The Avalanches - "Frankie Sinatra"

The Great calypsonian Wilmoth Houdini takes uncredited vocal turns in this video by the Avalanches for their single, "Frankie Sinatra." The sampled song is "Bobby Sox Idol," which Houdini recorded in the early 1940s to celebrate the young crooner who made female hearts flutter on concert stages, over radio airwaves, and on 78 rpm platters.

HT: Mike Noble

Nobody but she husband

"Murder is nothing to brag about"—unless it sells a half-million records. TIME magazine fêtes calypsonian Wilmoth Houdini, August 26, 1946.





HT: Doug Schulkind

Wilmoth Houdini on 365 Days Project

Two Wilmoth Houdini mp3s are available for free download from The 365 Days Project, hosted by WFMU. The tracks, "He Dead, He Gone Already" and "Moan, People, Moan," were posted by Bob Purse, who adds a colorful encomium to the great Houdini.

Aside from having a really cool name ..., he had a vocal style which gives me chills, featuring a wicked vibrato, and an intensity on held notes which expresses as much emotion as just about any singer I can name.

These recordings, which are not available on commercial CD, were transferred from the 1958 vinyl LP Calypso Capers. They were likely recorded in New York in the late 1930s or early 1940s.

Wilmoth Houdini, late 1940s

Ah, Frankie Sinatra 

Ah, Frank Sinatra
Frankie me boy, you don't know
You have a perfect voice to sing calypso

Why not make a dish wit' de Houdini?
Singin' de West Indian melody
Frankie me boy I'm sure
We sell two million copies or more.

"Bobby Sox Idol," Houdini, ca. 1944