If you enjoy Steyn's Song of the Week at SteynOnline, please note that there will be a live stage edition during April's Mark Steyn Cruise - along with many other favourite features from SteynOnline and The Mark Steyn Show. More details here.
~On our springtime Saturday show, I played this particular song as part of our Sinatra Sextet. If you'd like to know a little more about it, here's a chance via this SteynOnline premiere of one of our Serenade Radio Songs of the Week. In this show I tell the story, via HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and the psychotic hoodlum Mad Frankie Fraser, of Ivor Novello and one of the loveliest and most English of spring songs:
We'll Gather Lilacs in the Spring again
And walk together down an English lane...
There was an elegaic quality to the song when it was brand new, and even more so now - in a country where even the custodians of Shakespeare's birthplace have turned against their inheritance.
Click above to listen.
~This airing of our Serenade Radio Song of the Week is a special presentation of The Mark Steyn Club. In response to our last audio edition, "How About You?", Joe Cressotti, a First Week Founding Member of the Club, writes:
I loved this episode. This song has fascinated me since I watched The Fisher King in middle school with a friend in the early 90s. (We were both a bit odd ducks.) I can't remember how much the song featured in the movie, except for the scene in which Robin Williams and his band of bums sing it while thwarting hoodlums attacking Jeff Bridges. I think I only vaguely knew who George Gershwin was at the time, but as with Mark, that line always stuck with me. My friend and I liked jokingly to sing that couplet. We knew nothing of its origins but yet it evoked dimly a more sophisticated era that I suppose we longed for.
Chris, a Steyn Clubber from upstate New York, was struck by the song's presence in the northern pantheon:
It's in the Canadian Song Hall of Fame? Wow. Don't let Justin know or he'll remove American Burton from the tag line altogether and just go with Ralph Freed.
But what Canadian town can we sub in for New York? Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Regina and Vancouver all have 3 syllables (MS is a real stickler on this sort of stuff.) I am not sure, at all, that 'Moose Jaw' will have that nice ring to it that Garland's very, very, young voicing of 'New York' has either, how 'bout you?
'You leave me breathless, you heavenly thing' Mildred Bailey sings about Mark's Serenade Radio. (Now that seems like a fascinating woman, from a quick read--Mildred Bailey!)
You can't go wrong with Mildred Bailey, Chris.
Alison, a Steyn Clubber from the English Home Counties, likes the song but will pass on the city and the season:
Very pleasant listening, especially about Ira Gershwin. I feel that 'How about You?' may be the inspiration of 'My Favourite Things'. There is a whole genre of songs which are list of things, towns, experiences, etc. Unlike 'My Favourite Things' the list in 'How About You' seems genuine, except for FDR which may just be a wartime salute seeing that it does not make much sense, especially when sung by a man.
Personally, I can think of many better places than New York to be. in June. Most of England, Oxford on the river, even central London is perfect. Hot, high rise cities in high summer are not my thing and New York now seems as much a place to be avoided at all costs, as Washington DC. It is odd that lyrics are not poetry. 'June in New York' would not be very poetic, but both 'June' and 'New York' work very well, in popular song.
And one more from Ilene Heller on what Noël Coward called "the potency of cheap music":
Mark, I can't thank you enough for featuring 'How About You?' as your Song of the Week. It brought forth some very poignant memories I have of my mother who passed away at this time last year (just 5 months short of her 100th birthday).
I was very lucky to have a mother who not only read to me; she also sang to me. And the song I remember most is 'How About You?' Of course, she would insert my name in the spot accorded to FDR by Judy Garland: '...and Ilene Madge's looks just give me a thrill...' (although I never did figure out why my Jewish mother gave me two Irish names).
My mom came of age in the late 1930s/early 1940s so her repertoire was heavy on the American Songbook. This became a saving grace in the last years of her life when she largely lost the ability to form words. At her assisted living facility a singer-pianist came on Sundays & Paulette's repertoire was also heavy on the American Songbook. Inexplicably, my mother was able to sing along virtually fluently to almost every song. Those moments made the last few years of her life bearable for all concerned.
So, thank you you for reminding me of a time when a very young widow sang to her daughter in order to mask her own sadness so that her only child (me) wouldn't be sad.
I know what you mean, Ilene. In the same circumstances, my father knew and sang every lyric.
We do enjoy your comments on the show. Steyn Club members are welcome to respond to this week's show below. Alternatively, anybody can leave comments 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. But do be careful because at this time of year some time zones have sprung into summer while others remain fallen back in winter. So throughout March please note the following times:
5.30pm Sunday London (1.30pm New York)
5.30am Monday London (4.30pm Sydney)
9pm Thursday London (2pm Vancouver)
Whichever you prefer, you can listen from anywhere on the planet right here.