Programming note: Join Steyn tomorrow, Sunday, for a special seasonal edition of our Song of the Week, which airs on Serenade Radio Sunday at 5.30pm Greenwich Mean Time - that's 6.30pm in Western Europe and half-past-noon North American Eastern. You can listen from almost anywhere on the planet by clicking the button at top right here.
~On the pre-Hogmanay edition of Mark Steyn on the Town Mark bids farewell to the old year - a very old year, not 2024 but 1924. We also expand upon Sinatra's very good years, and observe the stroke of midnight with some Danubian dances.
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~If you're not a Mark Steyn Club member and you'd like a taste of what we do each week, then please check out our Café Continental St Stephen's Day sampler. If you like what you hear, it's the work of moments to sign up.
~Last week's show attracted a mixed response. Alison, a Steyn Clubber from the English Home Counties, writes:
A lovely, atmospheric Christmas programme. I had just finished powering up our safe candles and suddenly, listening to this, I felt transported into a 1950s American Christmas movie. Trying to resist the sentimentality, I still felt like putting on a checked apron like Doris Day. I half thought I could see snow falling outside, in the longest night..
Then I was really struck by Frank Sinatra singing 'I heard the bells on Christmas Day'. I've never thought that Sinatra had a really good voice. He often seemed to speak the songs, to me. However, this song has convinced me. Bel canto, indeed. Of course, the song has a great lyric. 'The wrong shall fail, the right prevail'.. Amen to that.
Lien, a First Year Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, would agree with at least part of Alison's second paragraph:
A show of hands if you, like me, have heard enough Sinatra to last a lifetime, if not two.
Time to get going on that third lifetime, Lien. By contrast, from Nick Hingley in the English Midlands:
I thoroughly enjoyed Mark Steyn's On The Town 'Sinatra Christmas'. Fabulous!
From francophone Ontario, a Steyn Club member Nicola says:
Very helpful collection of songs as I prepare the house for family Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since my family is mostly French we do our big supper on the 24th. I like Petit Papa Noel but sung by elementary school kids at Christmas concerts.
Touching to hear Sinatra shout out to soldiers serving overseas all during WWII. Also how he went to a lot of trouble to help other entertainers celebrate Christmas when he was in Africa. Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee!
Diane in Maryland would beg to differ on that last one, Nicola:
Have always considered Grace Kelly a good actress, but no better evidence of how well she could act than when she took on the role of (Princess) Grace of Monaco and became proper to her core. GK's account of what happened at Christmas when John Ford was filming Mogambo (1953) had me smiling because of the way she sanitized it (FS was a man just wanting to play Santa and bring Christmas cheer). A good actress to be sure. (Ava Gardner, John Ford, and biographers of Sinatra give entirely different accounts of FS's actions in Kenya. FS was really having a time of it, emotionally. Let's leave it there.)
Ford said he had to ferry the actors back and forth to Nairobi by air each day because none of them could not abide rustic/field accommodations.
Thanks for the program, MS. Learn a great deal each week.
Josh Passell, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, also learned something:
Interesting to learn that Frank 'studied voice'. His breath control was unmatched, even when he had almost no breath, as in that late Silent Night with Frank Jr. Who was this buddy Joe he referred to? A real friend, or a symbolic one standing in for so many young men serving overseas?
We would like to report that that was Joe Salvatore from Hoboken, Josh. But your latter explanation may be the more likely.
Thanks for all your comments - including the critical ones. On the Town is Steyn's weekly music show on Serenade Radio every Saturday at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time - that's 6pm in western and central Europe/12 midday North American Eastern. You can listen from anywhere in the world by clicking the button at top right here.
Mark is a great believer in old-school appointment listening, and loves 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 at the following times:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9pm Los Angeles
Steyn's Song of the Week continues on Sunday, Monday and Thursday at the usual hour.