Interesting…I chose around a dozen of those videos, and listened to a snippet of each. There’s a real variety of ability and talent (or the lack of it) displayed in that motley collection. It’s certainly not all terrible or embarrassing. I think a lot of those actors came from an era when they were expected to be a ‘triple threat’ while they were coming up- able to sing and dance as well as act. They may not have that ‘it’ factor that separates a serviceable singer from a real star, but they’re not all awful. Others are clearly parody efforts, not meant to be any kind of high art.
Pernell Roberts, for example, was a singer and stage actor before he had his ‘Bonanza’ run. There were several times on the show where he sang and played guitar just to sneak his musical talent in. One might not like his musical genre, but he’s not too shabby. Mary Tyler Moore, singing and dancing to ‘With a Little Luck’ puts out some good old-tyme showbiz energy.
On the other hand, Bill Cosby didn’t sing ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, he shouted it in a weirdly high off-key pitch that must have shredded his vocal chords. It certainly shredded my eardrums…
