On this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town a brace of Number Ones from the Continent and the Commonwealth, the only Ulster-Georgian pop star, and Frank Sinatra gives us six lessons in the blues.
To listen to the programme, simply click here and log-in.
~Thank you for your kind comments about last week's edition. Fran, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, says:
I found this to be a very special show and got unusually tugged listening today. The delightful Norwegian song at the start was new to me.
'Younger Than Springtime' from South Pacific really choked me up as that reminded me of one of my father's very favorites to sing to my mother as he worked around the house doing the mechanical spring clean up chores. He sang so beautifully, but hearing Frank Sinatra was the second very best thing.
You know what I realized today? Well, my parents didn't have much money for fancy things but they were rich in other ways that money can't touch.
Kitty, a First Day Founding Member from Massachusetts, enjoyed our opening number:
Thank you, Mark, for another wonderful musical offering. Thank goodness for the cheerful Johnny Mercer song, Spring, Spring, Spring. I especially enjoyed hearing the left out section and the amoeba education, things I'd forgotten about long since my final biology class.
The Last Spring by Edvard Grieg has always haunted me. Mark's explanation and I understand why. Years ago I cared for a woman. She loved to go outside. At the end of the day we would go out and watch the sunset. One evening as her life was nearing its close she said, 'The end of the day makes me sad now because I know soon it will be the last.' A week later she was gone.
Enough of that.
Thank you for the cheerful songs, the wistful songs, the romantic songs. There's so much to sing about Spring. Here's hoping this Spring finds Mark with renewed strength and vigor, hope and great joy.
Gary Alexander, a West Coast Steyn Clubber, says:
A delightful Sinatra Spring sextet -- amazing how many Spring songs are downers, like spring without that special person is more like Winter. Johnny Mercer won't hear of it, of course. From my Complete Johnny Mercer book of lyrics, there are at least five full AABA stanzas of Spring euphemisms for coupling, some of which likely wouldn't make it into "7 Brides for 7 Brothers," like these avian antics in Refrain #4:
See the gay little finches
In connubial clinches,
As each fleet little swallow
Finds a swallow to follow.Little skylarks are larking,
See them all double-parking,
Cuddled up, playing possum
There, behind every blossom.And so many more.
Like many listeners, Michael Smith, a Mark Steyn Club member from Maryland, was very taken by "It Happens Every Spring":
The beauty of Mack Gordon's lyric - it does indeed all happen every spring; it did before we were here and it will continue after. A fellow stealing third, etc. New life.
My upper midwest childhood couplet to add would be:
The park rink melts to muck
Boys collect a winter's pucks....Thanks Mark for another grand show.
And one more from Steyn Clubber Nicola Timmerman:
Thank you for the Norwegian song about a last spring. Very touching story.
Fran Jeffries has a beautiful voice!
Indeed she does, Nicola.
Thanks for all your comments - including the critical ones. On the Town is Mark's weekly music show on Serenade Radio every Saturday at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time - that's 6pm in western and central Europe or (for this month only) 1pm North American Eastern. You can listen from anywhere in the world by clicking the button at top right here.
As you know, 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 back at its regular times next weekend:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9pm Los Angeles
Beginning tomorrow, Steyn's Song of the Week airs on Sunday, Monday and Thursday at the usual hour on both sides of the Atlantic.