Many Alabamians thought it was the end of the world. But there's never been a Leonid storm as luminous as this one. Leonid meteor storms supposedly originate in the Leo constellation, have been recorded since AD 903, and show up every 33-and-a-bit years. One hundred and eighty-two years ago, a spectacular Leonid shower rained down on the eastern United States, but most especially Alabama. What comes first – the words or the music? Well, in this case what came first was the meteor shower. That's Frank Perkins' lone enduring contribution to the American songbook - his tune, and Mitchell Parish's words. Perkins had a non-meteoric career, except for one very meteoric hit:
The apogee of his time in Hollywood was conducting the score for the screen version of Jule Styne's Broadway masterpiece Gypsy. He was a studio conductor and composer of serviceable film music for such landmark pictures as The Incredible Mister Limpet. The composer is a one-hit wonder called Frank Perkins, born on April 21st 1908 in Salem, Massachusetts.
In other words, it's because of this record that Jimmy Buffett and She & Him sing this song today. All in twelve months.įrom that banner year of 1956, here's a track from Swingin' Affair! that isn't the greatest song in the world but it's beautifully sung to a marvelous arrangement - and the combination is so good that, as with so many other entries in this series, it secured the number's place in the standard repertoire. It ended with the sessions for Swingin' Lovers' swingin' successor, A Swingin' Affair! In between came a great soundtrack album of new Cole Porter songs ( High Society), an exquisite ballad set with the Hollywood String Quartet ( Close To You), a collection of specially commissioned orchestral pieces conducted by Frank ( Tone Poems Of Color), and a bunch of singles, variously slight, terrific, goofy, memorable, including "How Little We Know", "Five Hundred Guys" and "Hey! Jealous Lover". In 1956 there was so much of it: The year began with the sessions for the defining album of the early LP era - Songs For Swingin' Lovers, including " You Make Me Feel So Young", " Pennies From Heaven", " How About You?", " We'll Be Together Again" and, of course, " I've Got You Under My Skin". When Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle found their groove in the mid-Fifties, the music just poured out.
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