Ho! Ho! Ho! Here’s another trio of terrible tinselly
tragedies for you, in the shape of the late actor Dan Blocker, former Iron
Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno and our old friend ‘little’ Marcy Tigner.
Dan Blocker is best remembered for his portrayal of the
lovable Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright on the TV series Bonanza, which ran from 1959 to 1973, but was axed shortly
after Dan died aged 43 of a pulmonary embolism following gall bladder surgery. Dan,
who had appeared in a number of western shows – including Gunsmoke,
Colt .45, The Restless Gun, Sheriff of Cochise, Cheyenne, The Rifleman, Cimarron
City, Zorro, Wagon Train and Jefferson
Drum before putting down roots at the
Ponderosa Ranch released his version of Deck the Halls on the
1963 album Christmas on the Ponderosa. Featuring
all four men in the Cartwright family, this cute little timepiece has since
been reissued on CD.
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a decent fright, and
nothing in the world of bad records is quite as frightening as the original
devil doll Little Marcy, here performing her unique version of the Rosemary
Clooney classic Suzy Snowflake from one of the earliest Little Marcy albums Christmas With Marcy.
Finally, Paul Di’Anno’s soulless rendering of the Bing
Crosby classic White Christmas comes
from the dreadful (and dreadfully misnamed: ‘featuring Denny Laine from Wings’)
1994 album Metal Christmas. I know we kind of ‘did’ heavy metal
Christmas last year, but I couldn’t let the season pass without offing this
turd up.
Enjoy!
12/19/15
ReplyDeleteRobGems.ca Wrote:
It's funny, but perhaps I'm in the small minority about Little Marcy. I never thought she was creepy, but I always thought she was adorable. A creepy doll to me, of course, would be "Chuckie", but then again, that doll was meant to be disturbing enough for horror movies. Today's audience who never seen or heard of Little Marcy, of course would be referring to another Little Marcy: that of "Adventure Time's" Marcelina The Vampire as a small child who befriended Simon before he became known as the dreadful alter-ego Ice King.As for Dan Blocker, I'm trying to find his 1960 album for Lee Hazelwood and Al Casey's record label Trey Records titled "Tales For Young-Un's" Dan was cutesy-poo for the kiddies on that album, and it's considered quite the collector's item here in the U.S. It's also considered a legendary camp favorite for the "Bonanza" crowd. Do you have a copy, Daryl?
Hi Rob,
DeleteNo, I wasn't aware of the Dan Blocker album - although I've now found one of the tracks on YouTube. I do think that in her original incarnation (pictured above) Marcy wasn't too bad, but the second version - especially when 'big' Marcy and 'little' Marcy wore the same outfits - creeps me out!
Happy Holidays, Darryl and Rob!
DeleteRob, I have an mp3 copy of Tales For Young-uns. Contact me through Darryl or the other site.
Darryl, I'm sending you an email.