Frank Sinatra was bummed. Rock and Roll was on the ascendancy, and it left little room for the kind of music the crooner sang. Sinatra was seriously considering retirement, and might have had Van Dyke Parks not pitched him a song his brother wrote. Fellow musician, Lee Hazlewood, agreed, and Sinatra recorded the song that became his first million-selling single. Maybe you know it?

It wasn’t the first time Van Dyke Parks had an impact on the music scene. The American composer, arranger, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and actor (he played Little Tommy Manicotti on Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners) is best known for his collaborations with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, but he also produced or arranged albums by Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, the Everly Brothers, Natalie Cole, Arlo Guthrie, Ringo Starr, Three Dog Night (the band he says he named), Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Phil Ochs, Little Feat, Happy End, and so many others.

Maybe only a terrier can keep up with a chap this talented, and sure enough, Van Dyke’s dog is a Wirehaired Fox Terrier named after the first musician in the Bible, “Jubal.” “Jubal’s” full name is Cornpone Jubilation Early Christmas Gifts Parks (the “Early” part of the name attributed to General Jubal Early, a lawyer and Confederate general in the Civil War who, like the dog, was so fast, he often outran his supplies.