TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM

It was 1958 and popular that year was To Know Him Is to Love Him, by the Teddy Bears. I bring this subject on this Sunday because my freshman college roommate said: This is all about God.

While that option was only a remote possibility to me at that time, I re-thought this potential when I woke up to view on Music Choice this song. So what are the alternatives?

Your father.
A pet.
God.
A dog.
Someone you like.

So I went to Wikipedia, and saw that the song was written by Phil Spector...THE infamous Phil Spector (left, also bottom left in above photo and playing guitar in the You Tube song), who I'll delve into a bit later. He said the words were on his father's tombstone: To have known him was to have loved him. Well, I guess that answers the question. Then again, maybe not.

Spector further said that, for the music, he slowed-down the 1926 When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bobbin' Along), first made popular by Al Jolson. Written that year by Harry Woods, this became the signature song for singer/actress Lillian Roth. Big hit, for Whispering Jack Smith and Paul Whiteman also were recognized in 1926 for their releases.

The Teddy Bears were classmates at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, and were mostly conformed of Spector (his only singing group), Marshall Leib and lead singer Annette Kleinbard. In 1958 at the cost of $75 they recorded and release the song in 1958, becoming a global hit, nationally occupying #1 for three weeks. Thus, at the age of 19, Spector had written, arranged, played, sung and produced the best-selling record in the country.

Kleinbard became songwriter Carol Connors, and among one of her hits was the Rocky theme, Gonna Fly Now. Leib joined the Hollywood Argyles, which had a 1960 hit Alley Oop, about a really cool dina-sawa.

Phil Spector had a tortured life. He created The Wall of Sound, worked with the Beatles, had two wives and five children, was convicted of murder and died in prison last year of COVID-19.

So returning to To Know Him is to Love Him, Spector named the group the Teddy Bears after an Elvis song. Took them 20 minutes on two takes to make the record. Said he, learned a lot about the industry from this song:

$3000.
The importance of payola.
A lot about the Mafia.

In 1987 Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, in a music video of To Know Him is to Love Him, directed by George Lucas (creator of Star Wars, who was at time dating Ronstadt) reached #1 on the Country chart. They won a Grammy for that song in 1988. This song (although it does have dog in the video) further confirmed that the popular meaning was not about God or a pet or your father, but a lover.

Remember Hurricane Agatha last week as the strongest May ocean storm ever in the East Pacific? Well, the eye kept tracking east across Mexico and is now Tropical Storm Alex in the Atlantic, and could well still become a hurricane.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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