Monday, March 29, 2010

Song of the Day: "Teach Me Tonight" by the DeCastro Sisters


Link to March 29 New York Times obituary, "Cherie DeCastro, Singer with DeCastro Sisters, is Dead at 87".

Oh, what a different world it was back in 1954.

Excerpt:  The sisters made their first recordings on the Tico label with Tito Puente, who had brought them to the Palladium in Manhattan. After Americanizing their sound and signing with Abbott, a country-and-western label, they released “Teach Me Tonight,” a slow, sexy ballad, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by Gene de Paul, backed by a big band.

The record, a throwaway B side to the up-tempo “It’s Love,” caught on with listeners, who thrilled to its risqué lyrics:

Starting with the A B C of it,

Right down to the X Y Z of it,

Help me solve the mys-ter-ee of it,

Teach me tonight.

The song reached No. 2, stayed on the Billboard charts for 20 weeks and inspired cover versions by Jo Stafford and Dinah Washington.

Here's where Retiring Guy lived in 1954.

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112 8th Street North, Great Falls, Montana. The Old Parsonage.

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