HAPPY DAYS

I feel happy.  As this is the title for today, got to mention that TV series, Happy Days.  Ran for 11 years from 1974 to 1984.  

• Few know that the pilot of this show led to the 1973 film, American Graffiti, Modesto in 1962, the year I graduated from college. 

• 
  What a cast: Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Wolfman Jack and many others.
• Director George Lucas grew up in Modesto, but his home town had changed too much for the film, so the production occurred in Petaluma.
• Paul Le Matt, Harrison Ford and Bo Hopkins were reported to be drunk most nights.
• The soundtrack was the star of the movie, featuring 41 original hits, and there was a theme song for the Happy Days TV series.

• 
  Ron Howard, now 70, matured from Opie Taylor into this film and series. He has done well, for he became a noted director, winning two Oscars, four Emmies and a Grammy.
• Henry Winkler made Fonzie famous, and the show spun off a bunch of others.

• 
  There was an earlier Happy Days are Here Again, a 1929 song that was the campaign song for Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign.  Ranks as #47 in Songs of the Century.  Maybe Joe Biden should resurrect this tune for his campaign.  Things are, really, okay in America today.
• Then, of course, there is Bobby McFerrin's 1988 Don't Worry, Be Happy.  Was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks.
• Want to see what the stars of American Graffiti look like half a century later?  Click on this.

Wow, so many are not here anymore.  We all know that we someday will get old, if we're so fortunate to live a long life.  Sure, we age, but if you can remain happy throughout the transition, that is one of the ultimates for living at all.  While some might say this is a sad video showing how your favorite actors have aged, I think not, for mere looks is not everything.

Some look pretty old even in their 50's.  Just wait till they get to my age of 82.  Of course, just to be alive so long is a minor miracle, although as important is good health.  While a baby today in the the U.S. is expected to live to the age of 79, way back in 1940 when I was born, this number was only 60.8.  I've thus exceeded my longevity by more than 22 years, as I'm soon to be 83.  Then there is Dick Van Dyke, who just lives on.  Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  He just won a Daytime Emmy at the age of 98.

No one knows Mark James, nee Francis Zambon, who was born a couple of months after me in 1940.  I would like to honor him, for he just passed away this month.  He was mostly a songwriter.

• 
  His hit songs were mostly inspired by his wives.  He had two.
• In 1968 came one of his songs, Hooked on a Feeling, by B.J. Thomas, who was a friend of James.
• That same year, James released his own version of Suspicious Minds.  

• 
  The following year, Elvis covered it.  Really big hit.  I most remember The King singing this song in Las Vegas the night Sammy Davis Jr was there.  If you're really sharp, you might even see me in the audience.  The percussion backing was spectacular.  That was more than half a century ago. 
• 
  Ah, why not, Elvis singing this song with Austin Butler, 52 years after the original.  You got to watch this.
• James co-wrote maybe his biggest hit, Always on my Mind, with Johnny Christopher and Wayne Carson.  This song was issued on the b-side by Elvis in 1972.

• 
  Many say the most popular Always on My Mind came in 1982 by Willie Nelson.  Ten years from the original James and his co-writers won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
• People forget that there was a more recent revival of this song, in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys, which became a Christmas hit.  And again.  Maybe my favorite version, for it has a disco beat, and I kept hearing this song in discotheques on my trips to the Orient.

I love the work of Uniquely Madison.  Here is her 100 years of music from the 1900's into this millennium.

Well, one more:  Top 10 Celebrity Trump Haters.  #1 is Robert De Niro.

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