I Can See, No Matter How Near You'll Be. . . .

Patty Andrews died yesterday at 94. She was the lead singer in the Andrews Sisters, a brilliant swing group that made a very long string of hits in the 1940s, the war years. I keep several of their songs handy on my computer, "I Can Dream, Can't I?" being one of them. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" was an anthem for jitterbuggers, which led to the boogie we danced in 1969. "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" was their first huge hit--a bit of Yiddish. "Rum and Coca Cola" (also called a Cuba Libre, folks) was a hit song about what seemed to be a mother/daughter team of hookers. "The Lady from 29 Palms" might not be the musical monument the first four songs remain, but it ends with a shockingly innocent touch of 1940s pride in our nation's nuclear prowess. "She's a dynamite dreamboat, a load of atom bombs, the lady from Twenty-nine Palms."