TRACK #247:

Sail Away Tiny Sparrow by Harry Manferdini & Angela Rotella

Hey gang.

If you’re here reading this, I’ll assume you’re familiar with Jason Voorhees. Seems reasonable. I’ll also assume then that you’re at least familiar with the Friday the 13th film series, in some respect.

From there, I’ll make a lateral maneuver and assume that, since you are here, you may also be familiar with The Halloween Shindig podcast called Shindig Radio.

If you are, then you’re no doubt familiar with Shindig Radio personality and professional Monstersmith, Mikey Rotella.

Now, perhaps then, given you’ve listen to enough episodes (or maybe just the right episodes) and you also have a steel trap memory for weird personal trivia, you may know that Mikey comes from a very musical family.

First, you have his Grandfather, Julius Rotella Sr. He was a drummer and big band leader who had a family band way back. First with his brothers, then later with his own children, including his namesake, Jules Jr., tickling the ivories.

Providing lead vocals for that family band? Why, that was Mikey’s dad – the perpetually good-willed, world-renown spiritual singer, Marty Rotella. That’s right.

But wait, that’s not all! Cause you also get Johnny Rotella, an accomplished woodwind session player and the author of over 200 songs, including Nothing But the Best, which Frank Sinatra recorded in 1962.

The Chairman of the Board wasn’t the only one who put a little Johnny Rot on wax either. Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett and Doris Day have all recorded songs written by the illustrious Johnny Rotella. Pretty incredible.

As a session player, Johnny himself can be heard on tracks from the likes of Benny Goodman, Neil Diamond, Tommy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, and Steely Dan! Snap. That’s a murderer’s row of musicians right there, all with Johnny Rotella right at their side.

But that’s still not all. Because there’s also Johnny’s son, Bill Rotella, who’s band, Urban Shocker, provided the full-throttled action extraction Long After Midnight for the 1989 film Action USA. You can check Bill’s new music right here. Man, does it stop with this family?

Nope, because there’s also Bill’s sister, Geraldine. Who, like her father, is an accomplished flutist. One of the best in the industry, Geraldine can be heard on countless film scores including The Omen, Peter Jackson’s King Kong and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. 

But, back before Action USA, Friday the 13th, and Spock saving the Whales, Marty Rotella and his sister, Angela, had a band called Tranquil Sun. They produced a funky mix of disco pop and soul, with enough driving bass, stabbing brass and smooth synth to satisfy any aficionado. They have a sort of Chicago meets ABBA vibe that’s perfectly a product of it’s era and definitely grooves.

You can hear that album’s lead track called Run-Off here, thanks to a most generous YouTube user.

A part time member of this band, rippin’ a Sax himself and sweeping that analog cut-off filter, was a young, local New Jersey musician named Harry Manferdini.

Now, assuming (as I did above) you are familiar with Friday the 13th, then perhaps you are also familiar with Harry Manferdini. He’s the man responsible for scoring every film in the original 10 picture series, with the lone exception of Jason Takes Manhattan.

It was Harry’s “Ki Ki Ki, Ma Ma Ma” which went on to become the stuff of horror legend.

In addition to bustin’ reeds and detuning oscillators on Tranquil Sun’s 1981 release …Thinking of You, Harry also arranged and conducted the enitre album. Not a bad pull for a small New Jersey disco band.

Which brings us to Friday the 13th.

Harry revealed that an early cut of the film featured a fairly well known Dolly Parton tune called Fly Away Little Bluebird. However, Dolly was a bit out of budget for the small production and the track needing replacing. It’s kinda like what happened with Prom Night around the same time.

So, Harry penned the curiously titled, Sail Away Tiny Sparrow, as a replacement. He then tapped the best singer he knew, Angie from Tranquil Sun, to sing the tune.

Yep, that’s Mikey’s Aunt Angie all over the original Friday the 13th soundtrack. You can even hear Marty in the background providing, what Mikey referred to as, “the juice.”

A fan favorite in the Friday message boards, Sail Away Tiny Sparrow is just the kind of nice you’re not expecting from a film like Friday the 13th, and it adds a healthy dose of lived-in realism to environs of Crystal Lake.  Lots of fans over the years have wondered about it’s origins and performers, and hopefully this will fill in some of the gaps.

But, is that the end of the Rotella’s musical contributions? Not by a long shot, And not even as it concerns this playlist, as Mikey himself can be heard right here, belting it out with The Kyrpt-Keeper 5 on their cover of The Monster Mash. Sure, it’s no Run-Off, but it’s probably more in-line with our listener’s proclivities.

And hey, don’t knock showing up on The Shindig as a musical accomplishment. The last time I checked, neither Al Jourgensen nor Peter Steele could make that claim. So, check your hater jacket at the door.

And how about Marty? Oh, Marty’s doin’ aces. Don’t worry about that.

He’s been shootin’ 73% from the floor, trailing the Hoboken Bigfoot and recording songs under his very own label, Spirit Power Music, for over 30 years. It’s the banner under which you can find him on Instagram. There you can hear nuggets of sage-like advice and his wonderful singing voice. Follow Marty and show him some love from us over at @spiritpowermusic.

But enough about The Juice, what of this song?

Well, it’s most notably heard in the beginning of the film, when Annie enters the Crystal Lake general store to ask for directions to Camp Blood.

A slightly different version of the song is heard again later, at the Blairsville Diner, when Steve stops in for a quick bite and a coffee during the rainstorm.

Now, a version of this song appears on the Orignal Motion Picture soundtrack, but anyone familiar with the film will immediately hear a discrepancy. It sounds nothing like the prominent version in the film. The tempo has been reduced and Angie’s vocals have been pitched shifted down. Probably just side effect of the tempo change.

There are a few low-bit rate versions floating around the internet which attempt to correct this, and some aren’t bad. But I decided, what the hell, and took a crack at correcting it myself to see if i couldn’t get it a little closer and produce a cleaner, re-timed version for all of the Shindig fans. I tried to match the tempo and pitch as much as I could without being too destructive.

However, such tricks can not be accomplished without introducing some digital artifacts, which the eagle-eared among you may be able to detect. Hopefully, that’s not too distracting.

So, what do you think Friday fans? Did I get it pretty close to matching Angie’s original voice? I guess only She, Harry and The Juice know for sure. But hopefully one day, that original recording will resurface somewhere.

Until then, sail away tiny sparrow, out into the world.