A Visit To Johnny Mercer's Savannah

We visited Savannah Georgia recently, the stomping grounds of one the all time great lyricists Johnny Mercer.  He was the man who wrote the words to such songs as "Moon River" and "The Days of Wine and Roses." He also started Capitol Records and was closely affiliated with my favorite singer Jo Stafford and her husband Paul Weston.

                                                 Paul Weston, Jo Stafford, and Johnny

 Johnny was the genius behind Capitol Records with such stars as Nat King Cole under his wings

                                   Bing Crosby and Johnny were admirers of each other

Savannah pays tribute to Johnny with this statue that Heike discovered as we were wondering around. She said "I found Johnny Mercer." I thought to myself "What is she talking about?!" And there he was....

We visited the Bonaventure Cemetery, a very interesting place. The movie "In The Garden Of Good and Evil" starts off there with a picture of Johnny's grave. Clint Eastwood produced that pic and used Johnny's music throughout.

The cemetery had such elaborate graves that they must have cost the families a small fortune. 

Here I am at the Johnny Mercer gravesite: 

This bench at the grave has several of Johnny's biggest hits engraved on it including Ac-cen-thu-ate the Positive, Autumn Leaves, Blues in the Night, Charade, Laura, My Shining Hour, and Atcheson Topeka and Santa Fe.  Click on the song titles to hear them by some of the greatest including Johnny himself who sang quite well and sold a lot records in his early years.

Sadly there was a group of tourists at the grave with the tour guide asking "Does anyone know who Johnny Mercer was?" Nobody did. He was about to continue the tour without much of an explanation, so I started singing "Moon River" and told them that Johnny wrote that. They all recognized it immediately.

There are several bios out there about Johnny. There is also an excellent dvd which Clint Eastwood had a hand in as well entitled 
"Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me."

 Mercer had an interesting life. He was a genius but also an alcoholic with a mean streak. His lyrics are often very haunting and sentimental. Quite a talented man.

Moonlight in Vermont with Margaret Whiting

Funny. I was thinking about doing a blog entry about Margaret Whiting, one of the last of the great singers. This past week she died at age 86.

Of course once again the news media of today simply ignored it. Even though I had intended on posting this salute to a living legend now it will become a tribute.

Margaret's quintessential song is "Moonlight In Vermont", a song with such beautiful lyrics it really is poetry. She was so young when she recorded it she didn't really even understand what the lyrics were talking about as she said she had never even been to Vermont. The song has always been one of my favorites. Click here for a link to the song on Youtube.

She recorded plenty of music, including the novelty songs that were so well received back in the 40s and 50s. A duet she did with Jimmy Wakely was one of the most popular country songs of the day. Listen here. As corny as it still is, it still is catchy!

Back in the 1950s Margaret had a connection to the iconic Desilu studios as she starred in a summer replacement show for "I Love Lucy" called "Those Whiting Girls." I found a rare clip here of that show (you might recognize the Desilu announcer....he's the same one that says "And Now...I Love Lucy..." or "It's The Lucy Show!").

Whiting sang well into her senior years, touring around the country. She married gay film star Jack Wrangler who was 22 years younger than she was. He came up with a broadway show for her -- a tribute to her mentor, the musical genius Johnny Mercer.

When I asked several friends and coworkers this week, no one seemed to recall Miss Whiting or her music. Sad. If you saw the movie "Julie and Julia", you might have heard Whiting's rendition of "Time After Time." Lovely.

"Moonlight in Vermont" is such a great tune and Whiting had a charming personality. Once again the Nostalgic Rambler is glad to be able to bring this lady into the spotlight again this week.

pics above of Whiting and her husband