DORIS DAY
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, April 3, 1922 or 1924) is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist. After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to embark on a solo career, Day started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which included more than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. As of January 2014, Day is the oldest living artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material. Over the course of her career, Day appeared in 39 films. She became the top-ranking female box-office star of all time and is currently ranked sixth among the top 10 box office performers (male and female), as of 2012. Her strong commitment to animal welfare began in 1971, and she started her own non-profit organization in the late 1970s, now called Doris Day Animal League (DDAL). (More from Wikipedia)
After auditioning with Terry Melcher (Doris Day’s son), the Rip Chords were signed to Columbia Records in 1962.
(July 2011)
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Much to my surprise, in the Rip Chords I finally found a rock band that did not have a listing in Wikipedia with a genuine hit song; their single “Hey Little Cobra” was one of the biggest hit songs in surf music, making it to #4 in early 1964, even though the surf scene was already in significant decline following the recent arrival of the British Invasion. I had recently picked up the second album by the Rip Chords, Three Window Coupe, and it is every bit as good as their common first album, Hey Little Cobra and Other Hot Rod Hits. I was able to debunk the idea that the Rip Chords weren’t a real band but just a studio fiction that revolved around Bruce & Terry, i.e., Bruce Johnston, who later joined the Beach Boys (and is still in the band) and top producer Terry Melcher (Doris Day’s son).
(July 2013)
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In the Chris Estey interview, Kim Fowley describes his early show-biz work in his usual name-dropping and self-promoting fashion (not that there is anything wrong with that): “[M]y first major job in the business was working in the publicity, and press, and background music, media, for Doris Day’s production company; and I was the boy genius in the office. The two movies that I worked on were Please Don’t Eat The Daisies and Pillow Talk. I brought Bruce Johnston in as a songwriter, and stayed with him his entire career. He wrote ‘I Want to Teach the World to Sing . . . ’, whatever that was, the Barry Manilow classic [‘I Write The Songs’]. And then all those songs for the Beach Boys, I can’t remember all the titles.”
(January 2015/1)
