Programming note: Join Mark tonight for Episode Sixteen of our current Tale for Our Time, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Links. Tomorrow, Sunday, he'll be here with Part Eleven 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, Steyn enjoys a salade de fruits with some all-American beefcake. He also marks the centennial of an Australian conductor and swings by the same high school that produced both Ann-Margret and Donald Rumsfeld. Plus Sinatra in the wee small hours.
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~Thank you for your kind comments about last week's episode. Papa G, a Mark Steyn Club member from New South Wales, says:
As Billy Wilder asked, 'Lubitsch, how do you do it?', I ask, 'Steyn, how do you do it?'.
Mr Bradley, an Oregon Steyn Clubber, enthuses:
I must be dreaming. I'd swear I just heard Mark play music by Steve Allen, Bjorn & Benny pre-Abba, and Normie Rowe, along with the usual gems. Wow!
Steve Allen will always be the squarest looking hipster of all time. There is an exhilarating 4-minute clip of 'This Could Be The Start Of Something Big' on YouTube from The Steve Allen Show of Feb 9, 1958 where the song is sung live by Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Ann Southern, Dinah Shore and Mr Allen himself, with a brief cameo from Frank Sinatra, all while strolling through the back caverns of the vast NBC Studios right onto the stage of his show.
Meanwhile, the Hep Stars and the Hootenanny Singers made stars of Bjorn and Benny in the 1960s and it's great to hear some of their music played. The style is called Sunshine Pop today and B&B used it as their springboard to Abba in the 70s.
And then there was Normie Rowe. I was first aware of this reggae-like version of 'Que Sera Sera,' complete with police whistle, in the 1963 single by The High Keys on Atco Records in the US. The side was produced by Bob Crewe with arrangement by Charlie Calello. But Rowe puts it over the top and his version is the killer one.
Thanks again Mark for another wonderful show. Can't wait to see what you have in store for next week.
John, a Rhode Island member of the Steyn Club, notes that le France, ill-fated in the franco context, did have a Nordic after-life:
Another enjoyable show. I will quickly mention the ocean liner France did eventually sail again. A Norwegian company became the new owners. They refurbished her, re-named her the Norway and she would sail out of Miami on Caribbean cruises to visit the various ports of call in the eighties.
For Olga, a Mark Steyn Club member from Arizona, the highlight was the Armistice Day edition of our Sinatra Sextet:
The Wars according to Frank Sinatra grad seminar was super. I am immediately queuing up for the follow-up session on Korea & Viet Nam. The various islamy conflicts beyond that probably didn't generate much music of note.
The Islamic version of "Lili Marlene" is very lively, Olga: after the gang-rape, they douse her in acid.
For Teresa Maupin, it was Mark's musings on Steve Allen:
I love the lineup of the original Tonight Show team. Brought back memories of buying my first album -- Get Together with Andy Williams! And I still have it! Hahaha
One more, from Jake, a Steyn Clubber in the English West Country
Let's Go to Church Next Sunday Morning was deliciously odd. Let's pitch some woo in the pews? It reminded me of Fats Waller singing "I'm in a quaver/ to be middle-aisling you!" from Do Me A Favour...
The pre-ABBA world of Benny and Bjorn was illuminating and I particularly liked Mrs O'Grady; like something Graham Gouldman might have written for the Hollies.
Buddy Greco is new to me and he can really invigorate an arrangement and speaking of such, It's A Breeze was a nothing tune with a great lyric but so enjoyable when everyone's going for it and the fab Matt Munro is singing.
Mark had a pop at the 'caterwauling' records John Peel used to play and that's okay as I don't tune in to On the Town to listen to classics from the punk uprising but jeez Louise, when I heard that sub-Richard Clayderman schlock of Autumn Leaves I felt like R.P. McMurphy when they turned the Mantovani on. Only a full-volume blast of Babylon's Burning could cauterise the ears again after such elevator muzak from Hell.
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