Cut to 10 years later. Lucille was having more fun and finding greater fame in radio than in films. Desi was pretty much finished in movies, there being only so many roles for a Latin lover to play. He had been working in radio, too, as Bob Hope’s orchestra leader, and on a short-lived show called Your Tropical Trip. Then Lucy decided to bring her show to the new medium of TV. The only real catch: she wanted Desi to play her husband. Everyone was against it at first; CBS executives asked, "How could you show an all-American girl like Lucy married to a Cuban like Desi?" "But we are married," Lucy protested, to no avail. Until Lucy and Desi played a vaudeville tour of America to prove to the naysayers the general public would accept them as man and wife. The show was set, a pilot made, sponsors bought it, and the rest is history. That includes the savvy idea of making Desi’s character a New York nightclub entertainer, allowing for many musical interludes and "putting-on-a-show" plots. The Latin flavor of I Love Lucy is rarely addressed, nor is that fact that, in one of our nation’s most ugly and prejudicial periods, Lucy and Desi proudly portrayed an inter-cultural marriage. Desi’s role in making the ethnic "other" more palatable to the American public has also rarely been addressed, but surely he did, being a basic one-man good neighbor policy. Part of that was expressed by his music, which became the underlying theme for many episodes of I Love Lucy. With the recent surge in interest in Latin pop music, some of Desi’s songs have been re-released, including a two-CD set called Cocktail Hour. Arnaz also has a variety of albums that have been reissued, and newer compilations, including "Cuban Originals," "Conga," "1937-1947," "Babalu," and "The Best of Desi Arnaz: The Mambo King." All will give you a taste of the Latin music he brought so beguilingly to I Love Lucy. Babalu Music: I Love Lucy's Greatest Hits is a video and CD compiled and produced by Weird Al Yankovic, who made a truly loving tribute to Desi using music and video clips from the "I Love Lucy" film and soundtrack. Special bonus: a new music video of "Babalu." A 1982 album called "Musical Moments from I Love Lucy featured many of the same songs as on the above, plus the I Love Lucy theme song. Finally, something called the Wilton Place Street Band released Disco Lucy, a dance version of the theme song that was a minor hit in 1976. The 12" disco disc is a collector’s item now. If you doubt Desi Arnaz's musical legacy, note that Latin rhythm legend Tito Puente once noted there were two periods for Latin music in America: before Desi Arnaz, and after Desi Arnaz.
Scanning the Internet for Lucy news since 1996
Music, Maestro!
Desi Arnaz always had the music in him. Fleeing a revolution in Cuba when he was a boy, Arnaz settled in Miami where he went to school, cleaned birdcages to make extra money, and eventually started a musical group, his real love. Arnaz got popular enough in Florida to be noticed by no less than Xavier Cugat, the rhumba king, who hired him for his band. But Arnaz couldn’t keep still for long, and set off on his own, eventually conquering New York and popularizing the conga line. He had a strong, clear, pleasant voice that could be strong or playful, but his style tended toward the sentimental. He hit it big as a football player in the Broadway hit Too Many Girls, and when he was brought to Hollywood in 1940 to reprise the role for the movies, he met his future wife, Lucille Ball, who was playing the lead in the movie.
His signature hit, "Babalu," was a strident, percussive monster. But Arnaz was just as effective on ballads and lighter numbers, such as "Cuban Pete," "In Santiago, Chile," and "Cielito Linda." He also wrote songs, and among his biggest this were "We’re Having a Baby (My Baby and Me)" and "There’s a Brand New Baby at our House" both tied to the 1953 birth of his son, Desi, Jr. (and the birth of Little Ricky to the fictional Ricardos). Desi also sang "Breezing Along with the Breeze" in his and Lucy’s movie hit The Long Long Trailer, and the title song to their second movie, Forever Darling.
Ask the Lucy Collector!
Magazines » Books » Dolls » Comics » Trading Cards
Movies » Toys & Games » Foreign Shores » DVDs » Personal Effects » Miscellaneous
Text and photos are owned by their respective copyright holders and may not be reproduced without permission.
© 2008 Sitcomboy.com. All Rights Reserved.