Rant #2,394: Communication

Today, I am putting together a blog entry that really has nothing to do with anything, but it is on a subject that I have recently discovered and found to be fascinating.

More to the point, I am writing about the side of a popular actor that I never knew existed until now, or really, until the past few years.

David McCallum has had one of the strangest, up and down, longest lasting careers on television, at least in America.

The Scottish-British-American actor first came to our attention in a slew of movies in the late 1950s, where he often played a juvenile delinquent, including "The Violent Playground," and he had bit parts in several other films, including "A Night To Remember," about the Titanic.

Moving into the 1960s, McCallum continued to work pretty steadily as a film actor, aided by that quirky type of voice that you couldn't distinguish from being British or American, but that voice aided him to the hilt as Russian agent Illya Kuryakin in the TV series "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." where he added a sort of Russian "tinge" to it.

Playing his role as a hip Russian agent with a semi-Beatle haircut and sharp outfits, McCallum became something of a sex symbol/teenybop star as opposed to Robert Vaughn's more staid, Napoleon Solo secret agent look, and the show's popularity allowed McCallum to pursue other show biz ventures, which I will get back to in a moment.

After the four-year run of the show, McCallum kind of faded from view, at least in America. He continued to act in movies and television--actually starring in the short-lived TV series "Invisible Man"--but his profile became so low from the late 1960s to the early 2000s that he was frequently the topic of the inevitable "Is he still alive?" questions.

In 2003, he got the break of a lifetime as one of the stars of "NCIS," as Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the team's chief medical examiner. He has continued with the show for its entire run, becoming one of its most popular characters. In fact, in one episode, one character wondered to another what Mallard looked like as a young man, and the response was, "He looked like David McCallum."

He is now 85 years old, and will continue with the show into its 17th season in 2019-2020.

Anyway, back to his time as Ilya ...

McCallum, the son of professional musicians, had a passion for music that went back to his childhood, and he actually was an accomplished oboe player in England, winning a musical scholarship to attend college.

The passion continued as he got older, but his musical career became somewhat sidetracked when he got into acting.

During his "U.N.C.L.E." years, he had gained so much clout from the show that record labels lined up to sign him to recording contracts, and finally, Capitol Records won out, and he ended up recording four LPs for the label and one very interesting single, called "Communication."

The only way to describe "Communication" is that it is uncategorizeable. It is a mix of spoken word, instrumental, female background singing, I guess what you could call rapping, and a bunch of non-sequitors that will leave your head ringing after hearing McCallum perform on this record.

It was way too weird for radio programmers, and while the record only bubbled under on the Billboard Hot 100, it set the tone for one of the strangest, yet most interesting, TV-movie tie-in recording careers that I can think of.

When record labels signed TV stars to recording contracts in the 1950s pretty much through the 1980s, it was felt that the signing was justified because the star was so hot, and was on TV each and every week, why not try to milk his/her popularity with the actor warbling some songs--maybe one will catch on.

For example, George Maharis became so popular on "Route 66" that he was signed to a recording contract, put out several albums and singles, and had a few hits, and the same thing can be said for Richard Chamberlain from "Dr. Kildare."

But back to McCallum ...

The same thought was in mind when the actor signed with Capitol Records, but he had other things in mind.

He decided not to sing a note on his records, and that he would simply take some hits of the day and re-orchestrate them in his own musical vision.

So his four albums for the label are simply filled with instrumentals, with his brand on each and every song, which must have driven the record executives crazy. How do you market instrumentals of popular songs done by a TV star whose face will be on the cover of the albums, but who actually won't be on the songs in any way?

McCallum's four Capitol LPs are musical journeys into his state of mind, and while they didn't spur too much airplay, they are pretty fascinating, no matter what song he is covering. He was really into the music, was something of a musical prodigy to begin with, and his star popularity gave him the leverage to do what he wanted to do, and do it with a lot of aplomb.

These recordings have been cult favorites for the past 50 years or so, and rappers have actually sampled several of these songs for their own recordings.

They are really worth searching out. I knew about them previously, but only now have I actually added his music to my collection, including "Communication," which has to be heard once, twice or three times to really absorb what McCallum was trying to do with this work.

And once his four-LPs were done, he was pretty much not heard from on record in the U.S. thereafter, except for a few spoken word LPs, a warble on "U.N.C.L.E." with guest star Nancy Sinatra, and on a soundtrack album to a movie that he starred in, "Three Bites of the Apple." where he sang one or two songs.

You can check out "Communication" at https://youtu.be/3rs4c-TEOVg and his interpretation of Lou Rawls' "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" at https://youtu.be/9AU4bYrrw9s, as well as a bunch of his music on other spots on YouTube,

So although we all know McCallum as a fine actor, he is primarily a musician, and his music certainly opened up my eyes about another side of the actor that I never knew existed.

It might do the same for you, too.