Welcome to this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town, coming to you live-ish from the delightful and historic city of Odessa. Aside from Russian strikes down by the port, last night was a quieter night, so I had an unusually deep and long sleep, and enjoyed an al fresco breakfast with no new holes in the adjoining buildings. The porridge in Odessa is among the best I have tasted anywhere in the world.
With regard to this latest show, I apologise for a couple of vocal/technical issues due to a combination of my health and certain logistical challenges. However, the music's pretty good: we start with a train song, and end with the lower-case kd lang singing the all-caps Al Jolson. In between come a couple of Ukrainian footnotes, a cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones down the decades and around the world, and Frank by the numbers.
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~Thank you for all your kind comments on last week's show. Frank, a New Jersey member of The Mark Steyn Club, enthuses:
Terrific episode. It did not drone on, and yet exploded with interesting information.
Thank you, Frank. Leonid, a First Day Founding Member, especially cherishes Steyn's "blasts from the oblasts" shtick:
I keep enjoying Mark's oblast joke. It never occurred to me to hear the word oblast through an English speaker's ear. Linguistically, oblasts are Clockwork Orange territory. Whereas in the physical world, the West is Clockwork Orange territory..
Very true, Leonid. For Gary Alexander, a musically-minded member of The Mark Steyn Club, it was a blast of classical Kyiv via Vladimir Dukelsky:
Gary Alexander • Apr 25, 2026 at 18:49
If possible, this second Ukrainian hour was even better than the first, last week -- what a blast from the oblast. I especially appreciate the generous serving of Dukelskly's classical offering, which hit me like a bit of film or show music in disguise, "a Schubert tune with a Gershwin touch," in the classic allusion by Irving Gordon in Duke's "Prelude to a Kiss" (let's not forget the royalty check to Mr. Irving Mills, who maybe added a comma somewhere).I can always do with less Hildegarde, but she nailed the right pronouns: "Whom can I run to?" Speaking of Vernon Duke's piano backing to Hildy, the composer also haunted Andre Previn's album of Duke's music and insisted "April in Paris" not be played in the treacly manner he fed to Hildy, so Previn jazzed it up quite nicely and Vernon christened Andre's version as the "best version he's ever heard" of his big hit.
And I've never heard Frank so jazzy (almost scatting awhile) with his Italian compadres on "Bangles & Beads"
He always enjoyed those outings with the quartet, Gary. I regret he abandoned them in the late Eighties. Unlike Gary, David Thackray could have done with more Hildegarde:
I was vaguely aware of an entertainer named Hildegarde from ancient times and in my mind's eye had imagined a haughty harridan-type like Aunt Agatha or Lady Bracknell bellowing out Pale Hands I Loved Beside the Shalimar or some such. Maybe I confused the name with Brunhilde. It was such a sweet surprise when Mark Steyn played Hildegarde singing April In Paris. Delightful to the ear. Unfortunately, Vernon Duke was doing his best to imitate Ernest Borgnine playing the piano in From Here to Eternity.
Indeed, he was. Alison Castellina, a Steyn Clubber from the English Home Counties, feels for poor old Mr Dukelsky being driven to going pop:
Thanks for the amazing 'Vernon Duke' revelation. He studied the Conservatoire of Music in Keeeeev, was admired by Prokofiev and others and spent the rest of his life trying to be a serious musician probably funding that by writing beautiful popular songs. But he was born too late. Harmony and classical music had died . HIs Piano Concerto is very lovely and apparently so it his Cello Concerto. How sad that he is remembered only for his lighter output.
Sinatra's 'Baubles and Beads' rendition would have appalled Borodin. I disliked Sinatra's 'nonchalance', in the 1970s. I am not sure I liked Tony Bennett's rendition any better. However, it was an interesting programme.
I don't know whether it would have appalled Borodin, Alison. He was by trade a chemist who never made any money from his music. If it takes a Billy May or Claus Ogerman arrangement to put it over, I doubt he would have complained.
For Steve, a First Fortnight Founding Member from Manhattan, the oblasts were an eye-opener:
Mark, The selections this week were absolutely perfect for a rainy Spring in New York. Sinatra's "Autumn in New York" was wonderful to hear. I must admit that I am partial to Billie Holiday's version myself.
Please stay safe in your travels, and please avoid drones as best you can!
One more from Canadian Steyn Clubber Nicola Timmerman re the Russian bombing of Polovtsian warrior women:
Sorry to see those Cuman statues damaged or destroyed. And yet the Soviet Union signed the Hague treaty with the section about preserving cultural heritage during war. Apparently the Russians have also looted many Ukrainian artifacts as well.
So thanks for April in Paris one of my favourite songs. You might be hassled by Muslims if you sit at tables under a chestnut tree these days, but I well remember Paris comme il etait.
~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.
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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/9am Los Angeles