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S H A R O N     P A I G E        from H i G H   W A T E R M A R K   S A L O [O] N  volume 2 number 3

 

LOVE IS THE THING

It was Joe Reagan, Jr. who suggested, after he heard Sharon Paige sing “A Woman’s Institution” at Trudi Mann’s Fabulous Open Mic for singers, that Sharon look into other Ned Washington songs. Sharon took this idea to Keith Ingham. Sharon, Regan, Keith and his musicians are all of one heart: they want Ned Washington to reclaim his place in the sun.

Keith Ingham: Washington’s career spanned an amazing 40 years (1928-1968) achieving early fame writing with Victor Young many songs made famous by Bing Crosby, garnering three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe along the way. Although best known for his romantic lyrics, he was a songwriter of great versatility. He wrote songs like “Someone Stole Gabriel’s Horn” “Makin’ Faces At The Man In The Moon” and “La Cucaracha”; songs about social issues like the depression era “I’m an Unemployed Sweetheart” or the need to go back home “Got the South in My Soul.” Perhaps this is best illustrated by his work for the movies. There is the wit of “Give a Little Whistle” and fantasy in “When You Wish Upon A Star” from Pinocchio, the passion of “Wild is the Wind” or “A Love Like This” from For Whom the Bell Tolls, “Fire Down Below” and of course High Noon. The selections on this CD were chosen to reflect the range of his achievement over 40 years in the heyday of American popular song-writing.

 
B I O

 

SHARON PAIGE| Reclamation. Whether it is breathing life into old houses, restoring antiques, or undertaking renovation of an abandoned forty-six room mill in Massachusetts, there has always been something new for Sharon Paige to reclaim. Small wonder then she is lending her voice to this tribute album to a master lyricist of the American Songbook, a man who won three Academy Awards, wrote hundreds of songs for Hollywood, Broadway and TV, whose lyrics are as well known as his name is not.


Sharon’s first taste of the American Songbook came from the jukebox in her father’s diner where he featured his three-year-old daughter dancing and singing atop the lunch counter. She was seventeen the day her best friend Ellen Cohen (aka Mama Cass Elliot) came by announcing, “Put on your leotard, you’re going to an audition.” The lunch counter got replaced by summer stock. Next came New York City and the beginning of ten years of singing, dancing, and acting in National Company tours of Hello Dolly, Your Own Thing, and Stop The World I Want to Get Off, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, more summer stock, dinner theaters, cabaret, TV, film, singing back up on “Missing You,” Freddy Cole’s single dedicated to his brother, Nat.

As easily as she slipped into the business, she slipped out. Sharon had something new on her plate. She had a child to raise. So on to selling antiques, renovating nine houses, running a gourmet bakery with her daughter, Melanie. Eventually, she graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College and then went on to become a master teacher of the Orton-Gillingham method used to remediate dyslexic children. Then, when the exigencies of life began to ease up, instead of kicking back, she returned to singing.