Song Of The Day 11/18/2015: Michele Lee – “L. David Sloane”

The Hidden '60s, Part 3 – Michele Lee is a singer-actress who was actually born in L.A. In the '60s she was known for two big movies, one of them arguably iconic. I'm really sellin' her with that "arguably" stuff, I know. She was in the movie musical version of the Broadway hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which starred a young Robert Morse (Bertram Cooper on Mad Men) as a mailroom clerk who ascends to corporate executive heights in about 20 minutes. She was also in Disney's The Love Bug, in which a sentient Volkswagen Beetle ascends to champion race car, gets busted for performance enhancers and spends the rest of its days cursing and drinking and shooting up Tonka trucks with a pellet gun. It should be noted I'm getting that information from a sequel script I wrote myself. But more importantly, Michele was a staple on celebrity-driven game shows in the 1970's. She particularly kicked ass on Hollywood Squares and Match Game. I could have sworn she was on the celebrity-marriage Bert Convy vehicle Tattletales but I can't find video or written evidence. Lee found permanent work in the Dallas spin-off soap opera Knots Landing, which I just realized ran for a stupefying 14 years on network television. I don't know how I missed that, except for the fact that I didn't watch television that much in the late '80s and early '90s. But damn, I swarmed all over that Match Game action. Dawson. Somers. Nelson Reilly. Flagg. Broke the damn molds, each and every one. Okay, this paragraph's long enough, let's start a new one.

Lee recorded one solo album called L. David Sloane and Other Hits of Today, although "L. David Sloane" (#52, 1968) was the only potential hit it had. It's a slight hit, nothing offensive. I've seen a number of derisive comments about this song that I don't quite understand. I've heard worse. Hell, I've featured worse. The song's a direct message to one L. David Sloane, essentially asking him to release his hypnotic hold on the singer as it's interfering with a lot of her mental functions and possibly a few physical ones as well. In general I mistrust anyone whose first name is represented by an initial. There are exceptions of course, like R. Stevie Moore, but don't test me. "L. David Sloane" was co-written by Billy Meshell, apparently a fan of naming his epistolary songs after their direct objects as he also penned something called "Dear Mrs. Applebee" for British singer David Garrick. Applebee was a flat-out crank. She should've hooked up with Sloane. That's a power couple right there. They could go on Tattletales.