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.
~If you missed Mark's Song of the Week earlier today on Serenade Radio, here's a chance to catch up via SteynOnline. Mark tells the story of the world's most famous Neapolitan song from its origins in Napoli and/or the Ukraine to its multi-generational presence on the anglo pop charts - and with a nod to Paul Sorvino's Aunt Luisa. The show includes performances by an array of stars from Caruso to Dino to Elvis ...plus the aforementioned Mr Sorvino.
Click above to listen.
If you would like to hear Paul's rendition in the broader context of his full conversation with Mark, please check out this special edition of The Mark Steyn Show.
~This airing of Steyn's Serenade Song of the Week is a presentation of The Mark Steyn Club. Thank you for your kind responses to our last audio episode on "Goldfinger". Charlene Pinkava, a First Day Founding Member, says:
This is one of my favorite Songs of the Week. On the matter of Bond music I always wondered if there was a connection to my favorite Nina Simone song Tomorrow is my Turn. The writers are Marcel Stellman, Yves Stephane, and Charles Aznavour but the sampling of the Bond theme is obvious. Did they have to pay a percentage to John Barry?
No. Because, aside from anything else, that's a French song to which Mr Stellman, a delightful Belgian chancer in London, put an English lyric. And the French original pre-dates the Bond theme and has no whiff of 007. So any "sampling" is not in the composition but in Miss Simone's arrangement, which alludes somewhat to the release of the Bond theme, but not sufficiently to attract a lawsuit. My version of "Goldfinger" does rather the same for rather longer, but we paid royalties.
Steyn Clubber Gary Alexander writes:
Now that our century's SMERSH (the aptly named Amazon -- a River carrying more dirty drainage than the Mississippi, Nile and Yangtze combined) owns half of the Bond Franchise, we must rely on aging spymaster Michael Wilson becoming a real-life Bond, with sister Barbara Broccoli playing Money-Plenty to enforce their creative control to combat the Bozos of Bezos, Inc., who will certainly try to slither in a LBGTQWERTY Bond Actron for the next generation of PC censors. Oh, for a return to those single-word double-barreled titles with real gangster overtones and slithery spy sounds you featured in Goldfinger, or Thunderball (my second favorite theme, after Goldfinger, reflecting a powerful, surging wave of sound).
Christine Page, a Maine member of The Mark Steyn Club, is partial to a John Barry picture from the year after Goldfinger:
To those still discovering John Barry, I'd like to recommend listening to the enchanting music he composed for a little (and little-remembered) 1965 movie called The Knack...And How to Get It. I saw it as a 15-year-old, couldn't get the music out of my head, and when eventually I learned that it was by the composer of the Goldfinger score, I thought, Ah. Of course.
That is certainly a very jazzy score, Christine. From Anne, who can claim to be one of John's kithfolk:
Brilliant show today. John Barry information and interviews were awesome! Makes me proud to be from Yorkshire. You're the best Mark.
For all his glamorous cosmopolitan style, he was always very Yorkshire, Anne.
From Chris, a Steyn Clubber in upstate New York:
Smashing good effort. We've been messing around a lot lately with Bond, Barry and Bassey; whether it was Rick's movies, Kristofferson memorials or On the Town/Serenades.
I still love that Barry did these Bond # for so many years and yet did Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa a few years after the Bond movies. So different.
And you only implied that Goldfinger was better than Kiss-K,BB but not even close, Mr Bricusse. You have to give Bricusse and Newley their due otherwise since it is that 3 syllable phrase(s) that so distinguish that song. It is a perfect collaboration (and you bet I give Cole Porter his more than due). And thanks for Spy Hard.
All these discussions did send me back to the early Connery/Bond oeuvre and I have to tell you, James Bond early on was not your greatest spy ever---constantly getting knocked out, dropping his gun off roofs or into pools, always being rescued, oblivious to danger but not like he was confident suave "I am better than all these criminals", more like "Huh, what's that?" Carry on, Mark.
From Alison Castellina the English Home Counties:
John Barry had a great musical background and unlike many of us less focused (and less motivated), he found his true calling early on. Much is explained by Barry's mother being a classical pianist and his father owning a chain of cinemas. We should give the church its due, as he was taught composition by the organist of York Minster. He started his career as a trumpeter and was an arranger for bandleader Ted Heath. As a result of all this, he produced very original, professional, competent and memorable songs. I was very glad to hear mighty Shirley Bassey featured. In terms of the lyrics of Goldfinger "He loves only gold" it seems very prophetic of the modern, amoral elite. They have to same spirit as 60s villains i.e. dead souls behind the swanky lifestyle, which Goldfinger expressed so well.. Sterling stuff.
From First Quarter Founding Member Dan Phillips:
Well...I don't typically get to listen at 12:30 Eastern...I bathe the crazy Lakeland Terrier then, and all.
But, today I did listen and what a bloody treat-especially if you grew up in the Sean Connery James Bond era. I was in Japan a few months back and made a point of visiting the Hotel New Otani, the movie location for Osato Chemicals in You Only Live Twice (1967). Anyway, Mark-your program took me back to my exciting teenage years in Seattle; and in the most interesting and irresistible way possible. Even though Kissy Suzuki wasn't with me, I loved it!
On the other hand, it's never unanimous. Israel Pickholtz:
I never liked this song.
Thank you all. We do enjoy your comments on the show. Steyn Clubbers are welcome to leave them below - or anybody can leave them over at Serenade Radio, where they love hearing from listeners.
~Steyn's Song of the Week airs thrice weekly on Serenade Radio in the UK, one or other of which broadcasts is certain to be convenient for whichever part of the world you're in:
5.30pm Sunday London (12.30pm New York)
5.30am Monday London (4.30pm Sydney)
9pm Thursday London (1pm Vancouver)
Whichever you prefer, you can listen from anywhere on the planet right here.
