Your Hit Parade 1999

Everything in this collection is captured and remastered beautifully, spanning two discs with 28 songs on each, and that’s a treasure trove, for sure.

To boldly go where no 4 men ever went before: On December 4, 1956, a twist of extraterrestrial fate brought together Johnny Cash, 24, Jerry Lee Lewis, 21, Carl Perkins, 24 and Elvis Presley, 21, at the storefront studio of Sun Records in Memphis for one of the greatest jam sessions in Rock n Roll history. These 4 were not space pioneers, but they soon established new frontiers in the world of music.

The imposing mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe is known for her roles in Wagner, Verdi and Stravinsky. Why would she begin a Balboa Theatre recital for the San Diego Opera with Johnny Mercer’s 'Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive?” Here’s what she said in a recent interview, “I’ve been a great fan of Johnny Mercer’s and I’ve been singing the music of his Great American Songbook for a very long time.” Rather than a concert-hall recital, Blythe was doing cabaret, and doing it far better than most of the opera singers who try to crossover. Her main problem had to be choosing which songs to include in her tribute to Johnny Mercer. He wrote 1500 of them, most often sticking to lyrics in collaboration with the A-list melodic composers of his era. At one point in the 40s he had five of the top ten on the popular radio show “Your Hit Parade.” (If you remember Snooky Lanson and Dorothy Collins, I wouldn’t mention it in your dating app bio.) Mercer’s honors include nineteen Oscar nominations with four wins. That got him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Singer Jill Corey, an overnight sensation in 1953, when she landed on the cover of Life Magazine, passed away from natural causes on April 3 at UPMC Sunnyside in Sunnyside, PA.  She was 85. 

Multi-hyphenate performer Lawrence Leritz has penned a personal remembrance about Tony Charmoli, who passed away on August 7th at the age of 99.

Tony Charmoli died peacefully on the evening of August 7th at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He was 99. Tony had a decades long, award-winning career as a director, a producer, and as a choreographer for television, film, and theater. 

Michael Lavine (Broadway vocal coach, performer music director, and sheet music guru) is presenting a special Webinar Zoominar benefit series: MOMENT MATINEE PRESENTS SONGS OF THE DECADE.

Quality Hill Playhouse will pay tribute to Harold Arlen, the man who brought the blues to the Great American Songbook, in THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, an original cabaret revue which opened on January 19.