Sunny Skylar

[Mr Maltby]

Ladies and Gentlemen -

Heres a test of your vintage music knowledge! A challenge! Im looking for music by one Sunny Skylar. If you look him up, youll find a ton of songs he composed, but im looking for actual audio recordings by the man himself. I have a set of 78's by him. The album is called Nursery Rhymes, but NOT FOR CHILDREN. Risque old tunes along the lines of Ruth Wallis. The cover is great, it features a wolf(literally) eyeing a pinup putting on her stockings. im guessing mid fourties perhaps. Anyway, im looking for more of his stuff that features these kinds of tunes. Also, does anyone know any other Artists like this from back then? funny, pushes the envelope, good music, but doesnt have to curse to get labeled risque. So i guess its two questions. can anyone find this man, and does anyone know anything like it, and not spike jones, or his city slickers Thank you, fellow loungers. you have yet to let me down with your superior knowledge.

 

[Mr Maltby]

*sigh* anybody?

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

*sigh* anybody?

Never liked the genre except for a few by one guy - ebay search string "(larry vincent,pearl trio)" (from within "records") - a Cary Grant impersonator in voice and timing (most just dumb, but a few hilarious without being overly crude, look for "I Used To Work In Chicago", you can almost hear Katherine Hepburn giggling & smacking him at the end of each verse)

 

[drafttek]

After a Quick search

Hi Mr. Maltby,
I found two listings for 45's on this site. Click on "S artists" then scroll down to page 44. Hope this might be what you're looking for.
http://www.recordfinders.com/45cata.html

 

[Mr Maltby]

see what im saying? you guys are THE best. Any further suggestions/ideas are of course still appreciated.

 

[Mr Maltby]

oh! i just remembered! I used to work in chicago....in a department store, i used to work in chicago, ill never work there any more! thats a funny one. I believe I know spike jones doing that one. Any possibility were diggin on the same tune? Cheers, Kevin

 

[Guiduce]

Sunny Skylar is alive and well at 93. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Jackie. I met Sunny 35 years ago when we were neighbors there and we have been good friends since. I have a cassette tape of 4 recordings he made with Vincet Lopez and one he made with a recording studio band ( Don't Wait To Long- which we both agree is the best thing he has done).
He's never mentioned the album you refer to - I'll call him later and ask him about it.
He is indeed a prolific songwriter and was nominated many times to the songwriters hall of fame, but alas, because of disparaging remarks by another well known writer (I won't say who) was never awarded that signature award. But he really doesn't need it because Besame Mucho alone has been recorded by more artists and played more often than everything that was done by his vicious critic.
Let me know if there is anything you need to know.

Guido

 

[Mr Maltby]

WOW.

this is some of the most incredible information ive recieved in quite some time!! There is virtually no information to be found on this man on the internet. Please share any stories or information that you would be willing to. Im chomping at the bit to know what you know. Cheers.

 

[Fletch]

I believe he was known as Sonny Schuyler early in his career, and sang with the George Hall band over CBS and on Bluebird records.

He had something of a hit in 1938 with "Laughing Boy Blues", which Woody Herman made for Decca with Sonny doing the laughing. Another one he did was "Fifteen Minute Intermission" for Cab Calloway in '41.

 

[Guiduce]

Ok, I just spoke with Sunny. He only vaguely recalls the album Nursery Rhymes (his memory isn‚Äôt what it used to be- whose is?), and he was surprised to hear that the record was risqu?©. Anyway‚Ķa short bio: Sunny‚Äôs real name is Selig Shaftel. He changed it to Sunny Skylar at Vincent Lopez‚Äôs suggestion. Lopez was a confirmed metaphysician and really into numerology. ( I have a book or two of his, available at Amazon.) He told Sunny if he wanted to make it big in music he needed to change his name as the numerical values in his given name didn‚Äôt vibe for success. He suggested Sunny, because it suited his disposition. Skylar is his mother‚Äôs maiden name. Guess he was right , huh?
Incidentally, Vincent Lopez himself is a remarkable entity. According to a life reading given by Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, Lopez was Leonardo Da Vinci in another life. Heavy, man, heavy.
Sunny was born in Brooklyn, NY. He has five kids, including twins, He is also a twin or was; his sister died about ten years ago. He knew just about everybody in the big band era and can tell you quite a bit about them. The New York times ran a feature article in their Sunday supplement sometime in the forties comparing him with Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. Very impressive.
You can listen to any radio station that plays the oldies and I’ll bet you anything that you’ll hear at least one of his songs within an hour or two. Your Breaking My Heart - Vic Damone’s, his theme song- gets a lot of play. How that came about is also an interesting tale. Maybe later.
I made a DVD recently of video footage ( very primitive) that Sunny and I made years ago horsing around playing a ukulele. I’ll be happy to send a copy to anyone who would care to have one.

 

[Mr Maltby]

Eh...I will milk this for all youll allow me to. Yes, id love to get a copy of the dvd. Please, tell me more about his past, and if youre willing, about the vic damone story.

The album that were talking about though has this wolf on the cover, drooling over a girl putting on her stockings. And all the songs are naughty romps that have very suggestive themes. Its awesome. I love it.

I will remain your audience member until it bores you,

Kevin

 

[Guiduce]

Talk about synchronicity. Vic Damone just came on this oldie station I’m listening to. Ok, Vic Damone: Vic Damone, nee, Vito Farinola, is another Brooklynite from my old neighborhood. Oddly, I never knew him there although his sister, Theresa and I were in the same class all through grade school. He performed at church ( St. Finbar) socials and became a local celebrity when he was eighteen or so and his recording “I Have But One Heart”, an old Italian song updated with English lyrics, became a huge hit. On the strength of that, Sunny’s publisher asked him to come up with a lyric for another old Italian song, Mattinata, that they thought Sinatra might do. (Sinatra also made a recording of…One heart.) They asked Sunny to do something along the lines of a broken heart or such. It only took a few hours for him to come up with the lyrics for “You’re Breaking My Heart.” Sinatra rejected it when he heard it, but as fate would have it, Damone’s manager was present and told Sunny he would give the record a lot of play as he owned juke boxes all over the country if he would let Damone record it. Sunny says the guy was “connected” but who knows, that may be apocryphal. (Makes a helluvia story though). The song was 26 weeks on the charts reaching # 1. Buddy Clark’s record also made it to the charts, but only to 10th position. It was also recorded by Dean Martin.
There isn’t too much more I can add to Sunny’s bio. I think the last band he sang with was one of Paul Whiteman’s (Whiteman actually franchised his band, can you believe it?) When the big band era ended he went solo with and act that included parodying his own songs (You’re breaking my heart cause you’re leaving/ and you’re taking the furniture too.) He played Vegas, appearing at the Dunes when it was owned by the mob (a tale therein, but we’ll skip it.) Real big in New Orleans. Reached his epitome when he opened an act ( can’t recall whose) at the Stork Club in NYC for big bucks.
Sunny has a genius for turning clich?©s into winning songs, ie, ‚Äú Gotta Be This or That‚Äù (big hit for Benny Goodman), ‚ÄúIt Must Be Jelly Cause Jam Don‚Äôt Shake That Way‚Äù, ‚ÄúWaiting For The Train To Come In‚Äù (Peggy Lee), ‚ÄúJust a Little Bit South of North Carolina‚Äú, to name a few. He has over 300 songs published according to ASCAP and still does well with the royalties, with Besame Mucho as the flagship. Even the Beatles recorded it!
When he quit the business he took up painting for a creative outlet and became pretty good at it, good enough to go commercial if he wanted to, ala Tony Bennett.
Let me know where I can send the dvd.

 

[Mr Maltby]

Please send to po box 360, santa ynez, ca, 93460. You are amazing. Thank you. All I can say is thank you!!!!

 

[Fletch]

Vincent Lopez himself is a remarkable entity. According to a life reading given by Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, Lopez was Leonardo Da Vinci in another life. Heavy, man, heavy.

Aaa, that ain't nothing. Everybody was someone heavy in another life. What's the point of being reincarnated if you were some meathead unloading boxcars somewhere, or a creepy guy in an attic who collected things?

That said, Lopez always had a good band. I heard he used to drop beats when conducting – couldn't tell he'd missed anything but he knew the band wasn't following HIM. So they learned to slip in a measure or two of 3/4 in every fox trot. Can't tell by the recordings, though.

 

[Guiduce]

Yeah, bad timing was and is pretty prevalent with quite a few musicians… and vocalists too. I have a friend who used to play sax with the old Charlie Barnet band. He said Charlie used to drive the band nuts trying to keep up with him. Even Eddie Fisher ( you remember him? He’s the vocalist that went to palookaville after the Elizabeth Taylor debacle) had a problem with timing. I read somewhere he had to have someone lip sync for him while recording so he could stay in the same measure with the band.
Maybe the whole point of reincarnation is so you don’t have to be a meathead all the time.
Me personally? I used to believe in reincarnation; but that was in another life.

 

[Guiduce]

Mr. Maltby - dvd in the mail.