No No No

Nooooo!

Once again, the reverie is over, and it's back to the slog.

It's been a wonderful couple of weeks - a lovely holiday in Spain, a "sorting week", and the Eurovision party to end it all [I will post about it soon, honest...] - so I am completely unprepared for all this. Dammit!

Among another slew of famous celebrants, including our Patron Saint of Snarling Grace Jones, the much-missed Victoria Wood, Heaven 17's Martyn Ware, Nellie Melba, Malcolm X, Nancy Astor, Pete Townshend, Kemal Atatürk, Sam Smith, Ho Chi Minh, Edward de Bono, Nancy Kwan, Joey Ramone, Sandy Wilson, Robert Kilroy-Silk, James Fox, and - erm - Pol Pot, it would have been Miss Alma Cogan's birthday today!

On this Tacky Music Monday, only she can save us now...

Alma Cogan - Never Tango With an Eskimo

Have a good week, dear reader. I won't.

I wonder if he's lookin' at the same moon I'm lookin' at, every night I'm lookin' at the moon!

Sharing a birthday with the divine Grace Jones and the much-missed "national treasure" Victoria Wood, as well as the usual bizarre assortment of "names" such as Nellie Melba, Malcolm X, Nancy Astor, Pete Townshend, Kemal Atatürk, Martyn Ware, Trevor Peacock, Nora Ephron, Ho Chi Minh, Edward de Bono, Nancy Kwan, Joey Ramone, Sandy Wilson, Robert Kilroy-Silk, Sam Smith, James Fox, and - erm - Pol Pot...

..."the girl with the giggle in her voice", the lovely Alma Cogan would have been 90 today!

As I wrote when I featured the lovely lady over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp five years ago:

Known for her fabulous gowns as much as her cheery songs - never appearing in the same dress twice - Alma Cogan was also renowned for her lavish parties, guests at which included some of the greatest "names" of her day including Princess Margaret, Noël Coward, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Frankie Vaughan, Bruce Forsyth and many more. She became one of the first UK record artists to appear frequently on television - that fledgling post-War novelty - and, despite being deemed "uncool" by the time the 60s arrived, nevertheless she allegedly had a passionate affair with John Lennon, and was a close friend of all the Beatles.

Her premature death from cancer aged just 34 shocked the nation, and to this day she is revered for the joy she brought to this country in the midst of the "austerity years" and beyond.

And, for your delectation, here's some examples of that "joy":

Alma Cogan - Got'N Idea

Alma Cogan - Fly Me To The Moon / Tell Him

Alma Cogan - Never Tango With an Eskimo

...and our "house fave" here at Dolores Delargo Towers:

Alma Cogan - Bell Bottom Blues

Long gone, but never forgotten!

Alma Angela Cohen Cogan (19th May 1932 – 26th October 1966)