"Moonlight Gambler" | ||||
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Single by Frankie Laine | ||||
B-side | "Lotus Land" | |||
Released | October 29, 1956 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 2:50 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Hilliard, Phil Springer | |||
Producer(s) | Mitch Miller | |||
Frankie Laine singles chronology | ||||
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"Moonlight Gambler" is a song written by Bob Hilliard and Phil Springer and performed by Frankie Laine featuring Ray Conniff and His Orchestra. It reached #3 on the U.S. pop chart and #13 on the UK Singles chart in 1957. [1]
The single ranked #32 on Billboard's Year-End top 50 singles of 1957. [2]
The song begins with a spoken recitation by Laine saying:
"You can gamble for matchsticks,/ You can gamble for Gold,/ The stakes may be heavy or small,/ But, if you haven't gambled for love and lost,/ Then you haven't gambled at all"/ Which is repeated when sung in the Bridge section of the song. Laine's version also features a whistler and a clip clopping sound.
Frankie Laine was an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as "America's Number One Song Stylist", his other nicknames include "Mr. Rhythm", "Old Leather Lungs", and "Mr. Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Mule Train", "Jezebel", "High Noon", "Save Your Sorrow", "I Believe", "Hey Joe!", "The Kid's Last Fight", "Cool Water", "Rawhide", and "Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain".
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
Una Winifred Atwell was a Trinidadian pianist who enjoyed great popularity in Britain and Australia from the 1950s with a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits, selling over 20 million records. She was the first black person to have a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart and is still the only female instrumentalist to do so.
Silk is an American R&B group, formed in 1989 in Atlanta, Georgia. They are best known for their 1993 hit single, "Freak Me", which reached number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Frankie Vaughan was an English singer and actor who recorded more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after one of his early hits.
"I Believe" is a popular song written by Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman in 1953.
"Jezebel" is a 1951 popular song written by American songwriter Wayne Shanklin. It was recorded by Frankie Laine with the Norman Luboff Choir and Mitch Miller and his orchestra on April 4, 1951 and released by Columbia Records as catalog number 39367. The record reached #2 on the Billboard chart and was a million seller. The B-side, "Rose, Rose, I Love You", was a hit too and reached #3.
"Rose, Rose, I Love You" is a 1940 Mandarin popular song composed by Chen Gexin and first recorded by Yao Lee. An English-language version whose lyrics have little in common with the original Mandarin was first recorded by Frankie Laine in 1951. The song was brought back to England by broadcaster Wilfrid Thomas in 1951 after doing commentary on the war in Malaya. When he played it on his BBC program he received a barrage of requests for a repeat and he played it again in several more programs. The song is also known under the titles "Shanghai Rose" and "China Rose."
"My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. Written for the film version of the musical comedy Whoopee! (1930), the song became a signature tune for Eddie Cantor who sang it in the movie. A stylized version of the song by Nina Simone, recorded in 1957, was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom after it was used in a 1987 perfume commercial and resulted in a renaissance for Simone.
"That's My Desire" is a 1931 popular song with music by Helmy Kresa and lyrics by Carroll Loveday.
"Laura " is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Leon Ashley. Recorded in 1967 and released on his own Ashley Records label, the song was his only No. 1 single that September. Frankie Laine and Brook Benton took cover versions to the pop and Adult Contemporary charts that year, while Claude King, Marty Robbins and Kenny Rogers charted their own versions on the country charts.
"You Gave Me a Mountain" is a song written by country singer-songwriter Marty Robbins during the 1960s. It has been recorded by many artists, including Robbins himself, but the highest-charting version of the song was by Frankie Laine in 1969. This version was included on Laine's album of the same name.
"We'll Be Together Again" is a 1945 popular song composed by Carl T. Fischer, with lyrics by Frankie Laine.
"Soft Summer Breeze" is a song written and performed by Eddie Heywood. It reached No. 11 on the U.S. pop chart in 1956. The song was featured on his 1955 album, Eddie Heywood.
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