- Salvador Dali's album cover for Lonesome Echo - Salvador Dali
Today Jackie Gleason is most remembered for his comedy, both on television and in the movies. Reruns of his popular The Honeymooners series still are shown on television. His film career included the wildly popular Smokey and the Bandit series as well as The Hustler for which he was nominated for an academy award. The 1950’s saw Gleason delve into the music business and this is the industry where he made millions of dollars.
A Composer Who Can’t Read Music
Marilyn Taylor was a young ballerina working for the June Taylor dancers when Gleason discovered her. Although only legally separated from his second wife, Gleason pursued Taylor with a persistence that eventually paid off when she became his third wife. Actually, it would take almost twenty years before Taylor would become his third wife; however in 1953 the romance took off.
As part of his romantic pursuit of Marilyn Taylor, Gleason sat down with a professional arranger named Pete King. Since Gleason could not read or write music he would play the notes for King and King would write them down. In one day Gleason, with King’s assistance , composed two songs, Lovers Rhapsody and Melancholy Serenade. The tune Melancholy Serenade later became the theme song for the Jackie Gleason show.
Bobby Hackett
One might ask how somebody who does not know how to write music could compose it. The great trumpeter, Bobby Hackett, had this to say about Gleason’s musical ability. “Jackie knows a lot more about music than he is given credit for. I have seen him conduct a sixty-piece orchestra and detect one discordant note in the brass section. He would immediately stop the music and locate the wrong note. It always amazed the professional musicians how a guy who technically didn’t know one note from another could do that. And he was never wrong.”
The 1950’s was the era of Rock and Roll and the big band era had silently retreated into the past. Guitars and drums were the big tickets and there were very few romantic albums being produced. Gleason approached the major recording studios about making an album and he was rejected by all. Perhaps his reputation as a comedian, combined with his lack of musical credentials scared them off. So Gleason did what he had to do, he borrowed money and rented a studio at Decca records.
Gleason hired Bobby Hackett to be the sole trumpeter and forty Italian Mandolin players. Gleason conducted the orchestra and produced his first album, Music For Lovers Only, a collection of songs that Gleason enjoyed listening to while he was drinking in the wee hours of the morning. Decca wanted nothing to do with the album and Gleason’s manager, Bullets Durgom, persuaded Capitol records to market the album. Capitol only agreed to a one-thousand dollar advance after Gleason promised free publicity on his show.
Gleason’s Albums and Salvador Dali
Music For Lovers Only went on to sell over half a million copies. Thus began Gleason’s highly successful venture into the "mood" music business. Gleason released a series of romantic albums with such titles as Music to Remember, Music, Martinis and Memories, Music to Make You Misty, and Melancholy Serenade. All of those albums dominated the charts and sold over a million copies each.
To compliment his albums Gleason decided to compose and produce a musical television ballet, which he named Tawny. The show featured a fifty-five piece orchestra which Gleason conducted. The show featured five television cameras, a first for a television show, and the cameras were staged at different locations to feature the orchestra and the seventy-five dancers on the stage. The show was a complete success. The musical soundtrack was released as an album and it sold more than a million copies.
Gleason also fancied himself an artist and would occasionally paint the covers for his albums. On one occasion his drinking buddy, Salvador Dali, painted the album cover for Lonesome Echo.
Percy Faith a Fan of Gleason’s
The great conductor, Percy Faith, wrote Gleason and asked, “If you can’t read music, how can you compose and conduct like you do?” Gleason replied to his letter and said, “Well, if you write a story you don’t need a typewriter. Shakespeare didn’t have one.” In an interview later in his career Gleason was asked about his entry into the music business, he said, “The way I did my music was a very simple idea. If I had been a professional musician, I probably wouldn’t have put Bobby Hackett and his trumpet with forty mandolins, yet it gave the album a romantic touch that was totally unique. People love romance.”
Gleason’s Musical Inspirations
Gleason would sit for hours with a musical director hired to take musical dictation while Gleason plunked away at a piano. Gleason had the music in his head and sometimes it would take a while before he could get his musical director to “hear” the same music. Gleason had a knack for describing what he wanted, “it’s 5 a.m., and you can see her dress by the streetlight and you get that Mmmmm…feeling.” That Mmmmm feeling was how Gleason described his music and obviously the public had the same feeling as Gleason’s albums have sold over 120 million copies. Gleason’s albums are still being released today, a lasting tribute to the Comedian turned Composer.
Reference:
Bacon, James. How Sweet It Is, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 1985. 214pp
Henry, William A. The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason, New York, NY, 1992. 321pp
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