The passing of Michael Jackson made me think of all the great innovators in the history of popular music who brought unique sounds and visuals to their art. With Jackson, it was his rock/dance songs that popularized MTV videos.

With the Beatles, each song was different from another. They combined old rock and roll, country, blues, ballads and novelty material into their own creative sound.

Elvis Presley popularized rock and roll/blues which before him was played only on African American radio stations.

Before Elvis, Al Jolson was singing "Black Music"  like "Mammy" and "The Robert E. Lee" for more than 40 years.

In this blog entry, I'm paying tribute to Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy who popularized operettas in the 1930s. Not only did they sing great duets together like "Ah, Sweet Mystery Of Life" from Naughty Marietta. They had an unfullfilled love affair that never resulted in marriage. The reasons for this are complicated but you can read about it in their bios.

The above duet brings tears to my eyes when I hear it. It a shame that Jeanette's and Nelson's story hasn't hit the big screen or the stage yet.

Ask Andrew Lloyd Weber to do it.