To mark the Mark Steyn Club's seventh birthday this month, we have not only the return of Tales for Our Time but also a brand new weekly music show. The first episode premiered a fortnight ago on Serenade Radio and will air every Saturday thereafter. You can listen from anywhere in the world by clicking the button at top right here.
As you know, I'm a great believer in old-school appointment listening, and I love the way Serenade's Saturday schedule flows from Cindy Kent to me to the evening shows. However, I appreciate that many potential listeners are, at the appointed hour, getting their twelfth booster shot or whatever. So, as a bonus for Steyn Club members, we shall be posting the shows here every Saturday.
In today's episode, we celebrate the centenary of Charles Aznavour with some of his best songs, in English and French. But, as our headline suggests, we also touch on a few other topics - including, from the Steyn archives, a conversation with Bing Crosby's record producer, the late Ken Barnes (see above) about Bing's very last album. All that plus songs from New Zealand, and Sinatra live around the world.
To listen to the show, simply click here and log-in.
Thank you for all your kind comments on this new weekly broadcast. David, a Steyn Clubber from London, enjoyed last week's Mancini moments:
Great show again, Mark. I've long since associated a particular sound with the early 1960s. I can't describe it in words but I know it when I hear it, and Henry Mancini encapsulates it perfectly. It didn't last too long as it was swept away by the 60s pop revolution, but I'm glad it happened.
Peter, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club from western New York State hard by the Ontario border, says:
Great episode Mark - and great new show - made me glad to see you doing these kinds of excursions again!. Of course, I could not have been the only one waiting for a note of a cartoon frog in Chuck Jones' classic Warner Bros' cartoon doing 'Hello My Baby' - which is how many of us semi-younger pups first heard of the song. Although it makes me equally melancholy to think of Mark's oft-mentioned remark that there is no common culture anymore where such a song and cartoon could meet up. But from the hint we got on this show, this tune deserves a Song of the Week.
Yeah, I had a bit in there about "Hello! Ma Baby"'s famous deployment in Looney Tunes, and Mel Brooks's subsequent combination in Spaceballs of the singing frog and the chest-bursting scene from Alien. But we had to cut for time, so maybe we will do it for a Song of the Week.
We do enjoy your comments on our weekend programming. Steyn Clubbers are welcome to leave them below. For more on The Mark Steyn Club, upon the occasion of our seventh birthday, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Mark Steyn on the Town can be heard on Serenade Radio at the following hours:
Saturday 5pm London time/9am Los Angeles
Sunday 5am London time/12 midnight New York
Steyn's Song of the Week continues at its usual hour on Sunday, Monday and Thursday.