Recently, I have been thinking about those individuals who step up and lead the way for the benefit of others. I refer to them as heroes. The recent deadly violence that frightens us all has only been tempered by the heroes among us. These people risk their lives to help complete strangers during life-threatening public […]
A few weeks ago, I won the four Frankie Laine Standard Program Library records on Ebay. These recordings consist of several of Frankie Laine’s early recordings created exclusively to be played on the radio. I have always wanted these records. Now I have them. Years ago, when Helen Snow was president of the Frankie Laine […]
Rub-a-dub-dub By the time I was in my 20s, I had already amassed a fairly large Frankie Laine audio collection. Most of my collection at that time consisted of 78 rpm and 45 rpm records, a few albums, and cassette tapes containing several of Frankie’s albums. How I loved playing my tapes! In fact, it […]
Something New I was thinking the other day about what is was that made Frankie Laine so unique during his long career. It’s true, and I’ve written this before, that Frankie sang with emotion and passion. He felt every song lyric he sang. One can be unique in show business, however, but not always enjoy […]
TV Shows I am always trying to find those elusive pieces that I am missing from my Frankie Laine library. Frankie Laine was a guest on several television shows throughout his career. A number of these shows—spanning from the earliest days of television, either seem to be missing, or otherwise next to impossible to obtain […]
Carl Carl T. Fischer was not only Frankie Laine’s friend, but he was Frankie’s piano accompanist, musical director, and song-writing partner. Carl and Frankie were a team when Frankie first became world famous in 1947, when “That’s My Desire” went gold. Carl tragically died at age 42 on March 27, 1954. This utterly devastated Frankie. […]
Collection Storage I’m sitting here on this cold, snowy Iowa day, wondering what I should write about. Then I got to thinking, once again, about my Frankie Laine collection of works. I collect several things. I have a collection of the Beatles works from music to films. In my youth, the Beatles were my musical […]
Reflecting With a new year upon us, many of us find ourselves pondering our lives. As I reflected on my life, I was reminded of the 1947 Mercury recording by Frankie Laine called “But Beautiful.” I adore the opening lyrics: Love is funny, or it’s sad; or it’s quiet, or it’s mad; It’s a good […]
A Christmas Recording With the anniversary of the beginning of World War II, I began to ponder a special song Frankie Laine recorded pertaining to another war—the Korean War. That first Christmas in 1950, after the conflict had begun, there was a special concern for the children of the war regions. Frankie recorded “Merry Christmas […]
Mementos November always reminds me of the first time I met Frankie Laine in person on November 20, 1985. This was a magical day for me. In my last two writings, I had described our rather unfortunate Labor Day water misadventure and the subsequent removal of my beloved collection of Frankie Laine items to higher […]