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Last broadcast on Sun, 19 Feb 2012, 21:00 on BBC Radio 2.
Synopsis
This week the majority of the show is devoted to a celebration of the centenary of "one of the good guys of popular music" - Russell's description of Saul Chaplin.
We open with a modern version of his earliest published song, Rhythm Is Our Business, sung by John Pizzarelli. Artie Shaw's version of his Prosschai comes next, followed by Until The Real Thing Comes Along which Chaplin and Sammy Cahn adapted and turned into a standard.
Chaplin's life in Hollywood gives us songs from Cole Porter musicals (Bing with I Love You Samantha and Ann Miller with Why Can't You Behave from High Society and Kiss Me Kate respectively).
Next, a famous collaboration with Al Jolson - The Anniversary Song - is sung for us by Tom Jones, followed by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane with Dedicated To You. For Mary Lou Williams, Cahn and Chaplin wrote The Lady Who Swings The Band, which we hear in the original.
Rosemary Squires gives us Please Be Kind and we hear recordings from 85 years ago (Jane Green's I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now) and 60 years ago (King Pleasure and Blossom Dearie's Moody's Mood For Love) before a final 30s Chaplin number from Jimmie Lunceford - Rhythm In My Nursery Rhymes.
This Week's Show:
The music satirist Stan Freberg, who nailed Elvis Presley, Johnny Ray, Harry Belafonte, Lonnie Donegan and so many others on record, also made a name for himself providing comedy commercials for US television and there’s one which opens in a domestic kitchen as hubby comes home and asks wifey what’s for supper – at which wifey rips off her pinny to display an exotic dance costume and lots of leg, the kitchen set parts to reveal a Hollywood stage - whereupon she’s joined by a bevy of dancers. She leads them in a stunning tap routine, ending up on a huge soup can that rises from the stage with her on top as she extols in song ‘The Great American Soup’ – after which she returns to the kitchen and hubby who comments “Emily - why do you always have to make such a big production out of things?”
Classic Freberg – and who played Emily? None other than one of this week’s Song Show Stars - Ann Miller – who revealed in ‘Why Can’t You Behave’ for us that she wasn’t merely a terrific dancer (and reputedly one of the fastest tappers in the business) but also a very secure singer, too. You may recall her appearances in ‘Easter Parade’, ‘On The Town’, ‘Reveille With Beverly’ &c., but it’s our guess that the character of Essie, forever wanting to dance, in Frank Capra’s “You Can’t Take It With You” that was closest to Ann Miller.
It was good to be able to feature one of our finest home.
Recommendations:
“Blossom Dearie – Four Classic Albums Plus2 is the title of a good 2 CD set from AVID that contains a great deal of fascinating early Blossom – some of it from her time in Paris in the early/mid ‘fifties: CD 1 opens with a 1956 album recorded in New York where she’s backed by no less than Ray Brown, Herb Ellis and Jo Jones. Next, from a year earlier, ‘Blossom Plays For Dancing’ was recorded with bass & drums in Paris and this side is completed with 6 titles by The Blue Stars vocal group. On side 2 we’re back in New York in 1957/8 for the 2 albums “Give him The Ooh-La-La” and “Once Upon A Summertime” plus the filler from the King Pleasure album – ‘Moody’s Mood For Love’. The number is AMSC 967.
That sparkling Jane Green track comes from a collection on the Retrieval label called “Bring On The Girls” which features 16 acts (14 soloists, 2 sister acts) between 1926 and 1934, from the familiar (Lee Morse, Annette Hanshaw) and famous (Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting) to the less-known but equally rewarding Zelma O’Neal (‘I Want To Be Bad’), Irene Beasley (St Louis Blues) and Peggy English (‘High High High Up In The Hills’). The two big surprises are Ethel Levey, who sings ‘Kansas City Kitty ‘ with far more gusto than you’d expect from a forty-nine year old (she was born in 1880!) and Marion Harris with her vocalese translation of the Bix/Trumbauer classic ‘Singing The Blues’. All-electric tracks, well re-mastered, they come with an illustrated and very comprehensive booklet on RTR 79060.
Featured In This Week's Show: Tom Jones
Music played
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John Pizzarelli — Rhythm Is Our Business
John Pizzarelli/Don Sebesky “Our Love Is Here To Stay
RCA, 67501 -
Artie Shaw and His Orchestra — Prosschai
“Artie Shaw – Self Portrait” 5 Cd Box + Booklet
BMG/Bluebird, No 09026-63808-2 -
Ella Fitzgerald With Ellis Larkins (Piano) — Until The Real Thing Comes Along
“Ella Fitzgerald: 75th Birthday Celebration [2 CDs]”
GRP/Decca Jazz, GRD – 2 - 619 -
Bing Crosby (With Louis Armstrong, Trumpet) — I Love You, Samantha
Original Soundtrack Mgm Movie “High Society”
Capitol, O777 7 93787 2 2 -
Ann Miller — Why Can’t You Behave?
“Original Soundtrack: “Kiss Me Kate””
Delta Leisure Group, CD 6706 -
Tom Jones
— The Anniversary Song“Tom Jones – ‘Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow’ ”
EMI, EMC 3178 [LP] -
Johnny Hartman & The John Coltrane Quartet — Dedicated To You
“John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman”
Impulse, GRD 157 -
Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy — The Lady Who Swings The Band
“Mary Lou Williams – Key Moments”
Topaz, TPZ 1016 -
Rosemary Squires — Please Be Kind
“Emi Presents The Magic Of Rosemary Squires”
MFP, 7243 5 21986 2 7 -
Jane Green — I’m Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now
“Bring On The Girls 1926 - 1934”
Retrieval, RTR 79060 -
King Pleasure With Blossom Dearie — Moody’s Mood For Love [I’m In The Mood For Love]
“King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings”
Original Jazz Classics, OJC20 217-2 -
Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra — Rhythm In My Nursery Rhymes
“The Complete Jimmie Lunceford Decca Sessions”
Mosaic, MD7-250
Broadcast
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Sun 19 Feb 201221:00
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