Bonnie Lou, Country and Rockabilly Star of the 1950s, Dies at 91
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKDEC. 10, 2015
Bonnie Lou, a singer who achieved national stardom in the 1950s by recording country and rockabilly hits and performing on television and radio, but whose career declined after she turned down a major-label deal, died on Tuesday in Cheviot, Ohio. She was 91.
She had been in hospice care and had dementia, said her husband, Milton Okum, who confirmed the death.
Bonnie Lou, a talented banjo and guitar player who sang and yodeled from beneath a dense blond coif, began working on country radio as a teenager. （A farmer’s daughter, she had developed her voice in the fields. “I would go out after the cows and yodel,” she told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2007.）
She signed on to WLW-AM, a Cincinnati radio station, in the 1940s and stayed with the station after it expanded into television late in that decade. She became a regular on “Midwestern Hayride,” a country music variety program that was broadcast nationally on NBC in the 1950s. She remained on the show until it went off the air in 1972.
The television spotlight made her a recognizable face, especially in Ohio.
“We had baseball, apple pie, and Bonnie Lou,” Nicolas Martin, a fan of Bonnie Lou’s, who researched her history, told The Pantagraph of Bloomington, Ill., this year.
Her breakout hits were released by the Cincinnati-based King label in the 1950s. Her buoyant recordings of “Seven Lonely Days” and “Tennessee Wig Walk” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard country chart in 1953. Her rockabilly song “Daddy-O,” released two years later on the same label, made it to No. 14 on the Billboard pop chart.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/arts/music/bonnie-lou-country-and-rockabilly-star-of-the-1950s-dies-at-91.html
Bonnie Lou, 91, was Cincy entertainment icon
Patrick Brennan, 1:30 p.m. EST December 10, 2015
Iconic Cincinnati entertainer Bonnie Lou died Tuesday. She was 91.
She died in a Cincinnati nursing home early Tuesday, her husband Milton Okum told The Associated Press.
For decades, Ms. Lou starred as a local TV personality on NBC’s Channel 5, on nationally syndicated TV shows and in the hundreds of country music records she recorded in the Queen City.
In November 2007, The Enquirer described Ms. Lou as “the last surviving star from Channel 5’s Golden Age of Television in the 1950’s,” which included “50-50 Club,” “Hayride,” and “Paul Dixon Show.”
Born Mary Joan Kath in Towanda, Illinois, Ms. Lou began playing the violin and guitar as a child. By age 16, she was singing and performing on local radio stations in the Midwest. Her big break came a year later when she was signed to a contract to perform on a barn dance show, the Brush Creek Follies. She was known as Sally Carson and her group was The Rhythm Rangers. The show was broadcast nationwide.
She arrived in Cincinnati at age 20 as Mary Joan Ewins. She signed on at WLW-AM radio to fill the station’s need for a “girl yodeler,” according to Enquirer archives.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2015/12/09/cincy-entertainment-star-bonnie-lou-dead-at-91/77037486/
ボニー・ルー
歌手
生年月日： 1924年10月27日
生まれ： アメリカ合衆国 イリノイ州 トーワンダ
死没： 2015年12月8日, アメリカ合衆国 オハイオ州 シンシナティ
アルバム： Friction Heat、 Rock-a-Billy Essentials、 Tweedlee Dee （Mono Version）
レーベル： King Records、 フラタニティ・レコード、 キングレコード
写真を見てのとおりＣ＆Ｗの人で ウェスタン・ヨーデルを得意としていたが、レコード・デビュー以降、折から人気のＲ＆Ｂのビートを採り入れた曲でヒットを飛ばし、ロカビリー、ロックンロール隆盛の下地を作る形となった。（最初の所属レコード会社 King Records に多くの黒人スターがいたことも影響したろう。）
同時期、やはり白人女性である、スイング畑のエラ・メイ・モース（Ella Mae Morse）がＲ＆Ｂの白人化でマーケットの地均しをし、エルヴィス登場の露払いを務めている。
ボニー・ルーやエラ・メイ・モースのサウンドに比べると、エルヴィスのサンレコード時代の「音」はいかにもデリケートで、通俗的なものからむしろ遠いように聴こえる。RCA 移籍後のそれは逆にボニーやエラのスタンスに近づいた感じだ。
R.I.P BONNIE LOU – 1953 Bonnie Lou – Seven Lonely Days
2015/12/11 に公開
Top-10 country hit was also a ‘pop’ song success for Georgia Gibbs. Bonnie followed this release with her “Tennessee Wig Walk” （also posted to this channel, as is her most successful hit “Daddy-O”）.
４度目の引用。
R.I.P BONNIE LOU – 1953 Bonnie Lou – Tennessee Wig Walk
2015/12/11 に公開
Bonnie Lou followed up her “Seven Lonely Days” with this Top-10 country hit and mild crossover success.
２度目の引用。
R.I.P. BONNIE LOU – 1955 HITS ARCHIVE: Daddy-O – Bonnie Lou
2014/06/29 に公開
Daddy-O （Gore-Abner-Innis） by Bonnie Lou
Primarily a country performer, Bonnie Lou （real name Mary Kath） had a top-15 pop hit with this single in late’55. See also the Fontane Sisters version.
２度目の引用。
2015/12/10
新チームの方針に従ってひげをそった例で有名なのは、小笠原道大（現中日２軍監督）だ。日本ハムから巨人に移籍した０６年オフにそり落とし、中日でプレーすることになった昨季から再び伸ばした。
巨人では、他にもシピン（大洋から７８年移籍）、クルーン（横浜から０８年移籍）ら外国人選手が入団に合わせてそった。今季１年目を終えたマイコラス、ポレダもメジャー時代は生やしていた。
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/baseball/news/2015/12/10/kiji/K20151210011661130.html
クルーンと聞くと、マーク・クルーン（Marc Kroon）とは綴りが違う Croon のほうを連想してしまう。
Croon
hum or sing in a soft, low voice, especially in a sentimental manner.＜Google 翻訳＞
クルーン唱法の歌手＝クルーナーが世に受け入れられるようになる素地・前段階として、トーチ・ソング（センチメンタルな失恋ソング）を歌うトーチ・シンガーの活躍と人気が挙げられるだろう。
すなわち１９２０年代にスターとなったルース・エッティング、ヘレン・モーガン、ジーン・オースティン、ルディ・ヴァリーらで、デリケートなニュアンスを表現するため声楽的・オペラ的発声ではなく自然なトーンに近づけて歌う、というスタイルを世に定着させた。それが可能だったのはマイクロフォンが発達したからだったが、実演の場に用意できないことが多く、ルディ・ヴァリーなどはメガホンを口に当てて歌ったりもしていた。
そして１９３１年、ソロシンガーとなったビング・クロスビーがマイクを使ったクルーナーとしてポピュラー音楽界を席捲する。ビングの声、表現はソフトでリラックスしていてニュアンスに富み洗練されシャレていた。つまりは当時の“現代人”の感覚に極めてマッチしたものだったため、大衆の圧倒的な支持を得たのだった。
ビングは出ていないが１９３２年には『The Crooner』という映画も作られている。
New Mayfair Dance Orchestra – My Kid’s A Crooner（1935）
conducted by Carroll Gibbons
vocal: Frances Day and Sybil Jason
面白い。
語りから入る。
This cute tribute to a little girl’s passion for singing like Bing features seven-year-old child actress Sybil Jason （some references suggest that she was five, though they appear to be incorrect）.
By early 1935 Ray Noble, Al Bowlly, and drummer Bill Harty had departed for Noble’s new career in America, so session conducting duties for his UK band–reverting to its original “New Mayfair” identity–were shared by several different leaders during the years that followed.
Howard Flynn and his orchestra – Learn To Croon（1933）
vocal: Harry Bentley
Bob Causer and his Cornellians – Learn To Croon（1933）
vocal: Elmer Feldkamp
Freddy Martin as “Bob Causer”
This song and the flip side “Moonstruck” were from the 1933 Bing Crosby film “College Humor.” Though New York State arranger-bandleader Bob Causer is not known to have released any recordings under his own name, that name was frequently used as a pseudonym on various ARC issues, many of them led by Freddy Martin.
Fran Frey and his Orchestra – Learn To Croon（1933）
vocal: Fran Frey
recorded in NYC July 5, 1933
A tune from the 1933 Bing Crosby film “College Humor.” The also-posted flipside “Moonstruck” was a song performed by Bing in that Paramount comedy as well. This track was recorded at a Ben Selvin session and was one of a handful of Selvin’s 1933 Columbia releases with label credit assigned to singer Fran Frey “and his Orch.”
Jimmie Grier and his Orchestra – Learn To Croon（1933）
vocal: Dick Webster
Posting a two-sider of tunes from the Bing Crosby film “College Humor” （flip is “Moonstruck”）. During this Brunswick session, Grier’s first for the label,, he also conducted the orchestra for Bing’s own recording of “Learn To Croon,” though it was rejected for release in favor of two different Crosby-Grier takes recorded four days later, issued on Brunswick 6594
Bing Crosby – Learn To Croon（1933）
orchestra conducted by Jimmie Grier
Several days prior to conducting this Crosby session, bandleader Jimmie Grier had recorded his own version of the song hit from Bing’s “College Humor” film, also issued on the Brunswick label