Oscars

505. Irene Cara – Fame (1982)

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The Intro

Irene Cara’s infectious theme to the musical Fame failed to chart in the UK when released in the summer of 1980 as a preview to the forthcoming film. However, the movie became huge, and the title track won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Two years later, the spin-off TV series was so popular in the UK, a re-release saw the song become top of the pops.

Before

The film had been conceived by producer David De Silva in 1976, inspired by A Chorus Line. He hired Christopher Gore to write a film about the lives of ambitious students at the real-life High School of Performing Arts, based in Manhattan, New York City. It was directed by Alan Parker, an English director who had worked on some of the most memorable UK television advertisements of all time, before making his first movie, Bugsy Malone, in 1976. He named the film after David Bowie’s 1975 song. Taking the lead role of Coco Hernandez was a young singer and actress called Irene Cara, who Parker was initially sceptical of.

Irene Cara Escalera was born on 18 March 1959 in the Bronx. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother was Cuban. She began dance lessons as a five-year-old and was only eight when she recorded her first album, Ésta es Irene. She also appeared on The Tonight Show.

As a teen in the 70s she attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan and went on to appear in Broadway shows, before making the move into TV. Critical acclaim came with her role in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generations in 1976. She was originally cast in Fame as a dancer, but when De Silva, co-producer Alan Marshall and Gore heard her voice, they made her character a singer.

The musical supervisor on Fame was Michael Gore, brother of Lesley Gore, who sang the original hit version of It’s My Party – a cover of which became a UK number 1 for Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin in 1981. Gore worked with Dean Pitchford on the songs for the movie, and when he played him the chorus melody for the theme, Pitchford instantly replied ‘Fame! I’m gonna live forever!’ However, the rest of the theme came less easily, and it took a month to write.

It made perfect sense to write the song from the stardom-hungry Hernandez’s perspective, so Cara sang the funky title track. Among the backing singers was Luther Vandross, who was yet to become a star, but had provided backing vocals on Bowie’s soul album Young Americans – which featured Bowie’s Fame. It was Vandross that came up with the winning idea to chant ‘Remember’ over and over, as well as contributing other ideas.

The title track was originally released in the UK in June 1980, the same month as the film hit US cinemas (it hit UK cinemas the following month). The single sank and initially the critical response to the film was mixed, but it became a box office hit, and then came the accolades. Out of six Oscar nominations in 1981, Fame won Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Another song from the film – Out Here on My Own – had also been nominated.

Two years on from the film, a TV series sharing its name began on NBC in the US and BBC One in the UK. Many of the cast returned – but Cara had declined, with her role taken by Erica Gimpel, who sang the theme tune too. Nonetheless, it was Cara’s version that was rereleased and subsequently became number 1.

Review

I was too young to want anything to do with Fame at the time, and to be honest, even from a young age I would recoil a bit at stage show children and teenagers showing off. And there was certainly a lot of it about back then. So it’s hard to judge the theme song on its own merits.

However, I’ve always appreciated it’s very good at what it does – e.g., it makes you want to fly – high – and, as John Shuttleworth would say, ‘punch the air’. And listening with a fresh pair of ears, it’s great really. Slickly produced, a passionate vocal from Cara, and well arranged too – props to Vandross, who was spot on in inventing the ‘remember’ hook. I still don’t think I’d ever choose to listen to it, but I wouldn’t complain if I heard it for the millionth time, either.

To promote the re-release, Cara starred in a new video, with scenes filmed mainly on and around Broadway. It’s interspersed with clips from the film. Considering it coincided with the TV series, which didn’t feature Cara, this may have been rather confusing to some. It did the job though, and Cara on top of a taxi is an iconic 80s pop moment.

After

Fame was the third bestselling song in the UK of 1982. Surprisingly, neither the original release nor the 1982 single did the same feat in the US, peaking at number four only.

Cara had continued to release music and star in TV and films after the success of Fame, with mixed results. Several series she hoped to star in failed to get picked up, and her album Anyone Can Dream, released in 1982, was a commercial failure.

In early 1983 she was working on a follow-up when she was contacted by Paramount Pictures to provide lyrics for the soundtrack of a new film called Flashdance. Ironically, Giorgio Moroder, the genius producer behind the project, had approached Cara after Fame, but she declined as she didn’t want to be compared to Donna Summer, who of course was best known for I Feel Love, her number 1 collaboration with Moroder.

Moroder had tasked his session drummer Keith Forsey, who played on I Feel Love, to write the lyrics to what would be the title track to the new film, which starred Jennifer Beals as a dancer who dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. Forsey had stalled, so he and Cara set to work. Having been shown the film’s final scene, in which Beals auditions in front of a panel of judges, they were inspired to write a euphoric song about achieving your dreams through dancing. Not too far removed from Fame, then, but with a more modern sound, thanks to Moroder. Cara sang Flashdance… What a Feeling, and it became number 1 in the US and around the world – although it was held off the top spot in the UK by Rod Stewart’s Baby Jane.

Cara sang Flashdance… What a Feeling, and it became number 1 in the US and around the world – although it was held off the top spot in the UK by Rod Stewart’s Baby Jane. Nonetheless, the single also won many accolades. She shared the Academy Award for Best Original Song with Moroder and Forsey, becoming the first black woman to win an Oscar in a non-acting category and the youngest to receive an Oscar for songwriting.

Cara never charted in the UK again, though she had a few more US hits. Her next album What a Feelin’ continued her collaboration with Moroder, and its single Why Me? reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. She starred as herself in the 1983 comedy movie DC Cab, and her song The Dream (Hold On To Your Dream), which played out over the end credits, reached 37. Her final US hit, Breakdance, peaked at number eight in 1984.

She continued to act, appearing in films including City Heat (1984), Certain Fury (1985) and Busted Up (1986). The following year she released the LP Carasmatic.

In the 90s, Cara starred in a touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar, released Eurodance singles and worked as a backing vocalist. 1993 saw her awarded $1.5 million from her 1985 lawsuit in which she claimed royalties from Flashdance and her first two solo LPs had been withheld from her. She later claimed this stopped record labels from working with her.

Cara appeared in the 2005 NBC TV series Hit Me Baby, One More Time, and in 2011 she released her last album, Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel

The Outro

Cara died of arteriosclerosis and hypertensive heart disease on 25 November 2022, aged 63.

The Info

Written by

Michael Gore & Dean Mitford

Producer

Michael Gore

Weeks at number 1

3 (17 July-6 August)

Trivia

Births

18 July: Actor Andre Alexander
28 July: Footballer Michael Rose
30 July: Cricketer James Anderson
6 August: Actor Karl Davies

Deaths

19 July: Actor John Harvey
21 July: Bible translator John Bertram Phillips
22 July: Anti-apartheid activist Sir Robert Birley
27 July: Olympic swimmer Hilda James/Olympic runner Jack Powell
29 July: Engineer Maysie Chalmers/Army general Sir Richard Gale
2 August: Cathleen Nesbitt
3 August: Art historian David Carritt
5 August: Orthopaedic surgeon Sir John Charnley

Meanwhile…

19 July: Home Secretary William Whitelaw announces that the Queen’s bodyguard, Michael Trestrail, has resigned from the Metropolitan Police Service over a relationship with a male prostitute.

20 July: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs during British military ceremonies in Hyde Park and Regents Park, Central London. Eight soldiers are killed, 47 people are wounded, and seven horses die.

21 July: The Falklands War Royal Navy flagship HMS Hermes returns home to Portsmouth to a hero’s welcome.

22 July: Production of the Ford Cortina ends after 20 years and five generations.
Also on this day, the exclusion zone around the Falklands is lifted, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rejects calls in parliament for a return of the death penalty for terrorist murder.

23 July: A coroner’s jury returns the verdict of suicide on Roberto Calvi.

1 August: The Conservative government creates Britoil as the privatised successor to the British National Oil Corporation.

3 August: The Queen Elizabeth 2 returns to civilian use.

4 August: The first child of The Prince and Princess of Wales is christened William Arthur Philip Louis.

6 August: The Kessock Bridge in Inverness is opened by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

49. Doris Day – Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) (1956)

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The Intro

Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) is a quintessential 50s standard that has long since surpassed its original use, which was to serve as a musical number for Doris Day in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew too Much (1956). Since Day’s role in Calamity Jane (1953), she had been seeking more serious movie roles.

Before

Songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans specialised in writing songs for films, and really hit gold here. It may be sugar-coated (thanks in large part to perpetually squeaky-clean Day’s signature vocal style), like most 50s pop, but the cheeriness belies there’s something lyrically deeper going on – often a key ingredient in some of the best pop music.

‘Que sera, sera’ doesn’t actually mean anything. Livingston and Evans created it from a mix of Spanish and Italian. The Italian phrase ‘Che sarà sarà’ (translated as ‘what will be, will be’) is carved into a wall in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), and the two songwriters decided to add some Spanish to the phrase due to the language’s popularity, and probably because it rolled off the tongue easier.

Review

Although Doris Day’s voice leaves some people cold, and is the sort of thing I’d normally run a mile from, I can’t fault her performance here, just like I couldn’t for her previous number 1, Secret Love.

Although, indeed, ‘the future’s not ours to see’, it’s turned out alright for Day in the song, as by the end she has children of her own, and they in turn are asking her about their future. Yet despite the joy in Day’s voice as the song ends, who knows how the children will turn out? What will be, will be, after all, and the message somewhat pricks the positivity in the production and performance.

It would be impossible to name all the cover versions. My personal favourite has to be Sly & the Family Stone’s suitably strung-out recording from his 1973 album Fresh. Stone had a very tough future ahead of him at that point, making his version rather poignant. I also can’t let this blog pass by without mentioning a memorable advert from my childhood, in which the song was rewritten to sell McCain Steakhouse Grills. As you can see here, the new version was sang by a group of hungry builders in a van, and ends with the chorus changed to ‘We hope it’s chips, it’s chips!’ God knows what Doris Day would have thought of it.

Like Secret Love before it, the song won an Oscar for Best Original Song. However, despite its enduring popularity, it became something of a millstone around Day’s neck, as it became the theme tune to her sitcom The Doris Day Show in 1968, which she didn’t enjoy making. By this point her film career was stalling, the permissive society was at large and she was seen as a symbol of a bygone age. Threats of bankruptcy and the death of her husband Marty Melcher also took their toll.

There were still occasional chart hits in the 60s, however. Move Over Darling, a top 10 hit from the film of the same name in 1963, had been co-written by her son, Terry Melcher. But she did herself no favours by turning down roles like Mrs Robinson in The Graduate (1967) because she deemed it offensive.

Her sitcom ended in 1973, and Day began to live a quieter life running several animal welfare organisations. The 80s did see her involved in lengthy legal proceedings over her money. Her final album, My Heart, was released in 2011.

The Outro

Day died of pneumonia on 13 May 2019, aged 97. The Doris Day Animal Foundation announced there would be no funeral service, gravesite or memorial. An unusually muted end for a much-loved celebrity, but one entirely in keeping with the modest woman Day was.

The Info

Written by

Jay Livingston & Ray Evans

Producer

Mitch Miller

Weeks at number 1

6 (10 August-20 September)

Trivia

Births

21 August: Actress Kim Cattrall
14 September: Footballer Ray Wilkins
18 September: Actor Tim McInnerny

Meanwhile…

9 August: The opening of the seminal art exhibition This Is Tomorrow at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, which featured, among others, Richard Hamilton’s collage Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?. It is now considered to be one of the earliest examples of pop art, a decade before the movement really became popular. Hamilton went on to design the sleeve for The Beatles in 1968.

17 August: Scotland Yard began investigating society doctor John Bodkin Adams. Between 1946 and 1956, more than 160 of his patients died in suspicious circumstances.

10 September: French Prime Minister Guy Mollet visited London and proposed that France should merge with the United Kingdom. The idea was rejected by Anthony Eden.

12 September, Manchester United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup, beating RSC Anderlecht 2–0 in the first leg of the preliminary round.

22. Frank Sinatra with Orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle – Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)

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The Intro

The first true musical legend to appear in this blog, Frank Sinatra was one of the 20th-century’s true icons, he remains an influential figure to this day, and the epitome of cool. If you choose to ignore his links to crime and the more unpleasant stories about him, that is.

Before

Francis Albert Sinatra was born on 12 December 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italians ‘Dolly’ and ‘Marty’ Sinatra. Delivered via forceps, Sinatra was born with a perforated eardrum and severe scarring on his left cheek, neck and ear. A skinny child with bad acne, he was given tough love by his parents, with some biographers claiming his mother abused him in his youth. Sinatra became interested in jazz music from a young age, and his idol was Bing Crosby. His uncle bought him a ukelele when he was 15, and he would entertain his family, getting his first kick out of entertaining others. Expelled from high school in 1931 for being rowdy, he took on several odd jobs and would sing for free on local radio stations. He never learnt to read music properly, and would do so by ear only.

In 1935 his mother persuaded him to join local singers The 3 Flashes. He worshipped them, but they only let him join because he had a car. Renamed the Hoboken Four, they won first prize on a local radio talent show, and Sinatra became their lead singer, provoking jealousy due to the attention he received from girls. By 1939 he was working as a singing waiter when he joined the Harry James Band as their singer, and it was with them that he released his first record, From the Bottom of My Heart. He then moved on to The Tommy Dorsey Band. Dorsey became Sinatra’s father figure, who would learn and copy his mannerisms. Their bond was so strong, Sinatra asked him to be godfather to his daughter Nancy, born in 1940.

For the next two years his popularity grew with each recording, and he pushed Dorsey to let him make music under his own name. He became obsessed with the idea of overtaking Crosby as a star, and following a legal battle he left the group. According to some newspaper reports, Sinatra’s mobster godfather had to hold a gun to Dorsey’s head in order to persuade him.

In 1943 Sinatra signed with Colombia, and Sinatramania was in full swing. It was around this time he became known as ‘The Voice’. His fame eclipsed Crosby and he would entertain US troops during World War Two. His first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, was released in 1946.

In 1954, Frank Sinatra was the comeback kid. The early 50s had seen his career slump drastically. His Mafia connections had caused problems, he had left his label, Columbia, Hollywood had rejected him, and his audiences were dwindling. However, his suitably bitter performance in World War Two drama From Here to Eternity in 1953 earned him rave reviews and marked a spectacular turnaround in fortunes. He even later won an Oscar for Best Supporting Role, but before then he had signed with Capitol and released a cover of the now-creepy-sounding I’m Walking Behind You, which was a UK number 1 for Eddie Fisher and Sally Sweetland.

February 1954 saw the release of his album Songs for Young Lovers. Featuring I Get a Kick Out of You and They Can’t Take That Away from Me, it is still considered one of his best. The same month, his duet with Doris Day, Young at Heart, was a huge hit.

Three Coins in the Fountain was the title track for a new romantic drama. With lyrics by US star collaborator Sammy Cahn and music by UK songwriter Jule Styne, the song refers to the traditional act of throwing a coin into Rome’s Trevi Fountain and making a wish. They had been asked to write the song without any knowledge of the movie whatsoever, and it was so rushed that 20th Century Fox didn’t sign a contract, meaning the composers were screwed over the royalties. Charming.

https://youtu.be/4VYWvEkDBtw

The song isn’t that memorable, and although I’m no Sinatra expert, it doesn’t strike me as up there with his classics. But what does shine through is the quality of his voice. That warm, unmistakable timbre to his croon puts him head and shoulders above other stars of the era. And considering the rushed nature of the song’s creation, it’s not too shabby. It earned him his first UK number 1, and he stayed at the top for three weeks. It also went to number 1 in the US too, but performed by The Four Aces. In 1955, it earned Sinatra another Oscar, this time for Best Original Song.

After

It would be 12 years before Sinatra had another UK number 1 single. By then, pop music had changed and changed again, but Ol’ Blue Eyes would remained a colossal star throughout.

The Outro

During Three Coins in the Fountain‘s reign, the UK singles chart increased in size from its initial 12 to 20. It’s also worth me pointing out that this chart, that first began in 1952, was originally only seen in the New Musical Express. However, it is now considered to be the most important chart of the time, until it was overtaken by Record Retailer from 1960 to 1969.

The Info

Written by

Jule Styne & Sammy Cahn

Producer

Voyle Gilmore

Weeks at number 1

3 (17 September-7 October)

18. Doris Day with Orchestra conducted by Ray Heindorf – Secret Love (1954)

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The Intro

US smash-hit musical western Calamity Jane was first released in November 1953. Loosely based on the life of the title character and her alleged romance with notorious folk hero “Wild Bill” Hickok, it starred Doris Day and Howard Keel in the central roles.

Before

Day, born Doris Mary Kappelhoff on 3 April 1922 was one of the most well-known singers and actresses of the era. Originally she wanted to be a dancer, but an accident at the age of 15 forced her out of action and she discovered a talent for singing, with Ella Fitzgerald her idol.

She took singing lessons, and caught the attention of jazz musician Barney Rapp. Kappelhoff began working with him, but he understandably felt she needed a new stage name. Admiring her rendition of Day After Day, he suggested Doris Day.

The sugary timbre of her voice and film-star looks soon captivated radio, film and television audiences, right from her first hit, Sentimental Journey, back in 1945.

Her first UK singles success came in 1952, with a Frankie Laine duet, Sugarbush, and the following year she duetted with Johnnie Ray on the number four hit Let’s Walk That-a-Way.

On 16 April, 1954, UK singles buyers saw sense and decided that this track from Calamity Jane was more deserving of the number 1 spot than the execrable I See the Moon by The Stargazers. The ballad was written by composer Sammy Fain, with Paul Francis Webster providing the lyrics that describe the joy of finally being able to tell the world of a love kept under wraps.

Day was visibly moved when Fain visited her to play it for the first time. The day of the recording, she warmed-up her voice, cycled to the studio and announced to musical director Ray Heindorf that she would only perform one take of her vocal. Despite understandable misgivings, Heindorf was ecstatic after the take, agreeing that she could never outdo herself.

Review

It would seem this song had special meaning for Day, she clearly loved it and it shows in that one-take performance. A cut above other songs of this ilk, her authentic vocal turns from typically sweet to barely-contained delight at times. The stirring strings replicate the chorus and add to its hit factor.

After

Secret Love gave Day her fourth US number one, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song on 25 March. However she caused controversy by refusing to perform it at the ceremony. The subsequent bad press saw Day housebound with depression for some time afterwards. Nonetheless, a few weeks later it became her first UK number 1.

The Outro

In a clear display of how mad the British record-buying public can often be, I See the Moon returned to the top after only a week. Not for long though, and on 8 May, Secret Love toppled Johnnie Ray’s Such a Night, beginning eight weeks as best-selling single.

The Info

Written by

Sammy Fain & Paul Francis Webster 

Producer

Ray Heindorf

Weeks at number 1

9 (16-22 April, 8 May-1 July) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

19 April: Footballer Trevor Francis
8 May: Entertainer Gary Wilmot

Deaths

7 June: Mathematician Alan Turing

Meanwhile…

29 May: Diane Leather became the first woman to break the five-minute mile.
29 June: The IRA returned after a long period of inactivity.