Vikki Carr: POX

Busca Ese Camino
Granada
It Must Be Him
Mas Que Nada (Pow, Pow, Pow)
Laia Ladaia (Reza)
(Walk in the) Sunshine
Happy Together
Days
Eternity
One Hell of a Woman

It Must Be Him played 10 times over.

You should hear "Eternity" then. Great song, incredible vocal performance, classic Bob Crewe production.

Short thread.

I recall the host of some 70's era variety show introducing Vikki Carr as his "favorite Mexican dish." Which was very odd, not technically true (I don't think - American born?) and a phrase you'd never use or get away with today!

Ah yes, one of my most successful threads. Conceived before I had a good grasp of the nature of the ILM knowledge base.

She was Mexican-American, born in El Paso. Has a real name that’s long and Spanish. And in fact is more popular today in Mexico than in the States. Even in the ‘60s she played up her Mexican heritage in a cheeky way but it wasn’t till 1972 that she started making entire albums in Spanish, and iirc her last one that wasn’t in Spanish was from 1975.

In other words she's Mexican like Linda Ronstadt is

Exactly.

Henry, are you possibly misremembering this real-life anecdote?

At a November 12, 1974 state dinner, Don Penny was dancing with Betty Ford while President Gerald Ford was dancing with Vikki Carr. Carr ask the president "What’s your favorite Mexican dish?" to which he said, "You are." Betty Ford was not amused.

OMG you’re right! For some reason I had been thinking somebody like Mike Douglas or Dean Martin said that.

In other words she's Mexican like Linda Ronstadt is

Wow at the lyrics to the title song from The Silencers.

Cyd Charisse lip-syncing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShFiOv7BwNo

I like the arrangement and the performance better on Vikki's single version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtCUQGuJngc

Yes, I agree. I heard that version first and was a little disappointed by the one from the film.

The algorithm is now recommending Eydie Gormé’s Latin stuff because I was listening to Vikki, wonder why it never went the other way, or maybe it did and I just didn’t notice.

Never knew about her version of “He’s a Rebel” and how it fit into the timeline.

Looks to me like she had zero intergenerational hipster crossover. Maybe she should have done a collabo with Oasis or The Pet Shop Boys.

People who talk about music but don't own a record player: C/D

i went back to the salvation army the other day and they had the same 20 vikki carr LPs they had before.
― jody heatherton (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, July 17, 2005 1:28 PM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Has had

I've done my best to make Vikki Carr a thing with my generation, without making noticeable inroads. One exception: if you put her version of "Happy Together" on your hi-fi, the 45 version (with bass up in the mix), people are bound to ask, "who is this?"

In Mexico different generations know her bc she's always on TV, but they probably don't know her '60s stuff.

Yes, I've wondered if her version of "He's a Rebel" would've become "the" version had Spector not done his version. Hers WAS a hit in Australia.

Is the film of The Silencers any good? An interesting cast: Victor Buono! Roger C. Carmel and Nancy Kovack! #OneThread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do-hDfguO4Q

It's probably the best of the Matt Helm movies, which is very faint praise.

It's kind of interesting that those films were all based on novels by Donald Hamilton and the books are gritty and not particularly humorous. Matt Helm in the books is like a low budget James Bond, driving around in a pickup truck.

She’s in the NYT crossword today so she must still be relevant

I have another Mexican chanteuse for you if you are interested.

Dámela

Don’t know who that is, sorry. I was thinking of Mon Laferte.

Ha. Can’t believe I just did that

I was getting confusion from Dalida.

She’s a Chilean transplanted to Mexico and now a naturalized citizen there. Sings convincingly in Spanish in lots of styles.

Hadn't heard of her, will investigate. Wonder if she's ever sung "Santiago" by the great Vikki Carr.

It’s not out of the question.

Someone’s doing a Vikki Carr song at karaoke!

“Cosas del amor”

Bold choice! A duet I assume, or was one singer yelling at themself

Just came across and enjoyed her version of “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get To Sleep at All.” Wonder if I should listen to the whole album it’s on.

Seems pretty good! Nice version of “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.”

Torchy version of “Without You” is working too, I think

There’s a little bit of a Dusty Springfield thing in her voice, if I may

I don’t own that album, oddly. I have the 45 from it, which was “Cabaret” b/w “The Big Hurt” or vice versa, the latter song being only on the UK version of the album.

She does a good “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” on another album from that period.

Also does a good version of Mac Davis's "One Hell of a Woman," which became the title track of the album it's on.

I like her “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All.”

Sometimes she sounds a bit like Peggy Lee if not Brenda Lee.

Anyway, from my original impression of her running with the Rat Pack I would have assumed she wouldn’t be able to interpret certain kinds of pop music properly but I guess I was wrong.

She does a good “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” on another album from that period.

Stoneman’s cavalry becomes “so much” cavalry

Unless Ray Anthony was in the Rat Pack I don't think she ran with them.

I hear a certain thing in Gloria Estefan's voice that I also hear in Vikki's, although it's more of an inflection thing than timbre or anything musical.

I seem to remember her and Dino doing duets quite frequently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkluteGDOTk

Wait I never knew the lyric was "Stoneman's cavalry." I guess I've listened to Vikki Carr's version so much I've just accepted it as correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO28Aq73-9o

OK, I see she was on The Dean Martin Show a few times, and also on Hollywood Palace quite a few times.

I doubt Robbie and Levon would have approved

I don’t even remember Hollywood Palace

Joan Baez also sang "so much cavalry came"

Yeah and they hated her version.

Let me make this easy on you and post Vikki and Burt Bacharach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5929hMaVJc

To be honest I think at some point maybe Levon stopped singing that song himself

Which Wikipedia says was because of the Joan Baez version!

That clip is wonderful

In the 1977 Super Bowl (Raiders vs Vikings) Vikki Carr sonned “America the Beautiful” so hard that no one sang the National Anthem that day, the last time that has ever happened.