The Wackiest Ship in the Army.Ricky Nelson.Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans

This urban-centric geo love song about The Big Easy is from a 1960 movie “The Wackiest Ship in the Army”. A comedy-drama set in WWII’s Australia. Its early 1943 just before a reluctant skipper (Jack Lemmon) is about to take command of the USS Echo (a twin-mast scow). His soon-to-be 2nd in command (played by a just-turned 21 Ricky Nelson) are found in the Officer’s Club playing a piano version of Name-That-Tune. Lemmon plunks a few notes of a song and Nelson begins singing this pleasurable version of this classic.

Terry Note: Please don’t read further until you’ve viewed the clip (trivia follows).

This is one of my favorite (albeit, shot) renditions of “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans”. The song was composed by the team of Louis Alter (Music) and Eddie De Lange (Lyrics) during 1946. This effort was for a movie production called, not surprisingly, “New Orleans” (released in 1947) and featured performances by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday.

So… in 1943 Navy Lt. Rip Crandall (Jack Lemmon) and Ensign Tommy Hanson (Ricky Nelson) play the game of Name-That-Tune in that Australian O-Club and sing a song that hasn’t been written yet (1946) or heard in public until the 1947 release of the movie “New Orleans”. Regardless, this remains one of my favorites.