All about clovers

Take a second - 144 seconds, actually, and give a listen to this record from 1948.  Of course, it's Art Mooney, his orchestra and chorus, doing their version of the old song "I'm Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover," and this version was the #1 song in America for 18 weeks.

Of course, this week, the #1 song in America is the lovely, enchanting "See You Again," by Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth. But I'm not telling you anything new there.

This is Jazzbo.  DJs almost always look like
this, which is why they aren't on TV.

But Art Mooney's catchy tune from 1948 gave a Salt Lake City disc jockey a way to get famous enough to work in bigger markets. His name was Al "Jazzbo" Collins, and he took a notion to play the song for hours and hours and hours on end on his show on KNAK until people started calling and begging him to play ANYTHING else.  This is widely considered to be the first (of many) deejay publicity stunts like this. Jazzbo went on to work at big stations on both coasts until he passed in 1997...quite a career!

By the way, why are there four leaf clovers, anyhow?  Most of them are three-leafers!  Four-leaf clovers are a mutation of the   White Clover plant, Trifolium repens.

Why do we consider four-leaf clovers to be good luck? That goes back to Eve, who carried one out of Eden, meaning that if you have one, according to legend, you carry a bit of paradise with you.

Of course, if you have a dozen steamed crabs and a six of Natty Boh, you also have paradise with you, so there's that...