I was born in the mid 1950’s, and my parents were born in the mid 1920’s. As a kid I remember my parents playing records of their favorite big bands and singers. These included Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and many other popular artists from the 40’s and early 50’s. Since I wasn’t alive during that time my only frame of reference are the records my parents had while I was growing up.
However, as I read about popular artists from that era, I keep seeing Eddie Fisher’s name pop up as one of the biggest singing stars of his day. Perhaps he wasn’t nearly as popular as Frankie, and I know that he wasn’t part of the Rat Pack, nevertheless he seems to have been a real heavyweight during his heyday. But whenever I listen to the oldies radio station, or see artist compilation commercials on TV, they rarely mention him or his music. So have I somehow just missed hearing his ‘hit records’, or was he not as popular in retrospect as some would have us believe?
How could such a mega-singing star have disappeared from our public consciousness so quickly? I know about his infamous person life and famous family, but what happened to his musical legacy?
He was popular, but not mega-popular – a lot of top 40s, but only four number ones. His biggest years were in 1952-55, which meant he got forgotten when rock came along. After 1957, he never cracked the top 40.
The timing meant that his songs were never played as “oldies” so the younger generation never heard them.
He also didn’t have Sinatra’s distinctive style, and had no songs that were strongly identified with him. Sinatra had a great sense of song, while it seems like Fisher did not, and while Sinatra was able to redefine himself, Fisher still remained the crooner even when that style was passe. Also, when he left Debbie Reynolds to marry Elizabeth Taylor, the public hated him, wrecking his career.
I remember them talking about him when Liz left him, but even then I couldn’t name anything he had recorded. Even the songs I recognize, I associated with other singers.
I don’t know much about Eddie Fisher, but I think he was one of the most notorious drug users (speed and opiates) in that pre-Rock n Roll era, which was before drug use became more or less acceptable to the general public.
I don’t know the details, but I would guess that his public drug busts were much, MUCH more of a scandal back then than they would be today…
There are a lot of artists from the big band era who slipped through the cracks as time goes on. For every Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Frank Sinatra that most people recognize, there’s a Shep Fields, Ted Weems, Charlie Barnet, Vaughn Monroe, and Dick Haymes that you would have to dig a little deeper to find today.
His daughter Carrie describes him well in her book Wishful Drinking. I think he was more famous than he was popular if that makes sense- first for marrying America’s sweetheart and then for leaving her for America’s (newly widowed) sexpot, and then to B list but highly visible Connie Stevens, and “oh yeah, by the way he sings”. Very pleasant crooner but nothing outstanding- biggest hits were
Sunrise Sunset (from Fiddler of course, but he had a hit before the cast recording)
He had a major career slump and wound up broke and deeply in debt and selling stories to tabloids and the like. He never really reconciled with Taylor or Reynolds though, oddly, they did reconcile with each other. (Supposedly when they ran into each other after the Taylor-Fisher split and not having seen each other for many years one of them broke the ice by saying “Fuck Eddie Fisher!” and the other one repeated it and they laughed and hugged.) Carrie Fisher said it was appropriate his last wife was wealthy and of Chinese heritage because he certainly had no money of his own but he’d had so many facelifts he looked more Chinese than most of his wife’s friends. The last marriage seemed to have been happier and lasted longer than his others. Carrie also said that her father was the type of person who could fail you 300 different times but you’d still love him and give him that 301st chance- very childlike and charming and completely likable even if he wasn’t responsible.
Reynolds supposedly has been quoted that Taylor did her a favor.
I’d like to add Bobby Darin to that list of forgotten singers. One hell of a voice, cut short way too soon. IRCC, he died on the operating table in the early 70s from heart complications. If you’ve never heard him, look up ‘Beyond the Sea’ and ‘Mack the Knife’ on YouTube. In his way, as talented as Sinatra.
Have you seen the Kevin Spacey movie about Bobby Darrin, Beyond the Sea? I haven’t, but even critics who didn’t like the movie said his performance was good.
yes, and liked it, altho it was a little hard to separate darin, whom i’ve seen in films, vs the spacey-filtered version. overall spacey did a good job with it. the gal playing sandra dee however, stank to high heaven.
I know about Harry Karl (started out with millions of his own and gambled his way throught that AND through her money as well (plus infidelity)) but her memoir ends just after she married Hammlett, so I’m not as familiar with that relationship. Wiki says she declared bankruptcy in 1997, the year after they divorced, but has no details. Not that I would be surprised…the poor woman has an awful track record with men, period.
I’ve wondered about this myself. One answer may be that unlike Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand is that Fisher didn’t have much of a movie career. The “pop”, “standards”, “easy listening” music never has seemed to put out much in the way of complete CD collections, unearthing demos for their fans, having their music as “albums” instead of “hit songs”. Contrast that with the 60s rock and roll of the Beatles, Neil Young, Motown, Jimi Hendrix, etc. They are always putting out every recording they can unearth.
Fisher’s notoriety with Elizabeth Taylor was surpassed by Richard Burton who was married to her twice which lasted into the mid 70s when tabloids really came to the forefront.
As others have said some musical acts get forgotten as time goes by. A decade ago with the boy band popularity, on coworker in his 20s lamented how I got to grow up with great groups like the Stones and Beatles. I told him there was plenty of schlock back then too: Dave Clark 5, Monkees, Herman’s Hermits. He said he heard of the monkees but never heard of the other two. I sang “I’m Henry the 8th, I am” to his bewilderment.
Richard Dix was so forgotten by the mid 60s that they couldn’t even use his name in Star Trek TOS “City on the Edge of Forever” because they figured no one would know who he was. So they used the more widely known but incorrect Clark Gable.
Joely Fisher (daughter with Connie Stevens) has said that when she was 10, Eddie took her to see “Star Wars”. When it was over, she asked “do I have a step sister named Carrie?”
The same basically, except instead of gambling it was bad (with a slant to stupid) business moves that caused her major tax problems and to go way into the red on her (kind of damned from the start) casino and hotel, and lots of infidelities. Debbie says she’s had sex with four men in her life and was married to three of them; I think that might be one of her problems.
In Wishful Drinking Carrie said that before her own daughter was born Debbie once posed the possibility of her having a baby by Debbie’s last husband since neither had ever had a kid and the two of them would probably have a pretty one. Today Debbie owns the house next door to Carrie. I think she’s back in the black again, and certainly she’s far from indigent- she owns a movie memorabilia collection that’s appraised at between $50 million & $100 million and includes a pair of ruby slippers and Dorothy’s skirt from Wizard, Cleo’s headdress from Cleopatra, Rudolph Valentino’s sheikh outfit and lots of other such stuff; she’s been trying to find a reliable partner for a non-profit movie museum for years.
