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Finally, the Guinness Book of World Records has been set to music.
Singer-songwriter Sarah Paul Ocampo has taken the world record volume’s greatest stars from its greatest era — the 1970s — and created a witty and touching song cycle for a May 23 show at Pete’s Candy Store.
It’s a tribute to the Ethel Grangers, Robert Pershing Wadlow, and Michel Lotito of a purer age of record-breaking for records sake, before book-worthy feats came to include fastest texting or reaching one million Twitter followers the fastest (here’s looking at you, Charlie Sheen).
“As a kid, I remember the black-and-white pictures of my family’s dog-eared book,” said the Clinton Hill musician. “It was more compelling, spooky and fascinating than these days.”
Highlights include an ode to Granger, whose 12-inch waist was the world’s smallest; and a love song for Wadlow, the tallest man in recorded history at 8-feet-11.
“He was a very kind and gentle person, one who had such a great burden to carry with so much attention,” said Decampo. “The song I am writing is a love song, from the vantage point of a girl from the town he grew up in.”
Other record holders to be honored through song that night include Lotito, aka Monsieur Mangetout, who consumed bicycles, television sets and even an airplane; the Sutherland Sisters, famous for their long, floor-length hair; and “the fingernails guy.”
Because there’s always one of those.
“The Guinness Band of World Records” at Pete’s Candy Store [709 Lorimer St. at Richardson Street in Williamsburg, (718) 302-3770], May 23 at 7:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.petescandystore.com.
©2011 Community Newspaper Group
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