Arne Fogel©Andrea Canter

"One of the Twin Cities' most interesting people -- a singer, musician, actor, composer, writer, producer, music-film-comedy and entertainment historian, collector and oral encyclopedia." 
-- Bob Protzman, St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch 

Forty years ago this spring, Arne Fogel was looking at life after high school, hoping for a break that would launch a career in music. Like many teens of the 60s, he was a Beatles fan who played with his pals in a rock band in his Minneapolis neighborhood. Then, in 1967, with future singer/songwriters Barry Thomas Goldberg, Gary Paulak and Jay Lee performing as The Puddle, Arne’s recording career was born, and the band later toured as The Batch. 

Unlike many teens of the 60s, however, Arne found as much inspiration in music of Sinatra and Crosby as in the hits of Lennon and McCartney, and he ultimately gained recognition as a popular crooner and radio personality, a “purveyor of vintage music and entertainment from an historical point of view.”  Arne launched his jazz club career in the late 80s, appeared for a few years on Prairie Home Companion, hosted Arne Fogel Presents on MPR for nearly 15 years, and from the 90s on, has channeled Sinatra and Crosby at clubs such as The Dakota and the Times. Years after his album with The Batch, Arne released two solo recordings--You Call It Madness on vinyl in 1989 and the acclaimed CD, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams in 2001, followed in 2005 by his duo recording with Maud Hixson, Let’s Not Be Sensible. Most recently, Arne’s interest in the life and music of Bing Crosby led him to a series of performances with Bing’s widow, Kathryn Crosby, and an opportunity to examine Bing’s archives.  His show The Bing Shift continues weekly on KBEM radio. 

On May 2nd, Arne Fogel was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Mid-America Music Hall of Fame (formerly the Minnesota Rock and Country Hall of Fame). Not a bad outcome for a Minneapolis kid who once dreamed of life as a cartoonist. 

From Rock ‘N Roll to Swing and Bing

The Hall of Fame honor prompted Arne to consider the defining moments of his career. He first recalled “the time I discovered, as an 11 or 12-year-old, that I was touched in a near-spiritual way when I viewed films of vintage performers or musicians from the past who had made a difference in their time, and were now being featured on TV documentaries or specials. The Crosbys, Chaplins, Jolsons, Armstrongs, Durantes, Cantors, Brices, etc., all moved me deeply (still do). They are part of the literature and culture of the 20th century, and though many of them were still working and active at this time, I recognized their immortality and it influenced and inspired me. I wanted to learn about and chronicle their lives and accomplishments, and I wanted to emulate them as well. Later, when the Beatles first came out, they affected me in the same way (as different as they were), and opened me up to the immortals of my own era.” 

The Batch circa 1971

It was another eight years after that first recording at Dove Studio that Arne hosted his first radio broadcast. “Listening to a little community radio station from Golden Valley - KUXL-AM - in 1975,” Arne recalls “hearing the General Manager, John McCooley, say that they were looking for interesting people to put on their station! I met him and did a few shows with him. He helped me pass my FCC test and get my radio operator's license, then gave me my first job in radio. Similarly, Dick Driscoll, whom I'd heard and admired on radio as I was growing up, became a friend and mentor, ultimately giving me a multi-tasking position at WWTC, which was then a top Twin Cities Oldies station, in 1980.” A few years later, Arne recalls that “David Toushin of WWTC got me my first ad agency job--writing copy, producing commercials, and writing jingles.” 

What led Arne back to the songs he had first discovered as a teenager, only to bury beneath the pop sheen of the Fab Four? “I always liked doing those songs as good warm-up tunes,” he recalls. “But to my contemporaries, it was the mom’s-and-dad’s music of our generation and, as such, to be rebelled against. I always treasured this older music but I just knew it wasn’t viable or fashionable to perform it, so I never tried, for many years. Later, another generation comes along, and they think it’s great because it is not their mom’s and dad’s music, it’s not threatening—it’s splendid…[and] creates an atmosphere generationally that makes anything of quality re-emerge.”  

And Arne Fogel’s love of the Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatry era re-emerged, on the air and ultimately in the clubs. “Maybe in the late 70s, early 80s, I began to be aware that there were jazz clubs where people were singing….” He remembers “answering Tom Lieberman's call to join him in a new group (eventually called ‘Lieberman, Fogel & Bey’) for A Prairie Home Companion in 1981. We did some of the old jazz trio songs…I was surrounded by people doing the retro thing, which was very influential.” After three years on PHC, Arne notes that “Marilyn Heltzer, the Program Director at MPR, started me on my 15 years at Minnesota Public Radio…I began working at MPR for the purpose of dealing with that older music, and on some shows I was asked to do some singing myself, and became immersed for first time in the act of performing that music in the here and now, and having it be viable again.” 

Partners and Collaborators

Someone who has worn as many hats as Arne—as studio musician, ad man, actor, broadcaster, club singer—has surely found many sources of inspiration and individuals who have made work more enjoyable. In fact, Arne found it overwhelming to consider “all the people I've worked with as an actor, ad agency producer, broadcaster, etc. First, of course, Barry Thomas Goldberg and The Batch, the Rock ‘n Roll outfit I worked in from '68 - '75, and periodically on special projects including ‘The Ironweeds’ in the 90s. They were (and are, for the most part) like the brothers I never had, and they had a profound effect on me both personally and professionally. In fact, we've just released Transistor, a collection of unreleased ‘basement’ recordings by The Batch, circa 1968-70.” 

Arne notes that a number of area musicians contributed to his early development as a jazz singer from the early 80s, including Jendeen Forberg, Patty Peterson, Don Stille, and Bruce Allard. Allard “was the first person to hire me to play with his band for private gigs, very fancy, posh gigs for very wealthy people. Most knew who I was from radio and then it was nice to have the opportunity to perform for them as a singer.” It was Allard who helped to connect Arne to Don Stille, “who invited me down to the Dakota to sing with Debbie Duncan on Sunday Open Mike Nights [in the early 90s]--she had to have heard you or know somebody who could recommend you. I did OK, but I had a lot to learn.” 

It was also in the early 90s that Arne officially began his long association with the Wolverines. “I had dreamed how wonderful it would be to sing with a band like that, doing their 20s stuff--Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman, Duke… I came to the attention of Jendeen Forberg who hired me to do a couple of gigs in early 80s. That didn’t really go anywhere but it meant that I knew them. In the early 90s, when I started trying to make it in jazz clubs for first time in my life, I went to the Times, and there was Jendeen. She could not have been nicer and had me sit in with the trio on a Friday. That was the first time I met Rick [Carlson]. And Charmin [Michelle] was there. Soon I started getting asked to work with trio for the whole night, and I started doing stuff with their Big Band, too. It was great fun, a bit of a dream come true for me.” 

Maud Hixson, Steve Pikal, Arne Fogel©Andrea Canter

Arne also has enjoyed his collaborations “with wonderful piano geniuses like Rick Carlson, Tanner Taylor, Mary Louise Knutson, Chris Lomheim, Laura Caviani, and the incredible Jeanne Arland Peterson! I worked with her lots in the 90s…There are so many more talented people who are so great to work with, it's impossible to name them all, or even scratch the surface.”

Proud Moments

With such a diverse career—from rock band to commercial jingle writing to radio host to jazz club performer and Bing Crosby archivist, Arne singles out a few experiences as his shining hours: “Performing for an audience which included Margaret Whiting, and hearing her shout out, ‘That's the way to sing a song!’ at the conclusion of a number. That was a moment!”

Two associations with music icons stand out. “I'm proud that I got to work with Rosemary Clooney on her next-to-last show ever (Orchestra Hall, '01),” said Arne, “and I'm extremely proud of my association with Kathryn Crosby and the fact that I've had the opportunity, through Bob DeFlores, to get to know and work with the Crosby family…They have been supportive of my radio show [The Bing Shift on KBEM]. I am very honored, I don’t quite believe I had the opportunity to work with them. Kathryn is great, a very nice woman, lots of fun and down to earth.” 

Arne Fogel with Rosemary Clooney

But most of all, Arne takes pride in living out his childhood fantasy. “When I was a youngster, my biggest fantasy, regarding ‘when I grow up’ type stuff, was to actually set foot in and work in a real recording studio! The ultimate! To this day, after 40 years, I never enter a studio to work without remembering that, and feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment.” 

And He’s Not Done Yet 
At 58, Arne is hardly considering retirement—there’s a lot yet to do. Among his wishes for the next phase of his career, Arne notes that he would like to “do more performing out of town. I've never quite solved that puzzle yet, and I've just recently begun trying to seriously approach it-- doing a tour, concerts, etc. with some of the specialty-type shows I've done successfully here in the Twin Cities. I had a couple of tentative cabaret bookings in New York in '01 and '07, but they collapsed for various reasons. I'd like to gig there a few times, just to say I did it, to add that little trophy to the others. There’s lots of stuff still to do, and that's still on the list!” 

As for his current show, The Bing Shift, Arne notes that “It’s going well now. I always can cook up some radio ideas, and I will do it until they don’t want it any more.” There is some interest in reviving his collaboration with Connie Evingson (Singers and Standards), “maybe new avenues for that show. We have it all archived. Some want to bring that back.”  Arne would also like to do more teaching. “I love doing it, I probably like it more than singing… I did several 'Compleat Scholar' courses in 90s [at the University of Minnesota] and just loved it, and I'm currently doing workshops and lectures in high schools, via the Minnesota Musicares Foundation. Who does not want to get up and talk about stuff that they love and impart that feeling to other people?” 

And forty years down the road from The Batch and Dove Studios, Arne notes his goals have changed.  Now, the most important thing relative to his music is “that I can keep doing it, that there continues to be interest in it, that I can take it more places and keep believing in it, trying to do things I can be proud of on some level…The switch away from the rock ‘n roll business to the radio (and eventually jazz) business coincided with the awareness that I wasn't going to take over the world! So, you adjust your goals to fit the reality: As long as I can make music, write, perform, and communicate through a microphone, I'm a success.” 
 

Keep up with Arne Fogel at www.arnefogel.com. See also Pamela Espeland’s post at http://www.minnpost.com/pamelaespeland/2008/04/11/1478/singing_is_arne_fogels_thing_40_years_and_counting and an in-depth look at the “Arne and Maud” duo at http://www.jazzpolice.com/content/view/6680/115/