LOLA (LOH-luh)
1.
Seductive temptress in the musical comedy, Damn
Yankees 2. 1970
hit song for the Kinks Common
clues: "Damn Yankees" vamp; 1970 Kinks hit; She gets
what she wants; Kinks classic; “Whatever ____
Wants” Crossword
puzzle frequency:
5 times a year Frequency
in English language:
33809 / 86800 Video: Gwen
Verdon in “Damn Yankees”
Whatever
Lola wants, Lola gets / And little man, little Lola wants you!
– Lola
Damn
Yankees is
a musical comedy, a modern retelling of the Faust legend, set in
Washington, D.C., with book by Douglass Wallop and George Abbott
and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. It was
based on Wallop's novel The
Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.
The
plot is based on a middle-aged fan of the Washington Senators
baseball club who sold his soul to the Devil to enable the
Senators to win the American League pennant.
Gwen
Verdon plays a guilt-ridden temptress
It
opened on Broadway in 1955 starring Gwen Verdon (Lola), who was
also featured in the movie. In the movie version, Ray Walston
played the Devil, "Mr. Applegate".
***
"Lola"
is a song written by Ray Davies and performed by The Kinks which
details a romantic encounter between a young man and a
transvestite he meets in a Soho club in London.
Released
in June 1970, in the UK on the 12th and in the USA on the 28th,
the single was taken from the album Lola Versus Powerman and the
Moneygoround, Part One and reached #2 in the UK charts and #9 in
the US. It was ranked 422nd on the List of Rolling Stone's 500
Greatest Songs of All Time and its C-D-E power riff is recognized
among the famous riffs of rock.
In
the book The Kinks: The Official Biography, Ray Davies says that
he was inspired to write this song after the band manager Robert
Wace had spent the night dancing with a transvestite.
In
late 1969, Davies' father encouraged him to focus his energy on
writing another worldwide hit single after a long dry spell for
the band, and "Lola" was the result. Davies and the
Kinks spent extra time and effort recording and crafting the song
at Morgan Studios in London during early 1970.
In
his autobiography, Dave Davies mentions that he came up with the
music for what would become Lola. After Dave had shown his
brother the music, Ray came up with the lyrics. Dave goes on to
claim his brother took all the credit for the song. The original
song recorded in stereo had the word "Coca-Cola" in the
lyrics, but because of BBC Radio's policy against product
placement, Ray was forced to make a six thousand mile round-trip
flight from New York to London and back — interrupting the
band's American tour — to change those words to the generic
"cherry cola" for the single release.
The
success of the single had important ramifications for the band's
career at a critical time, allowing them to negotiate a new
contract with RCA Records, construct their own London Studio, and
assume more creative and managerial control. "Lola"
also became their most popular sing-along anthem at concerts, as
they struggled to regain a footing in the US concert market after
a five year absence.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Damn Yankees"
and
“Lola
(song)”.
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