Channeling ‘Swoonatra:’ As in ‘Let me see what spring is — on Jupiter and Mars’

It was “certainly a terrific turnout” for a Sunday afternoon concert on a sunny and balmy late spring day, emcee Bob Dutnell, RCS president, told the crowd. The free concert also was performed on the evening of May 3. Throughout the show, Dutnell shared bits of biographical, musical and pop culture history with the audience.

The 90-minute zing, zang, zoom of a show (with no intermission), included group and solo performances by UNCA’s Reuter Center Singers, directed by Chuck Taft. Piano accompaniment was provided by Nora Vetro. A reception followed the concert. The estimated two-concert turnout was 325 to 350 people, Taft later told the Daily Planet.

The show’s highlight was a duet featuring Taft and his daughter Ceili, age 8, singing Frank Sinatra’s 1959 megahit “High Hopes” near the end of the concert. Ceili, dressed in the swing attire of the era and hamming it up to the hilt — egged on by her nearly as dramatic father — brought down the house.

After the Tafts’ rendition of “High Hopes” got a sustained ovation, a delighted Taft told the crowd, “Well, we’re almost done. Maybe we should end with that? Am I a lucky Dad or what?” Earlier, Taft noted that his daughter had started singing with the choir when she was a mere 5 years old, joking that she is almost a grownup now.

Earlier, as the show opened, Dutnell noted that, “You may not have known that Humphrey Bogart was the original ‘rat’ in the Rat Pack.” Actress Lauren Baucall, after seeing her husband Bogart and his friends return from a night in Las Vegas, said words to the effect of “‘You look like a (expletive deleted) rat pack,’” Dutnell said, adding that Baucall later was referred to as the group’s original “den mother.”

A number of famous actors and singers were members of the early Rat Pack, including Sinatra (from the start), and even Marilyn Monroe and several other women. Interestingly, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were not original Rat Pack members.

By the mid-1960s, the Rat Pack referred to by the news media and the public included Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. They appeared together on stage and in several films in the early 1960s, such as “Ocean’s Eleven.”

In later years, the Rat Pack reference came to mean Sinatra, Martin and Davis, who often performed together, particularly in Las Vegas. The marqees at various Las Vegas hotels would even advertise: “DEAN MARTIN — MAYBE FRANK — MAYBE SAMMY.”

Regarding Sinatra, Dutnell, the emcee, said “Ol’ Blue Eyes” was born in his home in Hoboken, N.J., in 1915. He died in 1998. The birth of Francis Albert Sinatra was traumatic, conducted in the kitchen and overseen by a midwife. Eventually, a doctor was called, who used a pair of forceps to remove Sinatra, apparently dead, and placed the infant’s body on a table, and then turned his efforts to save the mother’s life. However, one of the midwife’s helpers ran ice cold water over the baby and slapped it on its back, and Sinatra — who went on to make an indelible mark on history — sprang to life. The forceful use of the metal forceps tore the left side of his face, neck and ear. Throughout his vastly documented life, he would avoid being photographed from his left, Dutnell noted.

Perhaps because of the trauma of his birth, his mother (Dolly) doted on him and pushed her son in his singing career — and Sinatra was always close to his mother, the emcee said. “Bing Crosby influenced him (Sinatra) a great deal to be a singer... Like Dean Martin, he (Sinatra) quit school early.” Sinatra recorded nearly 1,200 songs during his long career. “He was strong-willed and was used to getting things his way.”

The song “My Way,” Dutnell said, was written by singer Paul Anka for his friend Sinatra, but Anka’s record company wanted him to sing it instead. However, Anka firmly said that only Sinatra “could sing it properly” because it embodied his ethos. Indeed, “My Way” became Sinatra’s signature song.

Concerning Martin, nicknamed “the king of cool,” Dutnell said he was born to Italian immigrants as Dino Paul Crocetti in 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio. He died in 1995. The singer changed his name to Dean Martin while touring in 1940. The emcee noted that Martin dropped out of school in 10th grade and worked odd jobs, including a part-time job as an amateur welterweight boxer. At age 17, he began singing in Ohio nightclubs. Martin later spent about a decade performing as the straight man with Jerry Lewis in a comedy duo. Later, Martin returned to singing, acted in a number of films and had his own television show for nearly 10 years.

One of the highlights of Martin’s career was the success of his song “Everybody Loves Somebody,” a decidedly easy-listening song, which in the midst of Beatlemania and the British Invasion, zoomed to No. 1 in May 1964 on the pop music charts, Dutnell noted. Sinatra and others had recorded versions of the song before Martin did, but theirs were not nearly as successful.

As for Davis, who was a singer, dancer, actor, musician, impressionist and author, Dutnell noted that he was born in 1925 in New York City. He died in 1990. Davis’ parents were “very successful” Vaudeville performers and got their son performing on stage at age 3. As an African-American, he broke many racial barriers in show business, Dutnell said. During his service in the U.S. Army, Davis overcame racial prejudice by joining the entertainment unit. Later, in his professional career, Davis (along with Sinatra and Martin) refused to play in venues that practiced segregation, opening the doors to integration because he was so much in demand.

Davis was involved in a serious automobile accident in 1954 and lost his left eye as a result, “but that didn’t stop him,” Dutnell said. Moreover, while recuperating, he was visited by a rabbi and converted to Judaism. He went on to wow audiences as a member of the Rat Pack.

Obviously, the show could not feature all of the top songs by the three Rat Pack singers, but the omission of Davis’ signature song, “Mr. Bojangles,” constituted a major oversight. (Perhaps the decision-makers excluded “Mr. Bojangles” because Jerry Jeff Walker performed it originally.)

As the show opened, Dutnell noted that, in 1957, Sinatra “had a hit record” with “Come Fly With Me,” written by Sammy Kahn, a prolific lyricist, songwriter and musician, best-known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway shows. Sinatra recorded nearly 90 of Kahn’s songs, the emcee said.

The 40-some voice choir then launched into a medley of Sinatra songs, including “Come Fly With Me,” “(Love Is) The Tender Trap” and “Time After Time.”

Next were featured solos by Bill Kantonen, who had his way with Sinatra’s 1969 hit “My Way;” Gordon Prescott, singing Martin’s 1960 version of “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You;” and Doug Hibshman, performing Davis’ 1972 hit “The Candy Man.” 

Of the three soloists, Prescott outperformed the others, sounding reasonably close to Martin. Prescott made a gallant effort, replicating — to some degree — Martin’s deep tremelo, described by some critics as “smooth as melted butter,” and Martin’s cocksure innuendo delivery: “People say I’m a problem drinker — I’ve got no problem drinking!” Prescott quipped, using a classic Martin joke. The audience laughed, appreciatively.

From a distance, Kantonen had the look of an older Sinatra, with his hat correctly cocked (Sinatra used to say, “Cock your hat — angles are attitudes”) and he was mostly on-key. However, who can match Sinatra, arguably the greatest male pop singer in history, who was known as “The Voice?” Alas, like most mere mortals, Kantonen’s voice lacked the strength and dynamism of Sinatra’s, but it was adequate for the occasion.

Aside from the performance of “High Hopes,” the most amusing moment of the concert belonged to Hibshman, who is white and did not move around much (if at all). He was Taft’s draft choice for Davis, who was black, lithe and a veritable whirling dervish on stage. (The group has no black male members.) In “The Candy Man,” one of the easier songs of the show to sing, Hibshman began so off-key that, after a few bars, he asked — with a laugh — for “a restart,” saying Davis and the song deserve better.

The second time around, Hibshman was a bit better, but there probably never has been sung a more off-key version of “The Candy Man.” However, given that the singers are not professionals and the concert was done in fun, most everyone laughed, good-heartedly, during the song ... and applauded when it was — finally — over. 

At that point, Taft, the director, took the microphone and interjected that Hibshman did not volunteer for the Davis part. “When I asked Doug (Hibshman) to sing the song (‘The Candyman’), he said, ‘Who, me?’ We appreciate him being such a good sport.”

Prior to the performance of “The Candy Man,” Dutnell said that, “at age 42, in 1972, Sammy — incredibly — had not had a hit song.” So, he added, it was a thrill for Davis “for three straight weeks in ‘72, when he had a No. 1 song” on the charts.

After each soloist sang, the Reuter Center Singers (in various configurations) sang other well-known songs by each Rat Pack member, respectively. For Sinatra, the other songs included “Luck Be a Lady,” “Something’s Gotta Give” and “It Was a Very Good Year,” the latter of which was performed by Don Seward’s Quartet. For Martin, the other songs included “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?” “Standing on the Corner” and “All of Me.” For Davis, the other songs included “A Lot of Livin’ To Do,” “The Birth of the Blues” and “The Rhythm of Life.”

A sing-along later in the show included “I’ve Gotta Be Me,” “Strangers in the Night,” “Everybody Loves Somebody,” “That’s Amoré,” “Young at Heart,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and “New York, New York.”

The group finished with a medley — “Let’s Fall in Love: A Tribute to Cole Porter” — that included “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love),” “Night and Day,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “It’s De-Lovely,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” and “Just One of Those Things.”