What turned one of the Little Rascals into a grown up sexy Lounge lizard? It probably had something to do with her marriage. Darla Hood divorced her insurance salesman hubby in 1957, and the ex-child star and most famous female of the "Our Gang" comedies, married record company exec Jose Granson the same year. Which was 1957, the year she recorded her first demi-hit, "I Just Wanna Be Free."
"My Quiet Village" arrived in 1959. Yes, the song was intended to cash in the rage for what we now call "exotica," the music that backpack-wearers now clamber over themselves to acquire, breaking their horn rims and breaking wind, as they hunker over musty cardboard boxes of albums in thrift shops or at nerd-events like the WFMU record fair.
Over at the Illfolks blog, a single track of the Martin Denny and Les Baxter stuff generally is enough for any given month, but if the music strays into the weirder territory of Yma Sumac's self-parody, or darling Darla, then maybe it's worth a second spin. But a third would be pushing it until another full moon has passed.
Darla's birthday is coming up soon (November 8, 1931 - June 13, 1979) which is another reason to post this oddity. So is the sad fact that up until this posting, Darla could not be found via a CaptainCrawl.com search: |
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