Invader at the BrillInvader_at_the_Brill,_Part_One.html

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    Calypso on Trial    Amsterdam Interview    Versions of the Song

The Settlement    Invader at the Brill, Part 1     Importance of  the Song    BLOG

The Testimony of Leighla Whipper    The Town Hall Concert     The Caribbean Club

Jeri Sullavan and the ‘V-DISC’”         The Life and Times of Massie Patterson

* Patty Andrews 1918 - 2013 Patty Andrews, the last living link to the events described in “Calypso on Trial”, died on January 30 at her home in Los Angeles. She was ninety-four. I spoke to Patty on the phone back in the 1980’s when I first got interested in the song. I asked her about that fateful day in October, 1944 when she ventured to sing about the military occupation of a far-off land. She was gracious and chatty and gave me some lines which she thought would be quotable but which didn’t make much sense. In fact, the Andrews Sisters never really understood the meaning of “Rum and Coca-Cola” even though it was the biggest-selling (by a wide margin) record of their career. And even though they did a very nice job of singing it. In reading several long obituaries of Patty I was struck by the down-playing of the importance of “Rum and Coca-Cola”. The obituary in THE GUARDIAN (London) didn’t even mention it. Other songs like “The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” and “Bei Mir Bist du Schon” were much more fondly remembered. We have to realize that “Rum and Coca-Cola” (in America) was a novelty song and its popularity was very much linked to the mindset of a particular time - wartime. It was much less likely to be revived than, say, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”. To this day I have never heard it played on the radio. * * * About this site - first-time callers should begin by reading “Calypso on Trial” which gives an overview of how the song was composed by Lord Invader in Trinidad in 1943, brought to the United States in the mind of comedian Morey Amsterdam, became the #1 most popular song in the country in 1945, and then was fought over in court in two high-stakes copyright infringement lawsuits, “Khan vs. Feist” and “Baron vs. Feist”, which were finally settled in 1950. The two other pages which are sure to please the casual reader are the “Amsterdam Interview”, an interview I recorded with Mr. Amsterdam in 1980, and “Versions of the Song” which has around twenty different versions of “Rum and Coca-Cola” and which is constantly being added to. After looking at those three pages you’ll have to decide whether you want to go into the details, which I find fascinating. I will be adding much more material in the coming months. Thanks. Yours truly in calypso, Kevin Burke Cambridge, Massachusetts kburke9@mac.comCalypso_on_Trial.htmlCalypso_on_Trial.htmlCalypso_on_Trial.htmlAmsterdam_interview.htmlversions.htmlmailto:kburke9@mac.comshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1shapeimage_4_link_2shapeimage_4_link_3shapeimage_4_link_4shapeimage_4_link_5