Spinal Tap A to Zed

Yes I Can—The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr.: Autobiography being read by Derek and a groupie during limo ride early in DiBergi’s documentary. After driver Tommy Pishedda suggests the title should have been "Yes I Can, If Frank Sinatra Says It’s Okay" and refers to a scene where "Sammy is coming out of the Copa, it’s about 3 in the morning and he sees Frank. Frank’s walking down Broadway by himself," the disinterested band close the glass screen. The passage Pishedda describes appears on pages 151 and 152 of the 1965 hardcover Farrar Straus Giroux edition of "Yes I Can," which Davis co-wrote with Jane and Burt Boyar: "I headed downtown, crossed 51st Street and as I passed the Capitol Theater, I thought about Frank. I’d read that he was in town and I was wondering where he was staying and how I could get in touch with him, when I looked across the street and there he was. I started to run after him and call out to him but I stopped, my arm in the air. He was slowly walking down Broadway with no hat on and his collar up—and not a soul was paying attention to him. This was the man who only a few years before had tied up traffic all over Times Square. Now nobody gave a damn. God, how could it happen?....I was dying to run over to him, but I felt it would be an intrusion. Or, maybe I felt too much for him to want to see him this way. I didn’t want to walk anymore." See also Pishedda, Tommy; Sinatra, Frank.

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