Open Features: Right Song - Wrong Word
Jazz drummer Teddy Pope recalls a night when a classic song came out wrong.
I was playing with a band. I can't remember the venue, but the vocalist our front was Bobby Breen. Bobby was very popular in the 1960s. He had the chair with the Johnny Dankworth Orchestra and got lots of work around the London jazz scene at that time.
The bass player on this occasion was a good friend of mine, Spike Heatly. We had often played together.
Bobby liked to sing the song Laura, and Spike reminded Bobby that he always sang "...and she's only a fool'' when it should be "...and she's only a dream''.
Unfortunately, when Bobby was on stage that night it came out as "...and she's only a DROOL''.
*
Hey, I've just looked up Bobby Breen on the Internet, and there's some good stuff about him, including a mention of a broadcast with the Don Rendel/Graham Bond band in a BBC Jazz Club in 1962.
And yours truly was playing on that occasion.
Don't know if a recording exists. It would be nice to hear it again.
