#17: Baciare Baciare by Dorothy Collins

City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: February 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #41
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “Baciare Baciare”
Lyrics: “Baciare Baciare”

Dorothy Collins (birth name Marjorie Chandler) was born in 1926 in Windsor, Ontario. She adopted her stage name in her mid-teens. From late childhood, she sang on radio stations in Windsor and Detroit. In 1940, at age 14, she and her family were introduced to bandleader/composer Raymond Scott in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, she became Scott’s protégée. In early 1942, at age 15, she became a featured vocalist with Scott’s orchestra, performing on radio and on tour. Scott groomed her for stardom, which included coaching her vocals (pitch, phrasing, and delivery) and mentoring her performance skills. In the late 1940s, she contributed vocals to the revived Raymond Scott Quintette, a sextet that released records on the bandleader’s own Master label and served as house band on the radio program Herb Shriner Time.

In 1949, after Scott was hired to conduct the orchestra on the popular CBS Radio program, Lucky Strike’s Your Hit Parade, Collins was trained by Scott to lead his sextet on tour in his absence. In 1950, Your Hit Parade moved to NBC television, with Scott retained as conductor. Shortly thereafter, at Scott’s urging, Collins auditioned for a vocalist slot and was hired. She shot to nationwide fame as one of the show’s featured vocalists, singing—and acting in costume—in sketches dramatizing popular songs of the day. She was part of the cast of vocalists for every year, excluding the 1957-58 season, through to the show’s end in April 1959.

Snooky Lanson, Russell Arms (top l to r)
Dorothy Collins, Gisèle MacKenzie (bottom l to r)

The core lineup of vocalists on Your Hit Parade were Snooky Lanson, Russell Arms, Dorothy Collins and Gisèle MacKenzie. During the weekly shows, Dorothy Collins often spoke and sang the Lucky Strike Cigarette commercial. She made this appeal: “No. Nothing beats better taste. And Lucky tastes better. They’re cleaner, fresher, smoother. And it’s because they’re made better to taste better. They’re made of fine, mild, tobacco. Good tasting tobacco, that always comes to you perfectly fresh. And in a pack that’s extra tightly sealed to keep in that fresher taste. Yes! Lucky’s are fresher. Why, just smoke ’em and see. Get the better taste you want in a cigarette, and get it fresh.” Collins sang after her pitch, “Happy go lucky, get better taste today”

In the Nielsen ratings, Your Hit Parade peaked as the #15 highest rated TV show in the 1954-55 season. As recording artists, Gisèle MacKenzie had a #11 hit in 1952 with her version of the number-one Perry Como hit record “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”. In addition, that year MacKenzie had a #14 pop hit with “Adios”. In 1955, she had a Top 5 hit record titled “Hard to Get”. Russell Arms had a song in 1957 titled “Cinco Robles” which reached #22 on the Billboard pop chart. For her part, Dorothy Collins had a #16 hit in 1955 titled “My Boy – Flat Top”. The next year, Collins had another rock-influenced pop hit titled “Seven Days”, which peaked at #17. The song was a #2 R&B hit for Clyde McPhatter in March 1956. While Snooky Lanson had charted three Top 20 hits in the late ’40s: “On A Slow Boat To China”, “The Old Master Painter” and “It’s Almost Tomorrow”.

Each week on Your Hit Parade, the show ended with this refrain:
So long for a while.
That’s all the songs for a while.
So long to Your Hit Parade,
And the tunes that you picked to be played.
So long!

“Baciare Baciare (Kissing Kissing)” is a song describing how “the boys and girls of Napoli are whistling merrily.” This is because “they kiss while they’re whistling.” According to the song, in Napoli, “kissing without whistling is considered out of style.” Baciare is the Italian word for kiss. The song recommends listeners pucker up and try kissing like they do in Napoli.

“Baciare Baciare” was cowritten by Bert Reisfeld, and Willy Dehmel. Berthold “Bert” Reisfeld was born in 1906 in Vienna, Austria. In 1939 he wrote “Who Told You I Cared”, a #15 hit for Ozzie Nelson. But his biggest hit was “The Three Bells”, which was a number-one hit for The Browns in 1959. The pop singer, Bjork, had a #4 hit in the UK in 1995 with Reisfeld’s 1952 English translation of a German song, “It’s Oh So Quiet”. In 1966, he also translated “These Boots Are Made for Walking'” into the German “Die Stiefel Sind Zum Wandern” which was recorded by Eileen Goldsen. Reisfeld died in 1991 in Badenweiler, Germany.

Willy Dehmel was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1909. He is credited with writing over 600 German-language songs. He co-wrote “The Crazy Otto (Melody) for Johnny Maddox in 1955. He died in Bad Wiessee, Germany, in 1971.

“Baciare Baciare” peaked at #1 in Hull (QC), #2 in Waterbury (CT), Las Vegas, and Ottawa, #5 in Portland (ME) and Anaheim (CA), #6 in Booneville (IN) and Milwaukee, #7 in Albany (NY) and Chicago, #8 in Port Jervis (NY), #9 in Montreal, #10 in Lafayette (LA), and Bowling Green (KY).

During the 1950s and ’60s, Collins provided vocals for many TV and radio commercials produced and recorded by Raymond Scott’s Jingle Workshop. A number of these performances were issued in 2019 on the double album The Jingle Workshop: Midcentury Musical Miniatures 1951–1965.

From 1961 to 1963 she was co-host and stunt participant on CBS-TV’s Candid Camera with Durward Kirby and series creator Allen Funt.  In 1961 she occasionally guest-hosted a short-lived Carol Burnett and Richard Hayes CBS Radio Network show.

In 1971, Collins made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, portraying Sally Durant Plummer, a one-time Ziegfeld-style showgirl trapped in a disappointing marriage. Her performance earned a Tony Award nomination as Best Actress in a Musical. She was in a variety of other musicals in Saint Paul (MN), Los Angeles, Milwaukee (WI), St. Louis (MO), and Westchester County, New York. Collins died in 1994 at the age of 67 related to asthma and heart disease.

October 18, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Sheila Rule, “Dorothy Collins, 67, Singer Known for ‘Your Hit Parade’,” New York Times, July 23, 1994.
Dorothy Collins, “Lucky Strike Commercial,” Your Hit Parade, NBC, 1952.
Hit Paraders, “So Long For Awhile“, Your Hit Parade, NBC, 1951.
Gisele MacKenzie, “Adios“, Capitol Records, 1952.
Dorothy Collins, “My Boy – Flat Top“, Coral Records, 1955.
Dorothy Collins, “Esso Commercial” 1953.
Dorothy Collins, “Picnic“, Your Hit Parade, June 2 1956.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | February 27, 1960