In this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town, we run the gamut from the McGuire Sisters to Elvis Presley via a spot of what Daffy Duck would call "pronoun trouble", a doubly smiling Sinatra, a cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones, and Mark's memories of Wink Martindale.
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~Thank you for your kind comments about last week's edition. Suzanne Molineaux, a New England Steyn Clubber, says:
Dear Mark,
Truly I thank God for you. Thank you for this outstanding program.
Nancy, a Montana member of The Mark Steyn Club, wonders about Sinatra's antipathy to West Side Story:
I wonder if Sinatra didn't sing any West Side Story songs because of an incident you described wherein he was greeted by an orally effusive and inebriated Leonard Bernstein. Some memories linger, ya know?
Indeed. If you've yet to hear my telling of that somewhat probing anecdote, you can find it here. However, I would doubt Lenny's friendliness had anything to do with Sinatra's indifference to the songs of West Side Story, because the episode occurred three decades after the show opened. I just think he didn't find anything in the score he could connect to. Conversely, a Bernstein tune he was denied the opportunity to do in the film of On the Town, he made a point of singing for the next half-century.
Gary Alexander liked our curtain-raiser:
Thanks so much for opening the show with a low, liquid clarinet solo, which then became a musical dance partner for Isabella Lundgren in her sultry reading of Irving Berlin's dance ballad from Easter Parade (It Only Happens When I Dance with You). I had to look up the discography of her 2012 album to find his name, so let's hear it for Isabella's dance partner, reed man Klas Lindquist, born in 1975 in Göteborg,
You're right, Gary. That track's really a duet between Miss Lundgren's voice and Mr Lindquist's clarinet, and I probably should have given him a credit.
One more from Alison, a Steyn Clubber in the English Home Counties:
I enojoyed listening to this programme over afternoon tea with my piece of Easter Simnel cake.
Hats used to be very big business. New York's Easter Parade began in the 1870s and peaked with Irving Berlin's 1933 Easter Parade which put the old fashioned bonnet into modern pop music before it finally vanished. Further back, trimmed and highly decorated Easter hats celebrated the end of dull Lent and the showing off of new outfits for the spring. At this time of year, Shakespeare in his childhood would have been released from being sewn into his winter undergarments in the autumn, which must have been a relief. He was a spring baby: it showed in his glorious spring poetry. The celebrations on the nearest Saturday to 23 April each year in Stratford, UK are worth attending.
Wow, Sinatra's conducting was very emotional. He also had hidden high brow leanings. I learned this week via an article on Irish violinist John Ronayne (who led the orchestra on his European tours) that Sinatra privately listened to the records of Jascha Heifetz, to copy his phrasing.
~Yesterday I was listening to my Serenade colleague Chris Helme's weekly brass band show. This morning I awoke to the news that Chris had died overnight - less than a fortnight after another Serenade friend, Dick Fisher, whom I had known for forty-four years. I didn't really know Chris, but he was a terrific broadcaster and I shall miss his show immensely.
~On the Town is my weekly music show on Serenade Radio every Saturday at 5pm British Summer Time - that's 6pm in western and central Europe or 12 noon North American Eastern. 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 love the way Serenade's Saturday schedule flows through the day. However, we appreciate that many potential listeners are, at the appointed hour, shampooing the cat. So, as a bonus for Steyn Club members, we post On the Town at SteynOnline every weekend. You can find all our previous shows here.
We do enjoy your comments on our weekend programming. Steyn Clubbers are welcome to leave them below. For more on The Mark Steyn Club, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Mark Steyn on the Town can be heard on Serenade Radio back at its regular times next weekend:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9pm Los Angeles