Frank Terranella
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fterranella.bsky.social
Frank Terranella
@fterranella.bsky.social
34 followers 17 following 66 posts
Retired lawyer. Former daily newspaper editor. Lifetime writer. Check out my blog at frankterranella.com
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The man whose music brought us to the edge of our seats
His career writing music for movies ran from Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver. He was the man who wrote music for an infamous shower scene in Psycho. And his music heightened the fear in Cape Fear.
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January 16, 2026 at 9:55 AM
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The Coasters successfully mixed comedy and rock and roll
Take four R&B singers with a talent for comedy, add the music and lyrics of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and you have a formula for hit songs in the late 1950s. Using it, the Coasters had six Top-10 ...
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January 8, 2026 at 11:50 AM
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It's time to correct the damage done by Citizens United
In a recent article in this blog, I discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller that found that most gun control regulations were a violation of the Second Amend...
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January 1, 2026 at 12:44 PM
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A joint holiday celebration in Nazi Austria
Salzburg, Austria was cold and clear that Saturday in early December 1940 when four men with Nazi swastikas on their arms pounded on the door of Julius and Jessica Stein. They were given just 10 minut...
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December 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
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How an 18th century sonatina became a hit song -- twice!
Muzio Clementi was an Italian composer who worked mainly in England. He was a contemporary of and sometime rival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Although Clementi is largely forgotten today, a tune from o...
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December 8, 2025 at 5:33 AM
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It's time to consider amending the Second Amendment
Ken Burns's latest documentary on The American Revolution reminds us of the background and reasons surrounding the enactment of the Second Amendment. Because they had recently been subjected to Britis...
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December 1, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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The songwriters whose hits crossed the color line
With more than 70 chart hits to their name, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller can rightly claim the title of Hit Men. Starting with "Hound Dog," written for “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952 (and made famous fo...
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November 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
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How a film about a boy and his lost alien gave us a hit song
When E.T. appeared during the first term of Ronald Reagan, America was just coming out of the malaise created by the Watergate years, the oil embargo, and inflation that raised mortgage rates to 18%. ...
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November 16, 2025 at 2:43 PM
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Curtis Lee: The story of a 1960s one-hit wonder
The early 1960s were not the most creative time for popular music. Rock and roll seemed to be losing popularity as many Americans came to associate it with juvenile delinquency. Its decline in popular...
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November 8, 2025 at 6:14 PM
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Do Americans still believe in democratic majority rule?
Here's a dialogue, a version of which gets repeated frequently these days across the country:
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November 1, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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Student protests are often the conscience of America
It's easy not to protest publicly, especially as we get older and have more invested in the status quo. But if we see ways that the nation could improve and you don't speak up, the nation will stagnat...
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October 22, 2025 at 11:37 AM
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How a new lyric changed a failed song into a classic hit
When people ask me what my favorite American Songbook tune is, I often reply that I have at least a dozen favorites. For example, I love "Make Someone Happy" (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comd...
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October 15, 2025 at 11:53 AM
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What is an “activist,” and shouldn't everyone be one?
As I was reading obituaries of Robert Redford, I noticed something peculiar. In many obituaries Redford, who made his living as an actor, was identified as an “activist.” I wondered what exactly the...
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October 8, 2025 at 1:25 PM
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What the world needs now is empathy, sweet empathy
Judeo-Christian tradition lists 10 commandments to guide us to living a good life. These come directly from the Heaven-based Boss himself via his man on the ground, Moses. But the later Christian Bibl...
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October 1, 2025 at 11:43 AM
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The American fascination with Downton Abbey
The Founding Fathers were (unsurprisingly) not fond of royalty considering they led a revolution to overthrow royal control of America. They went on to create a government that eschewed any trace of r...
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September 16, 2025 at 1:17 PM
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www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Finally a Trump initiative I can wholeheartedly support.
Memorandum for the Secretary of Health and Human Services the Commissioner of Food and Drugs
SUBJECT:       Addressing Misleading Direct-To-Consumer                Prescription Drug Advertisements In 1962, the
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September 10, 2025 at 11:57 AM
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Greenwich and Barry wrote the hits of the pre-Beatles era
Songwriters Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry only wrote together between 1963 and 1965. But within those few years, they wrote dozens of hit songs, including seven Top 10 hits, and four songs that went...
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September 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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It’s not too early to start thinking about these issues.
September 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
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It is un-American to have military forces in our streets
Unlike the citizens of many other countries, Americans are not used to the sight of armed military in their streets. That is because it has been an exceedingly rare sight in our history. Our abhorrence of such a show of ...
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September 1, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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Bobby Vee -- A '60s pop star from the heartland of America
He was born Robert Thomas Velline in Fargo, North Dakota on April 30, 1943. His older brothers, Bill and Sidney, both played the guitar, and so it was natural that young Bobby would also develop an in...
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August 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
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Justices are violating their oath to the Constitution
During the last two terms, the Supreme Court has presided over an unprecedented transfer of power to the Presidency. Ignoring centuries of precedent, the Roberts Court has created, aided and abetted a...
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August 19, 2025 at 12:51 PM
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Celebrating the 60-year career of songwriter Janis Ian
This year marks 60 years since Janis Ian began her professional songwriting career with the hit song "Society's Child." She wrote and recorded the song about interracial romance in 1965 when she was j...
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August 13, 2025 at 2:26 AM
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It's time we put an end to the career Congress
Did you know that 67% of our U.S. Senators are 60 years of age or older? And 6% are age 80 and older! This should be concerning to every American because it is a medical fact that mental acuity slowly...
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August 1, 2025 at 3:10 PM
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The most underrated composer of Broadway shows
He composed the music for hit shows like Sweet Charity, On the Twentieth Century, City of Angels and The Will Rogers Follies, and for less well-known shows like Little Me, Seesaw, I Love My Wife and B...
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July 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
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Escapism is the order of the day at the movies
Superman is back in movie theaters. He seems to visit us when we need him most. The country first came to know him in a comic book published in 1938 as we were in the midst of the Great Depression wit...
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July 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM