When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, I didn’t know a family that didn’t have at least one Mitch Miller record album. And he had a TV show, too, that ran from 1961 to 1964.
He had a beard. Holy cow. Really, you had to be there to appreciate how unusual that was, back then. Almost like having a third eye.
Miller put together a “gang” of male singers and performed old-fashioned songs that everybody knew. I don’t know that we have that kind of cultural cohesion anymore. Who couldn’t sing There Is a Tavern in the Town? The main selling point of Mitch’s albums was that you could surely sing along. We all knew the words.
Today, in the midst of our now fractured society, there’s something fantastically appealing about the very idea of “sing-along.” But now what would we sing? What could we all agree on?
Not much.
Maybe we ought to be working on getting back good things we’ve lost.
And who didn’t know “Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends”? (“For the duck may be somebody’s mooooooother….)
I remember in movie theaters would play follow the bouncing ball as it hit the words to the song that were featured. It was great fun hearing the audience join in on the fun.
There were cartoons that did that, too.
I had forgotten about Mitch Miller, until this post. As I watched the video, I remembered those songs, although I haven’t heard them for many years.
Those were also the days of Lawrence Welk and Little Lulu cartoons. About 20 years ago, I had a three-hour-long VHS tape that I loved watching. It was full of numerous cartoons from the 40s through the 60s, many with follow the bouncing ball, which I loved to sing along with.
No, I don’t believe there is that kind of cultural cohesion anymore. Another example of something we all knew the words to, is the theme songs of TV programs during the 50s and 60s. I have a question, that everyone I have asked, who was born during those years gets the humor and understands.
What’s the first thing you know?
The answer is in the sixth line of the theme song from the Beverly Hillbillies.
Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
And then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground come a bubblin crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
Well, THE FIRST THING YOU KNOW OL JED’S A MILLIONAIRE,
The kinfolk said “Jed move away from there”
Said “Californy is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly
Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars.
Mitch really had something there–songs that everybody knew and loved to sing. And the last time I watched a Beverly Hillbillies episode on YouTube (just recently), I laughed till I plotzed.
Lee, I hope Patty was able to put all the pieces of you back together after you plotzed! 🤣🤣🤣
I don’t think my right leg and left arm are quite where they should be.