Frank Loesser

Exactly.

And also, in a certain way, it's the most self-evident thing about the show, but nonetheless sublime, is how perfectly tuned Frank Lester's music is to every dramatic moment.

So that Luck Be a Lady, right? Compare it to Guys and Dolls, which is one of my favorite numbers, but Guys and Dolls is essentially a rollicking, ragtime-y kind of number.

And Luck Be a Lady is a sharp, minor key roll.

So our first was, of course, uh, Jerome Kern.

Then we did Frank Loesser last year.

And so we thought, "Who do we wanna do next?" And-

And how did you land on Cole Porter?

Yeah.

I would, I would say yes.

W- uh, not just on this one, but even, even the Frank Loesser ones.

I think, well, in my experience, if I'm learning a song or if I'm wanting to listen to a Cole Porter song, I'm instinctively gonna listen to Ella Fitzgerald's version or Frank Sinatra's version.

Okay? But Gregory, our producer, was stubborn, because he wanted just the right house for this show.

Then Anthony left, then Gregory left, then Frank Loesser would produce it with Jose Quintero directing it.

You know, the great director of Eugene O'Neill's works.

Then Ward Baker, who did The Fantasticks, directing it.

And we started out with Sobbing Blues from the, uh, middle 1920s, and, uh, Muggsy had recorded that before with at least one group.

Then the Darktown Strutters' Ball, Whistling the Blues, and then that somewhat contemporary pop number by Frank Loesser and Burton Lane, The Lady's in Love With You.

And, uh, those were all examples of what you could have heard, presumably, at Nick's, uh, club in Greenwich Village, or any of the other clubs that featured regular Dixieland, whether it was Eddie Condon's or Jimmy Ryan's or any of those, um, we would call it traditional jazz, but Dixieland or Chicago-style jazz clubs.

Uh, many of these groups were immortalized by Commodore Records, and then a little later on, Decca and Blue Note and so forth.

Yes.

Right? And it was a review of Frank Loesser music, and the, um, it was a, it was a, a c- it was a huge cast, but there was one person in that cast that I was mesmerized by, and I, it's the first time I've ever felt fandom, going, "Who is this woman, and h- what is it that she's doing that is, that I can't put my finger on that is magical?" I went back and saw that show five times just for this woman.

Wow.

And that woman was Debbie Shapiro, and she sang the hell out of everything she did, and but it was more than that, and I couldn't put my finger on it, and it took me years.

This was recorded at Bennett House Studios in Franklin, Tennessee.

In addition to the songs written or co-written by Buffett, two with Steve Goodman and two with Michael Utley, the album includes the John Scott Sherrill-penned Steamer and Frank Losser's 1940 Standard on a Slow Boat to China.

Somewhere Over China reached number 31 on the Billboard 200 album charts.

The song It's Midnight and I'm Not Famous Yet hit number 32 on the then-new Billboard Rock Tracks chart.

Thank you.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, Margaret Whiting and the Sportsman Quartet present their version of Frank Lester's new song hit, Baby, It's Cold Outside.

I really can't

stay.