January 2000

First Time I Saw...
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By Carol Sloane

It was probably on a popular television variety program such as The Ed Sullivan Show. Or it could have been the cover of a magazine I bought faithfully once a month which contained all the lyrics to the popular songs of the day. I was just fourteen years old in 1951, and Kaye Starr had a huge hit record which played constantly on the radio. It was called "The Wheel of Fortune", and I can still hear her voice at her entrance: "THE-UH WHEE-ULL UH-OF FOR-CHUN... GOH-OHS SPINNN-ING A-AH-ROW-OWND." I memorized every line and nuance. Then, with a bad case of nerves and an ugly dress of tulle, I was preparing to make my debut as a band singer at the King Phillip Ballroom on Lake Pearl in Wrentham, Massachusetts. Without rehearsal, but aided by a benevolent band leader, I was asked if I knew the song. "We have a stock arrangement of "Wheel of Fortune", and there is an eight-bar introduction". Wondering just how long that meant I'd have to wait before I began to sing, and naively confident (after all, I knew this song backwards), I stood clutching the mircophone. When I finished the first chorus, I blissfully continued on my way, singing the song EXACTLY as Kaye Starr did on her record, while the arrangement sent the musicians back to the top of the chorus. To further confuse matters, there was a half-step modulation leading into the last eight meaures, a minor distraction at best as I steadfastly and quite wrongly hung on in the original key, singing the only arrangement I knew. By this time, the musicians were so overcome with laughter, they could hardly play, while I struggled on, bewildered and astonished that a band of professional players could be SO FAR OFF. ... I could never have dreamed Jonathan and Darlene Edwards would later copy my trend-setting performance with such resounding success.

Editorial Note: In 1955, Columbia Records released the first of a series of recordings by Jonathan and Darlene Edwards (in reality Jo Stafford and her husband Paul Weston) which featured tortured, out-of-tune, out-of-meter renditions of standards, never warning the recording-buying public of the joke. The recordings became famous, and are treasured collector's items.

Listen to Carol's daily jazz program, M-F, 3-7 PM, on the NPR affiliate WICN, 90.5 FM in Worcester, Mass.