Two Forgotten Friday Favorites: Patti Page

Photo via Wikimedia and Salon.com
Patti Page, who passed away this week, was responsible for what I consider one of the most depressing songs ever recorded, "Tennessee Waltz." It's sung by a woman whose friend seduces her boyfriend while dancing with him, and the two of them run off together. Today, such a song would include the narrator seeking revenge by blowing the both of them away in bed--but this was 1950, and Patti takes it gracefully on the chin. An interesting and random fact about the song is that it was the biggest selling single in Japan by 1974.

I've been hearing all week long that Page's singing was special; that you could hear her bring emotion to a song with her voice. Dubbed "the singing rage", she was one of the few "pop" singers at her time to cross over very successfully into the country music genre, and remained with that category throughout her later years. She had her own show on ABC and made a few movie appearances. After her singing career, she and her third husband ran a maple syrup business in New Hampshire. She was 85.

Today's Two Forgotten Friday Favorites is dedicated to Patti Page. Here is "The Tennessee Waltz", as well as a novelty favorite we all remember as kids, "Doggie in the Window."



2 comments:

  1. My favorite Patti Page song is one titled "And so to sleep again." its beautiful. My Grandfather was a big fan of her's he pried on the fact she came from Oklahoma (where he was from) and that "everything from Oklahoma was better." Rest well.

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  2. My mom loved Patti Page and "Tennessee Waltz" is one of her favorite songs. I guess I never paid attention to the lyrics when I was a kid. Wow, I never knew it was about THAT!

    Btw, Love your blog!

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