Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Jack Remembers for 7-15-09

by Jack Hackley
Somebody please help and tell me what I have missed out on. I try to watch the evening national news. I prefer Brian Williams on NBC. On a Thursday night when I turned on the news, Brian Williams announced there was breaking news that Michael Jackson had died and for virtually the rest of that newscast, it was about Michael Jackson. I flipped the channel to ABC, same news there, and on CBS with Katie Curik. The next night and all weekend, it was the same thing except now they are saying that Michael Jackson was the greatest singer and dancer who ever lived. Whoa! Wait just a minute. These are the same stations that told us he was a child molester.
If I am not mistaken, Bing Crosby sold somewhere between 500 million and 900 million records back when no one had any money to buy them. "White Christmas" alone has sold 100 million and still selling strong. Not only that, Crosby won an Oscar for his role in the movie "Going My Way". Let’s don’t forget Frank Sinatra who had a few hits himself and also won an Oscar for best supporting actor in one of my favorite movies, "From Here to Eternity". Of course, my favorite singer was Hank Williams who I watched at the Ivanhoe Temple sing the number one song on the Hillbilly Hit Parade, "Lovesick Blues".
I also liked Earnest Tubb, Hank Snow, and in my drinking days ran in to Red Foley in a bar in Springfield and had a few drinks. Of course one of the all time greats was Eddie Arnold, who probably had more songs on the charts than anyone else since he recorded for 62 years, never drank, smoked, and remained married to the same woman. The greatest in my lifetime besides Bing Crosby would have been Elvis Presley. Elvis sold a billion records even though he got drafted in the Army and spent two years of his life in the Third Armored Division in Germany. Ironically, that Division’s photographer was Richard Deason, a brother to Beth Fulks, who owns Broadway Grill in Oak Grove, and also helps me prepare my articles. Richard photographed Elvis several times.
Michael who?
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com

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