This is singularly the most wonderful thing ever made. I am not sure they are strictly keeping to the sentiment of the original song, but who cares when they look sooooo good. Hammer time.
She'd hammer for freedom, even if it meant breaking a nail or losing a pearl. This is the most incongruous match of visuals, style, song choice and overall presentation I've ever seen. Totally surreal and thoroughly enjoyable.
I lived in Las Vegas from 1998 until 2015 and was thrilled to see Debbie do her "little show" as she called it, about 4 times. The first was January 1999 and I drove with a friend to Laughlin, NV to see her. I have a daughter who is 36 years old now and she and her friend Sadie started watching Singin' In the Rain when they were 12(and Grease) and virtually had the dialogue and the songs memorized. So at the end of the show, I stood line with about 20 other people and had Debbie autograph the program I'd bought to my daughter. She still had it a few years ago. I saw her a couple of other times, once where she came on stage on a scooter...she was recovering from walking off the stage a few month previous. And the last one was her last show Nov 2014 at the South Point Casino, where Carrie and her daughter and Todd all came on stage to make an appearance and to talk about what she was going to be doing. The show, sadly, wasn't the best she'd been but she was 80+ years old by then. She's been a big part of my life for a while. PS I just finished reading My Girls, the new book by Todd Fisher. I learned lots of things about that whole family and laughed and cried all the way through it.
It took 45 years of slow aging for this video to mature. What was once an ordinary mid '60s dance and song number is now full-bodied, aromatic, legendary kitch.
Debbie Reynolds is Long Overdue for an Oscar. Such a Talent and a Outstanding Talent at that. Great Sense of Humour and always gives a Great Performance. Britain Loves You Debbie Reynolds.
First I laughed my ass off, but then I watched it a couple more time and realized how really well done it is, and how great she really is. The I ROFLED some more! TOTALLY favorited!
@@walwilliams5534 It’s almost as bad as the Lawrence Welk version of ‘One Toke Over The Line’ which is saved by the fact that you can literally see people in the band trying to not bust out laughing.
The clip here is not from stage or TV, it is Scopitone. You can look it up to find out more about it. Essentially, Scopitone was a 60s visual jukebox playing what we now call videos, clips of current pop tunes, enhanced with lots of costumes, cardboard or real scenery, cheesy choreography. Scopitone machines were placed mostly in bars and restaurants. You put in- I'm not positive- a quarter or fifty cents, and you'd see Debbie, Barbara McNair, Della Reese, Bobby Rydell, Vic Damone, a lot of B-list American acts and a ton of French and German performers doing their thing. I believe Debbie and then husband Harry Karl were investors in Scopitone. It was 'way ahead of its time, the forerunner of MTV, but it tanked.
Imagine how expensive they were to produce as well as film these clips. The Scopitone TV screens were pretty small. A bar could hear them but had to circle around the machine to view.
@@Scorchy666 I love it when I get reminded of things I wrote last year, 3 years ago, 10 years ago, even longer! I love revisiting this particular Scopitone now, and to quote my own formula: When content and style are polar opposites, you've got CAMP! I recommend to you: Jane Morgan's "C'est Si Bon" Scopitone as well.
She really makes you FEEL this song, doesn't she? I mean, I've been wishing I had a hammer for the last two minutes because I know what I'd do with it.
i love this song. personally i'm used to the trini lopez version, but it has been redone very well. As incredible as debbie is, nothing is better than trini singing this song.
This is probably the weirdest thing I'll see on UA-cam today. Great song, great artist, awful together. Thanks for posting this oddly fascinating item.
I lived in the 50's, 60's and 70's. I say this. What Peter, Paul and Mary achieved, in their own wright, was timely and fabulous. Debbie Reynolds singing this song, definitely NOT the same song. Understand. Debbie sang her family history, the depression, hungry, no hope but your belief in your self. Peter, Paul and Mary sang of powerful, necessary change. They were not hungry, dispossessed, destitute. (That is not a critisism of P.P.M) Times WERE a'changing
That really does show character. Besides, even though the A&R guy who thought this was a good pick for a pop TV show should have been shot, her actual performance was great. A true talent and a great person.
I like the way that there are no black performers in this song, associated with the 60's civil rights movement. But Debbie can sing. That girl can sing...
Yes, you can. Debbie sang the song from her milieu. The message was delivered to people, many who never heard Pete Seeger, or Joan Baez, or Peter, Paul and Mary, who who otherwise would not have heard. Never underestimate the power of a song, no matter the artist or arrangement.
I'd agree if it were just Debbie's vocals and the musical arrangement. What really doesn't fit the song and actually distracts from the message are the flirtatious dance moves, the sexy low-cut dresses, and the rest of the dancers' choreography, which does not connect with the lyrics of the song at all. (Oh, and, Chance, I'm a huge Debbie Reynolds fan. But this 'performance' is as silly as Tennessee Ernie Ford's "go-go" arrangement of 16 Tons-which you can also find here on UA-cam.)
I agree with all you've written, but that's what makes it priceless, unforgettable camp fun. And Debbie's rendition, which, if you close your eyes, and listen, is really close to the emotion of the song, just via Hollywood Boulevard. They all certainly go at with with gusto and everything so strange about it makes it just all the more appealing, at least to many of the almost 300K viewers here as of 6/18. If you like this, NEXT...Yma Sumac's rock album
@RantsRavesandMore This is a Scopitone film. Back in the 60s, clubs had 16mm film jukeboxes that played music videos. This was one of the original ones that was made. They didn't do too well in the US, only attracting Pat Boone type performers, but were a big smash in France.
Debbie: I love this video and your voice/range/Your Originality/Grace/Beauty/Poise and Total Excellent Abilities all shine! This is a Once in a life time video and what you had to go though back then isn't conveyed is it? It's too easy today but you're an inspiration today as you were years ago. You are Ageless, Debbie! Love Ya! Dee Jay Silverheels
I saw this being shown to Pete Seeger in a UA-cam elsewhere on the web, and I think the people who showed it to him half-expected him to object. But Pete Seeger from the start said something like "The song never LOOKED so good!" As he went on, he seemed glad that Peter Paul and Mary had played around with it and what they did made it successful, where it had not made that huge an impact a decade or so earlier. It made me think about where the lyric revision Debbie uses here goes, in what I know we've thought a campy sensibility, and winds up around 2:08 - adding these extra lyrics to the love between your brothers and your sisters which is in all versions- "Love between all of your brothers, And love between all of your sisters, All over this land." which I think is not in any other version. While the whole thing is still a hoot, could the intent have been what feels so clearly spelled out and added at the end: adding in love between men and love between women.
I like it that Pete Seeger didn't make any cheap or demeaning comments. Whatever this video is, and it is sometimes....OFTEN...very bizarre, it's well-sung.
Yes, the gown the wig the heels and especially the ethnically diverse group of dancers really help sell the message of the song. I do dig this version though.
The Trini Lopez original is classic....and the Peter Paul and Mary version is amazing, but I did enjoy this version, a transition from the 50's to the the 60's. The sets are amazing mid century style and the dancing is pure camp entertainment. But in a time where style and appearence were still important.
This song was meant as a call to the working class--the "hammer" is to represent the power of laborers in industry. And yet, there's Debbie singing it in a beautiful expensive gown, dancing with men in tuxedos...
"If I Had A Hammer" is a classic folk song from the 60's, nilblaze. It's Debbie's ill advised attempt to be hip to the youth crowd and cater to her older fanbase that makes this so funny.
I wonder if anyone actually read the lyrics before doing this. There is absolutely no connection between the words and the way she's singing it, the choreography, etc. It's somewhat mind boggling, actually.
So is your BEARD, moron. No, it's not much of a number, but it tramples the garbage that has come from, say, Janet Jackson, an "Icon" who really cannot sing, dance, or do anything - except lay claim to being the "sister of"....
Hmm. Have an anger problem, Gary? I was merely making an observation on someone singing a song. You're reaction is quite bizarre. My beard is mind-boggling? I'm a moron? Wow, I can't imagine how you react if someone directly insults you. Have a good day, man. And chill.
It's all about taste and perspective, dude - and you have neither. It's a GREAT song, well-sung...admittedly on the corny side. But, again, look at those horrible Janet Jackson videos from the '80s and '90s, before you start criticizing old TV clips. Jackson hasn't a drop of distinctive talent, along with most MTV "video artists."
You sure do go directly to the insults, don't you? For the record, I don't like Janet Jackson, either. But that's rather beside the point, isn't it? I am a huge Pete Seeger fan, and I love this song; it is very reminiscent and reflective of my generation and my efforts in the anti-war movement. But based only on my comment about not liking the production in the video, you have determined that I am a moron with no taste and no perspective. Perhaps you need to take my comments for what they are -- one man's opinion of one music video. That's hardly the basis on which to initiate derogatory and insulting comments. Do you always judge people on such minimal criteria? If so, I feel sorry for you, man.
I literally once saw a woman sing what was suppose to be a religious 'church' song to the tune of the original strip tease music! I kid you not! This reminds me of that!
deb and the group there may have talent but this rendition of the song is so....Debbie hammering out justice makes me think of someone telling the starving to eat cake.
If you all love to hear Debbie singing... Watch 'the Unsinkable Molly Brown'.. It is fantastic and there are some absolutely cracking belters of songs in it... :0)x
This is definitely what Pete Seeger had in mind when he and Lee Hays wrote this song. Nailed it!
I love Debbie's skirt swishes and her little head rocks . .
The bridge between the 40's generation and 60's generation toppled into the river right at this point.
This is singularly the most wonderful thing ever made. I am not sure they are strictly keeping to the sentiment of the original song, but who cares when they look sooooo good. Hammer time.
She'd hammer for freedom, even if it meant breaking a nail or losing a pearl. This is the most incongruous match of visuals, style, song choice and overall presentation I've ever seen. Totally surreal and thoroughly enjoyable.
I've decided that I love you for this comment. You are loved. #FeelTheLove
It's strange...but there's a kind of brilliance to it! Very well done!!!
I lived in Las Vegas from 1998 until 2015 and was thrilled to see Debbie do her "little show" as she called it, about 4 times. The first was January 1999 and I drove with a friend to Laughlin, NV to see her. I have a daughter who is 36 years old now and she and her friend Sadie started watching Singin' In the Rain when they were 12(and Grease) and virtually had the dialogue and the songs memorized. So at the end of the show, I stood line with about 20 other people and had Debbie autograph the program I'd bought to my daughter. She still had it a few years ago. I saw her a couple of other times, once where she came on stage on a scooter...she was recovering from walking off the stage a few month previous. And the last one was her last show Nov 2014 at the South Point Casino, where Carrie and her daughter and Todd all came on stage to make an appearance and to talk about what she was going to be doing. The show, sadly, wasn't the best she'd been but she was 80+ years old by then. She's been a big part of my life for a while.
PS I just finished reading My Girls, the new book by Todd Fisher. I learned lots of things about that whole family and laughed and cried all the way through it.
It took 45 years of slow aging for this video to mature. What was once an ordinary mid '60s dance and song number is now full-bodied, aromatic, legendary kitch.
This remains one of the greatest things I have ever seen.
Debbie Reynolds is Long Overdue for an Oscar.
Such a Talent and a Outstanding Talent at that. Great Sense of Humour and always gives a Great Performance.
Britain Loves You Debbie Reynolds.
So Lovely.... why can’t women look like this today? Beautiful
This is beautiful. Debbie Reynolds is a great lady and looks and sounds sensational here.
First I laughed my ass off, but then I watched it a couple more time and realized how really well done it is, and how great she really is.
The I ROFLED some more!
TOTALLY favorited!
It just gets better/worse EVERY. TIME. I. SEE. IT. #AnythingScopitone
@@walwilliams5534
It’s almost as bad as the Lawrence Welk version of ‘One Toke Over The Line’ which is saved by the fact that you can literally see people in the band trying to not bust out laughing.
This is the best video made in the history of the universe.
I couldn't possibly agree with you more!!
I think you may be right!!! : )
Absolutely
You've got to give her some credit if she can hammer out justice in THOSE shoes.
What an iconic performance and what a beautiful woman Debbie was ,a real true star ⭐️.
At last, an absolutely definitive version of this song!
Fool3SufferingFools 😆😆😆😆
A unique interpretation to say the least! But, then, Debbie is such a fine entertainer that she can put it over! Thanks for posting this clip.
The clip here is not from stage or TV, it is Scopitone. You can look it up to find out more about it. Essentially, Scopitone was a 60s visual jukebox playing what we now call videos, clips of current pop tunes, enhanced with lots of costumes, cardboard or real scenery, cheesy choreography. Scopitone machines were placed mostly in bars and restaurants. You put in- I'm not positive- a quarter or fifty cents, and you'd see Debbie, Barbara McNair, Della Reese, Bobby Rydell, Vic Damone, a lot of B-list American acts and a ton of French and German performers doing their thing. I believe Debbie and then husband Harry Karl were investors in Scopitone. It was 'way ahead of its time, the forerunner of MTV, but it tanked.
Wow, that's really interesting
Imagine how expensive they were to produce as well as film these clips. The Scopitone TV screens were pretty small. A bar could hear them but had to circle around the machine to view.
@@Scorchy666 I love it when I get reminded of things I wrote last year, 3 years ago, 10 years ago, even longer! I love revisiting this particular Scopitone now, and to quote my own formula: When content and style are polar opposites, you've got CAMP! I recommend to you: Jane Morgan's "C'est Si Bon" Scopitone as well.
I've never heard the song done this way before but I love it. It kind of makes me laugh but I can't stop singing it
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
What a lovely Version
She really makes you FEEL this song, doesn't she? I mean, I've been wishing I had a hammer for the last two minutes because I know what I'd do with it.
Love the head action.
i love this song. personally i'm used to the trini lopez version, but it has been redone very well. As incredible as debbie is, nothing is better than trini singing this song.
"You can't sing a protest song without a fabulous gown, a glamorous wig, and matching heels."
Why ever not?
LMAO
I Love this Lady.
Bringing happiness, even in death. Debbie, you'll live forever!
I wonder if she ever did "We Shall Overcome"?
Got A Love It!!!!!!! Git Er Done Debbie
Beautiful woman and great talent!
This is probably the weirdest thing I'll see on UA-cam today. Great song, great artist, awful together. Thanks for posting this oddly fascinating item.
Absolutely superb!
Thanks for sharing it. ;)
I lived in the 50's, 60's and 70's.
I say this.
What Peter, Paul and Mary achieved, in their own wright, was timely and fabulous.
Debbie Reynolds singing this song, definitely NOT the same song.
Understand.
Debbie sang her family history, the depression, hungry, no hope but your belief in your self.
Peter, Paul and Mary sang of powerful, necessary change.
They were not hungry, dispossessed, destitute.
(That is not a critisism of P.P.M)
Times WERE a'changing
It´s an amazing performance....
Greatest music video ever. Should have been 10 minutes
That really does show character. Besides, even though the A&R guy who thought this was a good pick for a pop TV show should have been shot, her actual performance was great. A true talent and a great person.
soooooooooooo funny...wrong in so many ways, gotta love it!
That choreography is making the hair on my neck stand up.
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
I like the way that there are no black performers in this song, associated with the 60's civil rights movement. But Debbie can sing. That girl can sing...
Here's the funny thing....We bought it!
I saw her daughter Carrie on Broadway performing her one woman show "Wishful Drinking" last November.
Yes, you can. Debbie sang the song from her milieu. The message was delivered to people, many who never heard Pete Seeger, or Joan Baez, or Peter, Paul and Mary, who who otherwise would not have heard. Never underestimate the power of a song, no matter the artist or arrangement.
I'd agree if it were just Debbie's vocals and the musical arrangement. What really doesn't fit the song and actually distracts from the message are the flirtatious dance moves, the sexy low-cut dresses, and the rest of the dancers' choreography, which does not connect with the lyrics of the song at all.
(Oh, and, Chance, I'm a huge Debbie Reynolds fan.
But this 'performance' is as silly as Tennessee Ernie Ford's "go-go" arrangement of 16 Tons-which you can also find here on UA-cam.)
I agree with all you've written, but that's what makes it priceless, unforgettable camp fun. And Debbie's rendition, which, if you close your eyes, and listen, is really close to the emotion of the song, just via Hollywood Boulevard. They all certainly go at with with gusto and everything so strange about it makes it just all the more appealing, at least to many of the almost 300K viewers here as of 6/18. If you like this, NEXT...Yma Sumac's rock album
Tuggle LMFAO at your comment about the matching heels.
FIGHT THE POWER!!!!!!
makes Welk look like hip-hop!!!
not enough vodka in the house to make me watch more!!
@RantsRavesandMore This is a Scopitone film. Back in the 60s, clubs had 16mm film jukeboxes that played music videos. This was one of the original ones that was made. They didn't do too well in the US, only attracting Pat Boone type performers, but were a big smash in France.
Debbie: I love this video and your voice/range/Your Originality/Grace/Beauty/Poise and Total Excellent Abilities all shine! This is a Once in a life time video and what you had to go though back then isn't conveyed is it? It's too easy today but you're an inspiration today as you were years ago. You are Ageless, Debbie! Love Ya! Dee Jay Silverheels
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
Lovely lady, I wouldn't give her a Hammer.
Is she not the cutest thing ever?!
Right. Nobody's perfect.
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
This is why "omg" was invented.
I saw this being shown to Pete Seeger in a UA-cam elsewhere on the web, and I think the people who showed it to him half-expected him to object. But Pete Seeger from the start said something like "The song never LOOKED so good!" As he went on, he seemed glad that Peter Paul and Mary had played around with it and what they did made it successful, where it had not made that huge an impact a decade or so earlier.
It made me think about where the lyric revision Debbie uses here goes, in what I know we've thought a campy sensibility, and winds up around 2:08 - adding these extra lyrics to the love between your brothers and your sisters which is in all versions-
"Love between all of your brothers, And love between all of your sisters, All over this land."
which I think is not in any other version. While the whole thing is still a hoot, could the intent have been what feels so clearly spelled out and added at the end: adding in love between men and love between women.
I like it that Pete Seeger didn't make any cheap or demeaning comments. Whatever this video is, and it is sometimes....OFTEN...very bizarre, it's well-sung.
Excellent tribute Debbie Reynolds ***********
Lee Hays made money everytime this song got sung. I can't get the last 2 minutes of my life back, but that fact made it worth it.
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
Shes my idol lol.
@1yram and a good actress to boot!!! :)
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
But ya DON'T, Debbie, ya DON'T!
WOW! Speechless.
This is the greatest bunch of comments I've ever seen on a YT video. We should all collaborate on line and write a TV show.
I wish she had done Solidarity Forever this way too.
the Peter Paul and Mary version is still my favorite, but I love that description!
Yes, the gown the wig the heels and especially the ethnically diverse group of dancers really help sell the message of the song.
I do dig this version though.
Ahahahaha. I was looking for the PPM version of this, but I'm glad I found this. It delivered mulitple "LOL"s. Multiple. :P
I want to hit like a million times. ❤
Wow...I'm not sure what to say after hearing her version....i wonder what 'ol Pete thought?
I love her though..and I love Pete...
Too good to be true.
But it's the hammer of justice, man. And who better to deliver the message of peace and freedom than Tammy.
FUCKING LOVE IT!!! LOVE BETWEEN YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS ALL OVER THIS LAND DAM IT!
Very intresting take on this! Never seen this before. Thanks for posting!
Next up Ms. Debbie Reynolds sings the Internationale
:-)
Rest In Peace Debbie
Reminded me of "Mars Attacks."
This is about Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor
The Trini Lopez original is classic....and the Peter Paul and Mary version is amazing, but I did enjoy this version, a transition from the 50's to the the 60's. The sets are amazing mid century style and the dancing is pure camp entertainment. But in a time where style and appearence were still important.
This song was meant as a call to the working class--the "hammer" is to represent the power of laborers in industry. And yet, there's Debbie singing it in a beautiful expensive gown, dancing with men in tuxedos...
hysterical
"If I Had A Hammer" is a classic folk song from the 60's, nilblaze. It's Debbie's ill advised attempt to be hip to the youth crowd and cater to her older fanbase that makes this so funny.
omg...i spit coffee all over my computer when I read this...too damn funny
I wonder if anyone actually read the lyrics before doing this. There is absolutely no connection between the words and the way she's singing it, the choreography, etc. It's somewhat mind boggling, actually.
So is your BEARD, moron. No, it's not much of a number, but it tramples the garbage that has come from, say, Janet Jackson, an "Icon" who really cannot sing, dance, or do anything - except lay claim to being the "sister of"....
Hmm. Have an anger problem, Gary? I was merely making an observation on someone singing a song. You're reaction is quite bizarre. My beard is mind-boggling? I'm a moron? Wow, I can't imagine how you react if someone directly insults you. Have a good day, man. And chill.
It's all about taste and perspective, dude - and you have neither. It's a GREAT song, well-sung...admittedly on the corny side. But, again, look at those horrible Janet Jackson videos from the '80s and '90s, before you start criticizing old TV clips. Jackson hasn't a drop of distinctive talent, along with most MTV "video artists."
You sure do go directly to the insults, don't you? For the record, I don't like Janet Jackson, either. But that's rather beside the point, isn't it?
I am a huge Pete Seeger fan, and I love this song; it is very reminiscent and reflective of my generation and my efforts in the anti-war movement. But based only on my comment about not liking the production in the video, you have determined that I am a moron with no taste and no perspective. Perhaps you need to take my comments for what they are -- one man's opinion of one music video. That's hardly the basis on which to initiate derogatory and insulting comments. Do you always judge people on such minimal criteria? If so, I feel sorry for you, man.
Garyb3397 Gary-you should fight Mark to the death!!
I'll wager Pete Seeger can't watch this without bursting into laughter.
she is such an inspiration! :)
Hey, people will be guffawing at music we liked, fifty years from now...
Of course, Debbie didn't think to include some "Brothers or Sisters" to appear in her video with her. Ahh, the sixties...
Gee, can ya tell Debbie Reynolds was a major shareholder in Scopitones USA, Inc.?
a Beautiful performance yet awkward, loved it!
tee hee. this makes me giggle. :) but i
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
"Now, in glorious 'SCOPITONE'!"
I literally once saw a woman sing what was suppose to be a religious 'church' song to the tune of the original strip tease music! I kid you not! This reminds me of that!
I think I saw this at the 2012 Republican Convention.
deb and the group there may have talent but this rendition of the song is so....Debbie hammering out justice makes me think of someone telling the starving to eat cake.
If you all love to hear Debbie singing... Watch 'the Unsinkable Molly Brown'.. It is fantastic and there are some absolutely cracking belters of songs in it... :0)x
Please someone hand her this hammer of justice so she can start this protest quest, when she goes home and changes into her work clothes!!
Was this a Twilight Zone épisode ?
0:51
He almost took a tumble.
Sometimes....just sometimes....I think: 'THE SIXTIES MUST BE STOPPED!!!!'
How are you doing today my name is Eric Moore and how is the weather over there
wow :)
How often do people wear heels that aren't matching?
thank you for your comments about Debbie Reynolds and I agree with you
60's hair and makeup made everyone look older. Debbie is only 33 here!
Excelente¡!