I remember our church organist when I was a kid. The organ wasn't a pipe organ. It was an Allen, a very nice, respectable electric one. Mrs B played well, and circumspectly. But there were some church songs she flatly refused to play on that organ.

'Get over to the piano!' she'd tell me. 'I'm not going to play this one.' I'd glance at the score and agree. The song would be one of those old-time 'rousing' numbers like 'Saved! Saved!'

'What's the problem?' the choir would demand. Mrs B would play a few bars, and the jingly sound would fill the sanctuary. They would laugh.

'All skate!' they would chant. This is what they'd say at our local skating rink just before one of these Wurlitzer wonders came over the loudspeaker.

The 1951 hit 'Suzy Snowflake is a real Wurlitzer wonder if ever I heard one. This is the cheesiest setting on the Yamaha, and I rejoiced when I found it.

Click here for the video, or watch the embedded version in your Pliny-skin page.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

30.12.19 Front Page

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