"Lulu's Back in Town" is a popular song and jazz standard written in 1935 by Al Dubin (words) and Harry Warren (music). [1]
"Lulu's Back in Town" was performed in the 1935 film Broadway Gondolier , directed by Lloyd Bacon, where it was sung by Dick Powell and The Mills Brothers. The arrangement was by George Roumanis. [2] It was also used as the title song of the Warner Brothers animated short Buddy the Gee Man.
The chorus runs
One line has a reference to Cole Porter:
This refers to the macabre Porter song "Miss Otis Regrets".
"Lulu's Back in Town" was popularized by Fats Waller in his recording of 8 May 1935 for Victor Records which made the US charts. Others who recorded it include Dick Powell, Mel Tormé, Mills Brothers, Wingy Manone, Chick Bullock, Bob Howard, Teddy Hill, Bert Ambrose, Ted Fiorito, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and Leon Redbone.
In the 1969–70 premiere season of Sesame Street , the song was performed by a pair of Muppets: "Lulu" was an aggressive monster with red-ribboned black hair, and the lead singer was a mild-mannered mustached man in a tuxedo who was simultaneously fascinated and frightened by Lulu. [4]
Redd Foxx and Timmie Rogers performed the song on Sanford and Son in the episode, "Brother, Can You Spare an Act?".
Rachel York, as the character of Circe, sang a cover of "Lulu's Back In Town" in the fifth episode of Justice League Unlimited.
The 2008 film Be Kind Rewind uses the version done by Booker T. and the M.G.'s.
Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the children's television show Sesame Street. An eight-foot-two-inch-tall (249 cm) bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as a single word. He would refer to grocer Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper", among other mispronunciations. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and right next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can. In Season 46, the nest sits within a small, furnished maple tree, and is no longer hidden by used construction doors. He has a teddy bear named Radar.
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality. Her career has spanned six decades. Her debut single, a cover version of The Isley Brothers song "Shout", reached the top ten of the UK Singles Charts in 1964. In 1967 she rose to international prominence after appearing in the film To Sir, with Love singing the theme song, which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks.
Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is a Sesame Street Christmas special first broadcast on PBS on Sunday, December 3, 1978.
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Stephanie Ann D'Abruzzo is an American actress, puppeteer and singer. She has performed various Muppets in the TV program Sesame Street. She held starring roles on Oobi and The Book of Pooh. She was one of the original cast members of the stage musical Avenue Q, receiving a nomination for the 2004 Best Actress in a Musical.
"On the Street Where You Live" is a song with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner from the 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady. It is sung in the musical by the character Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who was portrayed by John Michael King in the original production. In the 1964 film version, it was sung by Bill Shirley, dubbing for actor Jeremy Brett.
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"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave, which consisted of Samuel "Sam" Moore and David "Dave" Prater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress. It was No. 463 in "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" by Rolling Stone in 2010 and No. 458 in 2004.
"Miss Otis Regrets" is a song about the lynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover. It was composed by Cole Porter in 1934, and first performed by Douglas Byng in Hi Diddle Diddle, a revue that opened on October 3, 1934, at London's Savoy Theatre.
"The Gold Diggers' Song " is a song from the 1933 Warner Bros. film Gold Diggers of 1933, sung in the opening sequence by Ginger Rogers and chorus. The entire song is never performed in the 1933 movie, though it introduces the film in the opening scene. Later in the movie, the tune is heard off stage in rehearsal as the director continues a discussion on camera about other matters.
"You Gotta Be a Football Hero" is a song written by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis in 1933. It is one of the most widely recorded and performed American football anthems of all time.
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Clarence Muse was an American actor, screenwriter, director, singer, and composer. He was the first African American to appear in a starring role in a film, 1929's Hearts in Dixie. He acted for 50 years, and appeared in more than 150 films. He was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973.
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