“A Taste of Honey” Was For the American Version of a British Play Before Herb Alpert’s Cover

A groundbreaking British play came to America and spawned a film adaptation and a hit song, covered by a jazz trumpeter when his career launched.

by Rich Watson 

This post is for the Broadway Bound Blogathon, a blog event looking at films and stars with Broadway ties. At the end I’ll tell you where you can find more posts like this.

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass recorded “A Taste of Honey” for their 1965 album Whipped Cream and Other Delights. You’re probably familiar with the cover. The song won four Grammys, including Record of the Year.

American audiences first heard it in 1960, for a Broadway adaptation of a British play by a teenage writer.

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Grady Was a Popular Neighbor on “Sanford and Son,” With a Theme Song by Quincy Jones

TV’s Sanford and Son spawned not only a theme song by a future music legend, but a beloved supporting character who headlined a spinoff show.

by Rich Watson 

This post is for the Neighbors Blogathon, a blog event spotlighting neighbor characters on TV and in film. At the end I’ll tell you where you can find more posts like this.

Sanford and Son was an American remake of the sixties British sitcom Steptoe and Son. It had an instrumental theme song composed by musician and record producer Quincy Jones.

Redd Foxx, a former nightclub comedian made famous through his raunchy comedy records, starred. His supporting cast included a character who starred in a spinoff series of his own.

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Before “Pulp Fiction,” “Miserlou” Had Its Roots in Mediterranean Music

An ancient folk song from the other side of the world morphed into a rock and roll surfer tune.

by Rich Watson 

In the book Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool by Jeff Dawson, the film director has said about “Miserlou,” the surf-rock anthem he used in the opening credits to his 1994 crime movie Pulp Fiction, “To me it just sounds like rock and roll.”

Many would agree, but the 1963 instrumental is based on a much older song, one with origins far from the land of surfboards and sun tan lotion.

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