If you missed today's Serenade Radio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, here's a chance to catch up - or, alternatively, if you caught it, here's a chance to enjoy it again.
In this SteynOnline premiere broadcast, Mark explores a one-hundred-year-old hit that was the fruit of perhaps the most productive sixty minutes in the history of popular music. The lyricist's son, Donald Kahn, joins Mark to celebrate a songwriting roll that ended all too soon.
Click above to listen.
~This airing of our Serenade Radio Song of the Week is a special presentation of The Mark Steyn Club. Thank you for your kind responses to this series. Of our recent Serenade presentation of "All of Me", Teresa Maupin, a California member of The Mark Steyn Club, says simply:
That was fun!!
Linda Powers, a Kansas Steyn Clubber, agrees:
Well, Mark, you've done it again with 'All of Me'. How interesting, entertaining, and fun. After listening to you or reading your material, I am always well informed on your chosen topic no matter which of your programs is presented. Thanks, as always.
Our West Coast music maven Gary Alexander writes:
Whenever I sing this song with our jazz combo, I ask the audience to listen to one chorus and then sing along, reminding them of the four key body parts -- all of them 'north of the border' -- your Lips, Arms, Eyes and Heart -- so please don't fall into any Sintra-like assumptions of where the 'All' may lead.
Frank's lyric ad-libs to the song get more 'swaggeringly vulnerable,' as you say, as his love-life reversals escalated, but the early Nelson Swing Easy chart with vibes and trombone backing seemed happiest of the lot. He didn't seem like such 'a mess without you' in that first record.
As to the apparent mismatch of music and lyric, Chris, a Steyn Club member from upstate New York, muses:
I have always wondered a bit at the discrepancy of the words and the tune (being by far most familiar with the Sinatra version- until today). And my mind had just as often turned to the slightly smarmy over-reading of 'All of Me and thinking how the song may be misinterpreted, but always attributing my wandering thoughts to my standing as a venal New Yorker. But as it turns out I should have been born in the 1930's to pull out all the prurient stops and give voice to my clandestine thoughts.
Thanks again, Mark. Great show, and you have certainly 'urned' the right to all of me support. And me family's as well.
Liza, a First Quarter Founding Member from Georgia, writes
I love this song. The melody and lyrics seem perfect to me -- a bittersweet frustration. I happened to be listening to Billy Joel's 'My Life' recently, and a similarity between the two songs struck me. There seems to be a similar musical jumping-off point between 'I don't care what you say anymore this is my life' and 'I'll never use them. Your goodbye.'
Both have lyrics that typify the over-the-top verbal reactions that people have when relationships end: I don't care - leave me alone - you took the best - how can I go on. The happy music is just a thin coverup for the hurt that the singer wants to hide.
I miss the music during the weekly Q&A, but now I have something to listen to on the weekends while I do chores around the house. Thanks, Mark.
And one more from Anna Niemann:
Really rollicking good show! One additional side-light mention that does not tie in as sweetly with the rest of the stories - Steve Martin and Lilly Tomlin starred in a truly wonderful wacky little 1984 movie by Rob Reiner titled All Of Me where disgruntled lawyer (Martin) accidentally becomes home to the spirit of an angry terminally ill heiress (Tomlin). Hilarity ensues, the like of which I'm sure neither the tune's creator nor randy Frankie could never have featured. Fun fond memories.
Thank you, Anna.
This airing of Steyn's Serenade Song of the Week is a special presentation of The Mark Steyn Club. We launched the Steyn Club 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 classic-fiction series Tales for Our Time, with well over sixty thrilling audio adventures read by Mark. The latest starts here;
~Other audio series on pertinent topics, such as our 2019 serialization of Climate Change: The Facts and our 2021 adaptation of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade;
~Steyn'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 Mark (such as this coming Wednesday's);
~Steyn's new Saturday music show and other exclusive weekend content;
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Steyn's Sunday Poem and other video content;
~Advance booking for Mark's live appearances around the world, including exclusive members-only events such as The Mark Steyn Christmas Show, assuming Mark is ever again up to such occasions;
~Customized 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 this show should belong to somebody else, 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.
We do enjoy your comments on the show. You're welcome to leave them below - or 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, we hope you'll tune in. You can listen from anywhere on the planet right here.
