Product Details

• Directors: Bill Edwards
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2005
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000BCE94A
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,946 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It was music all the way in a style rarely seen on contemporary television.…sophisticated, witty, ingenious. – Los Angeles Times. In an hour musical show devoted to the works of this tremendously creative talent, famed American songwriter-performer Bobby Troup sings his own hit compositions, Route 66, Daddy, Girl Talk and many more. Three of the greatest names in American music, June Christy, Johnny Mercer, and Stan Kenton, join Bobby to round out the billing of top "name" guests, as his songs are sung and his story is told.

Includes Route 66, It Happened Once Before, Baby Bear All The Time, The Three Bears, Meaning of The Blues, Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast, I'm Such A Hungry Man, Free and Easy/Walking Shoes/Meaning of Jazz, Girl Talk, Pomegranate Tree, Daddy (with June Christy), Lonely Girl (with June Christy), Jack n Jill, Their Hearts Were Full of Spring, Lonely Afternoon, Lemon Twist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool And Swinging, With Great Songs, A Great Performer, Adequate DVD Picture, November 2, 2005

By	C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Nice girls don't stay for breakfast
And you're a nice girl, as sweet as a lamb.
If you're impressed with these words I've professed, may I make one small request,
Pass the jam, pass the jam..."

Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast is one of 15 songs written by Bobby Troup on this DVD. Troup is one of the great and now largely unknown jazz composers from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties. In most cases he wrote the words and music. He also was a first rate jazz pianist and a distinctive singer. This performance DVD was taken from a television program designed to showcase and honor Troup's talent. Johnny Mercer shows up to introduce us to Troup and Stan Kenton tells us about Troup's impact as a song writer. That great jazz stylist June Christy sings three of his works. Troup sings the rest. He's accompanied by bass, drums and guitar. He does the piano.

Troup's work is characterized by a cool, hip, even light sophistication. Early on, I think he had as a singer more mannerisms than he needed, but this worked its way out. He always was a singer with a distinctive style. Although his songs were grabbed up by artists such as Nat Cole, Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, Crosby and other A liners, Troup was probably the best interpreter of his own stuff.

Troup was a big, handsome guy, a captain in the marines during WWII, who wrote his first hit, Daddy, while he was in college. He headed for Los Angeles after he was discharged, and wrote Route 66 in 1946 while he was driving there. Troup never had big success as a performer, but he built a first-rate reputation as a distinctive, sophisticated jazz songwriter and an effective behind-the-scenes specialist. He was married to Julie London for over 40 years and was the architect of her great success as a singer.

Troup died in 1999 when he was 80. He stopped writing in the Seventies when, he said once, there just wasn't an audience anymore for the kind of songs he preferred to write. It may sound a bit snobbish, but his songs require you to listen to them. They're literate and they swing. They can even be delicate. The humor is often indirect. On this DVD you'll hear some of his best, from sad and reflective (It Happened Once Before, Baby Baby All the Time, The Meaning of the Blues, Lonely Girl, Their Hearts Were Full of Spring) to eccentric and funny (The Three Bears, I'm Such a Hungry Man, Jack 'N Jill) to cool and swinging (Route 66, Girl Talk, Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast, Daddy and one of the best, and largely unknown, jazz songs around, Lemon Twist). It closes the DVD.

"Here's a word to the wise the top dieticians in town insist,
The best source of vitamin C that can be found is a lemon twist.
Even the skeptic replies that here's a suggestion you can't resist,
A cool drink with ice is improved with some slices of lemon twist..."

The audio on the DVD is okay by my ears, but the picture lacks quite a bit. It's very soft with some red and orange bleeding. Still, it's watchable if you're not a perfectionist, and it's probably the only chance on DVD to see this outstanding and now hazily remembered great jazz writer and performer.