Programming note: Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll be here with Part Fourteen of the new audio serialisation of my 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 mark the centenary of Sammy Davis Jr, with help from a few of his pallies. Plus a big finish - and a big Finnish.
To listen to the programme, simply click here and log-in.
~Thank you for your kind comments about last week's show. Anne Kearney, a First Month Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, says:
Where to begin? I'm just finishing a bio of Nelson Riddle and Frank comes off as a bit of a jerk. Toward Nelson, anyway. What an ego. But of course, you'd have to have it to be one of the greatest singers and lyric interpreters of all time. With the brush-off he got with Guys and Dolls, it must've killed him to hear Marlon sing those fabulous Loesser songs. So I'm glad he put together his own revue of it. What fun to hear him with Bing and Dean! Made me realize just what forceful voices Bing and Frank had ... those songs weren't really up Dean's alley, but he held his own.
Next, the incredible McGuire Sisters! So happy to hear them. I feel like they get a bit forgotten in the shadow of the Andrews Sisters. They were amazing.
And last but not least, the revelation of Chrissie Hynde singing with Frank! She did great! Always loved her, a great voice. Thank you for it all, Mark!
p.s. You educated me on Loesser and Dorothy Fields with your great book.
Josh Passell, a First Weekend Founding Member, writes:
You had me at "Guys". Actually, you had me at "G", as I never figured you for a Godspell guy.
Gary Alexander, a West Coast Steyn Clubber, figures we may have a hard act to follow:
Is this the perfect musical? Guys and Dolls delivers at least a dozen classic songs -- every one of them, in fact, to my ears. I loved Fiddler on the Roof for its book as well as music, when I played Tevye once ...but Guys and Dolls is the most fun I've ever had watching a musical on stage.
However, the film needs a singer in Brando's role as Sky Masterson, as you (and Frank) imply, What were the producers thinking? 'Try singing Bar 113 to 117 in one breath?' That would require 77 mumbling takes.
That's actually how they recorded it, Gary - syllable by syllable, note by note, mumble by mumble - and then editing it all into a single song of 777 takes.
William Young enjoyed our Italiano interlude:
I was so pleased to hear your lovely tribute to Grande Ornella. I was first introduced to her during my Bossa Nova obsession years ago via her wonderful1976 album with Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho, La voglia, la pazzia, l'incoscienza, l'allegria. Since then I've enjoyed every album of hers up to the last one in 2024 when she was 90. God Bless Her.
Fraser, a member of The Mark Steyn Club from East Anglia, agrees:
I first started listening to la Vanoni in the late 70s. ( along with Mina, la Zanicchi and indeed Gino Paoli). High quality, highly literate songs of great insight into the emotions and expressed in a superb lyric. I loved them then. I love them now.
To hear the sad news of Ornella, maybe the greatest performer of them all, so compelling and always somehow so modern – even in old age -was a painful loss to this listener for one and, I don't doubt, legions more. Mark Steyn paid a lovely tribute to Ornella. A great singer celebrated on a great music show and that's about right, isn't it? R.I.P. Ornella Vanoni and thanks Mark for your words.
Neil wondered about the Vanoni composition we played in a Shirley Bassey version:
Mark – you played the Ornella Vanoni song 'If You Don't Understand' by Shirley Bassey. It sounds remarkably similar to Matt Monro's 'If I Never Sing Another Song'. Any connection?
There is a definite similarity in the main phrase, Neil. However, "If I Never Sing Another Song" is an Austrian melody from the Seventies, while "If You Don't Understand" is an Italian melody from the Eighties. And, re the former, Don Black's lyric has the size of the tune, while, re the latter, Norman Newell's doesn't. Otherwise, it would have been a hit – and probably a lawsuit.
One more from Jake in the English West Country, ranking the guys and then the dolls:
The cascade of fabulously fascinating foreign words from the original cast recording of Guys and Dolls captivated me immediately. 'Feed-box noise,' 'Bromo-fizz,' 'Saratoga,' 'Platinum folderol,' etc. What on earth did they mean? It was interesting to hear Frank, Dean and Bing interpret the score but I always hear the songs sung by lean, hungry street hustlers not cosy-voiced uncles like Crosby, much as I adore his other recordings.
Such a treat to hear Jean Simmons singing. I always regarded her as lovely as Elizabeth Taylor in her prime and judging by the few interviews she gave, she was charming, funny and self-deprecating, too.
Ornella Vanoni and Shirley Bassey's recordings brought to mind those glossily exotic Campari and Martini TV ads of the 1970s when the Lady Loved Milk Tray. Being a buttoned-up Brit, I found Ms Vanoni's wonderful voice just the other side of the fence in terms of OTT whereas the equally wonderful Ms Bassey is always just this side.
Someone else who seemingly never disappoints is Monique Fauteux who gave a sublime rendition of 'I've Never Been In Love Before'.
Thank you all. On the Town is my 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
