Albums Your Parents Instilled In You?

Music was actually a really regular past-time in our house, and a lot of things were well-liked and actively listened to, played and sung, by all of us, not just the artists.

Top of the list was probably anything Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. We often had family record nights and sing-alongs, with one of my brothers on guitar, my grandmother on piano, and, when I got older, me on the piano at times, too. My parents both had good voices -- not professional-singer great, but pleasant, and they could definitely carry a tune. I don't remember specific albums just because we had so many, tucked away behind an opened-as-needed stereo set/system built, by my dad, into the bottom level of our living room's full-wall bookcase. But Elvis (my mom's love) and The Beatles (popular with both generations) were staples of our seemingly weekly events.

Glen Campbell and Neil Diamond, Elton John and even John Denver were all a part of things, and much appreciated, as well.

The individual-song tracks of our family, all through the years, though, have been "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the movie "The Wizard of Oz," and "New York, New York," from the Martin Scorsese film of the same name that was sung by Liza Minnelli in the film and recorded by Frank Sinatra later on. All of us kids have memories of our mom singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," to us when we were little, and then, any other time it popped up later on in our lives, too. "New York, New York," has become a regular, fun, intentionally included part of any large family celebration or gathering. We're from there, and we and our east-coast family members and friends all get into what, every time, turns into a rollicking, rousing rendition of the song, complete with chorus-line kicks and exuberant crescendos that would make Old Blue Eyes proud.

 

My parents were pre-Beatles, and also early victims of the Columbia record scam.

They apparently decided to get the entire Lawrence Welk catalog for 1 cent and followed that with all the Herb Albert discs, including the one with the pretty girl in the whipped cream (va-va-va-voom!). They also had the cast album of "The Music Man," which I then memorized long before I ever saw it performed. That and "How to Succeed in Business" remain my two favorite musicals.

 

My mom never liked a band after the Beatles and my dad had two areas of musical interest one I didn't care for (Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Peter Allen, Barry Manilow) and one I love to this day (Dylan, Stones, Elton John, Springsteen).

 

Do you continue with “...and I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom “ and explain???

 

My parents were not regular music listeners at home, but were collectors of comedy albums in the late '50s-early '60s. Mort Sahl, Bob Newhart, Jonathan Winters, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, like that. Of course I've followed comedy all my life, if not as devotedly as music.

 

I love "The Music Man" cast album reference. Now, granted, my daughter is a capital-letter THEATRE KID (and going to school for musical theatre in NYC starting next year, I might add ), and she actually played Amaryllis twice as a kid. But my favorite part of that is that nearly 10 years later she still likes to do ALL parts of "Rock Island" herself when it comes on her Spotify list.

 

Whatdya talk, whatdya talk, whatdya talk, whatdya talk? You can talk, you can bicker, you can talk, you can bicker, you can talk-talk-talk, you can bicker-bicker-bicker ... But he doesn't know the territory!

HAHA! I always sing all the parts to "Wells Fargo Wagon" in each character's voice. And I love all the songs but Robert Preston's "Ya Got Trouble" has always been my favorite. He admitted his vocal range was limited but it's the way Willson made the words flow so precisely that is perfect for the ear. And I still don't know all the references to 1910-era life (and have never seen Sen-Sen or Captain Billy's Whiz Bang) but all that fuss over a pool table? Can you imagine a stuck-up jockey boy sitting on "Dan Patch?"

I still can't believe they almost made the movie without Preston because they didn't think he was "a big enough name." It was on TCM on July 4 and I watched it again for the xxxth time.