Apparently, Jimmy Buffett was in touch with his nostalgia muse when he wrote this song.  “I wish I had a pencil thin mustache, the Boston Blackie kind – a two toned Ricky Ricardo jacket and an autographed picture of Andy Divine”.  Yep… definitely nostalgic.  Buffett also mentions American Bandstand, flat tops, Errol Flynn, Disneyland, the Sheik of Araby, and Brylcreem in this tune.  He also assures us that “only jazz musicians were smokin’ marijuana”.  Ah… those were the days, my friend.

But who is this “Boston Blackie” with a mustache that is so coveted? Well, there was this chap named Jack Boyle who was convicted of robbery and served time in San Quentin.  While sitting behind bars, he created a fictional character named “Boston Blackie”, a reformed jewel thief and safecracker turned private detective.  Boyle, under the pen name “No.6066”, had his stories printed in Red Book magazine for several years before they were adapted for motion pictures.

You can’t find decent backups for this song, so I made up my own.  I took the liberty of adding some brass and a trombone (it needed something) and this is the way we performed it for years.  Now, if only I could work out that mustache thing. Personally, I’m not all that enamored with a “thin mustache”.  I was shooting for the “Dr. Zhivago” look myself, but trust me, just the mustache doesn’t help you look anything like Omar Sharif.  Can’t blame a guy for trying.  Now where’s that Ricky Ricardo jacket I had……

  Download MP3   At one time I played in a backup band for a group that did an entire set dedicated to “The Platters”.  There were so many “Platters” hits that it was difficult to choose which songs to put in a set…. so we did ’em all (it was a long set).  Among them were such classics as “Twilight Time”, “The Great Pretender”, “Smoke gets in Your Eyes”, “My Prayer”, and this one – “Only You”.

“Only You” was written by a chap named Buck Ram, who also went by the names Ande Rand, Lynn Paul, and Jean Miles…. got to be a story there but that’s for another day.  He’s best known for writing, producing and arranging nearly all The Platters hits….no matter what his name was.  This piece was a struggle for the group as they weren’t satisfied with the arrangement but didn’t quite know what it needed.  Driving around in a car one day, they were rehearsing the song (Doo-Wop groups could do that) when the car hit a bump, causing their lead singer to warble “O-oHHHHH-nly you”.  They all laughed, but then thought they just might have hit on something.  Sounds like a made-up story, but apparently it’s true.  Thank goodness for pot holes!

In this sequence, I used a saxophone as the lead vocal with two tracks of backup chorus voices to round it out.  If you’re performing alone, you can mute the sax and leave the backup tracks to give your vocals a fuller sound.  And who knew there was a female singer in “The Platters” (Zola Taylor)?  I didn’t… but then I’ve lead a very sheltered life.

[Pop/Rock List]

  Download Instrumental    Yep… Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature.  My first reaction was, “You’ve GOT to be kidding!”  That makes as much sense as Obama getting the Peace Prize twenty minutes after he took office.  The Nobel people said they had a reason though – it was for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.  Oh, okay – that explains it.

However, after pouring over lyrics of some of his lesser known songs… well, they actually are pretty good literature.  I don’t know that they’re on par with the likes of Saul Bellow or Steinbeck or Hemingway, but  Dylan did write some pretty heady stuff.  His song “Hurricane”, for example, gave us the true story of the false imprisonment of Reuben Carter.  The song achieved such popularity that it led to the retrial of “Hurricane” Carter (after spending 20 years in prison) and the subsequent release and judgement that Carter hadn’t received a fair trial – though I think Dylan might have been more in line for a Pulitzer for that one.

“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was one of the few Bob Dylan compositions I actually liked – though not by him.  I much preferred Eric Clapton’s reggae feel for the tune and that’s what I’m giving you here.   I guess I like the whole idea of being able to knock on heaven’s door – hoping beyond hope that it opens and I can stroll on in to a reggae beat.  I’m pretty sure there’s music in heaven…

So congratulations, Mr. Dylan… I guess.

[Backup tracks on Pop/Rock List]

  Download    There is no explaining this song. It’s loads of fun to perform, and one of those melodies that sticks in your head decades after you heard it the first time. That, ladies and gentlemen, is by definition a true “hit”.

“Karma Chameleon”  was recorded in 1983 (yes, it’s that old) by Culture Club, featuring front man Boy George.  It was during the filming of this video that Boy George developed his “signature look” –  fingerless gloves, colorful costume, long braids, and the black derby.  I, personally, have some issue with his overuse of mascara, but that’s just me.  The man has the smoothest of voices and carries himself like the coolest of the cool.  He may be a bit eccentric, but I like him and his music.  Smooooooth…

The most interesting part of this tune is the harmonica (and great fun to duplicate on a keyboard).  It was played by a black actor in the video, but was actually done by a white Englishman named Judd Lander, a musician from the “sixties “era.  If you have a harp player in your group, just mute track 6 and let him play away.  That instrument makes the song what it is.

Boy George explains the piece as being about ” the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing.  Basically, if you aren’t true, if you don’t act like you feel, then you get karma-justice,  that’s natures way of paying you back”.

And here I thought we were all just having fun…

[Pop/Rock List]

  Download    This is a simple, basic arrangement of a simple, basic song – but, oh, what a hit it was for Fats Domino.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra had a #1 hit with it in 1940.  Louis Armstrong went to #29 on the charts with “Blueberry” in 1949.  But in ’56, Fats made it an international favorite and the tune became a rock n’roll standard.  It’s ranked #82 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest  Songs of All Time. “Blueberry Hill” may be simple and only have three chords but, as Trump would say… it’s HUGE!

One of the funniest references I’ve seen to the song was on the The Far Side, a comic written by the great Gary Larson:  A man is talking in a phone booth on top of a hill called “Blueberry Hill”.  There’s a hand tool lying in the grass.  He says into the phone, “Norm?  This is Mitch… You were right — I found my drill.”  Well… I thought it was hilarious!

Anyway, work this one into your act.  Everybody knows and loves it.  The backup tracks of the Fats Domino version are on the Pop-Rock List.  You can listen to Glenn Miller do it below: