If you missed today's Song of the Week on Serenade Radio, here's a chance to hear it in a SteynOnline premiere broadcast. Mark explores an eerie revue number by a one-hit songwriter that somehow managed to become a favourite of four generations of female vocalists from Eartha Kitt to Miley Cyrus.
Joining Steyn to discuss the song is the multitalented Mike Batt, who aside from all his work with the Wombles, Art Garfunkel et al also managed to produce the biggest-selling version of the number - with an orchestral ornamentation that has since become part of the song.
Click above to listen.
~Thank you for your kind responses to this series. Of last week's presentation of "The Way You Look Tonight", Jackie, a Pennsylvania member of The Mark Steyn Club, enthuses:
Great show! Great song! I will be humming that in my head for the rest of the day! Thank you Mark.
Steve, a First Month Founding Member, agrees:
I listened to this wonderful episode while traveling through many miles of dazzling, autumnal New England forests. Mark, you really know how to bring the shimmering moments to life with your historical perspective on this gem of a song. Thank you.
Kitty, a First Day Founding Member, says:
Fabulous show, Mark! I love this song. In happier days I used to sing it softly to my husband. My favorite version is the one recorded by Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee.
Years ago when my oldest son was just still a little boy and people listened to the radio when they were driving I was flipping through the stations and my son called out from the back seat for me to stop at a station with a show called The Jazz Decades hosted by Ray Smith, himself a jazz musician. I think it was on Sunday evenings... It opened the world up to all sorts of great music from before I was born. Music long ago was more melodic and more romantic, and so much sweeter.
A gift from a healthier time to the rest of us, thank you, Mark.
David, a Steyn Clubber in London, has his own favourite:
Thanks Mark, I love this song. I do like Sinatra's swing version but still think Astaire's original version is the best. I just think the song suits his voice. I also like the final scene of Swing Time in which Ginger sings The Way You Look Tonight while Fred sings A Fine Romance, and, for me anyway, it works!
Well, we played both Fred and Frank, who between them account for four of a thousand recordings. Which means we always get complaints about the hundreds left out. Larry, a Texan Steyn Clubber, writes:
Not to take anything away from Frank's bold brash swinging take, but IMHO Tony Bennett sang it best.
Tony's version is wistful and a bit melancholy. leaving a feeling of pensive sadness with no obvious cause -- like a sad, fond remembrance of happy times.
And one more from Mr Bradley in Oregon:
Gotta give a shout out to The Lettermen, whose classic take on the song is the one most baby boomers remember. It was their first hit, reaching #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1961. The song has been covered many times but their version was the only one to reach the charts as a single in the second half of the 20th Century. Still played to this day on oldies radio, too.
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 over 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);
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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.
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~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.
