As a follow-up to Monday’s post about Calamity Jane, I’ve arbitrarily declared today Doris Day Day. To celebrate, three songs:
First, a song by Ms. Day herself, and also from the Calamity Jane soundtrack, “Secret Love”:
“Secret Love” won the 1953 Oscar for “Best Original Song,” and hit #1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts. More importantly to me, Stephin Merritt has said that it made him fall in love. And taken out of context, it’s one of those good ol’ songs that’s very easily read as queer, back before songs became both more transparent and more tactless. For an extra jolt of homo, check out k.d. lang’s absolutely gorgeous version of “Secret Love.”
Speaking of Mr. Merritt, here’s a song not by Doris Day, but rather tangentially about her, “Doris Daytheearthstoodstill,” performed by the Future Bible Heroes. It’s a sci-fi treat about tentacled aliens catching our network TV transmissions: “Doris Daytheearthstoodstill, the hippest chick on Thurth /Let’s live always in the dream they beam from planet Earth.”
Future Bible Heroes – “Doris Daytheearthstoodstill”
And finally, another Day-inspired track, this one from Super Furry Animals. As overstated and dramatic as the FBH track is understated, “Shoot Doris Day” relies on an allusion to Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much in the opening lines:
Shoot Doris Day
Out of the way
In the pouring rain
Sentimentality pause
As Jimmy Stewart ignores
Her question
to craft a metaphor about emotional communication in the chorus:
People never stay the same
It’s a fight between the wild and tame
I’ve some feelings that I can’t get through
Even to you my friend
Super Furry Animals – Shoot Doris Day
Tags: calamity jane, doris day, future bible heroes, musicals, stephin merritt, super furry animals
