Posted on 09/15/2019 4:26:02 PM PDT by Twotone
Three quarters of a century ago - September 1944 - this week's song was in the midst of a nine-week run at Number One on the Billboard pop chart. It's stuck around through all the decades since - which is unusual because it's not a timeless love ballad, but rather a cautionary tale for slacker schoolkids set among the grubbier habitués of the barnyard. It was introduced earlier that year in the film Going My Way, in which Bing Crosby played an unconventional Catholic priest and Barry Fitzgerald tagged along heavy on the blarney. The movie was a smash, cementing Bing as the Number One box-office star and cleaning up at the Oscars with a haul that included Best Picture and, for its leading man, Best Actor.
The plot hinged on the crippling mortgage with which St Dominic's Church was burdened. Bing's Father O'Malley had written a ditty that exemplified his personal if somewhat doctrinally dubious philosophy, "Going My Way", and the priest and his operatic ex-girlfriend, Risë Stevens, cook up a plan to rent the Metropolitan Opera for the day and sing the number with a full choir and orchestra to impress a bigshot music publisher into snaffling up the song and alleviating St Dominic's financial woes. Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous when you type it out like that in cold print, but, if it's any consolation, it sounds ridiculous up on the big screen, too, even in a musical, even in the mid-Forties.
The fatal flaw in the scheme, which might have been foreseen, is that, having heard the song, the music biz exec decides to pass on the song because he thinks it's a big blah that won't sell.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Brings back fond memories often wondered why Going My Way never made the Christmas movie scene.
I loved this song as a kid and still love it. Now I sing it to my grandkids. My favorite lines are, “And all the monkeys aren’t in the zoo, every day you meet quite a few...”
There’s a specific reference to those lyrics towards the end of the column.
Bfl
This is a great song.
I remember a Little Lulu cartoon featuring that song
Tremendous piece, it really made my day to read this. Thanks so much for posting!
I think that Little Lulu cartoon is embedded in the piece, although I didn’t watch it.
I remember Hudson Hawk featuring that song.
You’re right - thanks!
Childhood memories :)
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