I just heard about Frankie Lane's death. A lot of you are probably to
young to remember him but he was a singer and I think he did some acting.
I don't remember a lot about him but I do remember some of his music. He
had a very distictive voice and was very popular in his time. I think his most famous songs were Mule Train, High Noon, Rawhige & Cool Water.
Linda, Thank you for keeping track of us old timers.
I always enjoyed Frankie Lane.
He did have a distictive voice and those were some of his best known songs. I can't remember what else he sang but these were great.
Here's a story about Frankie Laine and the movie Blazing Saddles.
In 1974, he unwittingly lampooned his own image by singing the theme song for Mel Brooks's western spoof "Blazing Saddles" over the opening credits. The song emphasized loud whipping sounds between otherwise innocuous lyrics ("He rode a blazing saddle. He wore a shining star . . . ").
Brooks later told a reporter, perhaps jokingly: "You know, what's so sweet and so sad was that Frankie Laine sang it with all his heart. He didn't know [the movie] was a comedy. We got Frankie Laine because he'd done all these Western theme songs. With tears in his eyes he said to me, 'This is a beautiful song.' I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to tell him it was funny. He didn't get it."
Wow, you guys sure made me happy coming in here on Valentine's Day (or technically I guess it's the next day, since it's 1:52 AM) and seeing you all here.
You sure brought some memories with Frankie Laine, Linda.
Here are some of his songs, some of which you mentioned already. The main one I always think of first, and which was used for the Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas movie, is Gunfight at OK Corral. He also did The Hanging Tree (as did Marty Robbins), a great song called The Kid's Last Fight, which is one of the few by him that I perform, about a boxer dying of cancer; Along the Navajo Trail; On the Trail; Cry of the Wild Goose (which will give you goose bumps!); Bowie Knife; Wanted Man; and one of my favorites, from a really good movie, "The 3:10 to Yuma." Maybe if Dave were here he could tell us some more. Those are the only ones I remember offhand.