BEAUTIFUL DOLLS AND ONLY GIRLS

Audio Recording

Song of the Week #194
"Oh, You Beautiful Doll" by Nat D Ayer and Seymour Brown
"If You Were The Only Girl In The World" by Nat D Ayer and Clifford Grey

In another of our summer audio specials, we present a Song of the Week double-bill. What connects Looney Tunes with Noel Coward's Private Lives, and an electrician in St Louis with British Tommies in the Great War? The answer is two-hit wonder Nat D Ayer, whose pair of hit songs are an ocean part. Mark celebrates the centenary of "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" with help not just from Mel Torme and Al Jolson but also Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety - and he talks to Nat Ayer's son, Nat Ayer Jr, about a great English ballad of the First World War, "If You Were The Only Girl In The World". We'll trace the evolution of both songs over the course of a century through ragtime, jazz, western, rock'n'roll - and we'll hear not only Dean Martin, Barbra Streisand, Richard Rodney Bennett and others but also the composer himself perform both his enduring tunes. We'll also hear Nat D Ayer sing Irving Berlin - and the "Me And Mrs Jones" of 1910.

To listen to this special audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, click here.