So Why Exactly Is The Lady A Tramp?

I’ve never understood “The Lady is a Tramp.”

The lyrics to that brassy Rogers & Hart tune made famous by Frank Sinatra, if you actually listen to them, ascribe to “The Lady” such qualities as one associates with a person of some social standing and breeding—not actual tramp-like qualities:

“She loves the theater, but doesn’t come late…” “She’d never bother with people she’d hate…” “Doesn’t like dice games with sharpies and frauds…” “Won’t dish the dirt with the rest of those broads….” Seems to me the lady is a class act.

Nevertheless, those are the lyrics that Frank Sinatra made famous, and that is the song he sang for the first record printed on The Beatles’ brand new Apple Corps label back in mid-1970.

The story, as told in Tony Bramwell’s “Magical Mystery Tours: My Life With The Beatles” (which is a must-have book for Father’s Day, assuming you are a father and a Beatle’s guy), goes like this: one of the Beatles’ people decided it would be fun to have a new version of “The Lady Is A Tramp,” with lyrics slightly altered, sung by Frank Sinatra himself and presented as a birthday gift to Ringo’s wife, Maureen.

I’m not sure how Maureen felt about it, but since, back in those days, anything The Beatles wanted they could pretty much make happen, it happened exactly that way: Sammy Cahn rewrote the lyrics, Sinatra himself recorded the song, and one copy was pressed using the very first Apple Corps label and presented to Maureen.

Which makes “The Lady is a Tramp” the first printing of a record on Apple, before “Hey Jude.”

With important issues like this out of the way, on Monday we will return to current events—including an office furniture company that appears to offer good long term value, and the latest antics of our favorite CEO-of-a-money-losing-Internet-company, who used the recent Bear Stearns conference to repeat a false rumor about his two biggest competitors.

In the meantime, is it just me or does it seem pathetic that Washington is debating the existing of global warming while—as reported in today’s Wall Street Journal—glaciers in the Peruvian Andes are melting away at a thirty-feet-a-year rate—and they’ll be gone as quickly as 40 years from now?

Jeff Matthews I Am Not Making This Up

The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews’ recommendations.