Deconstruction #1--"Frank Mills" From "HAIR," Sung By Shelley Plimpton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Let me start, darlings, by saying that, while Shelley owns the song, unfortunately hers was not the first rendition I ever heard.  During the time "HAIR" was making its big splash on Broadway, everyone was singing "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In," "Black Boys/White Boys," "Easy To Be Hard," "Air," or the controversial "Sodomy," which was so much so it got the record banned from our listening to it in eighth grade study hall, upon the word "masturbation," probably the only word this group of 13-year-olds, myself included, understood.

                                     One evening, on the radio, I heard this young, lower registered, but feminine voice, croon "I met a boy called Frank Mills.........." and was stopped in my tracks.  I loved the song, but the first person I ever heard sing it was....Barbra Streisand's (yes, that is right, BARBRA!!!!!!!!!!) kid sister, Roslyn Kind.  Can you imagine???????????  And she never appeared in the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        The song really did not become a part of my life, till years later.  When it was revived, on Broadway, at the Biltmore Theatre, the role of Crissy, who sings the song, had gone through two actresses. The first was Kristen Vigard, who had a bit of history of her own--having been ousted from "Annie" at Goodspeed, before it reached Broadway, in favor of Andrea McArdle, though she did agree to serve as understudy.  Soon, she was cast as Crissy in the revival of "HAIR," and by the time I saw the show, later that summer, another performer, Soni Moreno, was singing the song, and there was nothing distinguished about it.  She would have been better off playing Tiger Lily in a bus and truck of "Peter Pan!!!!!!!!!"

                                          But Kristen got the reviews.  I don't recall which critic said it, but this quote got me going--"Angel-faced Kristen Vigard is nicest of a cast, that, sad to say, lacks true charm, but even little Kristen, when she sings the teeny bopper love lament, "Frank Mills," is merely sweet, whereas Shelley Plimpton, ten years ago, broke your heart."

                                            WOW!  Just what did Shelley do?????????  I had to find out for myself!  So, I bought an Original Cast Album of "HAIR," and listened, and then I UNDERSTOOD.

                                                It is the distinctive childishness of Shelley's voice.  The way it comes through in certain vowel sounds, like "right here," and "Waverly."  The way her voice goes up on "He has gold chains on his leather jacket," and comes to a childish pause at "Hell's Angels."  And how about the way she caresses the words "Angela and I," and lingers on "just him?"  This is the stuff of brilliance that cannot be taught, accompanied by a simple guitar and piano combo, for this most simple of songs.

                                                  This aspired me, since 1978, to stand in front of the Waverly, each September 12, and, as innocently as it is possible for me to sound--and some say I am second to Shelley--sing the song.  Sometimes, no one will notice; one time, a wino threw his liquor bottle away, after watching me.

                                                      "Frank Mills" and Shelley Plimpton have been a part of my life for 36 years. Not quite as long as it has been part of Shelley's, or Martha's, but pretty damn close.

                                                        I just love it, darlings!  And you will too, when you hear it!  Only, now you will understand why Shelley's version is definitive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                         So, here it is!  Enjoy! And rock on, Shelley!  This will endure forever!!!!!!!!!!!