I really miss Friday nights. Oh sure, I know they still come around every week, but these Friday nights are bogus -- a mere shell of what Fridays used to be, (in the good old days)!
Remember the Friday nights of 1968? Uh, oh ... bad time frame to choose. I was in Viet Nam that year, and every day was Monday at the Asian Club Med. We had no Fridays there.
What about '58? Yeah, good old 1958. There was "The Schlitz Family Playhouse" for the beer-sipping hi-brow crowd; "The Gillette Friday Night Fights" for beer-guzzling real men to watch; and, thankfully, there was Mitch Miller for the rest of us.
Do you remember "The Mitch Miller Show"? A bearded guy with busy arms and a squirrelly smile, twenty-six swaying baritones and one tenor, (young Bob McGrath -- later of Sesame Street fame). We heard such classic songs as "Bye Bye Blackbird", "My Buddy" and "Heart of My Heart" -- all without commercial interruption (or so it seemed).
Yes, yes, I know they had commercials, but they'd bunch many of them between shows or on the half-hour, so we could focus on the great singing. And those were such great melodies -- "Your Lips Tell Me, 'No-No', but There's "Yes-Yes in Your Eyes", "Pardon Me, Boy, is that the Chatanooga Choo Choo?" and who could ever forget "Don't Bring Lulu" or "Three Little Fishies"? Don't get me started!
I'll bet that if one of today's extended basic stations would put on replays of Mitch and the guys, well, America would watch. And if they'd broadcast the shows on Friday night? Well, "I know a tear would glisten ..." !
You may think that this is the end .........Well, it is!
Not into Mitch much myself, but Sally's aunt was a big fan. We inherited 4 of his record albums (the black plastic things with a label and hole in the middle)!
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