![]() ![]() Laurel is actually lip-synching to the voice of actor Chill Wills, who was singing live just out of shot.Īn irritated Hardy asks the barman for a mallet and then thumps Laurel over the head. The joke is that he sings normally and then ruins the song with a startlingly deep tenor voice. Laurel, who had taken piano and violin lessons as a kid but freely admitted he wasn’t “the type for a musical career”, then joins in. Hardy, who had studied at the Conservatory Of Music in Atlanta as a teenager, had a mellifluous tenor voice and sings along sweetly. All goes well until Laurel And Hardy join in. Laurel And Hardy’s song follows a glorious dance sequence in Way Out West: a scene set on the steps of a saloon bar (the dance is recreated in the biopic Stan And Ollie, which stars Steve Coogan and John C Reilly) when they move inside Mickey Finn’s bar, the saloon’s cowboy band – Walter Trask And The Avalon Boys – sing the ballad “The Blue Ridge Mountains Of Virginia,” which had been written by Ballard MacDonald and Harry Carroll in the early 1900s. In a 1974 song for Wings, “Junior’s Farm,” Paul McCartney included the lyric, “Olly Hardy should have had more sense.” The comedy duo appears on the iconic cover of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, while Harry Nilsson used to imitate Laurel scratching his head to make John Lennon laugh. Peel wasn’t the only Laurel And Hardy fan in the music industry. “The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine” also turned up on a list of Peel’s 15 favorite singles from 1975, alongside John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.” When he curated the 1988 Meltdown festival, Peel included a Dutch revivalist ensemble called Beau Hunks playing Laurel And Hardy film music.Ĭlick to load video Laurel and Hardy’s musical influence and roots In the autumn of 1975, he played “The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine” every night of the week on his influential Radio 1 show (he even regularly played the B-side, “Honolulu Baby”) and it gained traction in the charts. He told Warner that it seemed “a DJ called John Peel liked ‘The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine’” and had promised to give it some air time. “Well old boy, I’ve got some really good news for you,” he reported back to United Artists executive Alan Warner. United Artists Records sent their promotions manager, a jolly ex-Royal Navy man who was famed for his outlandish toupée (and would not have looked out of place in a Laurel And Hardy film), to the BBC to drum up interest in the single they had picked from the album. The album, mastered at Abbey Road Studios, included a number of Laurel And Hardy’s film songs. In the mid-70s, Laurel And Hardy’s films were shown regularly on the BBC – the feature-length black-and-white movie Way Out West had been watched by millions on BBC One on Christmas Day 1974 – and a record company decided to release an LP called The Golden Age Of Hollywood Comedy. ![]() It is to be hoped that the same high quality will be seen in the projected 2009 DVD release of this beloved film.So how did a novelty song, taken from the 1937 comedy Way Out West, come close to challenging one of rock music’s greatest songs, recorded by one of the 20th Century’s most popular bands? The strange story involves John Peel and the power of the radio DJ. The high-quality color photography was very much in evidence in the VHS tape that MCA released in the Nineties. (This is well documented.) It remains compelling entertainment today. The film was a box office smash for Paramount, playing to packed houses in both large and small towns. In its original release, audiences reportedly burst into applause while viewing some of the color scenes. The story line is very compelling and there is the strong direction of Henry Hathaway (LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER, KISS OF DEATH, TRUE GRIT). She is supported by two handsome newcomers, Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray, plus veterans such as Fred Stone, Beulah Bondi, and Spanky MacFarland. ![]() There are very strong performances, particularly that of Sylvia Sidney as the backwoods mountain girl - a very convincing portrayal. Aside from the superb color photography, the film has much to recommend it. There is strong evidence to suggest that THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE was the film that really popularized color. The first Technicolor feature, BECKY SHARP, had opened the previous year (1935) but did not find audience favor. It was the second full-length feature to be produced in the newly-developed 3 strip Technicolor process. THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936) is a landmark color film of considerable dramatic power that has been neglected in Hollywood history. ![]()
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