Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2007 November 18

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November 18

Searching the name of a singer

Hi: I am looking for the name of a black singer who recorded an album in the late 70's or early '80s. He sang "A song for you" written by Leon Russel. In the following page there is information about this song:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_for_You

There are several names mentioned in this article of artists that interpreted this song but none of them is the one I am looking for. In the cassete photo cover I had once in my hands (the one I am looking for) you can see a man (presumably the singer) in a super elegant white suit, a fancy huge old car behind him as well as a woman in a cocktail dress, all of the photo mostly in yellow, white and black color. In this album there is another song ("Woman" must be the name of it). The soul rhythm and the voice of this singer are amazing. I hope someone knows his name and/or the album's so I can get it again. Thanks. José Jones.

• Best way to find who recorded a song is searching for the song title at [All Music Guide]. (Searches can be slow.) If you hover over the artist name in the left column of the results, a picture of the album cover will appear. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:58, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The All Music Guide is full of errors and omissions. My own entry has me conflated with another musician of the same name. It's not even close to the quality of imdb. I actually would pick wikipedia. amazon and the iTunes music store as search references before AMG. Donald Hosek (talk) 17:51, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, but other than iTunes, none of those are any good for looking up individual song titles and finding lists of performers (and, as is necessary in this case, album covers.). I know what you mean about conflation; my brother is Peter Gordon (composer), and decided to start using his middle name to avoid such conflation with the other musicians of the same name. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 17:11, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

The Blood Crystal (The Admiral & The Princess) animated short

I'm looking for a specific animated short/feature to add to my collection that I vividly remember---but can't seem to find. It goes a little something like this: it starts out with a grandmother telling her grandson a story to help pass the time while a creey fog hangs over their beach home. The story (in the story) is about an admiral who captains a ship called "The Blue Heron", and he is in love with the princess of the kingdom, and vice-versa. Now the king, the princess, and her royal nanny all possess magic powers which they use to rule fairly and gently. The vizier, however, has other ideas. He possesses something called the Blood Crystal, which he uses to make the admiral try to kill the king during his birthday celebration. When that fails, he turns the admiral into a blue heron, to keep him silent and out of the way.

After the king leaves on an errand of mercy---or something like it---the vizier uses his Blood Crystal to take over the kingdom and imprison the princess and her nanny. He also ensures the king will never return by imprisoning him in an eternal fog, using the Blood Crystal. And every time he uses it, his power makes his bones glow red for all to see, spreading throughout him. Unbeknownst to the evil vizier, the nanny has used her magic to transform the princess into a heron-like bird (don't remember the exact name of it) to help her escape. The princess and the admiral fly to where the king is trapped, and together guide him back. During the big fight scene---with lots of magic being used, of course---the admiral seizes the blood crystal from the vizier and shatters it, which means the end of the vizier.

Unfortunately the blood crystal was the only thing which could change the admiral back into a human; now that it's gone, he's a blue heron forever. Hearing this news, the princess makes one last request of her nanny, "You gave me wings once---I have need of them again." She chooses to become a bird and remain by her admiral's side. The grandmother finishes the story by speaking of how 'he now rules the sky as he once ruled the sea'. Just then, the grandfather arrives home, tells of how he was hopelessly lost, and how two birds guided him back home. The grandson sees them fly past the window and he recognizes them---"The admiral and the princess!!!" And the story ends with the family reunited and watching the birds as they gently fly away.

Any information anyone can come up with will be sincerely appreciated.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.216.105.152 (talk • contribs)

Fixed format and removed e-mail address. Please check back here for responses to your question. 152.16.59.190 (talk) 07:04, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The Admiral and the Princess was made in 1989. It started with the grandmother telling her grandson about an admiral and was in love with a princess. It doesn't say their names. It starts off in the middle of a storm, just like the storm that the grandma and grandson are waiting to end, and the admiral can't find his way home, so the princess is instructing people to build fires along the cliffs near the habour and castle. The admiral's ship is called The Blue Heron. What the princess doesn't know is that the evil wizard, Warrick, is creating the storm using the blood crystal. It's magic is pure evil, and Warrick has binded himself to it so he can use it's magic. Warrick is also the counselor to the king, who is a very bright and happy person. Warrick wants to steal the throne, so he writes a letter to the king, saying that one of their ally kingdoms across the sea need help. So the king sets sail along with the admiral and the whole army. They become lost in the fog, but a blue heron guides them safely back home. Then it was time for the princess's birthday. Her dress was beautiful and she and the admiral danced all night. When the cake was being brought out, Warrick's sidekick (can't remember his name) lures the admiral behind a curtain, where Warrick was waiting. He used the blood crystal to control the admiral, and the admiral tries to kill the king. Warrick tries to convince the king that the admiral should be killed for what he had done, but the king didn't want to do that, so he asks Warrick to turn the admiral into a blue heron. So the admiral is sent into exile. The princess's maid Rene is for some reason, put into jail. Warrick is then found out to be a traitor, as he tries to kill the king himself. Fortunately, the admiral flies in and grabs the blood crystal from Warrick's hand, and drops it, causing it to be shattered and Warrick to die. Unfortunately, with the blood crystal destroyed, Rene cannot turn the admiral back into a man. So he flies away. But the princess still loves him, and even though she knows she will miss her father and Rene, she asks Rene to turn her into an egret, so that she can find the admiral and live with him. At the end the grandpa comes home, and the storm is over. They then see two birds flying past them, a blue heron and an egret. Sarah Mclachlan wrote a song for this movie called What Lies Beyond (Two Birds Flying). Sorry if I got some of this wrong, I haven't seen it in awhile, but my family has this movie that we taped off tv, so I can review it and change the details. It's actually one of my favourite movies. Signed, Delancy22.

I hope this answered some of your question. I too would love to see some more recognition of this great movie.

Deliberately *bad* singing and/or *bad* music

We once encountered a casette (tape) that had various songs which sounded almost normal to anyone with no ear for tone tune etc, but were actually a big joke/novelty because the singers would go out of tune, the music would go out of time or tune, and I found this absolutely hilarious. It would be fun to invite people over and play it as background music to see if they would notice. Some would, and would be extremely critical about the artists.
We since lost the tape, and ever since I've been trying to find other novelty music like this.
I'm not necessarily talking about parodies of songs, I'm talking about novelty music -- anything where the singers deliberately sing out of tune some or all of the time for the purposes of singing out of tune.
Rfwoolf (talk) 16:42, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

One example that I heard recently was on a community radio show, where at the end of the show they always play this song with this couple that sing something about "Til we meet again" "So long" "Goodbye", almost opera-tically, over-the-top, out of tune. The male singer than prattles something about "...our mortle coil. Funny 'ol chap Shakespeare was".

I've tried to google these lyrics but can't find any such song. Rfwoolf (talk) 16:44, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

It reminds me of Pete and Dud's song at the end of Not Only... But Also. DuncanHill (talk) 17:39, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

I've looked it up on youtube and a few seconds of the song appear at the end of the clip - thanks!. That's the sort of thing I'm looking for, although I'd say this one is rather obvious. It would be especially nice if I could track down what was on that cassette where it was a lot more subtle. :) Rfwoolf (talk) 17:56, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Here's the Pete Cook and Dudley Moore song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_hBvMxf1k

Rfwoolf, I've tried some Google searches using terms such as "intentionally bad singing subtle tune syncopation cover" etc., with all sorts of variations, but haven't had any luck finding something like what you describe (although I found three versions of Pete & Dudley singing "Goodbye"). Do you remember the names of some of the songs on that cassette? That might make it easier to track down. 152.16.59.190 (talk) 07:57, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks very much for trying! The cassette wasn't mine, but I do remember the main singer was female, and she would sometimes try to reach a high note and almost croak it, or the music would speed up unnecessarily, and the lyrics were sometimes funny but you had to be listening. I don't have any other information such as names, and to be honest can only remember the one song. I'm also pretty good at searching on google, and last time didn't find anything, probably because the results are all diluted with irrelevant stuff, as music searches usually are. I was hoping that either some wikipedians would know of some examples, or that there was some articles on it Rfwoolf (talk) 09:27, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to ask a few family members who might remember something about it. Rfwoolf (talk) 09:32, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

The Chaser recently did a skit on their show, [1]. The guy shows up at a talent agency and starts singing badly about his bad singing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.99.82.107 (talk) 10:08, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Interesting. Thanks. Rfwoolf (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 11:23, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure this isn't the person you're after, but Florence Foster Jenkins comes to mind. She wasn't intentionally bad, just hopelessely tone deaf and really, really bad. Her records from her Carnegie Hall concerts are a scream, but one listening a year is more than enough. -- JackofOz (talk) 11:57, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks very much. I'm going to look into it. And yes the person I'm looking for I think did jazz more than opera. That's a clue I remembered a few minutes ago for anyone that might know. I'm going to email a few radio stations to see if they know :) Rfwoolf (talk) 12:20, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Trying to identify a song

Hi there, I've got an annoying tune in my head, it's from some commercial dance-pop tune that presumably was significant enough to chart but I don't know what the actual tune is.

It has a synthesier riff featuring arpeggios of the following chord sequence: Dm Am Bb C, ie the actual notes played are A D F A, E A C A, F Bb B F, G C E G this is played fast and repeated throughout the song. Any ideas? GaryReggae (talk) 17:35, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Any lyrics?Rfwoolf (talk)

Yes, there are lyrics but I didn't catch them. Like most dance songs, it's mainly instrumental with a few vocal bits here and there. GaryReggae (talk) 20:06, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Is it Around the World (La La La La La)? If so, there's an error in your melody; it should be a d f a, e A c e, f Bb d f, g c e g. —Keenan Pepper 05:09, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Really strange movie

I'm looking for the title of a movie I saw when I was in elementary school. It was about a boy opposing an evil piano teacher. The only scene I can remember is a duel on roller skates between a plumber and two men connected by their beard. I think the movie had the word 'Fingers' in the title, but I'm not sure. Any of this sound familiar to anyone? 69.123.113.89 (talk) 19:04, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Was it The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T? -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 20:53, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

That's it! Thanks! 69.123.113.89 (talk) 22:39, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I saw that movie when I was about 10 years old and I've hardly even thought about it since, but actually I'd love to see it again. Thanks for the reminder; I'll go and chase it up. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:43, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Chase it up? Is this an actual common expression down there? Clarityfiend (talk) 22:58, 23 November 2007 (UTC)