(snip)
"Imagine being one of those artists who's known for a single solitary song at least by the mass of the non-jazz insiders... And you can't NOT play it, or your adoring public will turn on you like a rabid toy poodle."
It's what could make Branson, Missouri the narthex of Hell.
Andy Williams won't sing "Moon River."
Kenny Rogers refuses to sing "The Gambler."
Lee Greenwood won't sing a medley of his hit.
I'm no great Liza Minnelli fan, but I respected that (years ago, I don't know if it's still true) when audiences asked her to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," she responded, "It's been done."
I remember seeing an interview with John Lennon when he was asked about a particular cut on an early album. For him and the band, it was a two-day thing; they wrote it, recorded it, and forgot it. But for those of us who played the records a gillion times, it had become engrained into our lives.
Maybe Mark David Chapman saved Lennon from a dotage of singing "P.S. I Love You" in Indian casinos.
Joe Myers
"Long-acting karma"