Blue Velvet

To the people who know me best, it isn't a secret that my taste in music is quite diverse and I prefer the crackle of vinyl to the crisp sound of a perfectly constructed digital audio file.  It was a mystery to me, until quite recently, how I came to love Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis and others like them. I've now discovered that my father's mother played an important role in shaping my tastes.

If I had to chose any one woman in my life to aspire to be like, it would be my grandmother - not that my own mother isn't spectacular.  My view of Grama may not be the same as everyone else's, but to me she was a strong, nurturing, classy and graceful lady with the ability to put you in your place in the most polite of ways.  By her standards I'm sure I was as wild as the barefoot-natives discovered by the earliest settlers in the new world. In fact she told me once that I was as classy as a drunken sailor on leave, but I know she loved me anyway.

There is one song that makes me think of her.  I have come to learn that it is a song she loved, even though I have no real recollection of her listening to it.  That song is called Blue Velvet and it was sung by Bobby Vinton in 1963 (though originally preformed by Tony Bennett in 1951).  When I hear this song I can almost see her singing it and dancing around the living room in her willowy way.

If you think you've never heard of Bobby Vinton let me illustrate just how important he was.  He was the Justin Timberlake - so to speak- of his era.  In fact, he had more Billboard #1 hits between 1962 and 1972 than even Elvis and Ol' Blue Eyes, Billboard Magazine named him "the all-time most successful love singer of the 'Rock-Era'".

And if you think you never heard his music, you're dead wrong unless you missed Akon's hit of recent year Mr.Lonely. Vinton penned Mr.Lonely during his service as a chaplan's assistant in the U.S. Army in the 1950s. It was a number one hit on Epic Records.

It is because of my grandmother, I think, that I have an appreciation for music that comes from a time where musical talent was still greatly appreciated.  Music from a time where lip-sinking wasn't done and there were no computer programs to hide an artist's crap voice.  I am grateful to her for teaching me to marvel in the beauty of the melodies no longer created and the perfection of vocal harmonies that have now faded long into the past.

If I had to make a playlist for my Grama, these are the songs I would choose:
1. Blue Velvet - Bobby Vinton
2. Can't Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley
3. Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
4. All I Have To Do Is Dream - The Everly Brothers
5. I've Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra

Those are my top five guesses at songs she'd like.