almost okay

If you had told me in the '60s that Gidget would still be hanging around television in 2007 and selling Boniva, I'd have called you a liar. I guess I wouldn't have known what Boniva was, but I'd still think you had a screw loose. And if you'd gone on to tell me she'd still be cute as a bug's ear at age 60 (incredible!), I wouldn't have believed that either. But Neil Diamond didn't exactly write that song about me. I still can't believe I'm blogging.

Yes indeed, Sally Field is alive and well and working as a spokesperson for a drug that battles osteoporosis. She even has a key role in “Brothers & Sisters”, a hit drama on ABC. In the decades since she played Gidget all those years ago, Sally's also collected Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes for some memorable serious acting roles. More serious than the Flying Nun, you ask? How about Norma Rae... how about Sybil, the schizophrenic? A far cry from her character of Sister Bertrille, the nun who learns to fly with the aid of her over-sized cornette and her under-sized ass, no?

Thanks to the “The Flying Nun” though, Sally was able to cross over into that rarefied air of 'Stardom' that allowed her to record an album even though she can't really sing, joining the lofty company of fellow golden-throated actors Leonard Nimoy, Barbara Eden and Joey Bishop, among others. She even managed to place one of the songs from this LP on Billboard's Hot 100 around the holidays in 1967 - the first year of “Nun's” three-year run. “Felicidad” crested at Number 94 before sinking out of sight after just a few short weeks on the chart. And well it should have. It was a miracle that it landed there at all, and I can't say I'd recommend this album based on an enjoyable listening experience. It's more of a curiosity than anything else, widening my 'Celebrity Vocals' section by another eighth inch. But I won't speak for you, dear reader. Some of you may actually enjoy this LP, so have at it. I couldn't sit through it twice if you were threatening me with a shotgun in my mouth and a pistol up my ass.

If you remember the series at all, you will recall that there was an odd, nearly immoral sexual tension between the sweet, innocent, barely legal Sister Bertrille (remember she's a nun!) and her costar, Alejandro Rey, the much older debonair Argentinian who played Cuban lecher Carlos Ramirez on the show. Episodes are out on DVD. Unfortunately you won't find today's album on CD, but it's probably only a matter of time.

Gidget and Sister Bertrille aside, my fondest memories of Sally were when she played opposite Burt Reynolds in the 1977 action comedy “Smokey and the Bandit”. I was just nineteen and I'll never forget those jeans she wore, the way the wind blew through her hair, her sweet little toes on the dashboard as Burt drove them down the highway...

I paid a buck for this playable but rough copy, and even though there aren't a lot of them floating around, a pristine one still doesn't have a lot of value. I'd be lucky to get five for it on Ebay, and in NM condition a stereo copy like mine goes for just five times that according to my trusty price guides. So it's just one more album that will go for a buck at my estate sale. Unless of course you want to buy the whole lot. They'd probably make you a deal.