This video of the Mills Brothers is from 1957 (holy cow, the Spike Jones Show!), but I think my memory of the song is older than that: The Whole Town’s Talkin’ About the Jones Boy.
We were visiting Grammie at the old house my father and his brothers grew up in. Dad put the disc on the record player–does anybody still have one?–and launched the song. He also produced two spoons and played them in time to the music. He was awfully good at that. But it must be 65 years since I’ve heard anyone play the spoons.
I sigh. Everyone who was once gathered round that record player–everyone but me–has passed away. I’m the last one left.
But God will restore what’s been lost; Our Lord Jesus Christ has said so.
Easter’s almost here, and we should remember that.
My sister has a record player. The only records we have is from my mom’s favorite boy band called Menudo. They had some good songs! Has anyone else heard of them? My mom said they were very famous in America and Japan.
I remember the name, but know little else about them. I believe that they changed members fairly frequently, to keep the cast looking youthful. I don’t know whether this is true of Menudo, but many boy bands had a adult producer that kept it all organized and they were able to keep the music fairly consistent, even as band members came and went.
I always found this genus of music to have a synthetic, phony sound.
I don’t know enough about Menudo to have an opinion, but I will state that they came along in an era when a degree of talent and ability were pretty much required.
Some of the boy bands that came along decades later, I found quite unimpressive. In many cases, they were more dancers that singers, pantomiming their performances.
Boy band, or not, what I always find humorous were the bands you would see “performing” their hits on TV variety shows, with no microphones, and sometimes playing electric guitars which weren’t plugged into amplifiers. It was impossible that they could be performing what you were hearing.
These days, name acts all use wireless microphones, but before those day, if you wanted to be heard, chances are you were within an inch or two of a Shure SM 58.
Oh, yes, they were very big–for a little while. Although I’d hate to think Menudo was the sole survivor of that era of music.
The Mills Brothers – what a flashback!
Some true talent there. The Mills Brothers were one of my mother’s favorites.