Dorothy Loudon is fabulous!

[Merboy]

Here is the original Miss Hannigan singing "Broadway Baby":

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCN8z97stHQ:0

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I knew the red-letter day would come when someone would give Loudon her own thread here.

 

Here's a favorite of mine. This is how to sell a song.

 

[bostonman]

One of my favorites. "Fifty Percent" from Ballroom - debuted by Loudon. In this case, a woman who lost her husband a year ago finds an unexpected new partner while dancing with him at the Stardust Ballroom. They fall in love. Later she learns that he is married, in a loveless marriage. Near the end of the show, she sings this anthem defending her relationship with him. For many years, this song was a cabaret staple, but no one does it like her.

 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by bostonman

[+ WilliamM]

Dorothy Loudon replaced Carol Burnett on television's "The Garry Moore Show."

 

But, nobody could really replace Carol.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

One of my favorites. "Fifty Percent" from Ballroom - debuted by Loudon.

 

Ah, great song... And still a piano bar staple

 

Heard one of the singers at Don't Tell Mama Vegas sing it a couple of weeks ago.

[bostonman]

Ah, great song... And still a piano bar staple

 

For many years, the Lenox Hotel in Boston had a famous piano bar/cabaret room called Diamond Jim's. Back in the early 1990's, when there was a truly bustling cabaret scene in Boston, I was part of a one-night event at Diamond Jim's that we called "Fifty Percent Night." All evening, you could get drinks at half price (yup, that's 50% off) and hear any number of Boston area singers and pianists give their renditions of the song - the only song heard all night. I was with Nunsense at the time, and wrote a fun uptempo jazz arrangement for some for the nuns in the cast to sing. I remember I had been working on an Italian translation to sing a la Pavarotti, but I think I wound up just doing the song straight - or, gay, as it were. I remember it being a very fun night.