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Can a person be reincarnated when she's still alive?
Doris Day, I am happy to report, is with us yet in her 86th year on planet Earth, although it's been more than 40 years since her last motion picture and more than 30 since she sang in public. Her retirement has extended long enough that there are today many who have no idea what an important figure Doris Day once was -- which is astounding when you consider the number of hit records and film tickets she sold during her quarter-century career as a performer.
It was Day (then just 20 years old) who made “Sentimental Journey” a smash hit for Les Brown's Orchestra during the swing era, and it was Day who waxed philosophically in the upper climes of the Billboard charts for 27 weeks with “Que Sera, Sera” more than a decade later. The same woman whose crystal tone and impeccable phrasing helped secure an Oscar in 1953 for songwriters Sammy Fain and Paul Webster when she recorded their “Secret Love” — in a 10-minute, single-take studio session — also starred in 39 movies opposite the likes of Cary Grant, James Stewart, Kirk Douglas and, of course, Rock Hudson, with whom she made a string of popular romantic comedies like “Send Me No Flowers,” “Lover Come Back” and “Pillow Talk.”
Doris Day is still alive -- and yet a new album may leave you wondering if she has been prematurely reincarnated in the form of a woman born 60 years to the month after Day came into the world as Doris Kappelhoff in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Like Doris Day, 27-year-old Nellie McKay (which rhymes with “die,” not “Day") is pretty, blond and talented. McKay is also very active in the realm of animal rescue and, five years ago, “The Dog Song” from her debut album, “Get Away From Me,” actually earned her the Doris Day Award, which is handed out by the Humane Society for “animal-sensitive” works of art. And, like Day, McKay has moved from music to acting, having won critical acclaim for her role as Polly Peachum in the 2006 Broadway re-mounting of Brecht and Weill's “The Threepenny Opera.”
Now McKay has cemented the weird bond between Doris Day and herself by recording an album of songs made famous by Day (plus one original), titled “Normal as Blueberry Pie.” (“Sentimental Journey” is included among the titles McKay covers on the album, but “Que Sera” isn't.) Although McKay often recasts the songs with spare arrangements featuring unusual instrumentation, there is nary a campy wink to be found on the album, even in easily lampooned numbers like “Send Me No Flowers.”
McKay was born some years after Day retired from the entertainment industry, and she got her start in the hipster hideouts of New York's lower East Side. But if her new album is any indication, she's discovered how — in a world so easily given to dismissive cynicism — the truly revolutionary can nowadays be found in the sunny sincerity of Doris Day.
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Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, supporting nonprofits that work to alleviate hunger in Colorado.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
Doris Day, I am happy to report, is with us yet in her 86th year on planet Earth, although it's been more than 40 years since her last motion picture and more than 30 since she sang in public. Her retirement has extended long enough that there are today many who have no idea what an important figure Doris Day once was -- which is astounding when you consider the number of hit records and film tickets she sold during her quarter-century career as a performer.
It was Day (then just 20 years old) who made “Sentimental Journey” a smash hit for Les Brown's Orchestra during the swing era, and it was Day who waxed philosophically in the upper climes of the Billboard charts for 27 weeks with “Que Sera, Sera” more than a decade later. The same woman whose crystal tone and impeccable phrasing helped secure an Oscar in 1953 for songwriters Sammy Fain and Paul Webster when she recorded their “Secret Love” — in a 10-minute, single-take studio session — also starred in 39 movies opposite the likes of Cary Grant, James Stewart, Kirk Douglas and, of course, Rock Hudson, with whom she made a string of popular romantic comedies like “Send Me No Flowers,” “Lover Come Back” and “Pillow Talk.”
Doris Day is still alive -- and yet a new album may leave you wondering if she has been prematurely reincarnated in the form of a woman born 60 years to the month after Day came into the world as Doris Kappelhoff in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Like Doris Day, 27-year-old Nellie McKay (which rhymes with “die,” not “Day") is pretty, blond and talented. McKay is also very active in the realm of animal rescue and, five years ago, “The Dog Song” from her debut album, “Get Away From Me,” actually earned her the Doris Day Award, which is handed out by the Humane Society for “animal-sensitive” works of art. And, like Day, McKay has moved from music to acting, having won critical acclaim for her role as Polly Peachum in the 2006 Broadway re-mounting of Brecht and Weill's “The Threepenny Opera.”
Now McKay has cemented the weird bond between Doris Day and herself by recording an album of songs made famous by Day (plus one original), titled “Normal as Blueberry Pie.” (“Sentimental Journey” is included among the titles McKay covers on the album, but “Que Sera” isn't.) Although McKay often recasts the songs with spare arrangements featuring unusual instrumentation, there is nary a campy wink to be found on the album, even in easily lampooned numbers like “Send Me No Flowers.”
McKay was born some years after Day retired from the entertainment industry, and she got her start in the hipster hideouts of New York's lower East Side. But if her new album is any indication, she's discovered how — in a world so easily given to dismissive cynicism — the truly revolutionary can nowadays be found in the sunny sincerity of Doris Day.
------------------------------
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, supporting nonprofits that work to alleviate hunger in Colorado.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
