Submitted by scott on Tue, 09/06/2011 - 15:49

Earlier today I had the desire to play some old Donovan music. I have an lp of his. I looked up some of the tunes on Wikipedia and found that the tune Lalena was actually named for Lotte Lenya, the singer/actress famous for her role in Kurt Weill's The Three Penny Opera, among other roles. I wonder how many of you out there have heard of it or him. Once upon a time Bobby Darin had a hit with a tune from The Three Penny Opera, Mack the Knife. But then who now remembers Bobby Darin. So I played a few YouTube tunes of Lotte Lenya doing Weill's tunes and discovered that Cyndi Lauper was involved in a production of The Three Penny Opera. There was on YouTube a copy of Cyndi singing Solomon Song. The recording is poor but demonstrates what I have long believed, that Cyndi is a much greater talent than generally considered.

Anyway, what a short strange trip: Donovan to Lotte Lenya to Kurt Weill to Cyndi Lauper.