Comments: 9

• Anita Compton from Colorado Springswhat did louis armstrong get paid for hello dolly
• L.russell Brown from Tennessee My mentor Bob Crewe once told me Jerry Herman told him he was writing a musical and he purposely was going to use the melody of Mack David's song Sunflower for his theme HELLO DOLLY He told Bob he intended to pay the other writer off once the play was a great hit AND HE DID 200 000$ A pittance compared to the untold millions Herman made from Hello Dolly! What a dirty business this music biz is
• Howard Luloff from St. Louis Park, MnWhen this song was number one in 1964, WABC, the Top 40 powerhouse in New York played the song once very hour, angering nighttime DJ Scott Muni. he said to program director Rick Sklar "Get that song off my show." Sklar wouldn't deviate from his strict playlist so that led to Muni's departure and the emergence of Cousin Brucie as a New York institution when he replaced Muni. Other than that, Hello Dolly was one of the few non Beatle songs to top the charts that year and it would be the only number one for Louis Armstrong. A great song from a jazz great.
• Fred Gray from VirginiaThe lyrics were copied from the Louis Armstring recording, and as such the second line is not "This is miss Dolly" but "This is Louis, Dolly".
  Louis Armstrong name is often misprinounced as "Looie" but he insisted it was to be pronouced "Loo-iss."
  
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyJerry Herman, born Gerald Sheldon Herman, passed away at the age of 88 on December 26th, 2019 in Miami, Florida...
  He was the composer of "Hello Dolly!", on May 3rd, 1964 Louis Armstrong's covered version of the song peaked at #1 on Billboard's Top 100 chart...
  Mr. Herman was nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for 'Hello, Dolly!' and 'La Cage aux Folles'...
  May he R.I.P.
  
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 16th 1964, the original Broadway production of the musical 'Hello Dolly!' opened at the St. James Theater in New York City...
  The musical ran for 2,844 performances and won a total of thirteen* Tony Awards...
  Twenty-four days later on February 9th, 1964 Louis Armstrong's covered version entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart {See next post below}...
  * Was nominated for fourteen awards; poor Charles Nelson Reilly, he was nominated for 'Best Performance by a Featured Actor', but lost to Jack Cassidy for the play 'She Loves Me'.
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 9th 1964, "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #76; and on May 3rd it peaked at #1 (for 1 week) and spent 22 weeks on the Top 100 (and for 13 of those 22 weeks it was on the Top 10)...
  And on March 22nd, 1964 it reached #1 (for 9 weeks) on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Tracks chart...
  As already stated prior to "Hello, Dolly!" reaching #1 on the Top 100 the Beatles had held the top spot for fourteen consecutive weeks with three records ("I Want To Hold Your Hand" for 7 weeks, "She Loves You" for 2 weeks, and finally "Can't Buy Me Love" for 5 weeks)...
  And it was a Beatles' record, "Do You Want To Know A Secret", that peaked at #2 and was prevented from reaching #1 when "Hello, Dolly!" held the top spot for its one week...
  R.I.P. John, George, and Mr. Armstrong (1901 - 1971).
• Karen from Dania Beach, FlJust re-read William Lashner's mystery "Fatal Flaw" in which the fact that the murder trial defendant's story that he is listening to Satchmo comes into significance twice. Once it addresses volume (What can you really hear with Louis Armstrong in the headphones?) and, even better, to state of mind (Can you be anything but optimistic in said situation?) Lots of fun.
• Chet from Buffalo, NyOne of my favorite facts about this song is how unlikely it was for a song like this to be the one to knock the Beatles out of their stranglehold of the top of the charts in 1964. After ruling the number one spot for something like 14 weeks with 3 different hits, ol' Satchmo knocked "Can't Buy Me Love" out of the number one spot in early May and made "musical history"!

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