Something to lighten the mood.
Going through my list of youtube favorites, I 've got a lot of music that I adore but is probably quite obscure. For a variety of reasons, there are singers who make an impact in their era and are then forgotten.
First example: Helen Shapiro. Helen was an enormous star in England around the turn of the 1950's into the early 1960's. As pop groups became more popular, a "girl singer" like Helen had a tough time and she soon faded from the scene. In the early 1960's she appeared on TV with a group of guys who OPENED FOR HER on tour. Here she is with three members of her opening act:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEtdnex1M-ANext, The Italian Firecracker, Piccola Pupa. Seriously, Would I make that name up? Danny Thomas discovered Piccola and introduced her to American audiences. She made a lot of TV appearances here with some big stars of the day (like Dean Martin). She retired from show biz in the early 70's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q89eXYrOusOld folks will remember Donna Loren as the Dr. Pepper Girl during the Kennedy era. In the early to mid 60's, she was a house singer on Shindig! She appeared in several of my beloved Beach Party movies...and that's where this clip is from. She still sings and recently released a new CD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI8rRDxiz3AFinally, this is the very first video I ever saved as a youtube favorite when I finally got high speed internet a few years ago. Thirty years ago, the lovely, leggy "Sylvia" was a big enough star to go by just her first name. She was a country music Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the year with a string of number one cross-over hits. It was the age of "Country-Pop"...and it came to an abrupt end with a seismic shift of country music back to a more traditional sound. Overnight, Sylvia became a minor musical footnote. She's still pretty and she performs on the state fair circuit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AfvRWvvP1U
