Our lovely Rosa "Veilchenblau" that I took as a cutting - read more here - is starting to put on a splendid show in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers!
There must have been something in the water one hundred and thirty years ago this week - for on consecutive days, two of the finest songwriters of the Great American Songbook were born. Yesterday, it was the incomparable Cole Porter - creator of myriad classics including Begin the Beguine, You're the Top, I Get a Kick Out of You, Easy to Love, I've Got You Under My Skin, Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love), In the Still of the Night, Too Darn Hot... and this one, memorably performed as a love duet between Kevin Kline and sex-god John Barrowman in the Porter biopic De-Lovely:
Today's birthday boy may not be as well remembered, but among Al Dubin's remarkable catalogue are standards such as I Only Have Eyes for You, Keep Young and Beautiful, Lullaby of Broadway, Tiptoe Through The Tulips, We're In the Money, September in the Rain, Lulu's Back in Town... and, from his triumphal musical [with Harry Warren] 42nd Street, this classic by Miss Bebe Daniels and her safety gays:
Fantabulosa!