Thursday, August 24, 2006

Can't help bloggin'

Today is the birthday of songwriter Murray ("Guess Who I Saw Today?") Grand. Born 1924, the last we heard, he was alive and well and living in Del Boca Vista. To hear the melody of this wonderfully droll ditty, pick up the Hi-Lo's album, All Over the Place

April in Fairbanks
music and lyrics Murray Grand
from New Faces of 1956

Autumn in New York
And April in Paris
Are no longer chic.
Winters in Mallorca
And summers in Capri
Are gone, so to speak.
The people who have the wherewithal
Have found a new place to have a ball.
They've deserted the Champs-Elysees,
The Piazza d'SpagnaIs no longer gay.
They say their thanks for Fairbanks,Alaska.

April in Fairbanks,
There's nothing more appealing.
You 'll find your blood congealing
In April in Fairbanks.
Bright Arctic moonlight illuminates the ice-floes
When ev'rybody's breath shows
In April.

You've never known the charm of Spring
Until you hear a walrus sighing.
The air is perfumed with the smell of blubber frying.
April in Fairbanks;
You'll suddenly discover
A Polar Bear's your lover
In Fairbanks.

Subzero weather
Will turn your skin to leather
Your jaws will lock together
In April in Fairbanks.
North Polar breezes will sing you a cadenza
And bring you influenza
In April

I'll leave the Rivera to the fools who want a fancy palace.
Give me an igloo , the Aurora Borealis.
April in Fairbanks;
I really can't believe it.
I know I'll never leave it alive this April.

1 comment:

johnd.burris said...

I remember hearing this song first time at a club called the KOKO in Phoenix, Arizona in the early 1960's by a group called "The Four Cables". It had everyone in stitches, I even walked out of the place able to remember a few verses and melody, humming it.
Johnd.burris