If you enjoy Steyn's Song of the Week at SteynOnline and on Serenade Radio, please note that there will be a live stage edition during the 2025 Mark Steyn Cruise - along with many other favourite features from SteynOnline and The Mark Steyn Show. More details here.
~Meanwhile, if you missed Steyn's Song of the Week last Sunday on Serenade Radio, here's a chance to hear it at SteynOnline. In this episode, Mark traces the history of a blockbuster song from Ray Noble and Ruth Etting to Otis Redding and Three Dog Night.
To listen to the show, Mark Steyn Club members should please click above.
~If you didn't catch today's audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week on Serenade Radio in the UK, do treat yourself and catch one or other of the repeats:
It airs again on Monday morn at 5.30am London time - that's 9.30pm Sunday on the US and Canadian West Coast, so a kind of late-night vibe to it, but it's early Monday afternoon in Oz, so a mellow post-prandial feel to it.
And, as mentioned above, Serenade has added an additional rerun of the show on Thursday at 9pm UK time. Whichever you prefer, we hope you'll tune in. You can listen from anywhere on the planet right here.
~Thank you for your enthusiastic comments about this series. Last week's selection provoked mixed reactions. Olga, an Arizona member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
It's become painfully hard to listen to 'New York, New York', now that the city is not fit for purpose, what with marauding Jew haters, swarms of illegal aliens, & the dregs of NYU & Columbia. (But I repeat myself.) One longs for the simpler days of Chelsea Hotel heroin fiends.
On the other hand, Chris says:
Just one of the greatest songs ever, and I'm sure it's not because I'm a New Yawker by birth and disposition. I left the grimy dame in 1990, having lived there for 40 years. I was mugged 3 times, robbed 4 (car, bike and luggage) in every Borough except Staten Island. I even drove a yellow cab for a few years. I loved it but have been singing the middle stanza of Cashman and West's American City Suite for more than a few years now. I visit often enough, and have a daughter who lives in Manhattan and is more dilettante than dyed in the wool. Cripes, she works in the 'financial sector'. I love ALL versions of the song and appreciate how correct you are that the vamp lives and really just forces out that 1 version of the song.
And as all real New Yorkers I hate the Dodgers and SF Giants and take great solace in how crappy that 'LA is My Lady' thing you played a few weeks ago is (sorry Frank, its not you) . And it remains true that "if you can make it there..." Thanks for the lift.
On the other other hand, Nicola didn't find "that 'LA Is My Lady thing" that "crappy". From Nicola, an Ontario Steyn Clubber:
I liked the Los Angeles song sung by Sinatra that you played another day but can't hold a candle to New York songs. Like San Francisco I doubt I will ever go back as those cities have been ruined by Liberal mayors.
From Ilene Heller, a current New Yorker:
I recall that in the 1970s Frank Sinatra likened NYC to a "broken-down old hooker." While I do like his version of "New York, New York" I never think of it as his signature song. Two other of his songs hold that place for me: "My Way" and "Strangers in the Night."
"My Way" was the song my graduating class at Hunter College-Bellevue School of Nursing sang at our pinning ceremony in 1974 (back then all nurses wore their school pin on their uniforms - proudly). At my wedding in 1979 when the DJ played "Strangers in the Night" virtually every guest got up to dance to it. So, as far as I'm concerned those two songs are Sinatra's signature songs.
One more from Elisa Angel, a First Month Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club:
NYC 20 years ago was great to visit. I spent a month there for work around that time. It was near Christmas, and we stayed in a hotel near Times Square, so everything was decorated and lit up for Christmas. It was fun.
I haven't been back in several years. It's not even on a short list of places I'd like to go anymore. Other than to see a couple of old friends, I don't ever think I'll go back.
Thank you, all. Hope you'll like today's selection.
This airing of Mark's Serenade Song of the Week is a special presentation of The Mark Steyn Club. We launched the Steyn Club over seven years ago, and in this our eighth year we're immensely heartened by all the longtime SteynOnline regulars - from Fargo to Fiji, Madrid to Malaysia, West Virginia to Witless Bay - who've signed up to be a part of it. Membership in The Mark Steyn Club also comes with non-musical benefits, including:
~Our latest audio adventure in Tales for Our Time, and its sixty=six thrilling predecessors;
~Other audio series on pertinent topics, such as our 2019 serialization of Climate Change: The Facts and our adaptation of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade;
~Mark's exclusive anthology of video poetry - because, as he always say, that's where the big bucks are;
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books, mugs, T-shirts, and other products;
~The opportunity to engage in live Clubland Q&A sessions with Steyn (such as this coming Wednesday's);
~Transcript and audio versions of Mark's Mailbox, The Mark Steyn Show, and other video content;
~Advance booking for Steyn's live appearances around the world, including exclusive members-only events such as The Mark Steyn Christmas Show, assuming Mark ia ever again up to such things;
~Customised email alerts for new content in your areas of interest;
~and the chance to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the planet.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here. And for our special Gift Membership see here.
One other benefit to Club Membership is our Comment Club privileges. So, if you feel the urge to try a little brutalness on Mark's musicological musings, then give it your best below. Please do stay on topic on all our comment threads, because that's the way to keep them focused and readable. With that caution, have at it.