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Jackie Gleason: Music
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Not only was he one of the finest comedians America has ever produced, Jackie Gleason applied his prodigious talents to music as well. With a strong jazz roots background (leaning to mesmerized idolatry when dealing with good trumpet players), Gleason developed a chart-topping series of mood music albums in the '50s, citing his reason for their existence: "Every time I ever watched Clark Gable do a love scene in the movies, I'd hear this really pretty music, real romantic, come up behind him and help set the mood. So I'm figuring that if Clark Gable needs that kinda help, then a guy in Canarsie has gotta be dyin' for somethin' like this!"
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Hard to Find Jackie Gleason DVDs/VHSs - The Movie Collector's Web site. Many titles not found elsewhere. Classics of the 30s, 40s, 50s, foreign, musicals, silents, TV shows, B movies, westerns, serials, comedies, dramas and more.
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Throughout the 1950s and early '60s, Gleason enjoyed a secondary career in recorded music, lending his name to a series of best-selling "mood music" albums for the Capitol Records label. Although Gleason could not read or write music in a conventional sense, he was able to compose melodies "in his head" and transpose them with the help of an able staff. There has been some minor controversy over the years as to how much credit Gleason should have received for the finished product.
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From loud buffoonery to touching pantomime, Jackie has turned from a limited two weeks to music he loves, love melodies that are tender and appealing. Music, indeed, for lovers only, which his orchestra already has recorded on two long-playing sides for Capital Records.
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Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Gleason enjoyed a secondary music career, lending his name to a series of best-selling "mood music" albums with jazz overtones for Capitol Records. Gleason felt there was a ready market for romantic instrumentals. He recalled seeing Clark Gable play love scenes in movies, and the romance was, in his words, "magnified a thousand percent" by background music. Gleason reasoned, "If Gable needs music, a guy in Brooklyn must be desperate!"
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It's said that Gleason's childhood deprivation led him to have a panic appetite for food, alcohol and attention. According to his friend and biographer James Bacon, Gleason known for his heavy drinking did not consider himself an alcoholic. Gleason himself always maintained that he never drank on show day. In addition to acting, Gleason, who was close friends with both Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, conducted some popular albums in the 1950s which were at the time called "mood music". These were actually mellow, jazzy big band arrangements. The CDs of these albums are still available today.
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