SteynOnline

Song Of The Week #150
An audio postscript to Johnny Mercer Month

For the last month at SteynOnline, we've been celebrating the hundredth birthday of John Herndon Mercer, born November 18th 1909 in Savannah, Georgia. You can read my anniversary appreciation here, and scroll down for the list of individual Mercer songs we took a look at in our regular format. But we covered some other turf in audio format: You can hear the first part of our centenary podcast here - and here a month later is our long-awaited Part Two, mopping up some loose ends from the last few weeks, including "Fools Rush In", "Summer Wind", "I Remember You", "Skylark", "Come Rain Or Come Shine", "Day In, Day Out" plus the ornithological Johnny Mercer, the seasonal Johnny Mercer, and some great saloon songs - sung by Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, Eydie Gorme, Willie Nelson, Nancy LaMott, Frank Ifield, Bow Wow Wow plus lots of Sinatra singing and lots of Mercer singing, too. You can start the podcast here - and be singing along within seconds.

Part One introduces the Mercer catalogue with "Moon River", "Jeepers Creepers", "Too Marvelous For Words", "Ac-Cen-Tchu-Ate The Positive", "That Old Black Magic" and many more sung by the likes of Billie Holiday, Fred Astaire, k d lang, Louis Armstrong, Rita Hayworth, the Mills Brothers, Rosemary Clooney, Clint Eastwood and many more.

And, if you enjoy our occasional audio editions of Song of the Week, check back later this month when we revive an old tradition: The Mark Steyn Christmas Show. And don't forget our centenary observations for Mercer's friend and collaborator, and the author of "A Marshmallow World", Carl Sigman.