OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With Caterina Valente!

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Welcome, fellow felines, to Manor Music Monday! There's a bit of a chill in the air, so tonight - at the Manor's exclusive Cooch Cork Lounge - DJ Li'l Scratch will be blasting tunes to warm your spirits. Yes, it's true, he's letting Caterina Valente have free reign. 

And goodness, just look at Caterina! All shiny and pink - and with a startling, gleaming yellow background. I swear the illustrator must have been flying on dexies because it's all so bright-bright-bright! 


And so unreal, but then maybe that's as it should be, because Caterina, the multitalented, French-born daughter of itinerant Italian circus performers - her mother was a clown; her father played accordion - sounds as if somebody combined one-part Charo, two parts Carmen Miranda, a dollop of Sophia Loren, then pressed puree on a blender. Wheeeeee! How can she be real? But she is. And she's wonderful.

Caterina spoke six languages fluently - and sang in them, too, recording hundreds upon hundreds of LPs for various markets worldwide. And, yes, she nuzzled with the Rat Pack in the 1950s and 60s. In modern times, her song "Bongo Cha Cha Cha," featured on the "Spiderman: Far From Home" soundtrack, became a viral sensation on TikTwat in 2021. You can't escape Caterina!


True to her Vegas adventures, her 1958 LP, "A Toast To The Girls," is chock-a-block with hot-cha! Vegas arrangements, along with Caterina's brassy-gal vocals. Close your eyes and you can almost see a kitten with a whip. Is it any wonder that she was married to both a juggler and a pianist? She bounced all over the globe, performing on television and in nightclubs and concert halls with everyone from Chet Baker to Danny Kate to Benny Goodman to Count Basie. Everybody loved Caterina. She passed just last year at the grand old age of 94. 

Meanwhile, listen to her rip through "Secret Love," a song immortalized by Doris Day, and noted for Doris' bold, deeply emotive performance. Catarina is the polar opposite of Doris. Her version is brazenly flashy, skating in whirligigs all on the surface. Is it superficial? Yes, triumphantly so. 


You can listen to the rest of Caterina's album HERE.

What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾

Photo Credits: Decca Records/Getty Images

Peckerwood's Weekly Lunocracy Post is RIGHT HERE.

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