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Philip Margo and some of the others in the group didn’t have a lot of confidence in the resulting recording.
“We were embarrassed by it and tried to convince Hugo and Luigi not to release it,” he said in an interview quoted in “The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits” by Fred Bronson. “They said it would be a big record and it was going out.”
They were right. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in December 1961, remained there for three weeks and became a cultural touchstone. A whole new generation was introduced to it in 1994 when a version turned up in the Disney movie “The Lion King.”
“Now that it’s current, we’re current,” Mr. Margo said at the time. “I am thrilled.”
Mr. Frishberg, who also played piano and sang, was an anomaly, if not an anachronism, in American popular music: an accomplished, unregenerate jazz pianist who managed to outrun the eras of rock, soul, disco, punk and hip-hop by writing hyper-literate songs that harked back to Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, by way of Stephen Sondheim.
His songwriting wit was for grown-ups, yet he reached his widest audience with sharpshooting ditties for kids as a regular musical contributor to ABC-TV’s long-running Saturday morning animated show “Schoolhouse Rock!”
Among his credits: “I’m Just a Bill”.
Lawrence sent over an obit from Slam Wrestling for Joe Cornelius. In addition to his wrestling work, he helped with fight coordinating on “The Avengers” and also made some uncredited movie appearances. Perhaps his best known work was as the titular character in “Trog”.
Heath Freeman. He had some roles on “Bones” and “NCIS”. According to THR, he was only 41.
The band I played saxes in, Tradewinds, did a cover of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, mostly because it was so easy to pick up. Always wanting to remain fresh, for our always booked weekend gigs, we tried to pickup a few new songs, mostly covers, every week.
With 2 male and 2 female singers, we were vocal heavy and so this lent itself to us pretty well. We also did an acapella version of Peter and Gordon’s I Go to Pieces, which was always well received.
I am sorry to have to say that I am not familiar with Mr. Frishberg’s work. I listen to music at night, often jazz, so I might try and find something of his.
I would really like to hear your cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad version of that song.