Meredith Willson SONG?

[Steve & Rhonda]

Does anyone else out there remember "Chicken Fat"?

(Yes, I am over 40)

---Rhonda

[BndLeader]

YES!! Robert Preston sang it...it was actually on the radio. "Touch
down...every morning...three times!"
I'm over 40, as well.

[Melanie Lynch]

As in "Go you Chicken Fat, go" from that damned song we had to do jr
high PE to? AARRGGHH!!!!!!!!!
--
Melanie
Any typos are solely the responsibility of the cat, Sweeney Todd, the
demon cat of Monroe St.

[Kaffitimi]

Does anyone else out there remember "Chicken Fat"?

(Yes, I am over 40)

---Rhonda
++++++++++++++++++++
Yup. It was inspired by President Kennedy's physical fitness kick.

Remember when Meredith and Rini Willson hosted a summer replacement variety
show on one of the networks?

(God, I'm old!)

[Tim Dunleavy]

kaff...@aol.com (Kaffitimi) wrote:
>Remember when Meredith and Rini Willson hosted a summer replacement variety
>show on one of the networks?
>
>(God, I'm old!)

According to my TV reference book, Willson's only series as a host was
"The Meredith Willson Show", which aired on NBC for four weeks in the
summer of 1949. The only regulars were Meredith Willson and Norma
Zimmer. (Zimmer later became Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Lady.")

If you get the Game Show Network on cable, you can still see Willson
as a regular panelist on repeats of the wonderful early-fifties game
show "The Name's The Same."

-Tim

[Kaffitimi]

I wrote:
>>Remember when Meredith and Rini Willson hosted a summer replacement variety
>>show on one of the networks?

Then Tim Dunleavy timd@snip*nospam*.net said:
>
>According to my TV reference book, Willson's only series as a host was
>"The Meredith Willson Show", which aired on NBC for four weeks in the
>summer of 1949. The only regulars were Meredith Willson and Norma
>Zimmer. (Zimmer later became Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Lady.")

"Summer replacement" is a guess because those years I would have been in the
States only in summer. I'm sure it was Meredith and Rini and weekly and
shortterm. They used his longtime theme song, "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep
You." I think I can remember him singing "Chicken Fat" and her doing something
from HERE'S LOVE, so like maybe mid-60s. Does anyone else here remember it? The
sponsor was, like, Texaco.

[Kathy O'Connell]

Arrrgh...I remember it, but not fondly.
Could it have been a replacement for the Garry Moore Show? I know the horrendous Keefe
Brasselle Show was another summer replacement series.

Kaffitimi (kaff...@aol.com) wrote:

[Kaffitimi]

I said:
: >>Remember when Meredith and Rini Willson hosted a summer replacement variety
: >>show on one of the networks?

so then ocon...@pobox.upenn.edu (Kathy O'Connell) said:

<<Arrrgh...I remember it, but not fondly.
Could it have been a replacement for the Garry Moore Show? I know the
horrendous Keefe
Brasselle Show was another summer replacement series.>>

Thanks, Kathy, for letting me know I'm not crazy. (Sometimes I stand in the
middle of the floor...) "Replacement for Garry Moore" occurred to me, but I had
already conjectured so much.

Keefe Brasselle! Now *there* was a wizard with a straw hat and cane
<sarcasm>!!!

[Pizzaman95]

Just by the way, Meredith Wilson was a regular panelist on The Name's The
Same, seen on Sundays on the Game Show Network. Why aren't today's
artists on game shows? C'mon, we want Brown, LaChiusa and company on
Hollywood Squares!

[Steve & Rhonda]

Thanks all for the info. Now who likes Being in Love better than My
White Night?

[Beb11572]

>Thanks all for the info. Now who likes Being in Love better than My
>White Night?

I've asked myself this for years now, which I like better, and I can't decide.
I love them both.

However, I do know where I stand with regard to the interlude ("All I want is a
plain man..."). It works in "My White Knight." However, I think it sounds
awful in the middle of "Being in Love." It just doesn't work there. Too
lyrical, too introspective, too art-songy for the rest of that song. It sounds
exactly like what it is - a part of another song cut-and-pasted into the new
one.

What was the deal with Willson replacing the main part of "My White Knight,"
but salvaging this?

[musikman1]

On 15-May-2000, beb1...@aol.com (Beb11572) wrote:

> What was the deal with Willson replacing the main part of "My White
> Knight,"
> but salvaging this?

Willson didn't write My White Knight, and he wanted the full credit for the
movie.. My White Knight was written by Frank Loesser (of Guys and Dolls
fame..) according to my sources.. (Show Tunes 1919-1964)

[Steve & Rhonda]

Thank you for confirming the fact that Frank Loesser wrote the chorus of
MY WHITE KNIGHT. Willson talks about this himself in his book "But He
Doesn't Know the Territory."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RETRO MUSIC THEATRE
Celebrating neglected musicals
from the 1920's thru the 1970's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Biff McKeldin]

Steve & Rhonda wrote:
>
> Thank you for confirming the fact that Frank Loesser wrote the chorus of
> MY WHITE KNIGHT. Willson talks about this himself in his book "But He
> Doesn't Know the Territory."

I wasn't aware that the rumor that Frank Loesser had written "My White
Knight" had ever been substantiated. But Willson himself actually
mentions this in his autobiography?

Anyway, I much prefer "My White Knight" to "Being in Love" -- though I'm
not sure that the latter song (through its lyric) doesn't do a better
job at "explaining" Marian than the former. At any rate, I'm glad
Willson at least kept the release from the stage song in the movie, as
it's my favorite portion of "My White Knight," whoever wrote it.

Biff

[Steve & Rhonda]

Willson did write the release, and his book is not an autobiograpy (he
wrote several other books about his upbringing), but a journal
specifically about THE MUSIC MAN. I have it, but don't know if it's in
print. Also, Jerry Herman "fesses up" to not writing some of HELLO,
DOLLY in HIS memoir (including "Elegance", written by Bob Merrill).

[Michael Callery]

This is what Herman says:

"Bob and I worked on two songs called "Motherhood" and "Elegance." He
was a real gentlemean. He truly did not want to be in this awkward
position, but he honestly wanted to help, so he gave me the ideas for
these two songs and we worked on them together.

"Bob wasn't interested in interfering with the show or with my life, and
he felt that I was talented enough to do my own work. So after spending
some time with me on these two pieces, he left me with material that was
deliberately unfinished so I could put my own stamp on it. So I could
write lyrics like:

" All who are well-bred agree ..." "

I was under the impression that a similar situation was true about My
White Knight and when Suskin baldly stated, in Show Tunes, that it was
the work of Loesser there was quite some consternation about it. It's
not been removed from the current edition of the book, so I really don't know.

However, it was not unusual (I guess I should say is not unusual) for
"doctors" to come to see a developing work and be asked to provide
material. Music Man, in particular, had a particularly rough, long
gestation. The point is, I guess, no matter who wrote these songs that
they work well in the shows in question and are seamless with the other
material. Musical theatre, after all, is a collaborative art.

Mike