Notes about the ABC "Nightline" story about Eva Cassidy, taken directly from the "What's New" page, in mostly chronological order



May 25, 2001:   The "Nightline" story about Eva will be broadcast tonight (Friday) at 11:30 PM Eastern time (New York).  The "Nightline" story will include some video footage of Eva in performance.  The e-mail to the "Nightline" mailing list, from the show's Executive Producer, said:

"TONIGHT’S SUBJECT: One singer recently had the number one CD on the British charts, and five CD’s in the top 150. On top of that, she was an American. But the real story is that she passed away a few years ago, and never saw her success.

It’s always been a cliché, and the plot of many bad movies, the artist who dies and whose work is suddenly worth millions, and I think the movies usually had the artists faking their deaths, or something like that. Our broadcast tonight is the real-life version of this, but without the cynicism.

The way Nightline works, the correspondents and producers pitch story ideas to us, and Ted and the senior producers and I decide which ones to go ahead and do. One of the Nightline principles is that, even if we don’t much like the idea, if the person pitching it really cares, I mean really really cares, we generally say go ahead, because if someone is passionate about a story, chances are the broadcast will be pretty good. That’s what happened in this case. I admit it, I wasn’t wild about it when Dave Marash first pitched it. But he believed in this story, and so we present it tonight. And by the way, he was right, I was wrong. But I want to let him tell you about it himself, so here’s his note about Eva Cassidy."  


Posthumous Fame
A U.S. Singer Enjoys Success Abroad -- Five Years After Her Death
By Dave Marash

May 25 -- Like almost everyone, I missed Eva Cassidy the first time... the real time, the live time.

This was, originally, an embarrassment to someone who considered himself a "maven" of Washington-area music: to be told by an old friend (an out-of-towner, no less!) that I had to hear the CD of this "great singer from your town." Once I did hear Eva Cassidy's music, in 1997, I became an immediate and intense fan. My embarrassment turned to deep regret that I had never heard her sing before she died of cancer the year before, at the age of 33. I tried to make up for it by pressing her CDs on dozens of people I knew would love them. Cassidy's "Over the Rainbow" was the first tune played on my traveling stereo in my hotel room at the end of almost every shooting day I spent in the Balkans during the years 1998 and 1999, years spent mostly in, or just outside, the tortured Kosovo. My crewmates and I were witnessing guerrilla wars, waves of ethnic cleansing, and the destruction and disruption of hundreds of thousands of lives. Yet we would follow the days of painful witness with nights of Eva's heartfelt invocation of that place "where the clouds are far behind me." We all knew it was a strange conjunction, but we all drew comfort from it.

Then, shortly after the first of this year, I learned from some of my English colleagues, who had joined in those hotel room listening sessions, that Eva Cassidy was all the rage on BBC Radio and TV. By March, her CD Songbird was No. 1 on the BBC "Top of the Pops 2" album chart, and five of her discs were in the British Top 150. People all over the U.K. were clearly hearing the same ravishing beauties in Eva's music that had won me over.

This wonderful, "fame after death, after life in obscurity" story was too good to ignore, and besides, it gave me a chance to posthumously "meet" the singer I had loved for years.

How I loved learning that the sweet singer could be a tough cookie who carried her own gear and sacrificed her "career" to a conviction that she could sing only songs she cared about. Eva's second "fault" was that she cared about and insisted on singing songs in just about every musical style she heard, from pop to folk to jazz to gospel. America's format-defined music industry could not handle that either.

So for the most part, Eva Cassidy's musical career never happened until her music was heard in another country, in another hemisphere, years after her death.

Now we all know.

As it says in the title of another of Eva's best songs, "What a Wonderful World!"

Dave Marash is a Nightline correspondent and guest anchor.


5/29/2001
From Laura:  I promised I would give my own opinions about the recent ABC "Nightline" story about Eva.  Here they are.

Overall I thought Dave Marash and his colleagues did a marvelous job.  It was well-written and well-filmed, and the music editing was much less heavy-handed than the other U.S. television reports I have seen.  I enjoyed the video of Eva performing at Fleetwoods with Mary Ann Redmond, and I loved seeing so many photos of Eva which had not been seen before (though I got tired of the camera shot panning up the picture of Eva wearing a cowboy hat).  What an excellent introduction to the music of Eva Cassidy.  My favorite part? When Eva's best friend, Ruth Murphy says "I have to kind of laugh, because this is the way I think Eva would have loved it. Everybody else does the talking for her, all she does is sing."

They made some unexpected choices which surprised me.  I noticed on the second viewing (the first time through I was half asleep) that although from the beginning it was clear that Eva had died several years before, they didn't mention how she died until the end, and didn't dwell on the melanoma.  Perhaps it was felt that a bit of mystery would keep people watching.  Also, no mention was made of Eva's other radiant talent, her artwork.  With only seventeen minutes available (half-hour show minus commercials), Marash must have decided it would be impossible to do everything, and concentrated on Eva as a singer.  

What DIDN'T I like?  In the introduction to the piece (which I suspect Dave Marash did not write) the announcer made reference to "Judy Garland's 'Over the Rainbow,'" [sic] which always drives me crazy. Also, that phrase "painfully shy" was used -- a facile but inaccurate description.  I would have liked more interviews with Eva's band members also.  Time constraints presumably didn't allow that.

Was this the best version yet of "the Eva Cassidy story"?  Not in my opinion.  Maybe it's because I am a radio listener and not a TV watcher, but my favorite remains the BBC Radio 2 documentary from a couple of years ago, produced by Kevin Howlett.  What it lacks in pictures it makes up for in length, depth, and long stretches of music.  I very much hope that the BBC will rebroadcast that hour-long program and that someday arrangements will be made for it to be broadcast in the United States.

Chart Until this weekend, the busiest day on my website was December 20th,2000, the day of the NPR "Morning Edition" story about Eva, with 2400 visits.  But the power of television is enormous, and following the ABC "Nightline" story a new record was set, almost 7000 visitors in one day.  I was flabbergasted -- who would have thought that so many people watch television at 11:30 at night?!

-- Laura Bligh, Webmaster


Photos:  3/22/2001  When "Nightline" interviewed Chuck Brown, Chris Biondo, and Lenny Williams, I received a couple of photos from my on-the-spot reporter, Eileen White.  Click here to see them (and also some snapshots from "Today Show" interviews).


6/29/2001 - WOW! THE NIGHTLINE STORY ABOUT EVA WILL BE REPEATED!   The executive producer writes, "A lot of you wrote in after our broadcast on Eva Cassidy, the singer who found fame after she had passed away. Our plan is to rebroadcast that program the night of July 4th, so tell your friends and set your VCR's."   Note the "our plan" part -- nothing is certain in the news business -- but this is exciting news. "Nightline" doesn't repeat programs very often. Among other things, this is quite a compliment for news correspondent Dave Marash, who pushed to do the show about Eva despite lack of enthusiasm from the upper management. After the "Nightline" story, Eva's album sales soared nationwide, and a record number of visitors came to this website. (I still shake my head in wonderment. Apparently an awful lot of people watch television that late at night.)


To order tapes or transcripts from the ABC News Store, follow this link.

Note: Following the "Nightline" rebroadcast, Eva's albums were for several days #1-2-3-4-5 at Amazon.com.  ABC's Dave Marash says, "Can't tell you how pleased I am with the overwhelming response to the Nightline broadcasts. All hail Eva!"


Sept. 24th, 2001:  Many people seem to be urging ABC "Nightline" to rebroadcast their program about Eva Cassidy yet again.  My favorite entry on the "Nightline" message board reads thus :   'When I first saw the story (the July 4th) airing, two days later I went to Tower Records to purchase her CD's, where I was nearly involved in a confrontation with "maniacs" whom were nearly "fighting" to get to the bin that held Eva's CD's ...yes this is true. I had to lunge from a side angle to "grab" a CD! Tower employees were rushing over to try and break up the pandemonia. After the crowd of adults (these were business people) were finally calmed down they quickly became embarrassed with themselves for the immature behavior they displayed. I myself was a little embarrassed for lunging at the bin. In brief, there were nearly fights! If it got any worse, the police may have had to have been called to break up a riot. This happened in Reno, Nevada.'  That story reminds me of the "Cabbage Patch Dolls" and "Tickle Me Elmo" riots of Christmases past ....

August 2002:  "Others do the talking. She does the singing. Tonight, Eva Cassidy, UpClose."  Late last night, August 15, 2002, ABC rebroadcast their original "Nightline" story about Eva on the UPCLOSE section of their show.  From the e-mail I have received this morning, I gather that many new fans have been created!  


ABC-TV The South Asian Journalists Association website informs us that Madhulika Sikka won a SAJA Award in 2002 in the category "Outstanding story on any subject (TV/radio)," for producing the ABC "Nightline" documentary "Encore: The Eva Cassidy Story." Belated congratulations to Madhulika!


US January 2, 2004: Happy 2004, indeed -- what a surprise to wake up this morning and discover that ABC "Nightline" showed their program about Eva Cassidy again last night. The network did not send out its usual e-mail message on January 1st, perhaps due to the holiday. Even Dave Marash said "It was sprung as a surprise to me, or I'd have let you know. Reports are it produced the 'usual number,' i.e. huge amounts, of e-mail response." In the "Nightline" e-mail message on January 2nd, executive producer Leroy Sievers mentioned the Eva Cassidy profile, writing "This remains probably the most popular Nightline ever. Reading the emails today, the morning after it ran, I was struck by the number of people who wrote in asking when we are going to play it again. I'm sure we will rerun it at some point in the future, but not for a while."

Over 3,100 visitors have come to this website already today, so I see that a lot of people must have been watching and have discovered Eva's music for the first time. (What a dazzling musical adventure is in store for them, as they hurry out to buy Eva's albums!) Thanks again to David Marash, Madhulika Sikka, and your entire staff for doing such a great job. I am reminded that the busiest day in the site's history was May 26, 2001, as a result of the first "Nightline" broadcast about Eva. 6973 visitors were counted that day, nearly tripling the count from the previous high-scoring day, which was the day NPR "Morning Edition" aired a story about Eva. Hmmm, maybe today will be a record-setter? (It turned out to be the #2 day in the site's history.)




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Eva Cassidy Website Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 - Laura Claire Bligh.  All rights reserved.