Encounters with Greatness (An Occasional Series): Special "Dueling Senior Citizens" Edition

So my BFF (and longtime bandmate) Allan Weissman is vacationing in Europe (along with his charming wife) and they were briefly (i.e. just to connect to a train to London) in Paris the other day. A town where they actually had been, longer, on a few previous occasions, one of which you will hear about in the absolutely charming and romantic song below (written and sung by Allan, of course).

That just slays me, and it is with some regret that I confess I didn't play on it. But as I said, we've been doing music together off and on since 1965, when we made our first foray into a professional recording studio with another of Al's songs and came out with this (I think pretty damn good for kids) Beau Brummels-influenced number.

That's me doing the Hammond organ and meant-to-be Vince Guaraldi-ish piano solo. BTW, have I mentioned that Al is an absolutely brilliant singer/songwriter and bassist?

In any case, I bring all this up because Al has a birthday coming up on Tuesday, which makes him one day older than me, a fact that he never fails to remind me of around this time. And I just wanted to give him a big long overdue shout-out here, which this now officially is.

Hey Al -- it's been a gas!!! Here's to many more years of it, my friend!!! 😎

PS: Here's the true story of a song we kinda co-wrote (i.e., I came up with the lame riff) and first recorded in 1967 in Allan's basement in Teaneck, NJ (aka the Paris of Tri-State Metro Area). No audio, alas, but it's pretty funny all the same so enjoy!!! 😎😎