Steyn's Song of the WeekHow High the Moon
Programming note: Later this evening Mark will begin a brand new Tale for Our Time. We hope you'll join him. Seventy years ago, April 1951, this famous record began a two-month run at Number One on the Billboard charts: That perfect little pop single still sounds great seven decades later, but we're not about records in this department, we're about songs. And there are so many records of that song that it's one of the most performed and recorded songs of all time: You can get it in country, pop, and a zillion jazz instrumentals. Anything left? Disco maybe? Nah, too late; been there, done that: How faint the tune? Not this one. It's not only one of the most performed and recorded songs of all time, it's the most performed and recorded song ... Weiss Man Say Only Fools Rush In...
From Sinatra and the Andrews Sisters to Whitesnake and the Stylistics: the remarkable catalogue of George David Weiss Minnie the Moocher
Mark goes full ho-de-ho in celebration of Cab Calloway and a low-down hoochie-koocher on her ninetieth birthday Teach Me Tonight
An anthem for Teachers' Day from The Sammy Cahn Rhythm'n'Blues Songbook Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
Spring has sprung - and a young man's fancy turns to songs about a young man's fancy ...and songs about a woman's hang-ups A Fine Romance
Mark on a great standard from a film that is now "problematic". What's really problematic is that nobody today could get anywhere near these heights... Morningtown Ride
Mark on a Seekers song from a most unlikely source Come Rain or Come Shine
Mark celebrates an enduring song from a flop show Just a Gigolo
The story of a song, from the Habsburg Empire to David Lee Roth and the Village People My Funny Valentine
Mark on the only song for Valentine's Day Edelweiss
Mark remembers Christopher Plummer, The Sound of Music, and the last song Oscar Hammerstein II ever wrote Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
A song for the season in the Great North Woods and beyond Down Under
Mark celebrates Australia Day with an Aussie anthem and a tragic aftermath Bette Davis Eyes
For the last week at SteynOnline we have been mourning the death of our dear friend Kathy Shaidle, and, as sometimes happens along the way at such times, a certain song lodged in my brain... Try a Little Tenderness
For this week's musical selection, Mark offers some good advice from a guy who'd punch your lights out Lost in a Lost Year
For our final Song of the Week of 2020, Mark presents an audio special saluting those songwriters we lost in the last twelve months Silent Night
Mark and special guests Elisabeth von Trapp and Hanno Schilf celebrate a beloved Christmas song first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in a small church in Oberndorf, Austria... Here Comes Santa Claus
Steyn on a Christmas cowboy, Gene Autry The Christmas Glow Worm
Mark returns to one of his favorite numbers, even at Christmas Do You Hear What I Hear?
Mark on a Christmas standard from the Cuban Missile Crisis They Didn't Believe Me
The song that's the daddy of them all Luck Be a Lady
Mark celebrates a classic showtune on its seventieth birthday Avalon - with Carol Welsman and Russell Malone
A live-performance video edition featuring two of our favorite guests - singer/pianist Carol Welsman and guitarist Russell Malone Georgia on My Mind
For the next two months Georgia's on everybody's mind ...but don't let that put you off the song The Way You Look Tonight
Mark on a classic standard - now and forever Hits from the Headlines
Songs about statues, marching through Georgia, virus-infected felines, and taking the town of Minneapolis... The Best Is Yet To Come
Mark on a classic song - for good times and bad Blue Moon
Mark on a classic song with one tune and four different lyrics I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)
Mark celebrates a quintessentially American song, and wishes he could find a five-and-ten-cent store to find a million-dollar baby in... Goodness Gracious She
Mark remembers Herbert Kretzmer, lyricist of Les Misérables, "Yesterday When I Was Young" and much more Cheek to Cheek
Someday When I'm awf'lly low When the world is cold I will feel a glow Just thinking of you... On the radio the other day, Hugh Hewitt played (for his missus) Sinatra's recording of "The Way You Look Tonight" and then mused that he had no idea who sang it originally. So I put him wise: Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers in the film Swing Time (1936). Then we got back to the usual stuff about immigration and jihad. But you'd be amazed how often the answer to "Who sang that song originally?" is Fred Astaire. He died 20 years ago this week - June 22nd 1987 - and without him the catalogues of America's greatest songwriters might be quite a bit smaller. He introduced a big chunk of the biggest songs by Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and ... Alexander's Ragtime Band
Come on an' hear! Come on an' hear! How's that for an opening? A chorus that tells you, in its very first line, listen up, you're about to hear something! What followed was "the alarm clock that awoke American popular music". That's how Alan Jay Lerner, the author of Camelot and My Fair Lady, described it to me many years ago, and you don't have to accept that premise one hundred per cent to recognize that "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was a landmark, a phenomenon, an alarm clock if not for "American popular music" then at least for its most successful practitioner. Irving Berlin is the composer and lyricist of our Song of the Week #22 ("God Bless America"), #37 ("White Christmas"), #59 ("Cheek To Cheek") and #124 ("Easter Parade"). But ... Georgy Girl
An Australian classic via Dusty Springfield's brother and a peerless Carry Om trouser-dropper The Saint Louis Blues
Mark on the "Father of the Blues" and his biggest hit The Yellow Rose of Texas
A blockbuster twentieth-century hit from a nineteenth-century folk song Autumn Leaves
A classic song for the season Body and Soul
A jazz classic for almost a century The Girl from Ipanema
The best known Brazilian song on the planet Midnight Sun
When Chicago burned, I offered a song about Chicago. So, with Kenosha burning, I thought I'd offer a song about Kenosha... Me and Julio Down in Hong Kong with the Boom-Ding-a-Diggi Blues
Paul Simon and Dana join Mark for a musical wander through Truman Capote's fantasies, the Hong Kong blues, and the glory days of Eurovision Chicago
A town that's no longer toddlin' Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
A novelty song that a surprising number of people claim to have written I'll Never Smile Again
Mark celebrates the first American Number One record - and a Canadian song Born Free
A special edition of our Song of the Week with a brace of 007 guests: Bond lyricist Don Black (Diamonds Are Forever) and Bond villain Robert Davi (License To Kill) are on hand to celebrate the first British song to win an Oscar: Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?
Nobody dances like Zizi Jeanmaire There's A Kind of Hush (All Over the World) with Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits
A live Song of the Week with the irrepressible Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits and a great pop song by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens: Oklahoma!
A big song for a suddenly smaller state The House I Live In
A song about love of country ...from a hardcore leftist Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Toppled along with Francis Scott Key and Ulysses S Grant, a great song We'll Meet Again/There'll Always Be an England
Mark remembers Vera Lynn and two iconic songs of the war years Misty
Mark plays "Misty" for Clint These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
A Lee Hazlewood song that transformed Nancy Sinatra Peggy Lee, Songwriter
Mark celebrates the centenary of a great singer who also wrote great songs Delilah
A classic hit for Tom Jones' eightieth birthday Corona-sequestered All-Request Edition!
The coronavirus has wiped out all musical events, so in lieu we're presenting the first ever all-request audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week... Waterloo
Mark on Eurovision's all-time champ Lullaby of Broadway
No hip-hooray or ballyhoo of Broadway, but the milkman's on his way (back) Sequester'd Days
Songs to quarantine to You'll Never Walk Alone
On its 75th birthday, an old song is the new Number One Let It Be
Words of wisdom from Paul McCartney's mum Yes! We Have No Bananas
Okay, enough with the end of the world as we know it. Time for something jollier... It's the End of the World As We Know It
Oh, okay, might as well go with the flow... Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town
A song by Mel Tillis that found its perfect interpreter in Kenny Rogers Wand'rin' Star
The ultimate one-hit wonder: a two-decade-old showtune from a so-so forgotten musical revived for an embarrassingly awful flop film sung by a guy who couldn't sing Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon, Garfunkel, and some troubled water that proved impossible to bridge Bye Bye Blackbird
A much parodied song, from Allan Sherman to Adolf Hitler A Presidential Medley, Part Two
Welcome to the second part of our musical tour through the Oval Office. Here come presidents 23 to 45, Harrison to Trump, via songs from Jimmy Cagney to Jay-Z... A Presidential Medley, Part One
A SteynOnline audio special featuring 45 songs for 45 presidents (Love Is) The Tender Trap
Mark celebrates Oscar Night with an Oscar loser Rule, Britannia!
The only song we could pick for Britain's first weekend out of the European Union I'm Just Wild About Harry
A song for a prince, and headline writers everywhere I Honestly Love You
Happy Australia Day with a great Australian dame's most Australian hit Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head
The first Number One hit of the Seventies Hello, Dolly!
Remembering Jerry Herman with a classic showtune - and a Number One record Baby, It's Cold Outside
Don't put this record on while I pour Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Steyn marks the eightieth birthday of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer White Christmas
Mark and Irving Berlin's daughter discuss the genesis of one of the most beloved Christmas standards Jingle Bells
An enduring Christmas song that started out as a Thanksgiving song You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
A live-performance special starring a rock legend going all the way back to his days with The Guess Who and "American Woman" - Randy Bachman... Swanee - Just a Gigolo
One of the great characters of Tin Pan Alley tells Mark about two of his biggest hits I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
What's the connection between the Black Sox Scandal, the punk band Cockney Rejects, the pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, one of the most popular boy's names in Estonia, and this weekend's edition of Mark at the Movies..? That Lucky Old Sun
Mark introduces Tal Bachman's live performance of a classic American song Rock Around the Clock
An anthem for rebellious youth written by a guy born in the nineteenth century I'll Never Fall in Love Again
Mark celebrates a Bacharach & David classic They All Laughed
As nobody else seems to celebrate Columbus Day, we might as well... I Thought About You
Johnny Mercer loved trains, and he loved writing train songs. And his very first train was just pulling out of his Grand Central Station exactly eighty years ago... Night And Day
What's the connection between the Muslim call to prayer and Frank Sinatra? Swingin' on a Star
Three quarters of a century ago this week's song was in the midst of a nine-week run at Number One. It's stuck around through all the decades since - which is unusual because it's not a timeless love ballad, but a cautionary tale for slacker schoolkids set among the grubbier habitués of the barnyard. It was introduced in the film Going My Way, in which Bing Crosby played an... Just in Time
The composer Jule Styne died a quarter-century ago this month - September 1994. Everybody knows at least one Jule Styne tune ("Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!") and most of us know a few more... Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead
The eightieth birthday of a classic movie song Something
A George Harrison song that eventually escaped the elevator Vesti la giubba/Mattinata
From Leoncavallo to Frank Sinatra Jr: An operatic aria that inspired a whole sub-genre of pop songs... Moonlight In Vermont
A special audio edition celebrating one of the jewels of the American Songbook Fly Me to the Moon
The first man-made song to be played on the moon (Ah, the Apple Trees) When the World Was Young
Today is le 14 juillet, and I chance to find myself on French soil. So, in the waning hours of the national holiday, it seemed appropriate to pick something suitably Gallic for our Chanson de la Semaine. How about..? "Je me lève et je te bouscule/Tu n'te réveilles pas/Comme d'habitude..." Which you may know better as: "And now the end is near/And so I face/The final curtain..." I confess a preference for Gilles Thibault's French text over Paul Anka's English rewrite, but, if we're going with anglicized franco-pop I think we should try and pick something that at least retains something of the flavor of the old country... Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine
The centenary of two important aviation milestones in aviation prompts a celebration of the heyday of the aeroplane song I'll Be Seeing You
Mark celebrates an über-standard from Bing and Tamara to the Queen Mum and Monica Lewinsky The Man That Got Away
A bum lyric, an old tune, a wrong key and a yelled vocal A Mancini-Mercer Medley
"Moon River" and them: Mark on a great songwriting partnership We Are the Champions
Freddie Mercury meets Stephen Sondheim at Wembley Stadium June is Bustin' Out All Over
Ovine husbandry tips from Rodgers & Hammerstein O Sole Mio
Mark invites Paul Sorvino to reveal the connection between a great American actor and one of the most beloved songs on the planet: Tea for Two
The Short of It
Mark celebrates the shortest song titles of the last hundred years Aba Daba Honeymoon
For this week's live-music edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, Maria Muldaur temporarily abandons "Midnight at the Oasis" for a wild jungle ride: San Francisco
The city that let no stranger wait outside its door - until Nancy Pelosi started to object Some Enchanted Evening
The definitive mid-century Broadway showtune, from Ezio Pinza and Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan and Harrison Ford The Meaning of the Blues
A brand new live-performance edition, with a very brooding ballad from 12-time Grammy winner Cheryl Bentyne: April Fools
Why are there so few songs for the fools of April? The Merry Widow Waltz
Tomorrow is EU Talent Day, whatever that is. Nevertheless, we've been marking it all weekend long. With another week of my life about to be lost to legal torments, I said yesterday that EU Talent-wise I was in the mood for some low, vulgar comedy. Twenty-four hours later, I find myself instead partial to pure, translucent beauty - of which there is an increasing dearth in our world. EU Talent Day was created at some Eurosummit in Budapest, so I thought I'd pick something Hungarian... When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
A song for St Patrick's Day Cruising Down the River
From a tearoom in Wimbledon to a frigate on the Yangtse I'll Be Around
In honor of the Miller/Steyn sellout appearance at the Kodak Center, Mark's favorite song by a composer from Rochester, New York The Continental
The first ever song to win an Academy Award The Windmills of Your Mind
A tennis match, a glider, and a psychedelic lyric Aquarius
The ageing of the dawn of Aquarius Waltzing Matilda
Mark celebrates Banjo Paterson and a lyric that's all but incomprehensible yet nevertheless captures the spirit of a great nation - with bonus romantic francophone version Route 66
Bobby Troup was born one hundred years ago and, by way of celebration, here's his biggest hit - sung and played by Tal Bachman live on the inaugural Mark Steyn Club Cruise: Buttons and Bows
Seven decades ago the Billboard pop chart began the New Year with a Number One hit that was also on its way to winning an Oscar Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Exactly sixty years ago - in January 1959 - the Platters had the Number One record in America. And exactly 85 years ago - Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra had the Number One record in America. And oddly enough they both did it with the same song: They asked me how I knew My true love was true... Or as the Platters sang it: The-e-e-ey asked me how I knew... But never mind how many syllables encrust to a one-syllable word over the decades. In more than one hundred years of American pop charts, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is the only song ever to be Number One in the same week in different quarter-centuries. Who knows? If only Lionel Richie or Deniece Williams had thought to cover it in 1984, we might have had a hat trick. As to which of those ... What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
Here's the second biggest New Year number after "Auld Lang Syne". I explain the song's background - and then take a crack at it live: Blue Christmas
An umbrella, a convertible, and a rock'n'roll Christmas song Pick Yourself Up
A Sinatra classic, authenticated by Steyn and Sotheby's Orange Colored Sky
Flash! Bam! Alakazam! And Delugg? LULLABY OF BROADWAY
Song of the Week #79 by Harry Warren and Al Dubin All weekend at SteynOnline we've been marking the tenth anniversary of Broadway Babies Say Goodnight, with a medley of the book's greatest hits, the original excerpt from The Independent, a special birthday book offer, and a round-up of reviews from the British press. But I couldn't let the anniversary pass without addressing a song that is nowhere mentioned by name in the text, except for two oblique references, one on page 152 and the other bang on the front cover: The title alludes to a lyric - When a Broadway baby says goodnight It's early in the morning... In all the reviews, I believe only one critic so much as mentioned the provenance of the title, and that had to wait till the US ... Of Rain and Wrecks
To mark his eightieth birthday, some of Gordon Lightfoot's best songs Songs of Love and War
"The war to end all wars" was also a bonanza for Tin Pan Alley. More songs were written for the First World War than for any other war before or since, and many of them resonate to this day... You Are My Sunshine
The absolutely biggest musical success by any American governor Witchcraft
For the days before Halloween, something a little spooky and bewitching... Scarlet Ribbons/When Sunny Gets Blue
Two contrasting songs from lyricist Jack Segal This Is All I Ask
A song with everything but a title Fever
How a one-night audience volunteer helped enable a Peggy Lee classic Charleston/Carolina in the Morning
Mark on Carolina's biggest song, and dance All Or Nothing At All
The first song in the Sinatra songbook - and a personal credo Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)
The second most successful Italian song of all time Almost Like Being in Love
The centenary of Alan Jay Lerner, who wrote some of the biggest Hollywood and Broadway hits of all time Think
Mark remembers Aretha Franklin, songwriter On a Slow Boat to China
Nature Boy
A strange enchanted boy who wrote a strange enchanted song Waterloo
With the recent release of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in movie theaters and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace on Friday, we thought we'd join in on the Abba fever by revisiting this piece by Mark on Abba, Eurovision and Waterloo: It was all more harmonious in the old days. One recalls the 1990 Eurovision finals in Zagreb, when the charming hostess, Helga Vlahović, presented her own fair country as the perfect Eurometaphor: "Yugoslavia is very much like an orchestra," she cooed. "The string section and the wood section all sit together." Alas, barely were the words out of her mouth before the wood section was torching the string section's dressing rooms, and the hills were alive only with the ancient siren songs of ethnic ... Summertime
This essay is adapted from Mark's book A Song For The Season: Summer is icumen in and one's thoughts turn naturally to a song for the season. A good summer song has to be more than just a tune with a seasonal lyric. There are zillions of those: Here Comes Summer School is out, oh happy day... Which original lyric has been blotted out in my mind and replaced with some long ago jingle: Here Comes Summer Now let's get fresh with Fabergé... But there's no real scent of summer in the tune. I like a song that gives you a palpable whiff of time and place: Memphis In June A shady veranda Under a Sunday-blue sky Memphis In June And cousin Miranda Making a rhubarb pie... Hoagy Carmichael was one of the few big-time Tin Pan Alley A-list composers ... O Sole Mio
Paul Sorvino will be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later this year. Beyond his myriad film credits, Sorvino is also the nephew of the subject of Eduardo di Capua's classic operatic song, O Sole Mio. Our Love
Nancy Sinatra Sr., first wife of Frank Sinatra and mother of his three children, died Friday at 101. Here's a look back at what Mark had to say about Frank, Nancy and "Our Love": Someday someone should release an album called Classical Frank. I mentioned a couple of days ago that "Take My Love" was adapted from Brahms' Third Symphony. Aside from Brahms (whose Lullaby he also recorded), Sinatra sang over the years Anton Rubinstein, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Borodin. That's to say, "If You Are But A Dream" (Rubinstein's Romance No 1), "I Love You" and "Strange Music" (Grieg's "Ich Liebe Dich" and "Wedding Day At Troldhaugen", respectively), "Full Moon And Empty Arms" and "I Think Of You" (both from Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto), ... La Vie en rose
Happy Dominion Day to Mark's fellow Canadians. We were thrilled to see that among the inductees into the Order of Canada today is a great friend of our musical endeavors here, Patsy Gallant. Nessun dorma
The all-time greatest World Cup anthem Tomorrow
The sun'll come out tomorrow (although in this case it took a little longer than that) Put On a Happy Face
A great American composer, and a beloved song everyone loves to sing It Was a Very Good Year
The twentieth anniversary of the death of Frank Sinatra Happy Birthday to You
After You've Gone
A classic American song celebrates its one hundredth birthday Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Baseball season is here, and so, after 108 years, is this classic American anthem A Cavalcade of the Clouds
Mark picks out some music and song for the one hundredth birthday of the Royal Air Force Tiger Rag
One hundred years ago today - March 25th 1918 - a five-man band went into the Victor Studios in New York, and emerged with three minutes of manic abandon... Step Inside Love
Paul McCartney's favorite of his "non-Beatles songs", written for the former hatcheck girl at the Cavern Club Ghost Riders in the Sky
Mark celebrates a cowboy classic I Will Always Love You
From Porter to Saddam via Whitney Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody
One hundred years of a Dixie melody that's actually a Hungarian melody Bill
P G Wodehouse, novelist ...and songwriter My Blue Heaven
Mark celebrates one of the biggest-selling discs ever, from the dawn of the record biz Oh Happy Day
The hit parade gets religion Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town
Mark salutes Mel Tillis and an unforgettable song about a "crazy Asian war" I Wish You Love
Mark remembers Keely Smith, and a signature song courtesy of Charles Trenet Auld Lang Syne
Mark celebrates the classic song for the chimes of midnight Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Steyn tips his hat to Hugh Martin and takes "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on a merry ride: ROCKIN' AROUND THE HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS TREE
Song of the Week #152 by Johnny Marks This Christmas at SteynOnline we've been marking the centenary of Johnny Marks, born November 10th 1909. We celebrate his most famous Yuletide hit here, and you can hear a unique bilingual version from my friends Monique Fauteux, one of the great treasures of Quebec music, and Dorothée Berryman, star of the Oscar-winning film Barbarian Invasions/Les Invasions Barbares, with a little help from yours truly, as the finale to this year's Mark Steyn Christmas Show. If Johnny Marks had written nothing but "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer", he would have gone down in his-to-ree. And 60 years ago it was such a blockbuster hit that anyone would have found it a hard act to follow. Nevertheless, he did follow it. ... L'Hymne à l'amour
We're honored to present another live-performance edition of Mark's Song of the Week. Patsy Gallant has sung rock, jazz, disco, musical theatre, but she has a special connection with Piaf, whom she met when she was a child performer in Quebec: The Glory of Love
If you saw singer/pianist Carol Welsman do "As Time Goes By" as our Sunday song a few weeks back, you'll know that she can freshen up the most familiar standard. So we're thrilled to have Carol back live, accompanied by the Steyn house band: Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)
Mark celebrates the seventieth birthday of a classic novelty song Yeh, Yeh
Mark remembers Jon Hendricks, and a Number One hit from the Sixties Till There Was You
Mark celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the Beatles' only showtune Blueberry Hill
What's the connection between Puccini, Neville Chamberlain and David Bowie? Where The Blue Of The Night
For almost half a century, this was as well known as any song in America. The man who sang it was the biggest-selling recording artist of all time, and this was the biggest-selling recording artist's theme tune, the one the band struck up at the start of every radio, TV or stage show:
Forty years ago - October 14th 1977 - a golden half-century met the blue of the night on a golf course in Madrid: After finishing 18 holes at La Moraleja with three Spanish golf champions, Bing Crosby had a massive heart attack, collapsed, and died. He'd headed to his Iberian retreat for a few days of rest and relaxation after some sell-out concerts at the London Palladium, a recording session for BBC radio, a pre-taping of his annual Christmas show, and some tracks for a new album: a typical few days for an "Old Groaner" who was old but assumed he still had plenty of groaning ahead... I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat
One hundred years ago today - October 15th 1917 - a man called Alan Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania. You probably don't know his name, and, if you think you know your songwriters, you may be confusing him with his older brother Jay Livingston, who with Ray Evans wrote "Que Sera Sera", "Mona Lisa", "Buttons and Bows" and the urban Christmas song "Silver Bells". Jay's kid brother doesn't have a song catalogue like that, but one way or another we owe a lot of the late 20th century's best known music to him... Beautiful Dreamer
On this Columbus Day weekend, Christopher Columbus is close to being entirely obliterated from American life, and the barbarians have galloped on to newer targets for their rage. I mentioned yesterday how sad I was to see that in his home town a memorial to America's first great songwriter is to be dismantled and removed. Stephen Foster's songs were uniquely popular on both sides of the Civil War, but he seems less likely to survive the cold Civil War of 21st century America. And so the cultural vandals, who cannot create but can only destroy, scent another victory. In my book The [Un]documented Mark Steyn, there's an entire section called "Mystic Chords" - that's an allusion to Lincoln, for all you know-nothing safe-spacers out there. It ... At Last/Serenade in Blue
Mark salutes two classic ballads from one entirely forgettable film (I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo
An entirely forgettable film produces three unforgettable songs Songs in the Keys of Florida
To see you through the hurricane: a musical celebration of the Sunshine State featuring a century and a half of Floridian songs, including a live performance of the "Miami Beach Rhumba", and veteran songwriter Irving Caesar on the Hindustani origins of "Swanee" Candle in the Wind
On the twentieth anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, a musical footnote from Elton John and Bernie Taupin Theme from New York, New York
Mark celebrates the 40th anniversary of a blockbuster - and talks to the pianist and conductor who helped make it a worldwide hit Love Me Tender
To round out our Elvis Week, I thought we'd celebrate the biggest hit song supposedly written by Elvis: These days more or less every pop star is expected to come up with his own songs. It wasn't always that way... Rock-a-Hula Baby
The composer who wrote more Elvis songs than anybody else Wichita Lineman
Mark celebrates Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, and the all-time greatest love song about a guy who works for the utilities company I've Been Everywhere
Mark on a one-hit songwriter whose one hit went around the world Light My Fire
Mark on the 50th anniversary of an iconic psychedelic rock track turned faintly camp easy-listening classic At Long Last Love
Another live-performance edition, with Robert Davi singing Cole Porter: Over There
President Trump was a guest of President Macron this past week to mark not only Bastille Day but also the one hundredth anniversary of America's entry into the Great War. So, with that in mind, altogether now... Peg O' My Heart
Irish hearts, lilting laughter, and a Number One hat-trick Stormy Weather
Mark celebrates a long-lived American vocalist, Lena Horne, and her signature song by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler O Canada
To Sir, With Love
A 50th anniversary reunion for a great high school song GOD BLESS AMERICA
Song of the Week by Irving Berlin In this anniversary week of 9/11, we'll be publishing various columns old and new from today and from September 2001. But we thought we'd begin with a musical remembrance: Mark presents a special audio edition of our Song of the Week telling the story behind the song spontaneously sung by Congressional leaders on the steps of the Capitol in the wake of that murderous event. We'll hear Irving Berlin's great anthem sung by Kate Smith, Céline Dion and the composer himself - and we'll explore its origins in the First World War, and in a long forgotten ethnic novelty called "When Mose With His Nose Leads The Band". This podcast is adapted from Mark's essay in his book A Song For The Season. To listen to it, ... Batman makes Girl Talk
Steyn on songs for caped crusaders - and swingin' sexists I'll Never Smile Again
Tal Bachman is a hitmaker in his own right, and the son of Seventies rocker Randy Bachman. But Mark had him in mind for an even earlier contribution to the Maple Songbook. Live on stage, a great Canadian performer sings a great Canadian song - for the very first time: That's Amore
Yesterday at SteynOnline we marked Dean Martin's hundredth anniversary this coming Wednesday with a celebration of Dean on screen. So, for our Sunday Song of the Week, I thought we'd pick a selection from the Dino songbook. As noted yesterday, the Martin centenary observances are nowhere near as extensive as the Sinatra centenary observances were. Frank and Dean were fast friends - until, at a difficult time for both men, a Rat Pack reunion led to a serious falling-out in 1989. But they had an entirely different approach to their craft. In their Vegas heyday, whatever Sinatra did, Sammy Davis and Peter Lawford tried to do too, sometimes pitifully and desperately; whatever Sinatra did, Dean just did the opposite. "I hate guys who sing ... As Time Goes By
From The Mark Steyn Show, a valentine to one of the great iconic love songs performed live by Mark's special guest, Carol Welsman: Over The Rainbow
Mark celebrates one of the great iconic movie songs Waterloo
Mark salutes an Abba classic from the glory days of Eurovision Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Mark celebrates a favorite novelty number The Look Of Love
A Bacharach & David classic celebrates its 50th anniversary There'll Always Be An England
March saw, in rapid succession, Dame Vera Lynn's 100th birthday, a terrorist attack on Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, and Theresa May formally beginning the process of British withdrawal from the European Union. The combination of events put me in mind of this song... A Winter's Tale
One of the most successful lyricists of our time, the multi-Oscar and -Tony winner Tim Rice, joins Mark to talk about one of Tim's comparatively few hits not to come from a film or show score - after which Emma Kershaw sings it live, complete with previously unheard third verse: This Masquerade
For this week's live-music edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, multi-Grammy-winning Cheryl Bentyne of the Manhattan Transfer sings Leon Russell's slinkiest love song: Dance Me To The End Of Love
Mark welcomes the Klezmer Conservatory Band to perform their haunting klezmerized version of his favorite Leonard Cohen song - and be sure to stay tuned for a bonus number - the irresistible "Miami Beach Rhumba": The Wexford Carol
On this year's Mark Steyn Christmas Show Mark was in sentimental mood, recalling some of his earliest festive memories from his grandparents' home in Ireland. So he asked Anthony Kearns to sing his favorite Irish Christmas carol: The (Christmas) Glow Worm
The return of a festive favorite Roses of Picardy
This week's Song of the Week is one hundred years old today: that's to say, it was published by Messrs Chappell & Co of New Bond Street, London on December 4th 1916, at a price of one shilling and sixpence. And in one form or another it's been with us ever since... A Greasepaint Medley
Three enduring songs from one flop musical Dance Me To The End Of Love
Mark on his favorite Leonard Cohen song It's All In The Game
The only hit song written by a candidate on a winning presidential ticket It's De-Lovely
A SteynOnline audio special on the 80th anniversary of a great Cole Porter standard Ain't Misbehavin'
A hit song by the great nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar The Man Who Sold The World
I've received a remarkable number of emails in the last week more or less taunting me to eschew my usual Jerome Kern and Cole Porter and pick a David Bowie number for our Song of the Week. Well, I like a challenge, and, given that the British press has been full of people with not a thing to say about Bowie saying it at great length, I figured that I might as well get a piece of the action. That said, it would be hard to beat this last word in Bowie-eulogizing from The Croydon Advertiser:
Sixteen Tons
A backbreaker of a blockbuster, courtesy of the company sto' Unforgettable
Mark remembers Natalie Cole, an unforgettable song, and an unshuttupable songwriter Sinatra Century at SteynOnline
In case you missed it, here's our rundown of Mark's Sinatra Century - 100 years in 100 songs: 1) IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR 2) THE SONG IS YOU 3) HOME ON THE RANGE 4) AFTER YOU'VE GONE 5) IT HAD TO BE YOU 6) THE ONE I LOVE (BELONGS TO SOMEBODY ELSE) 7) LOVE'S BEEN GOOD TO ME 8) STARDUST 9) MY FUNNY VALENTINE 10) WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE? 11) CHICAGO 12) THE CONTINENTAL 13) ALL OF ME 14) WHEN YOUR LOVER HAS GONE 15) NIGHT AND DAY 16) I WON'T DANCE 17) I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN 18) SOUTH OF THE BORDER 19) EAST OF THE SUN (AND WEST OF THE MOON) 20) ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY 21) A FOGGY DAY (IN LONDON TOWN) 22) I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU 23) I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU 24) OUR LOVE 25) ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL 26) I'LL NEVER SMILE AGAIN 27) FOOLS RUSH ... Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban launch the clash of civilizations All I Want For Christmas Is You
Mark hits a new high as he takes a crack at Mariah Carey's Christmas classic One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
Put Your Dreams Away
That's Life
Body And Soul
Mack the Knife
You'd Be So Easy to Love
Pick Yourself Up
Time After Time
The Lady Is A Tramp
Goody Goody
Try A Little Tenderness
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
Theme from New York, New York
Something
In November 1968 George Harrison and his then missus Pattie Boyd attended the recording sessions in Hollywood for Sinatra's album Cycles... Send In The Clowns
My Way
Some Enchanted Evening
For Once In My Life
Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars
The Girl From Ipanema
Me And My Shadow
Moon Love
Strangers in the Night
A Theme to a Kill
An encore presentation of Mark's audio salute to James Bond's music man, John Barry This Is All I Ask
The Best Is Yet To Come
The End of a Love Affair
When you're as good a jazz player as Edison, studio sessions aren't really what you want to do. You'd much rather be in some night spot with a handful of other guys taking a full chorus for every solo... I Thought About You
We'll Gather Lilacs
Come Rain Or Come Shine
Moonlight In Vermont
It's All Right With Me
Autumn Leaves
A truly great song for the season isn't about the calendar, or the weather. It's about the seasons of life and love... Fly Me To The Moon
Ol' MacDonald
In honor of Alan Bergman's 90th birthday, we've been spending a little time this weekend with some of his early hits for Sinatra. Although I myself have recorded an Alan & Marilyn Bergman number, I reluctantly concede that, vocalist-wise, they're better known for their association with Barbra Streisand ("The Way We Were", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", etc). But long before Barbra they wrote a few songs for Frank that have a different character... Nice 'N' Easy
I Cover The Waterfront
Just In Time
Angel Eyes
Come Fly With Me
Ebb Tide
Witchcraft
Stars Fell On Alabama
(Love Is) The Tender Trap
Learnin' The Blues
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
But in the entire history of Getting Songs to Frank there are no luckier guys than Dave Mann and Bob Hilliard... Baubles, Bangles and Beads
Chet who? Well, Robert Wright and his partner George "Chet" Forrest were never exactly household names in the music biz, but they certainly worked with a lot of household names, including Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov... The Gal That Got Away
Young at Heart
I've Got The World On A String
Why Try To Change Me Now?
I Have Dreamed
(Ah, the Apple Trees) When the World Was Young
Oh, no, wait. Frank sang the English lyric:
We'll Be Together Again
Luck Be A Lady
The House I Live In
How About You?
I like New York in June I Concentrate On You
The Coffee Song
He was the saloon singer - quarter to three, set 'em up, Joe, drinkin' again and thinkin' o' when... spinning round in my brain, like the bubbles in a glass of champagne... But Sinatra liked a non-alcoholic tipple, too. He took "Tea For Two" with Dinah Shore in 1947, and in 1960 recorded "When I Take My Sugar To Tea". But he wasn't averse to something a little more caffeinated:
Soliloquy
I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)
A one-hit wonder who never got to hear her one hit sung by anyone - from Sinatra to Molly Ringwald You Make Me Feel So Young
Somethin' Stupid
Nancy (With the Laughing Face)
Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
Blues In The Night
Pennies from Heaven
The Nearness of You
Oh, that's easy. They were both married to Ava Gardner. What's the connection between Frank Sinatra and William Shakespeare? Hmm, well, lemme see... I'll Be Around
The Way You Look Tonight
I'll Be Seeing You
Everything Happens To Me
My One And Only Love
Before St George's Day fades for another year, I thought we'd have a Sinatra English song Fools Rush In
I'll Never Smile Again
All Or Nothing At All
Our Love
Someday someone should release an album called Classical Frank. I mentioned a couple of days ago that "Take My Love" was adapted from Brahms' Third Symphony. Aside from Brahms (whose Lullaby he also recorded), Sinatra sang over the years Anton Rubinstein, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Borodin. That's to say, "If You Are But A Dream" (Rubinstein's Romance No 1), "I Love You" and "Strange Music" (Grieg's "Ich Liebe Dich" and "Wedding Day At Troldhaugen", respectively), "Full Moon And Empty Arms" and "I Think Of You" (both from Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto), "The Lamp Is Low" (Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte)... I'm A Fool To Want You
I Get A Kick Out Of You
When Frank Sinatra was 18, it was a very good year. Anything Goes opened at the Alvin Theatre in November 1934 and provided young Frank with a slew of Cole Porter material he would sing in his maturity:.The title song turned up in 1956 on his landmark album Songs For Swingin' Lovers; "Easy To Love" was dropped at the insistence of leading man William Gaxton, but became a highlight of Sinatra's first album at Reprise... A Foggy Day (In London Town)
Sinatra sang a lot of Gershwin over the years, but if you had to name the most important "Gershwin song" in his book it would probably be "The Gal That Got Away" - words by Ira Gershwin, but music by Harold Arlen. He made a terrific record of it when the song was new, and then returned to it a quarter-century later to make it - in a medley with "It Never Entered My Mind" - the last great saloon-song sequence to be added to the Sinatra act. But a lot of George Gershwin tunes stayed with him to the end, too... On The Road To Mandalay
East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)
Where do you head after you've gone "South Of The Border"? Oh, that's easy... South Of The Border
St Patrick's Day looms, and so a Sinatra Irish confection would seem to be appropriate. Unlike Peggy Lee, he never recorded "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"; unlike Rosie Clooney, he never recorded "Danny Boy". In the 1949 film Take Me Out To The Ball Game, he sang a song called "O'Brien To Ryan To Goldberg" - Gene Kelly, who was of Irish ancestry, played O'Brien; Jules Munshin, who was of Russian Jewish ancestry, played Goldberg; and Frank Sinatra, who was of Italian ancestry, played, er, Ryan. But what of the great Irish songwriters..? I've Got You Under My Skin
The night it took 22 takes... I Won't Dance
The 1930s were the golden decade of American popular song. The great Broadway blue chips - Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart - were hitting their stride, and, as we've explored in recent weeks, a whole generation of far lesser known names were providing great individual numbers that, thanks to Sinatra, have lasted across the decades... Night And Day
What's the connection between the Muslim call to prayer and Frank Sinatra? When Your Lover Has Gone
All Of Me
A Sinatra classic, born from a happy accident at a summer resort, and a widow's grief The Continental
It's the wee small hours after Oscar Night, and so our Sinatra Centenary song is obliged to take a nod at least in the direction of the Academy Awards. Frank made a whole album of Oscar winners, with the unwieldy title of Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners... Chicago
An anthem to "the town that Billy Sunday couldn't shut down" What Is This Thing Called Love?
On March 27th 1929 the Charles B Cochran revue Wake Up And Dream opened at the London Pavilion, with a host of West End talent, including Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Tilly Losch and Douglas Byng. And at one point in the evening Britain's "Radio Sweetheart Number One", Elsie Carlisle, stepped forward and sang... My Funny Valentine
Valentine's Day looms, and, given his contribution to its popularity, we would be remiss not to include in our Sinatra Century the one great Valentine standard... Stardust
It's July 8th 1939 and the Harry James orchestra is on stage at the Roseland Ballroom in New York. They have a new singer - a 23-year old boy vocalist who signed with the band a few days earlier - and he steps to the microphone to sing... Love's Been Good To Me
My God, what was he thinking? The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)
We're spending this weekend with the Isham Jones/Gus Kahn end of the Sinatra songbook. Following "It Had To Be You" on Friday, here's a song Frank sang for almost half-a-century from June of 1940, as the new boy vocalist with a hit orchestra, to deep into the 1980s, as a lion in winter jumpin' all over a hard-swingin' band... It Had To Be You
An über-standard everyone sang before Frank After You've Gone
A song as old as Sinatra that he only got to in the Eighties Home on the Range
I received a letter, as I do from time to time and particularly since we launched this series, making the familiar complaint that I "only write about the kind of songs Frank Sinatra sings" and thereby ignore the older, vernacular American musical tradition. Well, I happen to think Frank chose pretty good songs, so why kick the habit? For example, here's a ring-a-ding-ding Sinatra classic he recorded in 1946:
The Song Is You
It's often said that the pop songs you like when you're 17 years old are the pop songs that stay with you your entire life. And in that respect Frank Sinatra was very fortunate: When he was 17, to pick up where we left off last week, it was a very good year. The songs in the air as a Hoboken schoolboy prepared to start his adult life were the songs he would record a quarter-century later and still be singing on stage, at Caesars' Palace and the Royal Albert Hall, another quarter-century beyond that... It Was A Very Good Year
Our Sinatra Song of the Century Number One Morning Train (Nine To Five)
I love the Great American Train Song. It's a genre that has the sweep and size of the nation... It's the End of the World as We Know It
After "Cat Scratch Fever", Mister Squaresville goes in search of other rockers to cover The Quality of Mercer
A musical moment from The [Un]documented Mark Steyn The Boy Next Door part two
To mark the centenary of composer Hugh Martin, here's the second part of Mark's two-part audio tribute to the man who gave the world "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"... (I'm In Love With) A Wonderful Guy
A few weeks back, apropos "June Is Bustin' Out All Over", I mentioned that we hadn't done a lot of "month" songs in the years we've been running this feature. Some months - mostly spring ("April Showers", "April In Paris") and fall ("September Song", "September In The Rain") - seem to lend themselves to musicalization. If "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" is about as big a hit title as the sixth month of the year has ever produced, the eighth (which looms this very week) can't even manage a title at all. In the Seventies, Neil Diamond had a monster album called Hot August Night, with him doing what I recall as a denimed and vaguely pelvic thrust on the cover. But, unless I'm mistaken, Hot August Night doesn't actually include a song called ... Cinderella Rockefella
What with all the Jew-hate around on the streets of Europe in recent days, I thought it would be nice to have a big Europop hit from that fleeting cultural moment when the Continentals regarded Israel not merely as a normal sovereign state but in fact a rather cool and enviable one... My Lady Nicotine
Mark explores the art of the cigarette song Que Sera Sera
The great Doris Day celebrates her 90th birthday this week. We will be marking the occasion on the big day, but, as a curtain-raiser, I thought we should have a DD classic for our Song of the Week... On The Good Ship Lollipop/Animal Crackers In My Soup
Shirley Temple - singer, dancer, actress, and rock'n'roller Almost Like Being In Love
A song for Groundhog Day? What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
Happy New Year with one of Mark's favorite songs for the season The Boy Next Door
Hugh Martin, composer, lyricist, vocal arranger, pianist, singer, actor and the man who gave the world the great seasonal gift of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", was born one hundred years ago this week... Camelot
On the centenary of the birth of John F Kennedy, Mark tells the story of how a Broadway musical became a key part of the President's posthumous mythology Ain't That A Kick - Sammy Cahn All The Way
2015 is Frank Sinatra's centenary year, which necessitates a few modifications to SteynOnline's music, film and entertainment coverage. Our official observances commence tomorrow when our Song of the Week department becomes a Song of the Semi-Week in order to squeeze in 100 Sinatra songs of the century between now and December. Several other folk seem to have opted for this approach, too - our old friend the Pundette has launched a dedicated Sinatra Centenary site for that very purpose - so we hope you'll have lots of finicky fun nitpicking through competing hit parades and demanding to know why this or that song hasn't made the list. Don't worry, we'll still make space for other musical content this year, not least because I need to come ... Light My Fire
How a psychedelic anthem from the summer of love became an easy-listening blockbuster What A Diff'rence A Day Made
A day late for Cinco de Mayo, here's Steyn's Song of the Week: the most successful composition by Mexico's first successful female composer. ~and don't forget, if you like Mark's Song of the Week essays, some of his most requested are collected in his book A Song For The Season - including many songs for national days, from "America The Beautiful" to "Waltzing Matilda". You can order your personally autographed copy exclusively from the SteynOnline bookstore. The Sheik of Araby
April 29th apparently marks the anniversary of the launch of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsula in the year 711. So I thought it would be fun to have a suitably Islamo-dominant number for our Song of the Week. ~and don't forget, some of Mark's most popular Song of the Week essays are collected in his book A Song For The Season. You can order your personally autographed copy exclusively from the SteynOnline bookstore. ![]() |
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