Somewhere around here at Oblivion Towers I have a copy of a very rough outline of a Brooks Arthur profile that I wrote. Arthur is the proverbial jack-of-all-trades: songwriter-arranger-singer, current Adam Sandler producing-writing partner, etc. I was going to pitch the article to a Japanese mag, but never got around to it. Part of what motivated me to write it was a 1998 CD, "Songs Are Like Prayers," of Arthur singing Jewish-oriented ballads like "My Yiddishe Momme" and "Anniversary Song." It seems that Brooks Arthur started out in the biz wanting to be the next---gakkkk--Eddie Fisher, or somesuch.
If you have an ear for stuff like this, and I DO, it's quite good. Arthur has a terrific voice and delivery on this CD (again, not everybody's musical cup 'o meat). Interesting, the extensive liner notes find him thanking nearly every person he ever met or worked with from Borscht Belt comics, to Brill Bldg staffers, to his dentist. Must be a 150 names, with only one conspicuous by its absence. . .Phil Spector (Arthur was his second significant engineer). Methinks that thereby hangs the, again, proverbial tale.
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