Listen:
Availability:
Sorry, this programme is not available to listen again. (why?)
Last broadcast on Sun, 19 Jul 2009, 21:00 on BBC Radio 2.
Synopsis
To round off a week when we've been remembering the first moon landing of 40 years ago, Russell looks into the songwriter's fascination with all things lunar. Russell plays one 1970 track by Pete Atkin on which he himself played trombone.
This Week's Show
As predicted, the memory of the First Moon Landing 40 years ago had our radios and TV screens filled to bursting with lunar subjects: We hope our little excursion hasn’t proven to be one small step too many. We purposely kept off the well-trodden territory of the most famous ‘moon’ songs but if we had decided to celebrate the dozen most familiar ones, we wonder which you’d have had us choose? Here’s a … giant leap ... of speculation (and you’ll notice we’re avoiding all ‘moonlight’ songs): Let us know if we’ve missed your particular favourite:
It’s Only A Paper Moon
Old Devil Moon
Moon River
Racing With The Moon
How High The Moon
Shine On Harvest Moon
By The Light Of The Silvery Moon
I Wished On The Moon
In Other Words (Fly Me To The Moon)
Moon Over Miami
Blue Moon
Once In A Blue Moon
And finally, here’s a tit-bit that we had to drop from the show since we couldn’t find the song in question: News report July 21st 1941: “Tin Pan Alley did its bit for China by contributing a theme song for United China Relief. Three of the Alley’s top tunesters (Arthur Schwartz, ‘Yip’ Harburg & Ira Gershwin) wrote Honorable Moon in one evening. Connie Boswell launched the song on a national hook-up.” We’re still hunting for a recording: We have the lyric but will save that for when we can play you the song.
Recommended: The Stargazers
Recommendations
If that odd little piece by The Stargazers “I See The Moon” brought with it a wave of nostalgia to you, you’ll enjoy the double CD in which we found it: Memoir’s “52 Original Hits Of 1954” (CDMOIR 590) Often decried as a mediocre period for popular music, 1954 stands up pretty well when you get 52 of the best brought together as here: Many big names – Sinatra, Como, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe, Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Laine, Billy Eckstine, Kay Starr .. and British stars like Dickie Valentine, Pet Clark, Ronnie Hilton, Vera Lynn, Alma Cogan. It was also a time of novelty hits: Ken Mackintoshs ‘The Creep; ‘The Happy Wanderer’, ‘Skokiaan’ – all very evocative and excellently re-mastered with comprehensive notes.
We recently snapped up a bargain from one of the major high street music retailers, in the shape of a DRG CD which contains not only the Original Broadway Cast of the Arlen-Mercer musical “St Louis Woman”, originally on Capitol, but also another complete Capitol LP – “Harold Arlen and his songs” from 1955 with the composer’s own charming and occasionally quirky interpretations of a dozen of his best-known works. He’s supported tastefully by Peter Matz and his musicians. As seems to be the fashion now, the CD is strewn with confusing labels – ‘EMI Music Special Markets’, ‘Capitol’, ‘DRG Theater’ but we believe DRG 19078 should find it!
Tracklist
-
Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson — Moon Song
LA Meets OP, Verve, 539 060-2 -
Sam Lanin’s Famous Players & Singers — Under The Moon It’s You
Jack Teagarden 1930 Studio Sessions, Jazz Oracle, BDW 8053 -
Frank Sinatra — Oh, You Crazy MoonMoonlight Sinatra, Reprise, 7599-27036-2 -
Doris Day — Moonlight LoverMove Over Darling, Bear Family, BCD 15800 -
The Stargazers — I See The Moon
52 Original Hits Of 1954, Memoir, CDMOIR 590 -
Cassandra Wilson — Harvest MoonCloser To You: The Pop Side, Blue Note/EMI, 509996 96087 28 -
Harold Nicholas — Ridin’ On The Moon
St Louis Woman OBC, EMI Angel, ZDM 7 64662 2 4 -
Connie Francis — Carolina Moon
40 Years Of Top Ten Hits, Readers Digest, RDCD 403 -
Lotte Lenya & Cast “Mahagonny” (Brecht/Weill) — Alabama Song
Kurt Weill: From Berlin To Broadway II, Pearl, GEMM CDS 9294 -
Pete Atkin (W. Russell Davies, Trombone!) — Be Careful When They Offer You The Moon
Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger, RCA, SF 8387 -
Moon Mullican — Rocket To The Moon
Country Goes Rock ‘N’ Roll Vol 1 – The Old Guard, Rev-Ola, CD REV 129 -
Dan Barrett And His Extra-Celestials — Mama, That Moon Is Here Again
Moon Song – Featuring Rebecca Kilgore, Arbors, ARCD 19158 -
Bernadette Peters — Moonshine Lullaby
Annie Get Your Gun 1999 Broadway Production, EMI/Angel, 7243 5 56812 2 5
Broadcast
-
Sun 19 Jul 200921:00
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~06~RS~){kind=small}