Paying Respects to the Music

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Howdy from the road! Before I go through myLot and see what y’all have been up to while I’ve been out goofing off, I’ll let you know what I’ve been doing while I’ve been out goofing off. Bloomington, Indiana has been a happy place this year since the Indiana Hoosiers had an undefeated football season and won their first ever football title earlier this year. Ironically, this is the 50th anniversary of the Hoosiers’ basketball perfect season of 1975-76. The pompoms have been flying high for the sports. However, did you know that there’s a lot of music from Bloomington, Indiana?? I wouldn’t classify it as a “hotspot” the way places like Milwaukee or Athens, Georgia are/were, but yeah, it’s produced its share of famous people. Most notably in recent years, David Lee Roth, the outrageous one-time front man for Van Halen, was born in Bloomington. Two other notable performers were born in Bloomington, and are laid to rest in the area. While there, I went to pay my respects to them. The top photo is the marker for Howard H. Carmichael, much better known as “Hoagy.” When I went up to Bloomington to see Richard Thompson perform, he not only referenced Carmichael’s birth in the city but also did one of his songs! Songs? Oh, yeah, he wrote a few. “Body and Soul,” “Stardust,” and “Georgia on My Mind” are the main ones that pop up when discussing Carmichael. Any one of those three songs alone would make him remembered, but writing all three??!!!?!? And, of course, that’s not even close to everything he wrote. Carmichael died of a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 82 in California. His body was brought home to Bloomington for burial. Then there’s Bobby Helms. “Here lies a legend,” the marker (bottom) says. Then you read the next line: “Mr. ‘Jingle Bell Rock’”. Every year from November (or, gasp, earlier) until Christmas (or, gasp, later) you get to hear him sing “Jingle Bell Rock.” Helms was born in Bloomington in 1933. His three biggest hits were a mixture of the wild mashups of the 50s: the big Christmas single, the country hit “Fraulein” (which is on my 100 favorites list), and the pop smash “My Special Angel.” Yes, he recorded other songs, but those are the ones that were mentioned in the obituary. After his “heyday” was over he returned to south central Indiana to live, and that’s where he died of emphysema in 1997 at the age of 63. You know how much I love music, and how I pay tribute to the recently-departed performers every month. It’s no surprise, then, that I’d stop to pay respects to these two while I was in the neighborhood. PHOTO: (Top) Hoagy Carmichael’s grave, Rose Hill Cemetery, Bloomington, Indiana (Bottom) Bobby Helms’ grave, Hilldale Cemetery, Martinsville, Indiana Here’s Bobby Helms’ major pop success, “My Special Angel”: