Saturday, December 23, 2006

One Shot Wonders, pt 10

See intro below

KEVIN GAVIN (10)
A couple of years ago I found a mint LP in local thrift (junk) shop by a new-to-me singer, Kevin Gavin. It had arrangements by guitarist Mundell Lowe, an impressive Arlen, Mercer, Kern, etc. repertoire and was on the Charlie Parker record label. The corny cover alone was worth the price---fifty cents---in an of itself. Arriving back home and giving Hey! This is Kevin Gavin a listen I was happy to learn that Gavin was quite good. Leading to the inevitable question, Whatever Happened to Kevin Gavin? Let’s take a listen to two track from his one LP, and then I’ll tell you what I found out about him.

PLAY TRACK Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me, Blame It On My Youth

A bit of sleuthing on the net and I learned that, unlike many One Shot Wonders, Kevin Gavin had not fallen off the edge of the earth. Instead, he wrote this very famous in the U.S: jingle for McDonald’s.

TRACK 11 (McDonald’s jingle, “You deserve a break today)

One of the most widely heard U.S. commercials EVER. I do not know exactly where Kevin Gavin is at this very minute, but wherever he is living he is surely living well.

This just in: Kevin Gavin was a member of singer-bandleader Vaughn Monroe's vocal group. From 1950s souvenir booklet . . .
The fourth member of Vaughn's new group is 25-year-old Kevin Gavin from Los Angeles, where he sang with the famous Robert Mitchell Boys Choir, appearing in many movies. Kevin received a music scholarship at Loyola University in LA, and majored in English. Following college he became a member of the "Salute To Gershwin Show," which played leading West Coast theaters and hotels, and in 1950 joined the "Ken Murray Show," with which he came to New York. After two years with Murray, Kevin went into free lance work and appeared on the Kate Smith and Jackie Gleason shows, among others. Keenly interested in short-story writing and song writing, Kevin has taken several summer writing courses at Columbia University.

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