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 unique father-daughter double-hit from the Fifties and the Nineties, by a songwriter who managed to alienate almost all of his professional colleagues (except Paul Simon).
Click above to listen.
~Thank you for your kind responses to this series. Of last week's presentation of "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)", Barry Williams writes:
Fascinating show ...so informative and eye opening about a man that I knew little about, Gus Kahn. Add plenty of Sinatra to the mix and you have the perfect Sunday soundtrack.
Michael Baker, an Iowa member of The Mark Steyn Club, says simply:
Love it, Loved it. Also, big shout out to Jo [Stafford]'s other Second Biggest Fans. Thank you Mark.
Nicola Timmerman, an Ontario Steyn Clubber, agrees:
I love the lyricist walking out because he was told he was not worth 50% of the money earned by the songs. And then he goes on to write hit after hit while his partner never had a hit again!
However, it is another of Gus Kahn's many hits that Alison Castellina, a member from the English Home Counties, prefers:
I have long been aware of the name Gus Kahn, so this was interesting. My favourite by far is Sinatra singing 'It had to be you'. A classic. The sentiment is so true. Why individuals end up with certain other individuals is one of life's mysteries. Think of Charles and Camilla but there is it. Not even science will explain why 'I wandered around and I finally found the somebody who could make me be true'...
The sentiment in 'The one I love belong to someone else' is more feeble and fundamentally annoying. One wants to say 'For goodness sake. She does not love you and she never will. She would probably marry you just for your money. Wander around and find someone else!'
Elisa, a First Month Founding Member from Alabama, begs to differ with Alison:
There is a grieving process for unrequited love or lost love. That's the story the song 'The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else' is relaying. You've jumped to the 'move on' phase of the process. There can be a song for each phase.
And one more from Josh Passell:
Not long ago, we heard Sinatra's ballad treatment of 'The One I Love' here and I commented on the melancholy strings of Gordon Jenkins's accompaniment. Not his typical glistening tone, but more of a sigh or a groan. Was it a classical allusion? But to what or whom? Barber's Adagio? Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings? Dvorak's? So I did some sleuthing. If 'The One I Love' was the 12th track on an 11-track album, the 11th was 'None But the Lonely Heart', an arrangement by Jenkins of a song by... Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Evidence, however circumstantial, that Jenkins might have had the great Russian composer in mind. If not the Serenade, then possibly the deep melancholy of the last movement of the Sixth Symphony, marked 'Adagio lamentoso', and brother is it ever. Just an observation.
Thank you, all. 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 airs this coming Friday;
~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 is instantly forgettable, 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.
