Monday, November 17, 2014

Who else sings about pumpkin pie with such gusto?

As often as I've heard Perry Como's "(There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays" on the radio, one small part of it still makes me lose all composure.  In the verse following the sudden detour into Bugs Bunny cartoon territory, "Take a bus, take a train, go and hop an aeroplane...," Como and his backup singers let loose.  He sings, more freely the second time around, about the man in Tennessee who "was headin' for Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie."  The backup singers belt out "Some pumpkin pie!" with such conviction that when I'm driving, I nearly swerve off the road, heaving with laughter.  Admittedly, pumpkin pie, especially with Cool Whip, is delicious.  Somehow, though, I doubt that anyone has sung about it on record with such manic gusto since Como's backup singers in 1959.