Programming note: Join Mark tonight for Episode Two of our brand new Tale for Our Time, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Links. Tomorrow, Sunday, he'll be here with Part Nine of the new audio serialisation of his highly prescient demographic bestseller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.
~On this week's episode of Mark Steyn on the Town, we find ourselves in between Halloween and Bonfire Night, Daylight Savings Time and Greenwich Mean Time. Plus a cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones down the decades, and a Pakistani postscript.
To listen to the programme, simply click here and log-in.
~Thank you for your kind comments about last week's episode. Robert Fox, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, enthuses:
Another terrific installment of On the Town. I don't know how Mark and Co. pull it off week after week but there's never a clunker in the box. Love the Irving Caesar interview. That's an America we should go back to.
For Gordon MacMichael, a British Columbia Steyn Clubber, it was our rare foray into the Slovene corner of our Café Continental:
I enjoy how your show reminds us of the common language of music. The Slovenian 'Mammy Blue' was a gas even if I didn't understand the lyrics.
Catherine, on the other hand, enjoyed our vintage radio excerpts:
Thank you Mark for a superb programme today. What a wonderful talent Al Jolson was. The radio clips were delightful, as was Frank's sextet, I love to hear his 'young' voice. Don't know where those 60 minutes went.
For Jake, a West Country member of The Mark Steyn Club, it was the chance to hear the kind of heartfelt unabashed song nobody writes anymore:
What affected me most from the show was 'Strictly USA' and the parade of proud, patriotic American images that stuck in my mind just as a masked-up Muslim mob were demonstrating unpoliced in East London doubtless all singing Ian Dury's 'England's Glory'...
One more from Gary on the West Coast:
I didn't know (thanks for sharing) that Gershwin and Caesar took a train ride to their namesake hit, the Swanee River. It' sad that this tiny, muddy creek (and so many other sacred Southern sites -- or mammies) didn't match the reality of those days, but they were great and powerful songs, defining an era.
Caesar may be the only great American songbook author born on July 4th (George M. Cohan was born on the 3rd), and Caesar lived to age 101 in 1996, unlike poor George, gone at age 38. In case your audience wonders, Irving Berlin made 101 + 4 months, while the other Irving (Caesar) made 101 and 5 months, too deep into the grunge rock era for either Irv, I fear.
Thank you all. On the Town is Steyn's weekly music show on Serenade Radio every Saturday at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time - that's 6pm in western and central Europe or 12 noon North American Eastern. You can listen from almost anywhere in the world by clicking the button at top right here. We also post On the Town at SteynOnline every weekend as a bonus for Mark Steyn Club members. You can find all our previous shows here.
We do enjoy your comments on our weekend programming. Steyn Clubbers are welcome to leave them below. For more on The Mark Steyn Club, now in its ninth year, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Mark Steyn on the Town can be heard on Serenade Radio at its regular times, now recovered from the momentarily misaligned hemispherical time-zones:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9pm Los Angeles