Felicity Ch. 34

Meters are wonderful but guys that know when to use them are indispensable.

The band did try the new bits the second night but the banter between Ruthie and Edie sounded under-rehearsed, which it was. Allen and Nancy chipped in on the banter during the third concert and the audience laughed hard and sang along with the chorus. It was very well received.

Friday night the whole thing clicked. The band bickered over my talents, then the talents of any man, then some personal preferences for such talent.

There were a lot of young girls in our audiences so we had to keep it mostly clean but the women picked up most euphemisms and they laughed loudly.

Ruthie wondered what kind of man played a viola, a violin on HGH.

Edie asked Allen if his violin had overdosed on steroids.

Alice and Marie interrupted the argument by softly singing, "Chirp-chirp."

Ruthie began the way too exaggerated lines of complaint and sorrow that were then followed by another "Chirp-chirp."

Ruthie briefly paused and looked up as if searching for the bird. She resumed with another six lines of woe accompanied by a sorrowful cello from Allen. It was followed by a "Chirp-chirp," from Nancy and the ladies.

The next two lines of woe were accompanied by a somewhat sad piano bit by Nancy that nevertheless picked up the tempo,

After another "Chirp-chirp," the lyrics became hopeful and everyone in the audience sang the chorus as the tempo increased again.

By the end of the next lyrics the band was rocking and was obviously having a great time and the audience picked up on that and was having a fabulous time itself and happily chirped-chirped along with the band.

They got a big ovation for that song.

As the crowd exited an hour later I heard several people go chirp-chirp.

Then I got an idea.

They loved the idea but had made an impossible demand, they wanted me to go onstage and begin the song on my viola.

I was eventually brow beaten into it but I hoped the audience would be gone by then.

No such luck.

Ruthie had finished her Janis encore but somehow the audience expected something, mainly because the band was still on stage.

I got on and began playing the first sorrowful stanza of the song followed immediately by Ruthie's chirp-chirp. Allen accompanied me with his cello on the second stanza followed by another chirp-chirp by Alice and Marie.

Nancy played the third stanza with us and Edie the fourth.

We were rocking hard by then and got harder when Carmen joined Nikki on drums, and Allen switched to electric guitar.

Everyone then got a feature instrumental stanza, (except me), until we abruptly ended the song after a soaring turn by Allen and his guitar.

I was stunned by the loudness and enthusiasm of the final chirp-chirp from the audience.

Ruthie, Nancy, and Edie had been on the receiving side of such an enthusiastic response but I had not so I sort of froze.

Ruthie thanked the audience for a great time then came over to get me. They were all smiling and waving so I did too.

Ruthie had taken my hand thereby making sure everyone knew who her husband was. Edie took Allen's hand as usual as we left the stage.

Nancy took Carmen's hand in hers thereby making sure everyone knew who her partner was.

Back stage our VIP's were as excited as we were. My plan had worked, the band was re-energized.

Ruthie devoured me that night and the next morning before we got on the plane home and again as soon as we got home.

On Monday Rob called and told us he wanted a CD called Chirp-Chirp and wanted it now. He had gotten an enormous amount of e-mail ordering it since Friday and did not know what anyone was talking about.

Ruthie kissed me hard before promising Rob we would have one before we returned to Vegas.

Everyone was still stoked over the last concert so everyone except Alice and Nikki was in the studio Tuesday morning.

Everyone had a silly song they had kept secret; I had three more, one about a lonely banana, one about a rock and roll hummingbird, and one about a horny Frankenstein monster with an extreme endowment, all somewhat risqué songs.

Alice and Nikki joined us the following Monday and they had a silly song for us about a Vegas showgirl.

Helen, Leigh, and Mom had such songs and we soon had almost enough for a CD.

I suggested we add the hard rocking instrumental version that we did as the last encore on the last show. Carmen joined Nikki on percussion again and we just rocked.

I switched my viola for my guitar after Allen switched to his. Violas have no business playing hard rock. All agreed with me on that.

Many in the studio heard that version for the first time when we played around with it and were floored. "We didn't know you guys could rock like that," was the comment we heard most.

Ruthie asked Helen to join us and she came up with a bit that sounded like an extended electric guitar solo, for her violin. Paloma, Naomi, and Carmen came up with a fiery Latin bit for the song. Sis did a high flying clarinet bit. It eventually became a nine-minute jam session that we recorded at Jana's place with twelve people in the band and forty-seven of our friend's chanting Chirp-chirp.

We did have the CD ready before the following Vegas gig at the beginning of October but we were all hesitant about releasing it. We had ended up making the whole thing into a hard rock album, something neither Melody, Nancy, nor Alice and Marie were known for.

I thought Ruthie's Janis numbers had primed her fans for the new sound and Nancy was enthusiastic about the CD. Her enthusiasm infected Ruthie and the CD was ordered but only for sale at Caesars and on our own website until Thanksgiving weekend.

We did five songs from the CD in the show and the jam session as the encore. The women in the audience loved my risqué songs and sang the choruses with enthusiasm. They loved Alice and Nikki's song about the naïve Vegas showgirl.

All CD's were sold that first night. Not just the thousand we had put out for that show but all five thousand copies we had brought for the week. Rob sent another fifteen thousand copies and all of them were sold before the Saturday concert.

Rob decided he needed to come to Vegas and see the show; he could not comprehend the reason for the phenomenon.

He said when the audience began to chant chirp chirp it sent goose bumps up his back. It was electrifying.

After the show he came to us and said, "You guys are now the best rock band around. On the next shows do the whole album."

He ordered one million CD's then changed his mind and ordered three million. Eventually ten million were sold worldwide that year.

It was the single most popular Christmas present that season, the monster hit I had facetiously predicted.

The CD stayed on the charts for eight years then returned to the charts, but in another world, twelve years later.

The money I made as composer of four of the songs was embarrassing.

The new CD fueled Melody's first world tour the following summer, twenty concerts in four continents over six weeks.

The band now included performances from Carmen, Helen, Leigh, and Sis. Our Moms and Wendy, Mo and their younger sister Amanda, Helens mother, were with us throughout.

Paloma, and Martina came along on the Europe and South America segments. Marshall, Holly and her Mom came to our Asian segments.

Our plane already had the expanded seat arrangement but many of our friends could not get a seat and had to fly on their own.

Every remaining seat not occupied by the artists and stage crew had been raffled off.

Neither Petra, Rhonda, Jana, Inga, Clara, nor Fiona had won a seat so Ruthie and I volunteered to pay their way only to learn our friends were rich themselves.

All came for every weekend show.

We had all our audiences chirping and shouting, "Frankenstein is coming" then yelling 'Yeah' in seven languages.

We had ladies sexily singing "bananas" then as the song slowed suddenly shouting "plantains" five times.

We had people humming like demented hummingbirds.

We had ladies wondering, "What now" to the showgirl song.

We really had become a rock band.

A hard rock band.

The audiences received the old songs well especially the angry ones from the first CD with Nancy and the one I had at first suggested Ruthie sing as Janis would.

The first of each lady's big hits were well received too but we could see that most of the audiences were just waiting for the hard rock show. Melody had retired the Janis songs and only did one when the audience asked. They only asked in Tokyo and Berlin.

We added lines for some of the old songs in the language of the country we were in. The second time they were repeated everyone sang along with us. We were a phenomenon.

However in many venues people were shouting chirp-chirp almost from the start.

In Tokyo Helen had an amazing solo turn at the encore that brought an immediate ovation from the fans so we gave her another turn at the end before Allen joined her on the electric guitar. That nine-minute jam session lasted over twelve minutes.

Carmen and Nikki turned our segues into an amazing percussion section that lengthened the jam session a bit more. Sis picked up the challenge and just killed on her clarinet.

Helen and Allen were amazing together. I could now see the awe all held for their talents.

By our last concerts our nine-minute jam was lasting over fifteen minutes.

By the end of each show the band and the audiences were all wrung out.

We were exhausted by the time we got back home. Rob told us that our tour had made more money than any other twenty date concert tour ever had. He got only a smile from us, we were spent.

Ruthie would usually take a few days to shake off her fatigue after a tour but her fatigue persisted for a couple of weeks after we got back.

Our Mom's and I dragged her to the doctor's office and we learned she was pregnant.

We had been so busy for so long she just forgot to take her pills.

The elation in that office soon spread to the town and we had waves of visitors to our house.

Our Mom's did not like that much and put Ruthie on a "better have a good reason to see" basis.

Of course kissing her and telling her they loved her was considered a good enough reason but those visitors were held to two or five at a time.

Petra, Helen, Leigh, Edie and Vicky were in our house everyday. One or two were there at breakfast, one or two at lunch, all of them were there in the evening. Our Moms were there everyday too and Martina joined them in the kitchen as they cooked.

Ruthie told everyone she was fine and not to fuss over her but the others told her they loved fussing over her.

Ruthie did attend the next three parties at Jana's pool and we continued to have friends in our hot tub but it was basically a tame time for us.

All tours were cancelled except Vegas.

Business wise it was bad timing for us, the band was the most popular act in the world and we could command whatever we wanted for our shows.

Caesar's Vice-President for entertainment, Josie, learned of the pregnancy and reacted as if she as afraid her shows would be cancelled too.

She offered us more money for fewer dates and she rearranged our schedule so that we would play no concerts from after Ruthie was seven months pregnant until the baby was three months old.

She did confess that we were her biggest investment and guests from foreign markets had increased to over five hundred percent on our performance dates.

We did work in the studio and came up with a symphonic rock album but it did not generate the buzz that the chirp chirp album had. We were not surprised.

When our baby Janis was six months old we went on a summer European concert tour between Vegas gigs. We were very satisfied to see we had lost very little of our expanded fan base. Our Moms babysat at home for that tour but decided the baby was sturdy enough for the rest of them and joined us on the subsequent tours starting with the next Caesar's gig.

The following summer we went on an Asian tour and we had an even bigger response than we had on our first trip.

Helen had become a major star there.

We did Australia and South America the next year then Canada, Mexico, and the States the year after. Our baby was a toddler before those.

Vicky had warned us about how quickly it went from disappearing from where we put her when she learned to crawl to running through the house naked while laughing her head off.

Ruthie and I were still stunned.

Janis could carry on conversations well before the age of two and had the best sounding giggles I had ever heard.

Janis was also an inquisitive child; we had to provide her with her own piano, guitar and violin to keep her away from ours. She stole her parents shrimp linguini often enough we just started ordering three to go each time.

She loved everyone but like her mother she had a special place in her heart for Petra.

Janis had auburn hair and big green eyes and looked like Melody's daughter even though her hair and eyes came from her father. Twice she managed to walk on stage before anyone could catch her. Everyone in the audience could tell whose daughter she was.

When she was five we allowed her to join her Mom on stage at the piano. She was flawless as she backed up Ruthie and Nancy when they stood to sing a duet.

The ovation for her made Janis cry, and made her mother cry, and made her father cry. Her grandmas and her aunts Edie and Nancy had to wipe tears away.

Janis would not perform in public again for three years. Each time we asked she would say, "I'll think about it."

Her next public appearance was with the resurrected Felicity Quintet, she and Ruthie played Chopin on a podcast one evening.

She also played the Bach prelude with Helen never missing a note.

Her parents did not know she could do that. But Helen did.

Janis was eight years old.

We were as famous as anyone ever gets worldwide but somewhat anonymous at home. We were most often referred to as Janis' parents.

Ruthie and I loved to hear that.

We retired after our contract with Caesars expired and became studio people and parents.

Over time Petra and Sally drifted apart although they remained friends. Eventually Sally left Felicity. She opened an amazingly successful pastry shop at Caesars in Vegas.

Sis and Petra moved in together but as housemates not lovers.

My sister's main lover became a married woman named Audrey. Petra's main lover remained a married woman called Ruthie.

By then we had become sedentary. Carmen, Nancy, Edie and Ruthie had gained weight.

All of us were restless.

We had become a studio and podcast band that now included Sis, Helen, Leigh, Carmen, Edie, Allen, Nancy, Ruthie and me.

We should have been satisfied.

But we were restless.

Out of the blue Caesars offered us another ten-year contract, five shows a week, four weeks each year.

We asked if the dates could be two weeks in June and two in July to accommodate the band members that would not leave the classroom.

Josie said anything we wanted.

We were restless.

So we took the offer.

We sold out every show.