Anyone but me remember this, by Taco? It plays, every so often, on 80s hours on the radio.
Anyway, towards the end of the song, he works in a small snippet of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” there’s also a bit of “White Christmas,” and a few bars of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” - but before all of them there’s a place in the music that sounds off, like it, too, has been sampled from another song. But I can’t place the other song. And every time I hear it, it drives me slightly nuts.
Is it just electronic weirdness, or is there a fourth song in there?
Gotta link to the song? My copy’s at home (yes, I own a copy).
I do remember that he also repeats “Gotta Dance” a couple of times, a reference to Gene Kelly and “The Broadway Melody” from Singin’ in the Rain, though that (unlike the other songs you mention) wasn’t written by Irving Berlin.
I love this song. Though I can’t help you out with what you’re trying to identify. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “No Business Like Show Business” are obvious, but I have to confess I don’t even recall “White Christmas”.
The CD is in my car. I’ll listen to it on my way home today and see if I can lend a hand.
No doubt somebody is about to jump on this, but I recall stories from the time that Berlin (who was still alive) refused to authorize anyone he didn’t like to record any of his songs in its entirety. By late in life “anyone he didn’t like” was “anyone at all”. That forced the recording to be a medley instead, even if the band hadn’t been planning it.
Not likely. A composer can’t prevent someone from recording his music. All you have to do is pay the statutory licensing fee and you can record anything you like.
Side note: in the original version of the video where the line "Just like Gary Cooper (super duper)"is, there used to be a shot of two people in blackface. After some protest, they changed it to a B&W photo of Gary Cooper.
I sometimes want to complement a well dressed man by saying…boy, you look like a “million dollar trooper”, and see what kind of response I would receive.
At the beginning of the sampled section, after he repeats “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and before he sings “Downtown, uptown” there’s a part that sounds like the bass guitar line at the beginning of “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. A few lines later, after “Move to the rhythm”, there’s a segment of piano music I can’t identify. Is that the part you mean?