Programming note: Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll be here with Part Twenty-Three of the twentieth-anniversary audio serialisation of my highly prescient demographic bestseller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.
~On this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town, we have a wet start to February, a cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones, and a groovy sonatina. Plus a diverse range of vocal artistes from Julie London to the Rolling Stones - and Frank Sinatra sings Barry Manilow.
To listen to the programme, simply click here and log-in.
~Thank you for all your kind comments on last week's episode. From Nancy, a Montana member of The Mark Steyn Club:
This was one of the best sing-along-to programs... Wonderful tunes, stories, and voices.Thanks for another great Saturday morning in Big Sky Country sir!
Kitty, a First Day Founding Member from Massachusetts, writes:
Every time I listen to these Serenade Radio shows I hear songs I've never heard before and immediately fall in love with them. Almost Like Being In Love is one more song on that long list. And, the interview with Alan Jay Lerner! then the hit parade! Listening gold! Thank you so much, Mark. When I'm not working I try to catch up on my Mark Steyn offerings, and your radio show is my favorite!
Anne Kearney, a First Month Founding Member, says:
Another riveting and revealing show, Mark, thank you!! Chabrier and Hot Diggity Perry Como! Whoda thunk?! Hilarious! Loved loved hearing from Lerner about Loewe ... "his music didn't have rhythm, it had tempo." What a gem.
This show brought back memories of my dad, born in 1920 and a lover of big bands and their music. We were living in northern California and he took me more than once when I was in high school/college to hear the Count at the Venetian Room in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Unforgettable. He loved Basie, Frank, Nelson Riddle, Nat, all the big bands, the singers ... and he passed on his love to me. I've been forever grateful and hope to get a chance to tell him so again if/when we meet again.
He also loved Caterina Valente. He had great taste!
Thank you for doing all you do to preserve western civilization as it endures assault. You are a treasure.
Gary Alexander, our West Coast music maven, also appreciated my talk with Alan Jay Lerner:
Great Groundhog opener with what might be the swinging-est melody Friedrich Loewe wrote, as Alan Jay Lerner explained to you, while snapping his fingers on tape, saying "his music didn't have the activator of jazz." Yet this 1947 early effort of theirs delivered the most jazz cover versions of any Lerner and Loewe tune (outside of a couple of My Fair Lady chestnuts). Frank also contributed to the L&L swing-along with his lively version of "Get Me to the Church..." in that great Basie live pairing at the Sands 60 years ago this month.
And linking "Hot Diggity Dog" to Chabrier's Espana was a revelation I hadn't noticed. Thanks for the sharp ears. Keep swinging the classics.
One more from Jake, a Steyn Clubber in the English West Country:
It's always enlightening to hear the great songwriters in person. That brief clip of Frank Loesser played a few weeks back was the first time ever I heard his voice. Maybe it was in Ned Sherrin's Song by Song where Alan Jay Lerner, a believer in reincarnation, was quoted as saying. "I just hope when Larry Hart comes back he's 6' 2" and irresistible to women!"
~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:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9pm Los Angeles