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Samantha Fish Brings Sugar to London

Blues singer Samantha Fish, a Kansas City native, was giving out Sugar Kane vibes at her latest UK show, as Paul Davies reports for National Rock Review. (She’s not the first musician to evoke memories of Marilyn’s iconic ‘Running Wild‘ number, as Kate Bush referenced it back in 1991 for her ‘Rocket Man‘ video, as did Kylie Minogue with ‘2 Hearts‘ in 2007.)

“There’s a scene in the 1959 classic movie Some Like It Hot where both a dragged-up Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are playing the saxophone and double bass with wild abandon and slap bang in the middle of these on the run from the mafia characters is Marilyn Monroe, as Sugar, giving it some on a ukulele.

Spool forward 60 years to this evening and onstage is a hot and sexy Samantha Fish looking for all the world like Marilyn with her platinum blonde bed-head curly hair, vivacious smile and sassy fashion sense playing up a storm with her exquisite electric guitar technique at a sold-out London Garage.

Charismatic and oozing sex appeal with her sweet fallen angel voice and heavy rocking-out guitar play, leavened by a well-balanced setlist of subtler songs, Fish captivated and captured her devoted fans in the alluring net of her stage-craft and fiery hot licks.”

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Marilyn, Kate and the Rocket Man

The celebrated English singer Kate Bush has just shared the unreleased video for her 1991 single, ‘Rocket Man’, with fans, the NME reports ( a bootleg version was previously available.) A cover of Elton John’s 1972 hit, she chose to cover his tribute to Marilyn, ‘Candle in the Wind’, for the B-side. Both tracks were recorded by Kate for the all-star album, Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. They will now be reissued as part of her new compilation, The Other Sides, due for release in March.

What’s doubly interesting about the ‘Rocket Man’ video is that during the chorus, it appears to reference Marilyn’s performance of ‘Running Wild’ in Some Like It Hot (complete with black dress, backing band and even a ukulele!)

Thanks to Fraser Penney

 

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Marilyn at Julien’s: Let’s Make Music

Marilyn’s RCA Victor award for ‘I’m Gonna File My Claim‘ after it was released as a single to promote River of No Return and sold 50,000 copies in 1954, as well as promotional materials, are among the items in the upcoming Julien’s sale.

An unedited, 30-minute audio recording of Marilyn performing multiple takes of ‘Runnin’ Wild’ and ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’ (from Some Like It Hot) on a reel of acetate tape, from the estate of Studio 7612 owner Myron Blackler, is also on offer.

Marilyn’s personal songbook – containing more than 369 indexed pages of song standards, such as Cole Porter’s ‘You Do Something To Me’ – is up for bids. Receipts show that in February 1960, Marilyn purchased three albums by Frank Sinatra; and in April 1962, she bought a live double-album by Judy Garland.

Finally, a set of vinyl compilations featuring Marilyn herself are on sale, as collected by Monroe Sixer Frieda Hull.