OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With The Legendary Pearl Bailey!
Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Today, DJ Li'l Scratch is completely chillaxed from a vaca across the pond and so needs a bright and lively singer to shake him alive - but with joy, mind you, only joy. It's a singer we're all familiar with, but have perhaps taken for granted. She has, after all, been in most of our lives since the very beginning, yet look - and listen - closely, because she's an astonishment that keeps on giving. Tonight at the Manor's exclusive "Pitch-a-Tent" bar and grill, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing scads of her bestest tunes ever.
She was a stand-out singer, of course, but also a noted actress and a galvanizing activist, receiving countless accolades during her life, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. A passionate advocate for health care - and an early supporter for AIDs victims - as well as a tireless literacy advocate, she somehow found time to return to school and earn a degree in theology. Again, can you imagine any pop-tarlet even approaching these achievements today?
Her role is small, that of Carmen's best friend Frankie, but every time she appears, the entire movie screeches to a halt like a firetruck slamming on the breaks. She's so charismatic - and so naturally at ease - she practically burns a hole in the screen. That's a star. That's the "something-something." And Hollywood - and all of us - truly missed out.
Ready for more Pearlie Mae? I know you are.
What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾
Yet a better question might be this: do any of her achievements really explain why she was one of the most popular performers of the 20th Century? I don't think so. She had that certain "something-something" that can't quite be defined. She crossed over, as they say, with her LP sales and on Broadway (interestingly, the 1969 Broadway-themed TV special hosted by Carol Channing and Pearly was the first time two Black women had ever hosted a TV show, though no one realized it at the time). Hollywood, scared little rabbit that it was, even during her later years, mostly looked the other way. It's a shame, because if you've seen "Carmen Jones," then you know how dazzling a screen presence she was.
Her role is small, that of Carmen's best friend Frankie, but every time she appears, the entire movie screeches to a halt like a firetruck slamming on the breaks. She's so charismatic - and so naturally at ease - she practically burns a hole in the screen. That's a star. That's the "something-something." And Hollywood - and all of us - truly missed out.
As a quick aside - we're bouncing around, remember? - I haven't seen one movie she did, 1958's "St. Louis Blues" and I need to see it ASAP. Why? Because of the amazing cast. Get this line-up: Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Ruby Dee and Pearl!
Pearl was in great voice on this LP, from the opening number "Bill Bailey" to a rousing version of "Jingle Bells" called "Jingle Bells Cha Cha" (which you'll definitely want to play come the holidays). This was early in her career, but the Pearlie Mae you know and love was already in place; confident as all get-out, given to deadpan non-sequiturs (about her car: "Oh, honey, I wish the president of General Motors would personally see to it that my cigarette lighter is working..."), and her voice, of course, which could cut through stone. If singers are instruments, then Pearl's a trumpet.
By the way, Pearl sure knew how to pick 'em. When she married the talented Louis, did she care about all the trouble they'd get into given the differences in their skin color? Look at them. What do you think? They were married for almost 40 years (and, yes, I'd pay for that sex tape). And, please, why do you think she was appointed America's "Ambassador Of Love" by President Nixon in 1970? Plus, only Bob Hope was invited to the White House more times than Pearl and Louie.
There's also "Drunk With Love," wherein she's both singing in the present and glancing back in memory, giving the tune a bifurcated emotional potency (if there's such a thing as Brechtian singing, she pulls it off here). She's still amazes me.
In her recording career, a definitive highlight is "Around The World With Me," a bubbly 1962 record which she recorded just a few years after marrying that hot piece jazz drummer Louie Bellson (who seems awfully happy to be lighting Pearlie's cigarette below) (and I think she likes being lit) (but don't all jazz vocalists?).
By the way, Pearl sure knew how to pick 'em. When she married the talented Louis, did she care about all the trouble they'd get into given the differences in their skin color? Look at them. What do you think? They were married for almost 40 years (and, yes, I'd pay for that sex tape). And, please, why do you think she was appointed America's "Ambassador Of Love" by President Nixon in 1970? Plus, only Bob Hope was invited to the White House more times than Pearl and Louie.
Pearl had many wowza tracks over the course of her astonishing 53 year career - from 1936 to 1989 - including her irresistible version of "Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye," which, in her hands, somehow sounds both innocently bouncy and downright raunchy:
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾
Photo Credits: Getty Images, Columbia Records, University of Memphis Library, Roulette Records
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