Saturday Song Selection - Eddie Fisher: Lady of Spain

"That's it. I'm having my DNA fumigated.” - Carrie Fisher

Some knew him as Princess Leia’s dad. Some knew him as Elizabeth Taylor’s ex-husband. Some knew him as Debbie Reynolds’ ex-husband. Some knew him as Connie Stevens’ ex-husband. He was even Paul Simon’s father-in-law for a short period of time. In the game of six degrees of separation, he pretty much connects to everyone in one easy step. Yet, I’d hazard a guess that most people don’t know him at all anymore - and this despite two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, seventeen songs in the Top 10 on the music charts with thirty-five in the Top 40, and the fact that, for the better part of a decade, he was the most popular pop singer in the country. In recognition of his recent passing at the age of 82, today’s Saturday Song Selection pays tribute to Eddie Fisher.

His rise was meteoric, his fall almost equally so. His story is somewhat of a traditional Hollywood cautionary tale - rife with scandal, divorce, drugs, alcohol and gambling. He very famously divorced his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, to marry his best friend’s widow, Elizabeth Taylor - garnering damning headlines and negative publicity. When interviewed on the subject, Reynolds once actually commented that she could understand being left “for the world’s most beautiful woman.” However, Taylor, in turn, soon fell in love with the equally married Richard Burton and left Fisher for him, resulting in one of the all-time great Hollywood scandals. Eddie Fisher’s fame, and infamy, reached even to the highest corridors of power. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Jack Kennedy and I shared drugs and women."

Saturday, September 25th Birthdays -

Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas were romantically born on the very same date, and just a mere 70 years apart.
Superstar Anson Williams, the man responsible for generations of children being cursed with the nickname, Potsie, is 61 today.
Happy 59th to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, whom I know virtually nothing about but I mention in a vain attempt to appear classy and learned.
Barbara Walters turns a youthful 81, although much of her body is just approaching its teen years.
And celebrating in a far better place is the late great, English comedian, Ronnie Barker of “The Two Ronnies” fame. You don’t know him, but this one’s for me.

From 1952, and the number six spot on the pop music charts - Eddie Fisher with “Lady of Spain.”