April 16, 2021 —– Chart #87
Hello Musical Friends,
Well its Friday again and time for the weekly Chart of the Day. Today is Chary of the Day Birthday! This is a very special edition as it was 1 year ago this week that I started this crazy thing Chart of the day email thing. What was I thinking? 86 charts later we are still going, playing music and having fun. I was encouraged by so many of you after issue #83, “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes”, that I decided go back to the parrothead well and grab another JB tune.
“Pencil Thin Mustache” is a song written and performed by American popular-music singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was released as a single (with “Brand New Country Star”) on Dunhill D-15011 in August 1974. It was first released on his album of 1974, Living and Dying in ¾ Time. It “bubbled under” the Billboard Hot 100 at number 101, and reached number 44 on the Easy Listening chart.
The song, written in a Western swing style, is a nostalgic look by Buffett at the popular culture of his childhood. The title refers to the type of mustache worn by the film character, Boston Blackie.
Buffett refers to a number of other persons, characters, and products of the period, including Ricky Ricardo, Andy Devine, Sky (King)’s niece Penny, American Bandstand, Disneyland, Ramar of the Jungle, Bwana, Errol Flynn, the Sheik of Araby, and Brylcreem. The lyrics also say that in the 1950s, “only jazz musicians were smokin’ marijuana”.
Buffett has stated, “the thing about writing a song like this is that the older you get, the more people there are who need an explanation of the characters in the song. I shudder to think how old Sky King’s niece Penny is today. It all started with that two-toned Ricky Ricardo jacket. I can’t wait for them to come back.”
Sky King was an American radio and television series. Its lead character was Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler “Sky” King. The series may have been based on a true-life personality of the 1930s, Jack Cones, known as the “Flying Constable” of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, California, although this notion is unverified.
The series had strong Western elements. King usually captured criminals and spies and found lost hikers, though he did so with the use of his airplane, the Songbird. Two twin-engine Cessna airplanes were used by King during the course of the TV series. The first was a Cessna T-50 and in later episodes a Cessna 310B was used till the series’ end. The 310’s make and model type number was prominently displayed during the closing titles.
The photo here shows King and his niece Penny and her brother Clipper(first season only) who lived on the Flying Crown Ranch, near the fictitious town of Grover, Arizona. Penny and Clipper were also pilots, although they were inexperienced and looked to their uncle for guidance. Penny was an accomplished air racer, rated as a multiengine pilot, whom Sky trusted to fly the Songbird.
Video with all the referenced characters displayed:
1973 Buffet Video: https://youtu.be/3eDHgxw6qXg
More recent Live in Concert: https://youtu.be/zFNh263_f0A
Keep rockin’ my friends,
Stan