Dear Mr. Wigney, 1. Hugh Laurie's voice is the first heard on BfTV's version of You Can't Always Get What You Want. As the song progresses, he is joined by Bonnie Somerville, Bob Guiney and, eventually, the rest of the band members. 2. Part of a writer's job is to research his article. Part of a publication's job is to fact-check the finished product before printing it. Obviously the Ottawa Sun does not consider these to be necessary steps in producing an article. If you are not satisfied with his singing on that track, I would suggest you watch A Bit of Fry and Laurie (especially Seasons 3 & 4) or Jeeves & Wooster (any season). If that is beyond your capabilities, you could simply go to youtube and type "hugh laurie sing" in the search box. While the clips this search will produce is by no means the complete collection of Mr. Laurie's fine singing voice available at that site, it will give you a representative sample. (Incidentally, he also composed many of the songs you will find via this method.) As a fan of his work, I am delighted to say that whether his job entails acting, singing or playing a musical instrument, Mr. Laurie consistently does his job superbly. How sad that your fans (of whom I am sure you have several) cannot say the same about your efforts. Sincerely,

Poeia, WORD. I wish I had a coherent reaction to that piece of something-the-word-filter-will-catch, but perhaps that entirely appropriate.

Boy, am I glad I'm not Canadian. :wink:

Poeia - please tell us that you sent your comments to the conveniently located link at the bottom of that page. :)

wtf? That is one of the most bizarre criticisms of any song *ever*. I mean, even if he understood that Hugh not only sings lead at the beginning and continues singing with Bob and Bonnie and, eventually, the entire group I would still find his column weird and a little insane. It's just mind boggling. I mean, what *would* Matt Parkman sound like singing a Stones song? He's probably sound a lot like Greg Grunberg. Had he been there, singing as Mike Delfino, I think that Jamie probably would have sounded like Jamie. Bob's gonna sound like Bob since Bob *has* no character and since Bonnie's the queen of the single season series then I don't even know who this dude would associate her with. And since most of his disappointment is directed at Hugh for his lack of partcipation (again, wtf?), I have to wonder what he thinks that House would sound like singing on the track. I wonder if he'd be disappointed if he found out that House actually *would* most likely sound like Hugh Laurie...if, you know, he had any idea what Hugh Laurie sounds like in the first place. I'm kind of exhausted now. He made my head hurt a little bit.

Hugh's singing
Wow, you guys are way ahead of me, as usual. I have already written to the not-so-esteemed columnist of the Sun, and have alerted the troops over at the madness known as the FOX Forum as to this slur on Mr. Laurie's talents. In addition to clicking on the feedback button on the web page and sending in your opinion you can address some remarks directly to Mr. Wigney himself at awigney@yahoo.ca. I've already pointed out to him that not only does Hugh sing now, he has performed many times on British TV over the years. Of course, Mr. Wigney probably doesn't know that Hugh is British. He probably thinks he's Canadian. :roll:

The Hugh Laurie thread strikes again. One of the things that consistently cracked me up at the other place was how whenever a slur against all things HL was posted, the entire thread would snap to and come alive to right all wrongs. We just need a little more controversy over here. :-)

I made a few changes and sent it. With things like paparazzi invasions of his privacy, I will be upset. I will post on the forum. But I won't write. The purpose of the pictures would be to invade his privacy. They did what they were supposed to do. Similarly, if Mr. Wigney had said he was unfamiliar with HL's singing, he didn't particularly like that version of the song and he found some other songs by him which he thinks sound better, I'd consider that valid. Hugh definitely sounds different on each song -- he sings in character, but that character isn't Gregory House -- so people won't necessarily like the way he sounds on all or, possibly, any song. But I really object to sloppy journalism. Criticizing a song on which Hugh sings lead because Hugh doesn't sing on it (although, as Doctor House plays piano, it's possible that Hugh played piano "in character") is beyond sloppy. That these errors are not things which would have been difficult to check compounds the problem.

"OMG, the Ottowa Times tore me to shreds!! My dreams are shattered!!" ---Hugh Laurie The author of that piece is a moron. Hugh actually has a good voice. I'd wholly admit it if he didn't. Don't slam our darling Hugh!!

But I really object to sloppy journalism. Seriously. If he'd said "Hugh Laurie can't sing" because he listened to the song and he's of the opinion that Hugh Laurie can't sing then whatever. But, to write multiple paragraphs about how he didn't sing so that he (the writer) could basically make a joke about House's formula for making diagnoses...lame. Don't slam our darling Hugh!! That's not really what's going on here or what people are annoyed with. The problem isn't that he slammed Hugh. He actually *didn't* slam Hugh. And while I'm sure people would come out in the dozens to post about how wrong it is to insult Hugh's voice, that's not what's gotten people annoyed. The only insult to Hugh's voice, I guess, was that he didn't recognize Hugh's voice. The insult that's offended people, however, is the insult to fact checkers everywhere.

The only insult to Hugh's voice, I guess, was that he didn't recognize Hugh's voice. The insult that's offended people, however, is the insult to fact checkers everywhere. Um, exactly. Sloppy journalism is the worst kind of journalism. What did he do? He had a random thought in his head about how tv stars singing bugs the crap out of him and, unfortunately, Hugh's abilities us doubts> were the focus of his not-so-focused rant.

Beyond Sloppy journalism this guy's logic is just weird. Hugh Laurie doesn't sing on the soundtrack so therefore he can't sing. Huh? :shock:

Just thought I should point out before people get too caught up in all of this that the Sun newspaper chain in Canada is sort of... News Lite, I guess you could say. Tabloid-sized papers with loads of ads and (many of them, anyway) a page three pin-up girl. You know the type of thing I'm meaning, I hope. I used to subscribe to the Edmonton Sun back in university mostly because I could read it in about five minutes in the morning. Oh, and because the crossword was easy. :wink:

Just thought I should point out before people get too caught up in all of this I don't think anyone's really planning on picketing the offices, but tabloid or not, it's not too much to ask that someone reports basic facts. It's not a scandalous celebrity expose, it's an essayish column about a soundtrack album that, unfortunately, was based around a faulty premise. Even the average glossy tabloid or daily tabloid newspaper hires critics who have a basic knowledge of what they're reviewing. I imagine most people would be annoyed if it appeared in the UK Sun or the NY Post and rightfully so. You expect for someone writing a review (even if it's just a review used as a jumping off point for a cutesy diatribe about actors releasing records) to actually be aware of what he's writing about.

Much as I hate to, I have to say something in defense of Mr. Wigney. His column may be silly, but there is really very little reason for him to realize that Hugh was singing on the BFTV track. Assuming he's not a rabid HL fangirl there's no reason for him to be able to recognize Hugh's voice, and nowhere that I can find is there info on the CD label or insert that says that Hugh is singing. The BFTV members are listed with Bob as the male vocalist and Hugh as the keyboard player. I'm not surprised Wigney assumed Hugh didn't sing on the CD, because if I were putting out this CD and hoping someone would actually buy it I'd have something about HL's singing in very large letters on the front of the box. Frankly, why should Wigney have to do research to find out that Hugh is on the CD? Most people would expect that fact to be advertised, not hidden.