RIP Boots Randolph

The Yakety Sax guy passed away July 3rd, according to his Wikipedia entry and Lileks. I always liked his sound, and even though I usually don't care for tenor sax, he wrung some fine music out of his.

You've probably heard him as a background/session player on several Elvis tracks and a lot of Nashville stuff from the 60's and 70's. He shows up on a lot of Chet Atkins' sessions. Here he is with Robert Mitchum:

Country purists probably dismissed him as inauthentic and countrypolitan, but I've aways been pretty ecumenical about that sort of thing. And he did the country/jazz fusion a lot better than, say, Floyd Cramer. Cheesy he may have been, but listenable. If you're interested in hearing what he has to offer besides the Benny Hill theme, go on iTunes and find his version of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". (There's a bad version of it he did, but both of the entries on iTunes seeem to be the good track.) Play it for your lady-friend.

She might just laugh at you.

Or she might not.