What are you listening to?

[LizzieMaine]

78s to eat bedtime Shredded Wheat by --

Now playing, Sammy Kaye's big 1941 hit "Daddy," with a vocal by the whole band. Sammy takes a lot of grief from the hepcat crowd, who dismiss him as Kay Kyser without the sense of humor, but he did have a few legitimate hits, and this was one of them. Number one on the sales charts for eight weeks that summer.

Next up, one of the more bizarre personality discs of 1935, Ethel Merman belting out "The Animal In Me," from "The Big Broadcast of 1936." As ear-popping as the record is, the staging in the film is even more astounding, as La Merman cavorts in front of a high-kicking chorus line of trained elephants. Who says all the screwy stuff went out of musicals with the Production Code?

 

[AmateisGal]

Internet - GotRadio's Big Band station - a variety of stuff. Makes me really move my feet in the ol' cubicle!

 

[flat-top]

I've got the 51 disc changer (yup, I'm old school hi-tech) loaded with vintage R&B from the 40's-early 60's.

 

[pennycarrol]

I'm listening to "Take Me Somewhere Nice" by Mogwai...

 

[LizzieMaine]

78s to finish up a writing assignment by --

From 1929, Nick Lucas and his Guitar, with the tune he made famous in the lost Technicolor masterpiece "Gold Diggers Of Broadway," "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips." Tiny Tim based his high-camp version on this very record, but Nick does it straight and sincere. And with some pretty nice guitar work, too.

Next up, Chick Bullock and his Orchestra from 1931, with "I Found A Million Dollar Baby in the Five and Ten Cent Store." Chick was one of those vocalists who made a million records during the thirties, under his own name and others, but he was doomed never to be a big, visible star by the fact that he had a bizarre disease which caused the whites of his eyes to turn black. Few pictures of the man are known to exist, but everyone who collects '30s recordings knows his voice.

 

[Craig Robertson]

I'm listening to Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) doing a sublime version of Gershwin's "Somebody Loves Me".

 

[Fletch]

Rehearsin' for a Nervous Breakdown by the John Kirby Sextet, from the 1941 Lang-Worth ET sessions.

 

[AudreyH]

I'm listening to 'Dancing With Myself' by Nouvelle Vague.

 

[LizzieMaine]

78s to wait for the kettle to boil by --

First up, the British music-hall team of Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen, with their wartime hit from the early months of 1940, "We'll Hang Out The Washing On The Siegfried Line," a record which experienced an unfortunate and sudden loss of popularity around the middle of June.

Next, back to 1934 with Ethel Merman and the definitive recording of Cole Porter's "You're The Top." When she rings out "You're Cellophaaaaaane,!" it could break glass.

 

[RetroToday]

I'm listening to 'Dancing With Myself' by Nouvelle Vague.

:eusa_clap I love Nouvelle Vague - Their covers of XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel" and Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" are my favourites. It's great to hear 80s tunes reinterpreted in their style.

I probably hear them at least once a week in my digital music rotation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

78s to recover from a very long night by --

First up, from 1938, Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra with "You Leave Me Breathless." If any wise-guy 50s TV fan snorts about "what does Ozzie do for a living," you can tell him he was actually one of the smoother, hipper romantic crooners of the thirties -- sort of Rudy Vallee with a wink and a nudge.

Next, Bea Wain in 1941, and one of the first of the boys-go-off-to-war ballads, "Kiss The Boys Goodbye." Miss Wain is with us yet -- at the age of 89, one of the few remaining survivors of the great big-band vocalists

 

[Fletch]

The TV is tuned to the US Open, but Fletch's Made-O-Meat Music Box® with Amazing Phonographic Memory™ is playing Dream a Little Dream of Me, in the original 1931 Victor rendition by Wayne King and his Orchestra.

Update, 11:03am - Now playing is Spitfire, a rip-roaring instrumental of 1935 by Mills' Blue Rhythm Band, featuring the estimable alto sax of Talmadge "Tab" Smith.

 

[AudreyH]

Right now I'm listening to 'Accidently In Love' by the Counting Crows, one of my favourite songs.

 

[anon`]

Haggard - Chapter III - In A Pale Moon's Shadow

Been jonesing for a little symphonic metal all week long... finally home and can indulge!

 

[Kassia]

Up late at night, not tired and listening to Elton John...

 

[TraderRic]

Right now I'm listening to Sing, sing, Sing as performed by Mora's Modern Rhythmists and the Goblin Market CD. It's on my laptop as I work.

 

[flat-top]

I've got the 51 disc changer (yup, I'm old school hi-tech) loaded with vintage R&B from the 40's-early 60's.

I still got this going on shuffle. I won't hear the same song twice. Great for a rainy afternoon while listing some stuff on Ebay.

 

[Kermez]

The Best of Big Band by The BBC Big Band Orchestra (specifically, "Sing, Sing, Sing")

 

[LizzieMaine]

78s to do the dishes by --

Now playing -- a first-rate Bing Crosby side from 1934, "I'm Hummin', I'm Singin', I'm Whistlin'". Very jazzy, very swingy, and helped tremendously by excellent backing from Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra. Bing only worked with Stoll for a couple of years in the mid-thirties, and all their recordings together have this same sort of delightfully-casual feel.

Next up -- Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees in 1937, with their last really big hit, "Vieni Vieni." Rudy does a fine job on the vocal, in a carefully-enunciated and perfectly fluent combination of English and Italian.

 

[russa11]

At the moment I am listening to the game show True or False from Sept of 1938 this time around it's the Postal Clerks Vs_League of Women_Voters