Music Monday ~ Bruce Channel, Donizetti, & Josh Krajcik

Well-known musical peeps born today, 28 November, are few and far between. Bruce Channel, is one, born 1940 in Jacksonville, Texas, known for his 1962 one hit, million-seller Hey Baby! He and Margaret Cobb wrote the song.
Interesting tidbit with a connection to The Beatles. From Wiki

Channel toured Europe and was supported at one gig by The Beatles, who were then still unknown. John Lennon, who had "Hey! Baby" on his jukebox, was fascinated by (Delbert) McClinton's harmonica (on the recording). A popular urban legend has it that Lennon was taught to play harmonica by McClinton, but by that time, Lennon had already been playing the instrument live for some time. The harmonica break in "Hey! Baby" inspired Lennon's playing on The Beatles' first single, 1962's "Love Me Do", as well as later Beatles records

Hey Baby! video: see YouTube HERE



Back in the mists of time - 1797 - on 29 November (tomorrow), Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy....I'd best not call him a "one hit wonder", but his opera Lucia de Lammermoor is the only work of his even vaguely familiar to this Philistine.
From bio HERE

Donizetti was a friendly and sincere man, supportive of fellow composers and other artists, and loyal to his long-time mentor Mayr. Unfortunately, he endured great tragedy in his personal life. Donizetti had met his wife Virginia Vasselli while he was in Rome in the 1820's and married her in 1828. They had three children, none of whom survived. His parents died in the mid 1830s. A year after his parents' death, his wife succumbed to a cholera epidemic. Donizetti himself suffered from cerebro-spinal syphilis. Symptoms of his illness became evident as early as 1843; by 1845 his condition deteriorated to the point that he was institutionalized for almost a year and a half. His friend from Vienna, Baron Lannoy, interceded with Donizetti's nephew to have the composer moved to a Paris apartment where he could be cared for and receive visitors. Verdi came to see him there and was deeply saddened by his colleague's condition. Friends in Bergamo finally arranged for Donizetti to be brought back to his home town, where he stayed at Baroness Scotti's palace until his death in 1848.

Such a sad life, punctuated by many tragedies! I don't see much indication of that in his natal chart, at least not using the time of birth stated at Astrotheme (7:30 AM). Possibly they used a sunrise chart, though it's not tagged as such. Astrotheme ususally indicates "time unknown" when that is the case.




There are challenging aspects (90* squares) to his Sun and Moon from Uranus and Saturn respectively, and Pluto in Aquarius is in close harmonious trine to Mars in Libra. So the potential "baddies" among the planets are all significantly linked, one way or another, which could, I guess, be interpreted as an indication of a difficult life pattern.

At YouTube: Maria Callas,Giuseppe di Stefano: from Lucia di Lammermoor. Live 1955 - SEE HERE




Appropos of nothing but the fact that we think this guy should win X-Factor USA, the only video I'll embed today ~~~

Josh Krajcik, now one of 7 remaining contestants and reportedly received more than one third of total votes last week, when he sang the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses. It's about time somebody took this beautiful song, written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, and did it justice. In my opinion nobody has, so far. I don't dislike like Susan Boyle's interpretation, but really it needs a voice like Josh's; female little girly voices just don't fit, and most rock stars tend to ride roughshod over the lyrics. I hope they get Josh into a recording studio pronto. I'd buy any CD of his right now!