Knee, Bernie (14th February 1924-20th November 1994)

Broadway performer and pop and novelty artist who collaborated with The Smith Brothers on “We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye” in 1954 and appeared on Movie Pop Parade, Volume 3 in 1956. He literally was the group The Five Blobs, recording the theme song to the 1958 horror-schlock film The Blob, his voice dubbed five times over. A year later, he sang “Nice She Ain’t” in the original cast of Gypsy.

In 1960, he recorded “Sixteen Cubes of Sugar”, “That’s What I Call True Love” and “Your Letter Will Kiss Me Goodnight” with an up-and-comer by the name of Carole King. These early and rare cuts appear on The Right Girl—Complete 1958-66. In 1961, he was a member of the studio cast on The Unsinkable Molly Brown soundtrack. Four years later, he released a solo album with the clunky title, Jewish American Songs for the Jet Set.

Needless to say, Bernie has one of the less conventional discographies, with titles like “Chicken Fat”, “Hang in There, Mr. President” (with Frankie Yankovic!) and “The President Jimmy Carter March” in his list of credits.

In 1968, he recorded Burt Bacharach’s “You’ll Think of Someone” with Rose Marie Jun. The song eventually wound up on the compilation album, Broadway First Take, Vol. 2. Bernie and Rose Marie had previously teamed up on Broadway First Take: They sang “Dancing”, “Hello, Dolly!” and “Put on Your Sunday Clothes”.

In 1979, Bernie appeared sans Rose Marie on the Broadway soundtracks of Ballroom and Carmelina. His partner-in-crime in Ballroom was Lynn Roberts, with whom he recorded “Goodnight is Not Goodbye”, “One by One” and “A Song for Dancing”. Bernie and Lynn played the ballroom vocalists in this rather odd musical in which they were minor characters and yet sang the bulk of the material. “A Song for Dancing” subsequently appeared on Casa Musica Vol. 20: The Best of Ballroom Music Part 9, as an example of a quickstep. Carmelina, with music by Burton Lane, paired Bernie off with Gordon Ramsey and Howard Ross on “Image of Me” and “One More Walk around the Garden”.

Other albums on which he appears are Bud Green’s Two Shades of Green, Crystal Ball Records—45 RPM Days—Vol. 2, on which he sings “Don’t Take the Stars”, Don’t Give Name a Bad Place, and Frank Sinatra’s 1979 boxed set, Trilogy.

He passed away in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1994 when he was 70 years old.

Frank Sinatra recordings
That’s What God Looks Like To Me (Stan Irvin/Lan O’Kun)
Reprise RPS 49233 (XNY2101S) (US 45)

Theme from “New York, New York” (Fred Ebb/John Kander)
Reprise RPS49233 (XNY 2103 S) (US 45)

Sources:

Knee, Bernie (14th February 1924-20th November 1994)

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