Posted 6:54 PM by Gene

I once regarded Ol' Blue as a lucky Hoboken bum with quixotic ways, Mafia friends and a sordid love life. I'm still not in awe of the mere mortal, yet tonight I was playing one of his songs -- the Cahn-Van Heusen "To Love and Be Loved" (on The Complete Capitol Singles) -- and I cried. I have not even opened the sixteen albums of Concepts yet. Odd, I've heard Blue many times, but as mere background music or badly reproduced. Most people first caught his tunes on AM radio or treble-heavy portables or those rinky-dink RCA 45 players and probably didn't know what they were hearing. Listening on a really good stereo you must confront his songs as he intended.

I bring this up because today was a (or AN) HISTORIC day in Vegas: the jinglemeister and Bette accompanist Mr. Manilow announced a deal (RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! provided the suitable fantasy number of $60 million, whether real or fake they care not a whit) in which he appears at the Hilton for 24 weeks with dancing and lots of figurative hugging. I can't imagine crying at the Barry doing such LEGENDARY TUNES as "You Deserve a Break Today" or "State Farm is There", or those overmiked overproduced two-note affairs in which he taught Billy Joel how to "ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-WAH!!!!!" (or was it the other way around?) -- or even at "Copacabana," which some proud virtual Hilton flack grandly tells us is back in a "dance remix" (ugh) -- but I can imagine myself laughing, or wincing.