EDDIE FISHER – ‘Outside Of Heaven’
Not that sounding ‘modern’ is always great. Eddie Fisher’s tear-clogged crooning style is thoroughly, slickly pre-modern and all the more mysterious for it. Enveloped by trilling strings and cooing singers, he sounds as fallen and un-manned as the song suggests: ‘On your wedding day I stood in the crowd / I could hardly keep from crying out loud’. The finality of her marriage is the clang as the pearly gates shut on poor, hopeless Eddie. Musically we’re back in Al Martino territory ‘ crash, bang, orchestra, wallop ‘ but there’s a little less bludgeon and a tremulous piano break to give the song some colour and subtlety. It’s a good song but it doesn’t bear too many listenings ‘ Fisher’s mannerisms and the arrangement just emphasise what a gulf there is between then and me; the codes he’s singing in cannot be entirely broken.
5
No, Tom, you were NOT too cruel to Eddie. No one can be too cruel to Eddie–not even Liz.
To the best of my recollection, Eddie was a little dweeb, and songs like this made the fifties the slough of mediocrity it truly was, at least most of the time.
Eddie Fisher was the most popular singer in America, if not the world, from 1950 through 1956, had a twice-a-week very popular television show called Coke Time, and a Saturday night hour-long show called the Chesterfield Show. He was the selling recording star for RCA, and had 22 hits in a row. He performed for presidents, the Queen of England and the Kremlin to name a few. He had 65,000 fan clubs in the U.S. and more throughout the world. He was a very talented and loved performer in his day. He was also loved by many of the most beautiful woman in the world. They certainly did not think he was a dweeb. Hollywood marriages come and go, as his did, but you have to be pretty handsome and charming for 3 of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood to fall for you. End of story.
Correction on above comments: Second sentence should read “He was the top selling recording star for RCA”, etc.
THREE beautiful women, Dr Mod. THREE. Not one. Not two. THREE.
Hah? HAH?
How… how DARE you. That’s all I’m saying. End of story. Finito. We’re done here. It’s a wrap, people. Over and out.
Also HE SANG FOR THE KREMLIN!
Oh dear – come back Al Martino – all is forgiven. Well not quite. I love the fact that he starred in a show called ‘Coke Time’ & availed himself of beautiful women – his behaviour seemingly more modern than his fairly irritating vocal styling. The rest of the recording doesn’t really amount to much either with a very heavy handed piano break and some unnecessarily intrusive backing vocals.
Light Entertainment Watch;
At least two appearances for Eddie, both now missing;
SPOTLIGHT: with Eddie Fisher, Connie Stevens, Roy Castle, Silvan, The Lionel Blair Dancers, Jack Parnell and his Orchestra (1968)
SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM (VAL PARNELL’S …..): with Bruce Forsyth, Eddie Fisher (1957)
Covered in a Stax Revue style by Herbie Goins & The Nightimers (spun on Sounds Of The Sixties this morning), which makes the song sound more “modern” if not Eddie’s dweebish delivery.
THREE beautiful women? The public weren’t as delighted as Eddie probably was with his pulling power. When he walked out on apple pie Debbie Reynolds for saucepot Liz Taylor his star dimmed very quickly.
Eddie Fisher has just died aged 82. The third beautiful woman (and wife) referred to above (in addition to Liz Taylor and Debbie Reynolds) was Connie Stevens. Debbie Reynold’s hit “Tammie” was nr 1 for 5 weeks in USA and just missed Popular with nr 2 in UK in 1957. Are there any sometime married couples who have topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with separate individual recordings?
Connie also made recordings although I don’t think she had any chart success in the UK. As far as I know, all three ex-wives are still around, although Liz has had a lot of illness over the years.
Connie’s Sixteen Reasons was a no.9 hit here in 1960. Her best singles were Lost In Wonderland, a blissfully naive Girl Group 45, and Goffin/King’s They’re Jealous Of Me which sits alongside their bitch-pop classics Keep Your Hands Off My Baby (Little Eva) and Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys (The Cookies). And there was the outrageously camp duet with Edd Byrnes, Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) which is more Greasey than Grease.
RIP Eddie. No longer outside of heaven.
I should add for completeness that Eddie had a further two wives (one pre-deceased him) about whom not much seems to be written in the obituaries that I’ve looked at. The daughter of Eddie and Debbie was Carrie Fisher who was Princess Leia of Star Wars fame.
… and Mrs Paul Simon for a while. Paul hasn’t troubled the number ones as a performer (he didn’t perform on Bridge Over Troubled Water of course, although he gets a credit) but his song Hearts and Bones, written for Carrie (as half a Wandering Jew) would grace any chart.
Well, these pre-rock crooners either melt you, or leave you completely cold. For me, Eddie’s smooth voice does the former. Singers like him and his ilk aren’t so very far removed from the X Factor stars of today, marketed for their looks and vocal talents combined.
DESERT ISLAND DISCS WATCH(Up to 11/04/11)
Tessie O’Shea (Actress)1952.