SO COLD SO STILL:

'The first of the white soul singers': Musician whose hits included Rawhide dies at the age of 93 (Richard Boston, February 7, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

When Mel Brooks was directing Blazing Saddles, he wanted an over the top title song - the kind Frankie Laine delivered for Gunfight at the OK Corral and the television series Rawhide. Brooks told everyone he needed a singer with that authentic Laine quality. Then he had an idea - how about Frankie Laine?

Frankie wasn't too keen. For one thing, he was working in Las Vegas and Brooks needed the song in a hurry. Anyway, he'd never heard of Brooks. On the other hand, he thought: why turn down work when you never know if anyone's ever going to offer you anything ever again? He worked all the time. So he said OK, and gave the song everything he'd got.

There's just one detail to be added to the story. Not only had he never heard of Brooks, but nobody had told him the film was a comedy. Recalling the incident in his autobiography, That Lucky Old Son, he wrote: "I thought I was doing a song for another High Noon and I gave it my best dramatic reading. When I saw wacky things happening on the screen ... I sunk down into my seat with embarrassment." [...]

His first break came filling in for Perry Como in 1937, and he was also helped by Hoagy Carmichael and Nat King Cole. In 1947, at the age of 34 and after 17 years of trying, That's My Desire was his first hit. The day before recording it, he had been $7,000 in debt. His first royalty cheque was for $36,000.

The programme notes of one of his last British tours fairly claim that this record established him as "the first of the white soul singers", and that he "effectively set the pattern which was to lead from Johnnie Ray to Elvis Presley".

But one thing that annoyed this most equable man was hearing Presley referred to as "the first white man who sang black". Frankie's future wife Nan, who had only heard him on radio, thought for a long time that he was black. He also disliked being described as a "belter", saying: "I was just trying to emphasise the rhythmic aspects, using my voice the way a jazz soloist uses his instrument."

His hits included Mule Train, Cry of the Wild Goose, Jezebel, Hey Good-looking (with Jo Stafford), Sugarbush (with Doris Day), Sixteen Tons and High Noon, all the way to She Never Could Dance in 1986. He held 21 gold records.

Frankie showed as much respect for the lyrics as for the music - you heard every word, his timing was perfect, and he could use a key change to terrific effect. Like Billie Holiday, he could make rubbish sound like poetry.

He was one of the first pop megastars, mobbed by bobby-soxers who are now blue-rinsed matrons. Bobby-soxers, Frankie explained, were "teenage female admirers who went to extreme, but usually harmless, lengths to express their affection." There were Lainettes who wore sweaters and hair ribbons with his name on, and painted L-A-I-N-E on their fingernails. There were fan clubs (some still active) in the US, Britain, Malta, Cairo, and two clubs in Baghdad. [...]

· Frankie Laine (Francesco Paolo LoVecchio), singer, born March 30 1913; died February 6 2007

The Blazing Saddles story nicely illustrates the truism that the only difference between comedy and drama is the laugh track.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 7, 2007 11:19 AM