When a bee lies sleeping
In the palm of your hand
You're bewitched
And deep in love's long looked after land
That's one of the songs Barbra Streisand used to introduce herself to the country when appearing on The Jack Paar Show (known as The Tonight Show before that and after that) on April 5, 1961. Streisand writes in the liner notes for the boxed set Just for the record . . . of that appearance, "One of those pieces of sheet music was Harold Arlen's 'A Sleepin' Bee' from the Broadway show House of Flowers. I fell in love with his music the first time I heard the score and this became my favorite song" (p. 8). And America fell in love with Streisand. She's a belter with strong shading but she's also a very nuanced, soft singer when the song calls for it ("When the Sun Comes Out," which she also performed on that live appearance, is an example of Streisand as belter).
So that's "A Sleepin' Bee." What, pray tell, is a Singing Bee? It's NBC's latest cheap product they're tossing out at viewers on Tuesdays nights. (They're repeating it on Saturdays currently.) It's a variation of the old game show Name That Tune which aired on NBC's primetime lineup from 1953 until 1959. That game was won by the contestant able to recognize a song in the least amount of notes leading to boasts of "I can name it three," countered with, "I'd like to see you name it three."
The twist here is that contestants are not naming the song, they're singing a portion of it. The house band led by Ray Chew includes singers and they kick the song off. When the music stops, a la musical chairs, the contestant is required to sing. Singing ability determines nothing (other than audience applause), getting the lyric correct leaves you in or out.
The band's not bad (Chew's a session musician whose worked on everything, including Diana Ross' 1983 Ross album) and the vocals are fair enough but is anyone else noticing that the backup singers come forward only on those rare times when the song is one not made famous by a White artist?
Maybe not because in the first episode it only happened once, the song was The Contours' Motown classic "Do You Love Me?" which made it to number three on the pop charts in 1962 (number one on the R&B charts). Only once.
Strangely, the annoying ZZ Top's "Tush" was also in the mix. That 'hit' made it to number 20 in 1975. How did that song even get in the mix? Other rock songs, such as "Sweet Home Alabama," have been in saturation play for decades becoming radio staples. "Tush"? And wasn't it strange that the African-American contestant ended up with both songs?
We actually recommend this program. Not for the singing which is at times painfully bad (it's also entertaining when a contestant knows they are a bad singer and doesn't care or really goes out of the way to go beyond bad). There is suspense to the show. Such as when someone's expected to have been able at one time to decipher exactly what Michael Stipes was singing in an REM song.
What the show does, if you pay attention, is telegraph inclusion and exclusion. These are supposedly "our songs," popular songs from the past (the rock and roll era) up to today. The contestants have been chosen in an inclusive manner. The songs?
Let's just note that Denise Williams' "Silly" may be a soul classic but we don't expect to hear it as in one of the rounds. We, in fact, don't expect to hear any song by Williams with the exception of "Let's Hear It For The Boy." If they were sticking with top ten pop hits that might be one thing. You could argue, for instance, that "pop" stands for "popular" and, therefore, the songs have widespread appeal. But when they include a very minor hit, such as "Tush," in the mix, a message is sent. And when round after round offers mainstream pop, rock, dance and disco but the closest it gets to soul is a Motown hit, it becomes obvious rather quickly that this show which has wide demographics racially isn't really gearing itself for much more than an audience raised on White music.
What you got was "I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt," "Tush," "Bye-Bye-Bye," "Heart of Glass," "Venus," and more. In fact, it appears easier to have your hit included if you made a point to pass for White (we're thinking of one song specifically on the debut episode and noting that the parents were far more upfront than the child about the family's heritage).
So what's intended to be a (cheap) half-hour of game show fun is actually an entrance into the halls of inclusion. Now the top forty has never been as friendly to non-Whites as it has been to Whites. There's no denying that. But even so, it's interesting to see what's being selected for the program. Take "Heart of Glass." The Disco Song (in fact, billed by some as "aka The Disco Song"). It was the seventh number one single to top Billboards pop chart in 1979. 1979 saw 23 different number one hits in all. One is automatically eliminated from use on the program (Herb Albert's "Rise" is an instrumental). That leaves 22 songs. One duet featured two races [Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer's "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)"]. The remaining 21? 12 by White artists, 9 by African-Americans. Counting Summer's duet with Streisand, African-Americans spent 23 weeks topping the pop charts that year. [In order, Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" at 3 weeks, Amii Stewart's "Knock on Wood" for one week, Peaches and Herb's "Reunited" for 4 weeks, Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" for 3 weeks, Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" for two weeks, Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" for 5 weeks, Chic's "Good Times" for one week, Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" for one week, the Commodores' "Still" for one week, and Summer's duet with Streisand for two weeks.] In fact, Donna Summer (solo or with a duet) was perched on top of the charts in 1979 for ten weeks. [Chart wise, that year is historic for the week of June 30th when all five top slots were held down by women: Ward's "Ring My Bell," Summer's "Hot Stuff," Summer's "Bad Girls," Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" and Rickie Lee Jones' "Chuck E's in Love" -- the first time all five top slots were ever held by women.]
So it is interesting to listen to this alleged program devoted to testing popular music knowledge and pick up on the fact that even when artists of color make tremendous strides and cross over, even when they in fact top the mainstream chart, the choice to go with was "Heart of Glass" (a number one for one week only). And we're not picking on Blondie (we wouldn't say anything unkind about Debbie Harry), we're just noting that this can be done with any year. In fact, if you want to focus on 1975, to go with the very minor hit of "Tush," they didn't just have to pass over the obvious (The Staple Singers' "Let's Do It Again," Earth Wind and Fire's "Shining Star," Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You," Ohio Players' "Fire," Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and Labelle's "Lady Marmalade") that hit number one, they had to ignore all the songs that also made it above number 20 [that includes Diana Ross' "Theme from 'Mahogany' (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" which would hit number one in 1976 but was already top five in 1975].
What gets selected (or included) and what doesn't is the most interesting part of the program. Closely followed may be noting who gets selected to try to sing what? For instance, when the African-American contestant is expected to sing along with a song which includes shout outs to segregationist George Wallace ("Where the skies are so blue and the governor is so true"), NBC is presenting, unintentionally, a study of race in America. (The contestant got that song wrong and was eliminated. We're also aware some bend over backwards to interpret "Sweet Home Alabama" in other ways. We've avoided the lyrics they bend over backwards for -- Watergate and Wallace being loved in the capital -- and stuck with the governor being called "so true.") We doubt many of the White contestants would be expected to sing Rick James' "Ebony Eyes" for example.
Unintentional probably best describes the White bread host, Joey Fatone, who coasted to fame as one of the other three in 'N Sync. Yes, the song he sang back up on, "Bye-Bye-Bye," was included in the debut show and, in fact, it was replayed as they went to commercial allowing him to 'bust' some moves and explain to America why he was always dancing in the background, not the foreground. As this century's John Davidson, he may or may not have a career in game shows lined up. He's certainly bland enough to take the journey; however, if the rules for the various rounds aren't explained, the blame goes to the host. Like the contestants, too often he looked lost.
The only ones who seemed sure of foot were those responsible for selecting the songs. They seemed to know just what constituted "popular music." Listening along, like us, you may disagree loudly.