Oh Brother!

The cuts I’m featuring today were recently gifted to me by Mr Fab, who until 2018 edited the mighty Music For Maniacs blog before establishing Sheena’s Jungle Room, the internet-based radio station (part of WFMU) that I broadcast on weekly (or is that weakly?)

 

They come from the sole release from a couple styling themselves Sir Anthony Lanza Cocozza and the Countess Elaine Lanza Cocozza, the unwieldy titled This Album is a Tribute In Memory to the Great Mario Lanza, although I believe that on the disc’s labels the album has the more sensible title A Tribute To My Brother Mario Lanza. Cocozza was Mario Lanza’s family name: he adopted his mother’s maiden name, Lanza, when he was on the path to stardom.

 

Self-styled poet Anthony Lanza Cocozza claims to have been Mario’s half-brother. He was not, unless of course he was born as the result of Mario’s dad having an illicit affair, as Mario’s parents only had one child, although he does appear to have been related in some way: there are (or were) a lot of Cocozzas in the States, and I really do not have the time to check every family tree. It is, of course, perfectly possible that he was brought up believing he was related to the great singer, having been told a tall tale by one of his parents. That’s something we can only speculate about.

 

Our boy seems to have styled himself ‘sir’, believing that he had the right to do so, having married a countess. He didn’t, and anyway, the British honours system does not work like that: marrying someone with a title does not automatically entitle you to share in your spouse’s good fortune.  

 

Apart from that, of course, his wife was not a countess. Elaine Hardenstein styled herself Countess Elaine Lanza Cocozza, and claimed that she was related to British Royalty, possibly even the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She wasn’t. I’ve followed her family tree back to before Victoria’s birth, and her family on both sides are either American of Greek. I suppose that leaves the slight possibility that she was somehow related to the late Prince Philip, whose mother was one of Queen Victoria’s many grandchildren.

 

Elaine also claimed that she had a successful career as a singer prior to her marriage, but I can find little evidence to support that. She did audition to become the singing ringmaster for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1981, and excitedly told the judges that, ‘I’m mad about circuses. I used to ride bareback through the streets in parades as a little girl.’ Hardly an act befitting for the granddaughter of a British monarch, although at that same audition she also claimed that she had ‘sung in movies and nightclubs and with Mario Lanza.’ At her behest, Anthony auditioned that day too, singing a song of his own composition, although later muttering ‘I wish I would have sung “Jamaica Far Away”.’

 

Ah, now there’s a tale. On their album, the pair duet on the classic Jamaica Farewell, however for some reason the cover lists the song as Jamaica Far Away. The album was not released until 1985, (on the custom pressing subsidiary of Hip-Hop specialist Macola) although some have speculated that it was recorded years earlier, and that theory may have some weight. Given that we have proof that Anthony Cocozza had been mistitling the song for at least five years prior to its release, it’s a distinct possibility.

 

Three years after the release of This Album is a Tribute In Memory to the Great Mario Lanza, Anthony Lanza Cocozza was claiming to have been running his own opera company in southern California. God knows what his fellow singers and potential pupils must have thought of this cacophony.

 

Anyway, make your own mind up. Here, from the stunningly inept This Album is a Tribute In Memory to the Great Mario Lanza, are a couple of corkers, Jamaica Far Away and Yellow Bird. Enjoy!

Download Jamaica HERE

Download Yellow HERE