilson's classic version, Vallee's version is quite an experience.
I also discovered something I hadn't known. The song "As Time Goes By" is so closely associated with Dooley Wilson's version in the 1942 movie "Casablanca" that I'd bet that most people, like me, have no idea that the original recording of the song in 1931 was by, of all people, Rudy Vallee! That's right, the rather comical 1920s crooner with the megaphone who was so often parodied in all those old Warner Brothers cartoons from the 1940s. I suspect that those cartoons are the main reason he was not entirely forgotten within a couple of decades, like most of his crooning contemporaries. His version of the song uses the long introductory verse, which I had never heard before, the movie version consisting only of the chorus and bridge. To someone who grew up with Dooley Wilson's classic version, Vallee's version is quite an experience.
