Song of the Day: Jackie Gleason, “Days of Wine and Roses”

Song of the Day 1 Minute

Actor and comedian Jackie Gleason was born on this day in 1916. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, he produced 58 albums of "mood music" for Capitol Records. He "wrote" songs by conceiving the melodies in his head and singing them for musicians who transcribed them. He himself couldn’t read music and didn’t play an instrument, but paid the musicians to turn his tunes into reality. His first album, 1952’s Music For Lovers Only, holds the record for most weeks in the Billboard Top Ten Albums (153 weeks), and his first ten albums were million sellers. "Days of Wine and Roses" is a song written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer for the 1962 movie of the same name, and appeared on 1963’s Movie Themes – For Lovers Only.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

12 thoughts on “Song of the Day: Jackie Gleason, “Days of Wine and Roses””

  1. Pingback: The End of February Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  2. Oooooooooooo The Days of Wine of Roses sooooooooooooo pretty! When I use to clean houses I use to play this all the time. Sooooooooooooo very pretty! Anyway, if you had any suggestions on how to learn these bloggings and how to use them I mean I use to know how, but it’s been so many years and my brain just doesn’t function the way it use too. Actually I’m quite embarrassed about this whole thing. You understand John don’t you? This is a real bummer. Well, I hope to hear from you, but if not it’s okay…. I understand. Hugs and have a great weekend! Hope to hear ya Monday! Hey so when you going to be our star on Monday and give us a theme…???? Awwww Come on dude… I bet you can make up a fabulous theme couldn’t ya? Oh also is the Challenge coming again???? When’s the date. Can I take a copy of the button from here? I would love to play too just to add my A2Z square on my blog. Woo Hoo! Hugs… look forward to hearing from you…. I HOPE! Marie M.

    Like

    1. I’m doing May and October this year. I’m way ahead of you.

      We haven’t released the badge for the A to Z Challenge yet. The theme reveal starts on March 8, when I would imagine the badge will be made available (it’s not like they tell me anything… I just work there 🤣).

      I’ll get back to you on the rest of the questions. I need to do some research…

      Like

    1. For the longest time I thought he played the trumpet, but evidently he had no musical training. He would get a tune in his head and compose it with the help of other musicians, and he paid the musicians who recorded for him, but that was the extent of it. The orchestra leader on his show from the ’60’s was Sammy Spear.

      Help me remember something. Am I just imagining things, or did he used to come out at the beginning of his show, and, after saying “How sweet it is!” they would bring out a chair and a table, he’d sit down and they’d bring him a cup of coffee, which he would then sip and say “woah, that’s good coffee”? We used to watch it with my dad, too. Dad loved Jackie Gleason. On more than one occasion they’d be getting dressed to go out and Mom would have to light a fire under him to get dressed, because he’d be on the back porch with us, watching Gleason…

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Crazy Guggenheim reading a story to Joe the Bartender out of a “Top Cat” coloring book… I went looking for episodes of his shows on Amazon and eBay, and there are very few available.

          Liked by 1 person

  4. Jackie Gleason was very talented. I always thought of him as a comedian and didn’t realize until lately, he was a composer and conductor. According to IMDb – ‘He designed his own fantastic round house that was built in Peekskill, NY, in the 1950s and remains a modern marvel. The precious wood interior took special crafting by Swedish carpenters who were brought to the U.S. for a year to work on the house. It contained a basement disco and one of the very first in-home video projection systems. Despite the enormous cost, the Gleason dream house long suffered from a leaky wooden roof.’

    Like

    1. To what extent he was a composer and a conductor is open to debate, but what isn’t is that he turned out a lot of very popular and best-selling albums with his name on them. He was more of a producer than anything: he knew what he wanted (more importantly, what his listeners wanted) and spared no expense in getting it.

      So,ehow, I picture Jackie as “The Poor Soul” staring at the water leaking through the roof…

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Very pleasant. This one had me scurrying to Wikipedia – I knew the guy’s name but couldn’t put my finger on where I’d heard of him.Smokey and the Bandit. Not considered his finest hour 🤣

    Like

Comments are closed.