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“Let Me Call You Sweetheart“ was originally written by Leo Freidman and Beth Slater Whinston in 1910.

The song was a big hit for Author Clough in May 1911 and a #1 hit for Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet in November 1911

And this version is still popular today. In fact “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” by Bing Crosby was #3 on Apple Music’s top 200 jazz songs in Bolivia on January 27 2019.

This episode was written by Ian Coe. Artwork by Omari Odom. Watch a video of their work at Let Me Call You Sweetheart — Sound Beat – Syracuse University Videos

Image: Casey Jones’ home at the time of his death. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Hearing your daughter play classical music must be a tremendous joy for a parent…and perhaps a source of sheer torment for a sibling. Especially if said sibling is Chuck Berry, who reportedly wrote this song as a response to his sister monopolizing the family piano. He recorded it for Chess records in 1956. It’s the quintessential “us vs. them” song, a signal that the Beethovens and Tchaikovskys had been replaced by the Louis Jordans, Carl Perkins’ and Bo Diddleys. They’re all referenced, somewhat indirectly, in the song’s fourth verse.

If you missed the references, the “blue suede shoes” is a Carl Perkins nod, “Hey diddle-diddle” is a little Bo Diddley shout-out, and  “Early in the mornin'”refers to the same-titled Louis Jordan song. Berry claimed that some of his most well-known riffs were inspired by those of Jordan’s guitarist Carl Hogan. Read more here.

And, of course, if you caught ‘em…good job.

If the smell of fresh-brewed coffee renders you helpless, you may have run into Melusina today. Starbucks has used the half-woman, half water-serpent’s likeness since 1971, based on a Norse woodcut. Why the nautical theme? Starbuck was the name of Captain Ahab’s first mate in Moby Dick.

The first copyrighted film was not a comedy, a thriller, but a…ahem…bodily function. It was entitled “Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze”, and known commonly as “Fred Ott’s Sneeze”. Ott was another Edison employee, and his sneeze was arguably the most famous in film history…until Woody Allen’s. For more on the film industry’s early days, follow this link to a great breakdown at AMC.com.

You see, in 1951, the government announced Nevada would be home to new bombing test sites. There was, understandably, heightened tension in the area…but then, Vegas knows a thing or two about relieving tension. Hotels and bars embraced the plans and the Atomic Cocktail was born.

Want to make your own? (info courtesy of Esquire Magazine)

Just take:

• 1 1/2 ounces vodka
• 1 1/2 ounces brandy
• 1 teaspoon sherry
• 1 1/2 ounces Brut  champagne

This recording, though, was made by the London Concert Orchestra and recorded on a Lambert Cylinder. They’re the easy-on-the-eyes cylinders, coming in shades of pink, as well as purple, blue and black. And they’re also pretty rare…they were the first cylinders made of celluloid, making them much more durable than wax. But…the parallel technologies battle among early-20^th century cylinder manufacturers was a fierce one.. Lambert would only produce their records from 1901 to 1905. For a more-detailed breakdown of the Cylinder Wars, check out our blog at soundbeat.org.

You’ve been listening to Leo Reisman and his Orchestra on a Victor 78 from 1929. The song was featured in the 1930 MGM film Chasing Rainbows, and the Recording Industry Association of America put it #47 on their “Songs of the Century” list in 2001.

This episode was co-written with Christina Reid, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Image: FDR with Anna Roosevelt Halsted and Eleanor Roosevelt during campaign at Warm Springs, Georgia enroute from his cottage to the station. October 24, 1932. Licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

Intended to give voice to union workers during the progressive era, the song was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes in 1949. The Hammer Song was the breakout hit for their musical group The Weavers and released on their label, Hootenanny Records, in March of 1950. The song paved way for their commercial success, leading to hits “Kisses Sweeter than Wine,” and “Wimoweh,”

The song’s original intent spoke well to the civil rights movement, and also helped to kickstart another group’s career. Peter, Paul and Mary’s 1962 version was their first big hit…their next was Puff the Magic Dragon.

This episode was co-written by Kelsey Francella, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Photo credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Pete_Seeger_1986.jpg

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Hazel Scott was a child prodigy, playing by 3 and improvising on the keys by 5. She received formal training at none other than the Juilliard school of New York, where she won a classical music scholarship at age 8. She would blend her classical training with the smooth sounds of jazz, blues and popular songs, and was a Café Society star by the late 1930’s. It would become her signature sound: “swinging the classics.” Here she is with Rainy Night in G.

How did Billie Holiday take a dive for Scott? 

When Billie heard word of an up and coming Hazel Scott, she decided to play hooky for the night, and let Hazel fill in for her at Cafe Society.  Big shoes to fill, to say the least, but Hazel filled in admirably.

Man, remember this scene in the movie? No. You don’t. It was cut, and probably with good cause. It was originally conceived of as a way to get younger audiences interested in the film. The Jitterbug craze was sweeping the nation, and the scene had Dorothy and pals dancing wildly after being bitten by…well, a jitterbug. Buuuut, the film ran over time, and cuts had to be made. Yup, 5 weeks to rehearse and film, then…poof. It’s remained a popular inclusion for stage productions, and in 1995, a grainy home video of the original scene, shot by composer Harold Arlen was released.

But…they missed a spot. In the film, The Wicked Witch tells the flying monkeys that she “sent a little insect to take the fight out of” the fearsome foursome. It’s one of a couple of continuity errors in the film.

Wanna see more? Here’s a good list.

So how do they feel about the SNL skits? “It just cracks everybody up,” said Janet. “It’s hard for us to believe we’re kind of an American institution.” It’s a refreshingly-tolerant reaction. If you haven’t seen the skits, well, let’s just say you would understand if they’d been received poorly.

But, judge for yourself.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Emelio Woodstock, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Though he was certainly no slouch himself, Artie Shaw knew how to surround himself with the right people. Over his  career, he signed both high-powered drummer Buddy Rich, and iconic songstress Billie Holiday. This made him the first bandleader to tour the South with a black lead singer. He sold more than 100 million records, and you’re listening to one of them. This is Dancing in the Dark from 1941.

He also surrounded himself with a bevy of leading ladies, marrying Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and six other wives over his lifetime. According to all accounts, including his own he was a “very difficult man”. Seems like it.

But he was also a multi-talented one; He studied advanced math, dabbled in “The Pictures”, and authored both fiction and non-fiction works.

There are about 1,000 twisters every year in the United States, and most of them, go figure, happen in an area known as Tornado Alley. It’s loosely defined as the area from Rocky Mountains to Appalachians. Why this region? It’s the meeting place for cold dry air from Canada and the Rockies, warm moist air from Mexico and hot dry air from the Sonoran Desert. Most tornadoes last about 10 minutes,  but the longest one in history is thought to be the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, reported as lasting 3¹/₂ hours.  It was the deadliest tornado in American history, killing 700 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. It travelled twice speed of an average twister, 60-70 mph, and…perhaps the most terrifying fact ever mentioned on Sound Beat, it didn’t have a funnel cloud. Translation…it was nearly invisible.

You’ve been listening to Kokomo Arnold with “Mean Old Twister”in a Decca recording from 1937. How did Prohibition help Arnold’s music career? Find out right now at soundbeat.org

Most married couples admit to occasional, let’s say…differences of opinion. Seldom are those…again, just differences of opinion,  as productive as Ira and Lenore Gershwin’s. Their opposing pronunciations of words like “tomato” and “potato” led to the hit song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,”. It’s a conversational tune written by Ira and his brother George.

You’re listening to the silk-smooth vocals of The Ink Spots, who recorded this song for Decca in 1937. Since then, the song has been sung by artists like Billie Holiday and performed as a duet by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performed it, on rollerskates mind you, in the 1937 movie Shall We Dance.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Jill Comoletti as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. Find out more about the Partnership at soundbeat.org.

Enter Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, the Happiness Boys, with a tongue-quite-in-cheek forgiveness. Sheet music for the song was, allegedly, the first to mention Hitler by name, though some hear it as “Edsel”. For our money, it kind of sounds like the names are blended together, but you decide.

“The Golden Record” complied by a team headed by Carl Sagan, represents life on earth with sounds like crickets chirping, a kiss, and 27 songs from different cultures. This song was included to express a timeless human pain: facing nightfall with nowhere to sleep.  Today Johnson’s song, far beyond our solar system, is still ready to play for one very long, dark night.

This episode was co-written by Maggie Cregan, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. Photo: Voyager Golden Record, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The year before that, New York mayor Fiorello Laguardia left office. One of his biggest achievements, the development of the airport that would bear his name, came about as the result of, well, a bit of a hissy fit.

The mayor had been sold a ticket to “New York”, which was at the time serviced by Newark Airport. Indignant, he refused to step on to Jersey soil and demanded to be flown to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, and held an impromptu press conference proclaiming New York City’s need for an airport. In short, it worked, and construction began in 1939.

Image: unknown author, courtesy of U.S. National Archives.

The show featured two contestants who answered questions in different categories, and served as a vehicle for Marx’s ad libbing. Want to see a clip? You bet your life we’ve got it…click here.

“You Bet Your Life” featured many stars of tv, film and other walks of life. William Peter Blatty portrayed an Arabian Prince on the show, a disguise Groucho saw through. He’d use his winnings to take time off and write a little script he called “The Exorcist”. Phyllis Diller was “merely” a housewife before getting her big break on the show.

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You’re listening to The 1000 Islands Song, a Columbia 78 recorded in 1947. The archipelago lies in the St. Lawrence River, on the US-Canadian border. There are actually about 1800 islands, each passing the stringent criteria of :A. being above water level year-round, B. Having an area greater than one square foot and C. bearing at least one living tree.

That island mentioned there, 793, is an actual one, belonging to…Arthur Godfrey. That’s right…it was gifted to him by Grant Mitchell of the 1000 Islands Admiralty in appreciation of the song. Check out more right here.

“BoldtCastle aerial” by Teresa Mitchell; levels adjustment by Howcheng. – Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered by many to be the most important engagement of the Civil War, when southern forces led by General Lee made a Northern invasion attempt. The Confederates defeat, coupled with the July 4^th Fall of Vicksburg in Mississippi, helped turn the war’s bloody tide for good.

50 years later, veterans and supporters met at the battle site to commemorate the event. In fact, over 53,000 veterans showed, making it the largest ever Civil War veteran reunion. According to then Lieutenant Colonel A.E. Bradley, from the office of Chief Surgeon: “never before in the world’s history [had] so great a number of men so advanced in years been assembled under field conditions“.

Click for more on the Reunion of 1913.

Image credit: C. Kuhl / www.chriskuhl.com/music. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Yup there it is. You know that feeling you get whether you’re in church, or a meeting, or somewhere where you really shouldn’t be laughing? Where you just can’t…quite…stop?

The Okeh Laughing Record was recorded in Germany and released in 1923, and was an immediate seller, hitting the Billboard charts and reached number eight. It wasn’t listed as a foreign language record because, well, everyone understands laughter. And, it’s particularly unique in that the eh, performers, were not credited, making it the first and only anonymous record to ever chart.

Want to hear the whole thing?

Image: “Chatterbox”, used through  Creative Commons license, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.

“Shnicklefritz” or “Snicklefritz” is a Pennsylvania Dutch expression for a

mischievous or talkative child, but used a term of endearment. It was a pretty

fitting name for Freddie Fisher’s band, an irreverent group that incorporated

comedy into their songs and a precursor to the novelty songs recorded by Spike

Jones. Decca advertised them as “America’s Most Unsophisticated Band!”, if it

gives you the idea. They recorded this song, “Old Hank” for Decca in 1939.

The band would appear in a handful of films and shorts. You can see them in all

their shnickelfritz-ing glory right here.

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You’re listening to “Drinking Shine”, an Okeh 78 from 1930, performed by Elder Charlie Beck. He was pastor of the Way of the Cross Church of God in Christ, in Buffalo, NY. Beck would make about 60 recordings in his second career, though he viewed it as an integral part of his preaching. Said Beck “No use letting the Devil have all the good music.” The records are full of “fire and brimstone” type warnings and condemnations for all of society’s ills.

Elder may not be regularly named as a progenitor of rock and roll, but he probably should be. His prolific recording resume included songs/sermons that railed against rock and roll, but.., some of them really rocked.

Portrait: “John Martin – Sodom and Gomorrah” by John Martin – Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

It wasn’t Jimmy Kennedy’s first geographically-themed song; the Irish songwriter was also famous for “Isle of Capri” and “South of the Border,” both recorded by Frank Sinatra.  His globally-titled songs reflected his own travel: he lived in Ireland, England, Switzerland, Nigeria, and the US.

The song represents another one of those musical history dividing lines. Fans of…different age brackets will probably recognize either this version or its famous cover by They Might Be Giants on the 1990 album Flood.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Andrew Frasier as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

This recording was one of many Battis made between 1916 and ’17. Listen to more right here, courtesy of your tax dollars! (Library of Congress)

Photo: Martin Kenny, used with permission under Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic)

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Miklos Rosza had long considered using electronic music in a film. He got his chance when director Alfred Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick approached him about scoring 1945’s Spellbound. Wanting to add an atmospheric, contemplative air to the piece, he settled on the theremin.

Here’s a quote from Dr. Samuel Hoffmann.

“I put down theremin on my card…without thinking much about it. When Miklos Rozsa thought of using a theremin in his score for Spellbound he called the union to see if any players were available. I was the only one listed at that time who could read music.”

Before Rozsa’s call, Hoffmann was a practicing podiatrist in the Hollywood area. After the score won an Oscar, Hoffman and the theremin would feature in films like “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “It Came from Outer Space” and more…see the whole list right now at soundbeat.org.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Link to Hoffman’s discography

The Jubilee Singers are credited with introducing the “arranged spiritual”. Critics  claim these arranged versions, with European-style timbre, undermined authentic spirituals. Said Zora Neale Hurston in 1934

“There never has been a presentation of genuine Negro spirituals to any audience anywhere. What is being sung by the concert artists and glee clubs are the works of Negro composers or adaptors based on spirituals.”

John Lovell Jr. disagreed in 1972:

If people were forced to sing the songs the way some arbitrary authority decides or not sing them at all, the spiritual would quickly die. And would be better dead.

This episode was co-written by Anna Kurtz, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Pictured: The Fisk University Jubilee Singers in 1882

And was even diagnosed as having a weak heart…

You’re listening to Dorothy’s companions from the rare original 1939 Decca Recording.

Baum’s stories became books in 1900 with publication of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote 14 Oz books altogether, and many other stories for children. He was billed as the Royal Historian of Oz, claiming that Dorothy and Princess Ozma detailed accounts of the tales via wireless telegraph.

Syracuse University Library’s Special Collections Research center houses L. Frank Baum’s personal papers. They contain publishing history, correspondence and much more.

For an extended look at the Papers, click right here!

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When you think of Paris, chances are The Eiffel Tower springs to mind. Which is precisely why early detractors, in a letter opposing the Tower’s construction, called it

“a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe,

And so on.

Bet they weren’t complaining when the tower relayed communications during the first World War,  helping the Allies win the Battle of the Marne on Paris’ doorstep.

The Tower first opened to the public in 1889. Today the Tower has almost 7 million visitors per year making it the most-visited paid monument in the world. It’s open every day of the year, but during WWII, the Nazis found it closed.

Tower workers, given word of Hitler’s advance towards the city, cut the elevator cords. German soldiers were forced to scale the roughly 1,000 feet. See video.

From the time the first shovel went into the ground in 1817, critics blasted the Erie Canal project, dubbing it Clinton’s Ditch. But it would go down in history as an engineering marvel. When finished, it stretched three hundred and sixty three miles across New York, from : (lyrics “Albany to Buffalo”)

This is Low Bridge! Everybody Down, sung by Edward Meeker in a wax cylinder recording from 1913.

The Canal forever changed shipping in the Northeast, cutting transportation costs a whopping ninety percent. It also helped open a steady trade route with the Midwest, turning a seed of a downstate port town into the Big Apple.

Mules like Old Sal were the early stars of the canal system, but steam powered barges rendered them obsolete by the end of the 19^th century.

World War II raged, and then ended. Still, the whereabouts of the Lady Be Good remained unknown. It was thought the men had crashed into the Mediterranean, but in 1958 the nearly-intact bomber was found over 400 miles inland. Remains of 8 of the 9 crew members were found, some over a hundred miles north of the crash site. And, because everyone seemed to back then, they kept journals of their trek. To read excerpts, click to visit http://ladybegood.net, an excellent, and exhaustive site.

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When Marian Anderson performed at Princeton University in 1937, she was one of the most famous singers in the world. None other than Arturo Toscanini, once told her she had a voice “heard once in a hundred years”. She was probably well-received by the crowd, but as an African American woman, she was also denied accommodation at a nearby hotel. Luckily, a gentleman in attendance offered her lodging for the night, and…probably some interesting conversation. His name: Albert Einstein.

The contralto and the physicist would remain lifelong friends. Anderson, as a matter of fact, stayed with Einstein just months before his death in 1955.

Read more here.

Photo: “Marian Anderson” by Carl Van Vechten – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Van Vechten Collection, reproduction number LC-USZ62-42524.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

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It orbits Earth every 29.5 days, and during that time it’s lit from various angles by the sun. It’s at its brightest when it is 180 degrees away from the sun from our perspective (picture the sun, Earth and moon in a straight line). At that time, the full half of the moon’s surface facing the sun is illuminated and is visible from Earth. And that’s a full moon, friend. The moon absorbs much of the sun’s light, but about 7% is reflected towards the Earth. That’s why the moon appears to shine, or glow, if you will.

If you don’t know by now, you’ve been listening to the jazz standard Moon Glow. Art Tatum recorded  version, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Ethel Waters, Billie Holliday, Bing did one…you get the idea. But before all of that Joe Venuti and his Orchestra recorded it in 1933 for Columbia.

You’re listening to There’s a Little Baby Up in the Moon by Irving Kaufman, an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder released in 1916 and

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Paredoilia is the tendency to reconcile vague shapes as something you’re familiar with, like seeing shapes in clouds and the craters of the moon: a little baby, a man…or a rabbit.

Shortly before Apollo 11’s historic landing, mission control in Houston had a little folkloric fun.

Houston: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.

Michael Collins: Okay. We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl

‘Chang’eNo. 3’) is an unmanned lunar exploration mission operated by the China National Space Administration. The spacecraft was named after Chang’e, the goddess of the Moon in Chinese mythology, and is a follow-up to the Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 lunar orbiters. The rover was named Yutu ( literally: ‘Jade Rabbit’) following an online poll, after the mythological rabbit that lives on the Moon as a pet of the Moon goddess.

Read more here.

You’ve been listening to Nani wale e ka mahina (a chant about the beauty of the moon at night) by Al Kealoha Perry and his Singing Surfriders.

Check out this amazing selection of photos of the Apollo 11 Mission from NASA. And here’s a link to that Customs form!

Mike Tirico has covered a diverse array of what the sports world offers, from Opens in both golf and tennis, soccer’s World Cup, NCAA and NBA basketball, to Monday Night Football. And he’s covered them as well as anyone, receiving National Sportscaster of the Year honors in 2010. Here the versatile broadcaster expounds on perhaps the most well-rounded athlete in Syracuse University history.

Mike Tirico:

If we didn’t have such concretely-documented proof of Jim Brown’s athletic prowess you might think it the stuff of legend. Put aside his dominant football career, one that extended into the NFL and its Hall of Fame. He also lettered in track, basketball and lacrosse, and was considered one of the greatest to ever play that sport. His statistics remain nearly-incomprehensible, such as the NCAA record 43 points he scored in a single football game…but the number he’s most known for among Syracuse fans is, of course, 44. He wasn’t the first to wear it, but he made it the mantel, carried later by such greats as Ernie Davis and Floyd Little.

You’ve been listening to the SU fight song, Down the Field, by the University Band and Robert Chenoweth, an RCA record from 1951.

Read about Brown’s sparring session with one of boxing’s greats right here.

Arthur Murray taught millions of Americans to dance, through the chain of studios that bear his name nation-wide, and by his mail-order lessons. You’re listening to one of those, Arthur Murray teaches the Fox-Trot.

Turns out William Jennings Bryan had something to do with Murray’s success, as he jokingly said: “You know, I have a fine idea on how you can collect your money. Just teach ’em with the left foot and don’t tell ’em what to do with the right foot until they pay up!”

From this, Murray got the idea of teaching by paper-footprints….and the rest is mail-order history.

So how’d HE get so good? The old adage…practice, practice, practice. But he did his practicing at neighborhood weddings…whether he was invited or not.

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Andre Escoffier would’ve cleaned up on the late 1800’s version of Top Chef. The French chef extraordinaire was known for his creative haute cuisine, and for naming his dishes after stars that frequented his restaurants. There was no bigger operatic star of the time than Aussie-born Nellie Melba…that’s right, as in Melba toast and Peach melba. While performing the Wagnerian opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden, Melba invited Escoffier…he responded with a dish that mimicked a boat in the shape of a swan that appeared in the production. The dessert featured peaches over vanilla ice cream, in a dish served on a carved-ice swan, and called “Peche Cygne” or, “peach with a swan”. He’d later add a raspberry sauce…and Peach Melba was born..uh, hold the swan.

Image Credit: “Covent Garden Theatre 1827-28” by en:Thomas H. Shepherd (1792–1864), engraved by John Rolph (1799–1862) – Metropolitan improvements or London in the nineteenth century: being a series of views, of the new and most interesting objects in the British metropolis & its vicinity; from original drawings, with historical, topographical & critical illustrations by James Elmes. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Whew.

Frederick A. Graves originally wrote the song in 1895, but his version was a bit, well, heavy…A.P. Carter then rewrote it in 1937 to better fit the Carter Family’s repertoire. In short, he focused more on the “honey and the salvation” than the” blood and the sins”. Probably a good move, sales-wise.

The Carter Family recorded for over 30 years, helping to create and then redefine country music, and were inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1970.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University Honors student Jack McCormack, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Learn how students are interacting with historic sound right now at Soundbeat.org

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Nighttime is often the right time for thoughtful reflection. Especially when one is on guard duty in the Army. Such is the case with this song, written by Fred Parris while on active duty. He and the Satins recorded it in the basement of the St. Bernadette church in their hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. It was a big hit, but Parris didn’t get to celebrate long. He would be called back to active duty shortly after the release.

Just how big a hit was it? It’s the only song to have made the Billboard top 100 3 times…that’s the same artist with the same version. It debuted at #24 in 1956, was released again in 1960, reaching #81, and then a year later it reached #99.

It’s also talked about as the origins of doo-wop. Find out more right here.

(Photo taken at La Silla Observatory)

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That telltale whoop belongs to Sonny Terry, one of the most influential harmonica players of all time. Blind, but not from birth, Terry lost his sight one eye at a time, first in early childhood, and the second in his late teens. He recorded “Whoopin’ the Blues” with Brownie McGhee in 1947 for Capitol Records. The Terry/McGhee partnership was one of the most prolific and is one of the most revered in blues history.

Want to see them in action?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34FWANCq6_0

Photo credit: Ian Chadwick

The films have drawn homage from musical group “They Might Be Giants”, TV show Family Guy,and, of course, the 80’s comedy classic “Spies Like Us”. What was so special about that connection? It’s all summed up right here:

Pearl made her Broadway debut that year, performing “It’s a Woman’s Prerogative” in St. Louis Woman. Though audiences weren’t enamored of the play, her performance marked the beginning of a decades-long love affair between Bailey and the American public. That “special time together” included a Tony award for Hello, Dolly! and later pop-culture staples like “The Love Boat”, “The Muppet Show” and “Hollywood Squares”.

Ol’ softy President Richard M. Nixon made it all official in 1970 proclaiming Bailey “Ambassador of Love”. The position was rumored to pay 80,000 hugs annually with a guaranteed pension of half that amount. Nixon even accompanied Bailey on the piano. Turns out he was an amateur composer. Click here for video of Nixon’s Concerto No. 1…and some Truman jokes thrown in for good measure.

The song itself was composed by Leonard Bernstein for his 1944 ballet “Fancy Free”. Once Holliday’s version was released, it was featured in the opening scene, playing from a juxebox.

 This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Sarah Detweiler, as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership project. To learn more about the Partnership, click here!

Alright, hope we didn’t over bill it. But I mean, it’s insurance, we had to liven it up somehow. The very first auto insurance policy was sold by Travelers Insurance to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo NY in February of 1898. It was very likely to protect his car from accidents involving horses. It’s perhaps impossible to relate the role horses played in daily life at the turn of the 20^th century. All transportation seemed measured in equine terminology: you’ve got  “iron horse”, the “horseless carriage” and, of course, “horsepower”. You’re listening to Smith and Harper with Insurance Policy Blues, a Melotone record from 1936.

For those who think we’re all fancy with our futuristic electric cars…they were making them in Buffalo in 1900. For more on The Buffalo, click here.

The origins of the term are nautical…17^th-century sailors would describe ship’s movements as rocking and rolling.

The first recorded mention of the words “rock” and “roll” together? That would be the Edison Quartet, who also went by the Haydn Quartet when not recording with old Thomas Alva.  Their 1904 recording of Camp Meeting Jubilee contain the lyrics “rocking and rolling in your arms”. Here they are on a brown wax cylinder recording from 1904.

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The first song officially banned on our soil was “A Song Made Upon the Election of New Magistrates To the City”, written by John Peter Zenger, owner of the first printing press in the colonies. Seems King George didn’t appreciate the mocking of local officials.

Fast-forward a couple centuries and banned songs took on a… slightly different subject matter, earning some of them the title of “dirty blues”. You wouldn’t hear them on the radio, but certain enterprising jukebox owners would make stacks of nickels from the ribald tunes. This one was no exception: You’re listening to Fluffy Hunter and the Jesse Powell Orchestra with “The Walkin’ Blues”, a Federal record from 1953.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

Image: Johannes Adam Simon Oertel.  Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y C.  ca. 1859.  Oil on canvas. It is in the public domain, in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923..

A little info from Wikipedia: Artist Johannes A. S. Oertel, working in the mid-nineteenth century, provides an imagined depiction of the destruction of George III’s statue in Bowling Green, the first victim of New Yorkers’ reaction to hearing news of the Declaration of Independence.  Oertel  places women, children and Native Americans among what eyewitnesses recorded as a rowdy crowd of soldiers and civilians.  No true image of the statue itself survives.  However, contemporary descriptions inform us that the King was sculpted in Roman garb, not the eighteenth-century royal dress shown in the  painting.

And for your stocking: listen to the whole thing right now, courtesy of the Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection.

Jim

Image: “Stave Four: The Last of the Spirits”, artist Fred Barnard, scanned by Philip V. Allingham” “Stave Four”

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Ryan Lu, as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership project. To learn more about the program, visit soundbeat.org.

Years of bad blood passed. During the folk revival of the 60’s, Seeger and his “comrades” experienced career upswings, while Ives found himself on establishment’s side in decidedly anti-establishment times.

“Blue Tail Fly”  was the last song Ives ever played in concert. And it was a duet… with Pete Seeger. The two reunited for a benefit concert in 1993.

The entire north polar region is sea, covered by floating ice, which, when you factor in wind and ocean currents, makes a permanent marking impossible.

While the honor currently belongs to Peary, experts are divided as to whether Cook, or neither, reached the pole. That’s right, some believe both expeditions were off base. Read more.

Paganini was a violin virtuoso. He could play three octaves across four strings. Ask your local fiddler; that’s all but impossible.

Paganini’s seemingly supernatural talents made him a celebrity, but also inspired rumors that he’d made a pact with the devil. There’s another theory out there, and this one’s a bit more scientific.  Some experts believe he had Marfan Syndrome. This connective tissue disorder can result in longer arms, longer fingers … and hyper flexible hands.

You’ve been listening to Paganini’s Caprice no. 24, recorded in 1920 by Jascha Heifetz, another great master of the instrument.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

Wheatstraw billed himself as a bad dude, claiming association with the Dark Prince. He even named his records The Sheriff of Hell and The Devil’s Son in Law.

Two thousand Folsom prisoners attended Cash’s famed performance at the prison a year earlier; however, Death Row residents were not allowed. On performing a song about an execution at a prison, Cash said, “I was trying to get things close to the bone.”

Who wrote the song that Cash used to accomplish this? None other than beloved children’s author Shel Silverstein, who also wrote the Cash classic “A Boy Named Sue.”

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Josh Daghir as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Image: “Folsom Prison, East Gate”. The image is in the public domain.

Born in Ireland in 1820 or 1821 her birth name wouldn’t have rolled off the tongue as easily.

“Whatever Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert wants…” ,

From adulterous outcast to Spanish dancer, to Franz Liszt’s lover and eventually Bavarian countess, she certainly seemed to get what she wanted. Find more on Montez right here.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Kate Capodanno, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

William McKinley was as popular as presidents come, a saying that may need to be adjusted for inflation. On September 6^th, 1901, Leon Czolgosz  waited in line to meet the president at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo NY. He fired two shots into McKinley’s stomach, and while the president battled his wounds for more than a week, he finally succumbed to gangrene. Czolgosz’ trial began 10 days later. He’d be found guilty within hours, and in a morbid twist of fate, would be sentenced to death by electric chair. The major theme of the exposition that year had been…the dazzling power of electricity.

You’ve been listening to the Columbia Quartette, with a…Columbia cylinder from 1902.

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The Peerless Quartette recorded I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier in January of 1915. Alfred Bryan wrote the lyrics, and they drew a sharp line between those who supported the US entering the Great War and those who opposed. The opposition: pacifists and isolationists, natch, but also Protestant ministers, German Americans, and Irish Americans, who weren’t eager to support the British. Then there was the other side. Harry Truman, National Guard Captain at the time, didn’t love the tune; the place for women who opposed war, he said, was “in China—or by preference in a harem—and not in the United States.”

The sheet music sold to the tune of 700,000 copies in the first 6 months, making it one of the biggest hits of that year.

Check out more episodes now at soundbeat.org.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Image: “British soldiers moving forward during the Battle of Broodseinde”, Photo by Ernest Brooks. It is in the public domain, as it was created by the United Kingdom Government and taken prior to 1 June 1957.

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While telling his future bride about his former’s infidelities, he cried out that one day Audrey’s “Cheatin’ Heart” would pay. A hit was born, and, probably, so was a discussion re: whether or not he was really over his ex-wife.

MGM released the song in January 1953, just weeks after Hank’s death at age 29. In 2004 “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was named #1 in CMT’s list of the 40 Greatest “Done-Me Wrong Songs”.

This episode was co-written by Alexis Lisser, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. Find out more right now at soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

The poem’s eerie lyrics have been used in films, tv, books and other songs, and were based on reports of a haunted house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

This episode was co-written by Hasmik Djoulakian (Joo-lock-ee-en), part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.Photo credit: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/142/356275548_063f0133fd_z.jpg?zz=1

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Craig Kober as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

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He’s backed by his quintet on the piece, as he plays over the standard 12 bar blues. But much like his famous predecessor’s breakthrough recordings, the song lacks a clear lead melody, giving way to improvisational piano, and, of course, that sax.

Young got his nickname from Billie Holiday. It was Young who gave Billie her famous “Lady Day” moniker. She returned the favor, dubbing him “Prez”… as in the president of all saxophonists. And you’ll get no argument from us.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Brent Kelley, as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership project. To learn more about the Partnership, click here!

That last minute substitution would prove historic, marking the first time a black singer appeared on a blues record…one that sold over a million copies in just six months. Music historians credit the song’s success with opening the proverbial door for artists like Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Ma Rainey, and, indeed, many, many more.

For more on the historic session,

Photo: “MamieSmith” by unknown. Original uploader was Emerson7 at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Darwinius using CommonsHelper.(Original text : This image has been downloaded at http://culan.org/main.htm). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MamieSmith.png#mediaviewer/File:MamieSmith.png

When Secunda sold a catchy Yiddish tune to a publisher in 1932, he did so for $30, or about $500 today.  But when a-relatively-unknown trio of sisters released the song six years later, it went on to sell millions. Here are the Andrews Sisters in 1938 with “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”

As you can hear, the only Yiddish that remained in the song was the title, though it was also printed as the German  “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”. But anyway you say it, it translates as “To Me, You Are Beautiful.”  It put the Andrews Sisters on the map, and was the first gold record by a female vocal group.

And as for poor Sholom Secunda… Not all stories have happy endings...but this one does:

“Remarkably, Secunda was not bitter about losing out on more than $350,000 in royalties throughout the years. As he told The New York Times, ‘”It bothered everyone else more than it bothered me. I’ve been more interested in my symphonic music.”‘

Fortunately for Secunda, the story of his most popular composition has a happy ending. In 1961, the copyright on “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön” expired, reverting ownership to Secunda and Jacobs. They immediately signed a contract with Harms, Inc., the music publishing company that had acquired the rights from the Kammen brothers. This time Secunda negotiated for himself the full percentage of the composer’s royalties. Current copyright law holds that this will remain in effect until 75 years after his death.“

FROM www.dvrbs.com/swing/SholomSecunda-BeiMirBistDuSchoen.htm

This episode was written in part by Andrew Troast, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

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When the three made an emergency landing in Greeley Island, Canada in 1928, they’d completed the first transatlantic flight, from East to West, mind you. It’s a much more difficult trip in that direction due to dangerous headwinds. As a matter of fact, Charles Lindbergh hopped a ride aboard the USS Memphis on the way home from his famed New York to Paris jaunt.

You’re listening to “They Landed Over Here From Over There” recorded by Arthur Fields that same year (1928).

Headed on a flight yourself? Load up your personal listening device with our podcast, available at iTunes.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

You’re listening to Florence Foster Jenkins struggle her way through Lyadov’s The Musical Snuff Box. Jenkins was…just a bad singer.  But she was also determined to be one. She ignored the early advice of her family and her husband…who would, incidentally, become her ex husband.  (Maybe she sang in the shower?) 

Critics said she lacked pitch and rhythm.  Others said she flat out lacked ability.  But Jenkins didn’t listen to any of ‘em. In her own words “People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.” Indeed. She won out though, establishing a cult following, and even selling out Carnegie Hall!

The song involves a hobo, a sheep, and the authorities, though you might have a hard time deciphering the language. If that’s the case, we’re happy to help you out. Click here for a different version by Rolf Harris which contains a bit of explanation, and accordion, for good measure.

For listeners of a certain age, a song about King Tutankhamen immediately brings Steve Martin to the mind’s theater. His “King Tut” mock-reprimanded the commercialization of the Treasures of Tutankhamen exhibit that toured from 1976 to ’79.  But this one, “Old King Tut”, was recorded in 1923, the year AFTER the ancient Pharaoh’s tomb was found.

Howard Carter and company made the discovery at a time when many had abandoned the famous Valley of the Kings. Shortly after confirming the validity of their find, Carter sent a telegraph to the dig’s sponsor, Lord Carnarvon:

“At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations.”

But When Carnarvon arrived three weeks later, the team found that they’d not been the first visitors to the tomb:

“At first, their enthusiasm was somewhat dampened, for at the top left-hand corner of the blocking were signs of re-closure, suggesting that the tomb had been entered during antiquity. They began by clearing the descending corridor, which also showed signs of a robber’s efforts. By 4:00 pm on the afternoon of November 26th, the corridor was cleared and the team found a second door, again faced with plaster, stamped over with oval seals, and re-closed at the top left-hand corner. Not knowing what lay behind this doorway, Carter made a small hole in it and inserted a candle to test for foul gases. He then peered into the void beyond, reporting:

“At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold – everywhere the glint of gold”.”

Image: Howard Carter  in Tutankhamen’s tomb, photographed by Harry Burton, created in 1922. The image is in the public domain.

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Spelling seldom makes for great radio, but “Aweigh” in this case is spelled “A-W-E-I-G-H”, and it means that the anchors have been raised, and the ship is ready for action. It also makes this the perfect fight song for the US Naval Academy.

The song was composed by Charles Zimmerman, the bandmaster of the Naval Academy Band, in 1905. It was first played publicly at the 1906 Army-Navy game, and spurred the team to a 10-0 victory, the first time they’d won the rivalry game in 6 years.

You’re listening to the very first recording of the song, made by Columbia in 1920.

Check out more college fight song info on our blog.

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It’s perhaps ironic that Bach’s compositions are celebrated worldwide; in his entire life he never strayed more than 200 miles from his birthplace of Eisenstadt, Germany. But his influence has been felt all over the globe, and through every generation since. Bach translates literally as “brook”, but as Beethoven put it, “His name should not be brook, but Ocean.”

Johannes Sebastian der Ozean. Has a nice ring to it.

Want to hear some more classical-themed episodes? Go to soundbeat.org and type “classical” in the search bar.

His thoughts on the arrangement: “She didn’t know nothin’ about no music at all. Her name is on this song and that song, and she’s still getting money.”

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Alicia Drummond as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

In 1930 Reinhardt was an eighteen year-old gypsy living on the outskirts of Paris, playing jazz gigs while his wife made and sold paper flowers.  One evening an overturned candle caught a flower and set their caravan ablaze. He was badly burned, and especially on his left hand. He emerged with full use of only two fingers. But, as you can hear…it didn’t slow him down.  From 1942, this is The Quintet of the Hot Club of France, with “Belleville”.

How did guitar god Jimi Hendrix honor Django Reinhardt?

Hendrix named his group “Band of Gypsys” in Reinhardt’s honor.

There are two subdivisions of the dance: traditional and Modern Western. Traditional square dances very region to region, but don’t bring your New England style to a Modern Western, or simply Western, square dance. And you’d best dress for success…most dances call for traditional square dance attire…black-bolo affairs, if you will.

Want to see the oddest square dancing video out there? Click here.

You’ve been listening to the Fontane Sisters with “The Cinderella Work Song”.

Want to see that championship bout? Click away.

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Choates initially recorded “Jole Blon” (translated as “pretty blonde”) in 1946 for Gold Star records. It served as the B side, but when a Houston-area DJ played it instead of the A side, Basile Waltz, the rendition of the much-loved Cajun classic became a big hit. It was the first one for Gold Star records, and so big in fact that the recording was licensed to Modern Music for distribution.

In an all-too-common happening in the world of music, Choates didn’t see much of anything from the sales of the record. His payment, according to legend: 100 dollars and bottle of whiskey.

Photo: Wally Gobetz – A Harry Choates 78 from an exhibit at Barbara Jordan Terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/8028244820/

It’s believed manager Colonel Parker had something to do with getting the King a cowriting credit on this one. Popular belief cites Otis Blackwell as the true author, on a challenge from a friend who witnessed him shaking a bottle of Pepsi. Presley himself had this to say in an interview that year: “I’ve never even had an idea for a song. Just once, maybe. I went to bed one night, had quite a dream, and woke up all shook up. I phoned a pal and told him about it. By morning, he had a new song, ‘All Shook Up’.”

Image: Uncredited, Elvis performing live at the Mississippi-Alabama Fairgrounds in Tupelo, Mississippi, September 26, 1956. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed

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Whitman published his famous elegy to Abraham Lincoln in “Sequel to Drum-Taps”, an 1865 pamphlet containing 18 poems about the American Civil War as well as “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”. Who said self-publishing doesn’t work?

If you are going to publish your work on your own, you’ve got to have artistic and editorial vision. Whitman kept revising the poem, even after publication, and even corrected newspaper editors for using earlier versions.

Favor was, perhaps obviously, one of the first recording stars, and a popular vaudeville act. He was known for classics of the time like “Daisy Bell” and, ahem, “Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder?”

 Sarah Hale is perhaps the driving motivator behind our celebration of Thanksgiving. Check out more right here.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

I’m Brett Barry.

The story goes like this…in 1951, as Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats made their way to the recording studio to record Rocket ’88, the guitar amp’s woofer was damaged. One band member claims it was dropped, while another faults moisture from heavy rain that day. The result: that slightly-fuzzy, just-plain-rock-and-rolly, sound that would be emulated to this day.

The Cats usually went by a different name: Ike Turner’s Rhythm Kings; That’s Ike on piano. The song was named for the fastest car on the road at the time, the Oldsmobile…Rocket 88. The car would dominate the NASCAR circuit in the 50’s.

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In the song, a condemned woman pleads for her life, asking family and friends for bribes in order to escape hanging. There are many variations on the same theme…in some she escapes, and in some, the money never comes.

The tune got Led Zeppelin in a bit of hot water, as claims were made that the supergroup plagiarized Ledbetter on their version. While he is listed as the songwriter on some of his releases, it’s more accurately listed on others as “Traditional”. On Led Zeppelin III, this song is credited as “Traditional, arr. Page/Plant”. Page himself acknowledged both Leadbelly and Fred Gerlach as sources of inspiration. What do you think? Get the Led out right here.

Big Maceo, also known as Maceo Merriweather, recorded Worried Life Blues in 1941. It was released by Bluebird Records. He’s accompanied by the legendary Tampa Red on guitar. As is often the case, this traditional song was inspired by an earlier one, Someday Baby Blues, by Sleepy John Estes in 1935. It’s got more of a country blues feel, as opposed to the Chicago Blues that Big Maceo was known for. His moderate-tempo eight-bar blues style helped transform the blues, moving towards that “Chicago urban” style, with a more sophisticated improvisation, using the piano as his main instrument.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Jacqueline Attia as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Worried_Life_Blues_single_cover.jpg

That singer you hear…what’s your mental image?  An elderly woman? A young boy? How about… a 44 year old man?  This recording represents the end of a very weird period in music’s long, weird history.  Alessandro Moreschi  was the last of the castrati, opera singers who had been (ahem) castrated before puberty.  That’s one way around that awkward voice changing stage.

Here’s Moreschi with the Christian hymn “Laudamus Te”.

 So…a castrati’s voice wouldn’t break, but had the force of fully developed lungs behind it.  Castration was outlawed in Italy in 1870, and Moreschi was the only castrati to make solo sound recordings.

Time out for trivia: How many boys were castrated yearly at the height of castrati craze 40, 400, or 4,000?

You probably guessed it…4,000. Eww. Here’s a good site with more than you’d ever want to know on the topic.

This is “Stealin’ Stealin”, recorded by The Memphis Jug Band in 1928. It was one of the first recordings released by the Grateful Dead, on Scorpion records in June 1966.  The band known for jamming, among other things, had their roots in jug band music. In fact, founding members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan spent their pre-Dead days in a band called Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions.

They’d move on to The Warlocks, but didn’t want to be accused of…stealin’. Two other bands at the time went by the same name. Ironically, the other two ditched the name as well…you know them by ZZ Top and The Velvet Underground.

So how’d they come up with the name Grateful Dead? From the website “The Straight Dope”:

The official story on the Grateful Dead, as related by Jerry Garcia in the book Playing in the Band, is as follows: “We were standing around in utter desperation at Phil [Lesh]’s house in Palo Alto [trying to think up a name for the band]. There was a huge dictionary, big monolithic thing, and I just opened it up. There in huge black letters was `The Grateful Dead.’ It … just cancelled my mind out.”

I’ll say — how often does the phrase “grateful dead” pop up in the average dictionary? But it turns out Garcia may not have hallucinated the whole thing after all. In the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, we find a page headed “GRATEFUL DEAD” in big type. Beneath this is an entry to the effect that the “grateful dead” is a motif figuring in many folktales.

Further investigation has turned up a rare volume of folklore entitled The Grateful Dead by G.H. Gerould (1908), lent to me by Straight Dope reader Charles Kroon. In it we find a typical grateful-dead story:

Graf Willekin von Montabour … learned that a beautiful and rich maiden had promised her hand to [whichever] knight should win a tourney she had established. Thereupon he set forth and came to the place announced for the combats. There he found lodging in the house of a man who would only receive him if he paid the debts of a dead man, whose body lay unburied in the dung of a horse-stall. Willekin was moved by this story and paid seventy marks, almost all his money, to ransom the corpse and give it suitable burial. He then had to borrow money from his host in order to indulge in his customary generosity. On the morning of the jousting he obtained from a stranger knight a fine horse on condition of dividing everything he won. He succeeded in [beating] all the other contestants, and so wedded the maiden. On the second night after the marriage the stranger entered his room and demanded a share in the marital rights. After offering instead to give all his possessions, the hero started from the room in tears, when the stranger called him back and explained that he was the ghost of the [presumably grateful] dead, then disappeared.”

Puts a different spin on “Sugar Magnolia,” I’ll tell you that.

In other Dead news, I learn that John Epler, a leading bug authority and loyal Straight Dope reader, has named a newly discovered species of chironomid midge after the Dead, namely Dicrotendipes thanatogratus. (Thanatos is Greek for death, gratus Latin for grateful.) Abrim with boyish enthusiasm, he sent the band a note, but can you believe it, the ingrates (oh, rich irony!) never bothered to reply! Maybe they were turned off by the gauche commingling of Latin and Greek. Or maybe they’re just too jaded. Whatever, when John names his second new bug, you can be sure I won’t forget the thank-you note.

Grateful Dead: Not ungrateful after all

Dear Cecil:

As John Epler may already know, the Dead are no more efficient than they have to be. The mail answerers are rummaging through the backlog in search of the Dicrotendipes thanatogratus note. Your column was the first anyone had heard about it, and it’s a nice flash.

For the record, naming the Dead took place at the house on High Street in Palo Alto on a November afternoon in 1965. The name was found in a regular Funk and Wagnalls dictionary, probably the 1956 edition.

Gerould’s book on the “grateful dead” legends is lovely. Stith Thompson also discusses them. [Typically the hero pays a dead man’s debts so his corpse can be buried. Later a stranger, who turns out to be the grateful dead man, joins the hero and offers his help, on condition that all winnings be equally divided.]

Is the grateful dead man tempting you? Are you making a moral decision? The flat hit you get from the words “grateful dead” can be enhanced by pondering what life situations the g.d. tales represent. When you listen to such tales you’re living on that level of symbolic transaction.

— Bill Legate, San Rafael, California

An electric pulse hits the listeners’ ears twice. Let’s hear it again:  Few people at the time had heard the sound recorded. The year was 1938, and when trombonist and guitarist Eddie Durham recorded his arrangement of “Moten Swing” with the Kansas City Five, it was one of the first jazz recordings made with instrument.

But that wasn’t the end of Durham’s progressive ways.; He also organized one of the first all-female orchestras. And he invented the “non-pressure” technique; a way of playing the trombone without too much pressure on the lips, as to not leave behind a mark after playing.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University students Seth Kluk-Barany and Meghan Mary Gibbs as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. For more on the SBCP, go to soundbeat.org right now.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

I’m Brett Barry.

Others say it was written about a Greek grocer on Long Island, some point to the Windy City for the song’s origins. But the song’s title was used by painter Pavel Jerdanowitch for his critically-acclaimed 1924 painting.  At least, that’s what the art community thought. It was all a hoax, propagated by the real painter to prove that the critics were all full of…uh, fiber.

It’s a great story of critical comeuppance. Read more here.

The brown wax cylinder debuted in 1889. This recording, DeWolf Hopper’s “You Can Always Explain Things Away” was made the very next year.

Sound Beat is produced at Belfer Audio Archive, home to one of the largest cylinder collections on the planet. You can choose from over 1400 right now.

It was one of the earliest atomic-era records, recorded by Karl and Harty on December 4^th, 1945.

They recorded this song with Cadence Records. It went all the way to number 2 on the Pop charts, planted firmly behind Elvis Presley’s “Let Me Be YourTeddy Bear”. It went to number 1 on the Country charts, though. Three decades later, In 1986, the Everlys were elected into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.

The brothers have a “non-Elvis” Graceland connection. Don and Phil sang back-up on Paul Simon’s 1986 hit “Graceland”. Hear them in action right here.

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“Kaw-Liga”  was originally written as a…more-serious song about two Native American lovers. But collaborating songwriter Fred Rose convinced Williams to re-write, telling instead the story of two wooden cigar store “Indians”.

Some claim it was a nod to a Native American settlement, others claim it was a more blatant nod to an actual wooden statue. What we know is this: In August 1952, Hank stayed at a cabin at Lake Martin in Alabama, where he wrote this song and Your Cheatin’ Heart. Both were released by MGM in early 1953 and spent a combined 20 weeks on top of the Country charts.

This episode was written by Emily Procopio, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Photo: Courtesy of Papahazama, via Flickr, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

In the 40’s Hylton left performance behind and became a major shareholder of the Decca label. But his greatest success may have been in managing and developing stars like French crooner Maurice Chevalier, British comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, and Liberace.

The 1936 film “Swing Time” featured Ginger Rogers and Astaire.  Hardly remarkable in itself, as it was one of their ten films for RCA. This tune though, written by Jerome Kerns and Dorothy Fields, won an Oscar for Best Original song. Here’s Fred Astaire, with “The Way You Look Tonight”.

And how did Astaire himself feel about his partner? “After a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong.”

Some believe Astaire’s finest dancing performance came from the film, during the eponymously-titled “Swing Time” number. But judge for yourself…

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You might know this one well as a “Barbra” tune. (That’s Streisand, for the rest of you.) The song was written by the team of Victor Young and Sam M. Lewis. This version belongs to Vaughn Monroe, a Bluebird 78 from 1941.

Sam M. Lewis penned a number of hits, like“I’m Sittin on Top of the World” and “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?”, and…one dubbed the “Hungarian suicide song”. For more on the curse of “Gloomy Sunday” check out this episode.

Alright, excuse us for a bit of poetic license. The swimsuit had more to do with atomic bombs than rockets.

The Bikini Atoll is a small island chain in the South Pacific. In July of 1946 it served as an atomic test site, and the symbol of a dawning age.  The awesome and terrifying display of power had been implanted in the social consciousness…extending even to the fashion world. That summer, two different two-pieces hit French beaches. Jacques Heim named his the “Atome”, (French word for atom, the smallest-known particle of matter) He proclaimed it “the smallest bathing suit in the world.” But only weeks later, Louis Reard introduced his own, billing it “smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world.” And since he had “split the Atome”, he went with the catchy-sounding “Bikini”. You’ve been listening to Dexter Gordon with “Bikini Blues”. There’s a great story behind the song’s name…find out more at soundbeat.org

The accordion is actually a member of the harmonica family, and is popular with street performers, polka bands, and of course, Weird Al Yankovic. You’re listening to 1915’s NY Blues by one of the first stars of the instrument, Pietro Frosini. He recorded for both Edison and Victor in the early 1900’s, and became known as much for his compositions as his playing.

So much so that there’s a Pietro Frosini organization in Sweden, and YOU can be a member. Click right here to find out how.

You’re listening to the ironically named Harlem Hamfats in 1936. First of all, no one in the band was from anywhere even close to New York. And hamfat is a low-cost filler used in cooking recipes…a cheap substitute. These hamfats were Grade A, though.  They played party music, with many of their songs about drinking, dancing…and going to town.

Critics didn’t love the Hamfats, and those lyrics didn’t help their commercial appeal. They were perhaps a bit rock and roll for the thirties, but they certainly had some devoted followers…a couple of fellas by the names of Chuck Berry and Jimmy Page.

Two of the Hamfats are buried right next to each other. Why?

Joe and Charlie McCoy, the band’s founders, were brothers. Find out more right here

Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps put their twist on the lyrics with “Be-Bop-a-Lula” in 1956. The biggest hit of the three: you guessed it..this one, which stayed atop the R and B charts for 16 weeks.

You’ve got to check out this video . It’s Lionel in 1982 with a comedy legend on drums and some absolutely amazing 80’s crowd dancing.

It stuck in Rickett’s mind like a high-lob to a soft green, and the “Colonel Bogey March” was born, with that whistle…

…serving as the opening line to the melody. The march would be published in 1914 and had already sold millions by the time it was famously included in “Bridge on the River Kwai” in 1957. Which…didn’t hurt sales one bit.

Photo: [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Verdi was a pretty big deal in Italy. It’s said over 200,000 people lined the streets for his second funeral. His first, he requested to be a private affair. As for his life, besides being one of the most brilliant opera composers to have lived, Verdi was elected to Italy’s first national Parliament in 1861.  To be fair, he was probably the most unwilling candidate in political history. Rarely in attendance, when he did show up, he would (of course) work on opera “business”. (Insert lazy politician joke here)

He even made a contribution to the bearding community, lending his name to a judged category. The Verdi, according to worldbeardchampionships.com, is well-groomed, closely trimmed, highly stylish, and sophisticated.

Gentleman Jim Reeves had 51 top ten hits in a career cut short when a small plane he was piloting crashed in 1964. For your next Morbid Trivia Night: He was taught by the same man who taught Randy Hughes, Patsy Cline’s pilot, who of course had met the same fate a year earlier.

But Reeves’ records kept on coming. RCA Victor continued releasing unpublished songs, mixed with previously released tracks, and people kept buying them. Of those 51 top ten hits we mentioned, 19 came posthumously. And there was a Jim Reeves single on the charts every year from 1970 to 1984, nearly 2 decades after his death.

The public wanted it. In a 1922 poll of some 500 newspapers nationwide, Harry

Wills was selected as the the boxer that people most wanted to see heavyweight

champ Jack Dempsey fight. He got 131,073 votes; second place was 6,000. The

problem was, Dempsey had drawn the “color line” in 1919 after winning the title,

citing deadly riots after the Jack Johnson – James J. Jeffries fight in 1910.

In 1925, the New York State Athletic Commission gave Dempsey an ultimatum:

fight Wills, or find another state to fight in. He chose the latter. Another match

fell through in 1926. When Dempsey lost to Gene Tunney that year, and Wills,

then 37, lost as well, talks of the match ended, as did Wills’ shot at the title. A

month later Howell, Horseley and Bradford recorded this song on a Columbia 10 inch 78.

Image: Black Boxing Gloves, taken by Airman First Class Kerelin Molina as part of official duties. As a work of the

U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain in the United States.

Time seems to heal all wounds though…when Napoleon died in exile in the early 1820’s, Beethoven remarked that he had “already composed the proper music for that catastrophe”, a nod to the Symphony that once bore the man’s name.

Fans of historical trivia, and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, remember Napoleon as a little guy. (Napoleon was 5’6, Beethoven 5’5).

The 18^th Amendment ushered in Prohibition in the United States, outlawing the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol from 1920 to 1933. During this time, James Arnold was a whiskey bootlegger, who… got the occasional itch to pick up his guitar and play around town. But in 1933 the Amendment was…amended, ending prohibition, and putting Arnold out of work. He turned towards music full-time. In 1934, he recorded Old Original Kokomo Blues. And the name stuck…here’s Kokomo Arnold in 1937 with Red Beans and Rice.

LaRosa probably wished he’d followed his own advice on his last night of work. You see, he was one Arthur Godfrey’s protégés and lead singer on the Arthur Godfrey show. Thing is, he learned his final performance was his “swan song” at the same time as the shocked audience.

At the time, Godfrey’s various shows accounted for 12% of CBS’s nightly business. But the gasps of dismay from the audience were harbingers of change…after firing the red-hot crooner, his popularity plummeted. So why the firing in the first place? Apparently Godfrey took issue with Larosa’s hiring of an agent. Public opinion favored Larosa, so much so that singer Ruth Wallis recorded a song in 1955 entitled “Dear Mr. Godfrey”. Want to hear it?

You’re listening to Vernon Dalhart with Wreck of The Old 97.  He may have started his career in NYC, but he was all cowboy.  Born Marion Slaughter, he took his stage name from the Texas towns he used to drive cattle between: Vernon and, you guessed it, Dalhart.  When he recorded this song in 1924, it became the best-selling single of its time.  Not only that; it was the best-selling non-holiday record in the first 70 years of recorded music.

The opera/country connection isn’t a … traditionally strong one.  Just imagine: Toby Keith is… Don Giovanni.  Dalhart made the leap, though. He’s a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine?”, was released by Musicraft in 1944. It’s a little play on the Irish folk song “Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder”. But that tune never got anyone blacklisted, which this one did for Gibson that year. He’d recover, but it would take time. Over a quarter century, actually, when he’d resurface in the 1970s playing blues rock.

Read more.

The song has been recorded by scores of other performers you might have heard of…Elvis, Ray Charles, Janis Joplin and the Who, to name a few.

Think Hallmark invented the holiday? Blame Henry the VIII  who made it official in 1537, and the exchange of gifts began then. It’s the biggest day of the year for florists, accounting for about 1/3 of their annual business. And about 3% of Americans will buy Valentines gifts for…their pets. So… yeah.

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You’re listening to the Merry Macs with Mairzy Doats, a Decca 78 from 1943. The group was made up of 3 brothers McMichael, and was formed with the lofty goal of…playing local high school dances.

The song would be the Merry Mac’s biggest hit, hitting number one in . It features Marjory Garland, the third in a line of female vocalists to sing with the group. She was a natural fit with the Macs…so much so that she became one after marrying band member Judd McMichael.

By Agronom (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Songwriting duo Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen created “Love and Marriage” for a musical based on Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” in 1938. Sinatra sang it then, and in this recording, a Capitol 78 from 1956.

Years later, Mercer, Glen Wallichs and Buddy DeSylva started up a little outfit called Liberty Records. In 1942, it would become Capitol, and Wallichs would become the first music promoter. It was his idea to send free demo records to stations. It became industry standard…not to mention the best part of working at a radio station.

You’ve been listening to the first Capitol Records Release, record 101-A. And as fate would have it, it’s none other than Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra.

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Arthur Sullivan composed The Lost Chord in 1877, at the bedside of his dying brother. Sullivan was known for his partnership with W.S. Gilbert, of course, as well as hymns like “Onward Christian Soldier”. But The Lost Chord would remain his favorite, as well as one of his most enduring compositions. You’re listening to the sounds of the Mormon Tabernacle Organ, played by Edward Kimball in 1927.

The organ Mr. Kimball played isn’t in use anymore, but the “new” Salt Lake Tabernacle Organ, built in 1948, retained some of the old pipes. Good thing, as it’s made up of more than 11,000 pipes in 206 rows, known as “ranks”.

You’ve got to see this thing to believe it. And you can, right here.

And if you don’t know Marion Morrison’s trademark drawl, well that’s because he changed his name to John Wayne for his first leading role in the 1930 Fox Studios film “The Big Trail”.

Image: A picture of a pistol left in Juneau, Alaska by Wyatt Earp, who was on his way to Nome, Alaska. It is on display at the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau. and the photograph is in the public domain.

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Brahms composed 21 danzas, basing them on Hungarian folk themes. Mostly…in fact, he thought this one, number 5, was based on a folk song, but that song turned out it to be an original composition by Béla Kéler.

You may have heard it in the Charlie Chaplin film “The Great Dictator”, in which Chaplin shaves a man to the tune. Brahms himself was cleanshaven until his mid-30’s. And, by the way, described as “Herculean”. Though A late-comer to the no-shave game, he ended up with a magnificent specimen towards the end.

Shelley’s poem won out, while Smith’s went the way of, well, Ramesses II. But decide for yourself by reading and/or listening right now at soundbeat.org.

Photo: The “Ozymandias Collossus”, Ramesseum, Luxor, Egypt, by Charlie Phillips, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license.

Instrumentation in the past century of recorded music has been dominated by guitars, drums, horns, and, more recently, keyboards and synthesizers. But some instruments have left their unique mark on the recording industry, distinguishing songs from the rest of the pack and in some cases, establishing inextricable connections between the ear and the mind.

For example, what does this song remind you of? Palm trees swaying in the breeze? Pristine waters, hula dancers, etc? That’s all thanks to the Hawaiian steel guitar. You’re listening to the Waikiki Hawaiian Orchestra with My Hawaiian Evenin’ Star, an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder released in 1926.

The easy, breezy sound translated into a big hit for Santo and Johnny Farina with their 1959 hit “Sleep Walk”, probably one of the most popular instrumental pop songs of all time.

Curiosity piqued? Check out more on the Hawaiian steel.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/people/junnn/

Gertrude “Ma Rainey” was known as the mother of the blues. She started recording for Paramount in 1923, but was old hand at it by then. She’d already been singing the blues for two decades. In fact, she claimed to have named the genre around the turn of the century. Here she is with “Explaining the Blues” from 1925. With her husband, Pa Rainey, she worked on a series of traveling shows, revues, and the famed Rabbit Foot minstrels. And they would perform under perhaps the very-coolest band name in music history: Rainey and Rainey Assassinators of the Blues.

Brown, or…Baker, lived an entertainer’s life. Her career started onstage at 10 months old, and would last nearly ninety years. So, from 1880’s to the late 1960s…meaning vaudeville, cylinders, records, silent films, “the talkies”, radio and tv.

Life insurance quotes for the Apollo 11 crew were, sorry in advance, astronomically high. With great risk ahead, the men wanted to provide for their families. They knew there would be a demand for their autographs, especially on “covers”: envelopes post-marked on important dates. During pre-flight quarantine and downtime, they signed. And signed. The autographs were postmarked and distributed among the astronaut’s families, enabling the men to keep their proverbial eyes on them, even while “sitting” on the moon.

In short, Babar moves to the big city after a hunter shoots his mother, gets some culture and heads back to rule the elephants after the death of their leader. This record, Babar the King, details the building of Celesteville, named for…Babar’s wife.

Jean’s son Laurent would carry on Babar’s tales after his father’s untimely death at age 37. Watch an interview with him right here.

Image Credit: “Marriage and coronation of King Babar and Queen Celeste.” Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant (The Story of Babar), 1931. Final watercolor. 14 1/8 x 10 3/8 in. (36 x 26.5 cm). The Morgan Library & Museum. The image is in the public domain.

The pioneers of Country music just sound Country, even by their first names. (Roy, Hank, Gene). Which is why Clarence Albert Pointdexter simply had to go.

So how do you get from Clarence to country?

Some call Dexter the father of honky tonk music, which can be a bit confusing without musical accompaniment. You see, there’s blues piano honky-tonk, a rollicking bridge between ragtime and boogie-woogie. But as you can hear, this is the other honky-tonk…another bridge, from Western Swing to what we now call “Country”.

(Pencil scribble effects courtesy of mckinneysounds via http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/scribbles)

And while the initial reaction was lukewarm, Peter and the Wolf has introduced generations of youngsters, and probably some oldsters, to the various instruments of the symphony. More than one critic has viewed the piece as allegory for Soviet and world politics of the time. After all, it can’t be a mistake that the greatest Russian folk hero is…Peter the Great. For a reading of the Wolf as the Nazi threat, click through!

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Sinatra recorded All or Nothing At All with the Harry James Orchestra in 1939. At the time he was a relative unknown in the biz, and wasn’t even credited on the tune.  The record sold poorly but Sinatra took a shine to the tune, making it a regular audition piece. Over the next few years, he would become one of the hottest performers in music.

The early forties saw a musicians union strike, and professional musicians were prohibited from recording. There was no such restriction on previously recorded songs though.  Columbia Records signed the red-hot Sinatra in ’43 and re-released the song that year. And you better believe they put his name on it.

This time around, the single stayed at the top of the charts for almost a year.

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“Swingmatism” was sax master Charlie Parker’s first recording, made on April 30 1941.

No one’s quite sure how Parker earned the nickname. Most stories seem to center around the shortening of “yardbird”, slang for chicken. One such has him traveling to a gig with McShann’s band, when their car strikes a bird. Parker hops out, brings the unfortunate fowl with him and asks their boarder to cook it for him. No word on whether this was a usual request for the time. 

Parker would go on to revolutionize the instrument and the genre, earning praise from critics, the “Beat poets” and fellow jazz greats. Indeed Miles Davis once quipped that you could sum up jazz history in four words: “Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker”.

We’ll spare you the “Bird”/Twitter pun, but if you’re in the Tweetisphere, follow us @onthesoundbeat.

You’re listening to Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson. Music historians cite the song as a retelling of Christ’s crucifixion. Hard to be completely sure, though, with Johnson’s characteristic humming, and moaning in place of lyrics.

There’s a parallel to be drawn between the song and Johnson’s life. He was blinded as a boy, during a domestic dispute, and though a huge influence in both Gospel and the Blues, he’d remain penniless much of his life. So much so that when his house burned to the ground in 1945, he stayed put.  Sleeping on a wet bed in dry heat will get you malaria, and that’s what killed Blind Willie Johnson at the age of 48.  

Try to stump our crack musicologists…request an episode right now at sound beat dot org.

The answer reveals an old trick among songwriters of that time. The song was officially copyrighted 1940 by Davis and frequent collaborator Charles Mitchell. But Davis actually bought the song from Paul Rice, made a few lyrical changes here, a tempo shift there, and presto-chango …it was a Jimmie Davis original.

Davis would go on to become governor of Louisiana, serving two nonconsecutive terms. And whaddya know, this became Louisiana’s state song in 1977.

Hear the Rice Brothers version right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oqjF-txkZ8

Harris dropped out of Creighton University in his hometown of Omaha to join a travelling revue. By 1940, he had relocated to LA and became a nightclub favorite, performing with the leading orchestras of the day, including Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton. After recording for a series of labels in the late 40s, Harris joined King Records, which released this tune, the most successful of his solo career and his second #1 record.

And who says bluesmen aren’t poets? The second line, “stop all the clocks,” is said to be an homage to W.H. Auden’s 1936 poem of the same name, later renamed “Funeral Blues”.

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Those young drifters; Seems they’d use anything to get a fair maiden to their bed. In this case it was the Foggy, Foggy Dew. Carl Sandburg recorded this version in 1937, one of the songs he collected for his seminal work, The American Songbag.

In almost hilarious contrast to lyrics found on today’s airwaves, this song was considered quite bawdy at the time…and even later. Burl Ives claimed to have been jailed in Montana in 1940 for performing the song.

Learn more about Sandburg’s American Songbag right here.

Photo: Actress Marilyn Monroe is shown with poet Carl Sandburg in this December 1961 photo taken in New York City. Photographer Len Steckler shot the black-and-white images of Monroe when she unexpectedly arrived at his apartment in December, 1961, to visit his friend, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Sandburg.

Experts believe Giacomo Casanova’s legacy might have surprised him. There’s little doubt that his womanizing exploits were the stuff of legend, but he was also an astrologer, a spy, even author of one of the first science fiction novels. And… one neglectful librarian. When poverty late in life forced him to take a position in a castle 60 miles north of Prague, he despaired…even contemplated suicide. At his physician’s urging, he wrote his memoirs… all 3,700 pages of them.  He probably should have been…you know…doing “librarian” sorts of thing…but the exercise probably saved his life. “What pleasure,” he wrote, “in remembering one’s pleasures!”

You’re listening to Johann Strauss II’s operetta “Casanova”…The plot is a bit Lifetime Channel, “inspired by true events”.  Strauss’ Casanova flees not poverty, but the jealous husbands of Venice.

Where’s he’s soon up to his old tricks again.

The 1938 film involved a couple of Sergeis, director Eisenstein and composer Prokofiev. You’re listening to the 5^th movement, and climax of the film, the Battle on the Ice. Teutonic invaders threaten the Soviet motherland, prompting leaders to consider a treaty. When battle is seen as the only option, Aleksandr leads forces against the invaders. In a cunning move, he lures the enemy onto a frozen lake where the sheer weight of the army cracks the ice, sending them to their deaths.

Fast forward 7 centuries, with Soviet and German forces nearing the brink of war. Only a few months after the film’s completion, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact of his own with Germany, and the film was promptly banned. But in 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union, and Aleksandr Nevsky’s popularity, and patriotic importance, was reborn.

Looking for a little more info?  Go here.

Games like these are where we get “close but no cigar”. It was a popular refrain from the barkers, as cigars often served as prizes. Not for the kids, who got… the leftover coconuts. Dumb kids.

Image credit:

Fisk University struggled financially from its very founding just six months after the end of the Civil War. On the verge of closure, the Jubilee Singers began a series of fund-raising tours in 1871. By appearing in many venues in the U.S. and embarking on a visit to Europe where they sang for Queen Victoria, the Jubilee Singers broke color barriers and made an enormous impact on the world of music. Oh, and they saved the University. As a matter of fact, the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University continue to sing today.

In their words “We stand on the shoulders of the original Jubilee Singers, continuing their legacy, as we sing Negro Spirituals”.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Tesia Elder as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

For more on the Jubilee Singers past and present, click here.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

Song Cue:

When the shades of night are softly creeping

Up across the garden at the zoo.

Sure, you’ve heard of Night at the Museum. But what happens when all the animals get tucked in? Let’s listen to Ada Jones with “Bedtime At The Zoo”, a Blue Amberol Cylinder from 1914.

Song cue:

…now the leopard hangs his weary head

Then the tawny tiger stops his growling

 Every beast is thinking of his bed.

Oh my!

Goodnight Mr Elephant, tiger cease your play.

Ada was one of the most popular performers of her era, particularly for her duets with Billy Murray and Len Spencer. You can hear this complete recording, along with more than 1400 others at the Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection. Just google BELFER DIGITAL, or go to Soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archives, Syracuse University Libraries.

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Wicked author Gregory Maguire did much to elicit sympathy for the Wicked Witch of the West. He gave her a name, something original Oz author L. Frank Baum didn’t do. Elphaba is a phonetic play on Baum’s initials. (Go ahead..L.F.B.)  And, I mean, how would you feel if someone dropped a house on your sister?

The main witches of Baum’s Oz books are the rulers of the four cardinal directions; Good in the North and South, and wicked east to west.  Glinda the Good was the only one to get a name in the first book, though her colleague in the north was later named Locasta. Our artichoke-hued friend to the West occupied the land of the Winkies, accomplished tinsmiths. When Dorothy…ahem… gave her the business, the Tin Woodman replaced her quite nicely.

Margaret Hamilton’s witch was so wicked, some of her scarier scenes were cut. So was her visit to Sesame Street. Find out more at soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

I’m Brett Barry.

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That’s Bach you’re listening to, the piece composed when he was the head of the Collegium Musicum of Leipzig, Germany. They were groups of amateur and professional musicians who would gather regularly in public locales…a bit like an upscale open-mic night. The Leipzig group met at Café Zimmerman, a Kaffeehaus, as they say. Fitting then that this piece, some of Bach’s lighter fare, was called the Coffee Cantata.

Protagonist Lieschen (Lee-see-en) refuses her father’s requests to quit drinking coffee, calling it“more delicious than a thousand kisses, and sweeter than muscatel wine”. But when her father refuses to allow her to marry she relents. Though she have a rider in any future marriage contract: she must be allowed at least three cups a day.

Which sounds like an ok agreement for any marriage.

Photo credit: Harald Hoyer from Schwerin, Germany (Coffee Beans  Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The 2000 film O Brother Where Art Thou featured the scheming, manipulative Mississippi governor Pappy O’Daniel, played by Charles Durning. The true-life Pappy O’Daniel was governor of Texas in the late 30’s. But he too owned a flour manufacturing company, and would regularly sing at his campaign stops. And…he was a songwriter as well. You’re listening to Milton Brown and his Brownies with a Pappy O’Daniel original, Beautiful Texas.

O’Daniel beat Lyndon Johnson in a special election for Senate in 1941, the only man to ever beat him in an election. He retired in ‘48, and his reason? There was, quote, “only slight hope of saving America from the Communists.” Ennnnnnnnd quote.

Joe Belmont would have differed. He made a career out of whistling, impersonating our feathered friends for dozens of recordings in the early 1900’s. You’ve been listening to “The Blue Jay and the Thrush”, an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder from 1914.

But his most popular work was 1898’s “Wild Animals I have Known”. One of the stories in the collection details his tracking of a fierce, and fiercely intelligent, wolf named Lobo. “The Wolf That Changed America” is a documentary on Seton and Lobo. See it right here.

Image: Lobo (The King of Currumpaw), from Ernest Thompson Seton’s Lobo, Rag and Vixen, illustrated by the author. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.

“Born” about 20,000 BC and “died” May 2, 2003. Well, he had a good run.

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The Old Man of the Mountain was a series of granite slabs on Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire. Viewed from the side the slabs gave the cumulative effect of a man’s face, leading to its other nickname: “The Profile”. “He” became the state’s unofficial emblem, and was immortalized by both Daniel Webster and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the latter of which called it “a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness.” Sadly, the old man succumbed to thousands of years of erosion in 2003, and the slabs tumbled to the ground below.

You’re listening to “Old Man of the Mountain” by Cab Calloway, a Melotone  record from 1933. The song was used in a Fleischer cartoon that year featuring Calloway and Mae Questel as Betty Boop. Wanna see it?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoJkxNa6v14

Forget all your pre-conceived notions of deadheads. Tony Blair was a big fan, and so was Bill Clinton (though he must’ve held his breath whenever he listened). But the “celebrity deadhead” award goes to Bill Walton. The ginger-haired basketball legend saw an estimated 650 shows, earning him the nickname “Grateful Red”.

A man as prolific as Charles Trenet (850 songs published over a 60 year career) probably doesn’t rest much, even on the train. It was on one such trip that he wrote this song La Mer, in 1943, basing the music on the contemporary hit and piano student standby “Heart and Soul”. Legend has it that he penned it on toilet paper liberated from the restroom.

Musicologists put songs like this in the nouvelle chanson category, which is basically a French song with a more lyrical emphasis. The broader chanson tradition goes back to French literature’s very beginnings at the end of the eleventh century.

Jack Lawrence later rewrote the song, and rewrote is the word. Instead of Trenet’s ode to the majesty of the sea itself, the new lyrics gave Bobby Darin the lost love angle that he took to #6 on the charts in 1959.

In 1850, there were 19 millionaires in the US. But by the Gay Nineties, there were over 4,000. The champagne flowed and extravagant shows of wealth were par for the course.

Charles Rector opened his restaurant in Manhattan in 1899. It became popular with the Broadway crowd, but its most well-known patron, especially with those working for tips, was Diamond Jim Brady. Diamond Jim made his money in railroads, but cemented his legacy at the dinner table. As well as lunch, breakfast and snack tables. Catering to Brady’s stomach was, apparently, worthy of investment. Upon hearing of his fondness for the buttery, poached sole Marguery, Rector allegedly pulled his son from his third and final year of Cornell Law School to go to Paris and master the technique.

Click for more on Brady’s eating exploits.

Image: Seafood Display by Petr Kratochvil

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While Howard Hughes’ aviation career is popularly associated with “The Spruce Goose”, the Hughes H-1 Racer set the landplane air-speed record in 1935, and it occupies a place in history that exists now, and may very well forever. Speaking of that, you’re listening to Now and Forever, from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony. It was used in the 1943 film, “The Outlaw”, which Hughes produced.

As for  particular place in history: when the H1 broke the record by travelling at 352 mph, it was the last civilian plane to break it.

As we know from Leonardo Dicaprio, and researchers, of course, Hughes was a man consumed with success. Upon crash-landing the H1 in its initial test run, he stepped from the downed plane and announced “We can fix her; she’ll go faster”.

He specialized in the plectrum banjo, a smaller version with 4 instead of 5 strings. And he helped develop variations on the instrument, like the Vegavox and the banjoline.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/epiclectic/

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A muleskinner’s job was not quite as…grim as it sounds. They were mule-drivers, or, in the cheeriest sense, muleteers! However, the skinner part of the title does refer to their ability to whip the animals so hard that the skin was broken. So still kinda grim.

The muleskinner became a sort of a folk icon, like a cowboy. Ok…probably not as cool as a cowboy. But you want  an icon? Roy Acuff highlighted the emergence of the lead singer in country music, settled in for a four decade run as a cornerstone of the Grand Ole Opry,  and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame while still alive, the first to ever receive that honor.

So the most common definition of a blue moon is a second full moon in a month. As the moon orbits around the Earth every 29 days or so, those extra days in a month accumulate.  As such, every 2 or 3 years we get an extra full moon slipping into a calendar month. There’s also another definition for a “seasonal” Blue Moon: the third of four full moons in one season. And believe it or not, this definition predates the other.

You’ve been listening to the incomparable Mel Torme backed up by Pete Rugolo and his orchestra on a Capitol 78 from 1949. Blue Moon was never a rarity when Mel sang: indeed, it was one of his signature songs.

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Mel Blanc brought to life some of the most popular characters in animation history. It might be bad radio to recite the list, but, we’re going to do it anyway…it’s that impressive. There was Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, the Tasmanian Devil, Barney Rubble,  Mr. Spacely…And, talk about a house divided…he also voiced both Sylvester and Tweety Bird, heard here in…ahem…“I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat”from 1951.

The record would go on to sell 2 million copies, but that was small potatoes. At the time of Blanc’s death in 1989, it’s estimated that 20 million people a day heard his voice.

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But the real fun starts when the singing stops. You see, the year is 1919, and the crowd is taking part in an Edison Tone Test. Before the lights come back up, they’re prompted to guess if what they heard was live, or a diamond disc.

Wax cylinders provided mankind the ability to reproduce sound. By 1912, though, Edison had clarity in mind when he developed the Diamond Disc. Grudgingly. Competitors had started producing flat records over a decade earlier, but Edison wasn’t convinced. Like that guy who held onto eight tracks just a bit too long…except he was the one making them! He produced both until 1929. In fact, many of the cylinders produced during this time, like this one, were… dubs from diamond discs. That’s a whole different level of stubborn.

You’ve been listening to Love’s Old Sweet Song recorded by Marie Rappold in 1919.

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You’re listening to Jack Kerouac reading his poem “The Moon Her Majesty”, on Dot Records’ Poetry for the Beat Generation, with piano accompaniment by Steve Allen. The recording is significant in that it was released and then immediately recalled after a label exec heard the content and Kerouac’s, lets say, state of mind.

The recall letter came from Bernice Mason: “You will receive a Dot album titled “Poetry for the Beat Generation”. Dot has cancelled the release of the album for obvious reasons. Please do not review it on your publications. Thank you for your cooperation.”

130 copies are believed to have escaped the recall, and this is one of them.

Check it out here!

And, you’re on the Sound Beat!

The choir is singing the Hymn to Apollo, one of the Homeric hymns: a collection of thirty-three anonymous ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. It’s thought to have been written in 522 BC. Apollo is the son of Zeus, God of the Sun and light. His name was selected for NASA’s third spaceflight program by then manager Abe Silverstein because “Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program.”

Grand scale indeed, incorporating President John Kennedy’s stated goal of “”landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. And though he would never see it, six Apollo missions would land astronauts on the Moon, with twelve men walking on the lunar surface. And every one of them returning home safely.

Charlie Chaplin would become the world’s biggest star, but the first emergence of the Little Tramp played second fiddle to…go-karts. The iconic character debuted in 1914’s “At The Kid Auto Races in Venice”. It was filmed on-location at an actual road race held in Venice, California that year, among a crowd who showed up to watch some auto racing and instead became extras in film history. A year after the film, Chaplin would have never been able to walk those streets unnoticed. A year after that, he would’ve needed bodyguards.

The Victor Military Band was a virtual revolving door of  about a dozen musicians led by Edward T. King, and were the first to record W.C. Handy’s classic “St. Louis Blues”.

Watch the whole film, all six minutes of it, right now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j2K3A1S5ak

We’re cool. We’re, as they say, hip. (Do they say that anymore?) Anyway, you’re listening to the very first mash-up, The Flying Saucer, Luniverse record number 101. It was… mashed…up?…by Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman in 1956…that’s, uh, one half-century before Glee. See? Hip.

You’ve been listening to part 1 of 2…listen to both right now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCrn6QXvHLg&feature=kp

Photo: © Copyright Alan Forbes and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License

But surely the story behind this upbeat number couldn’t be dark. I mean, it’s called Babes In the Wood, and, it’s about……ok. Well, it’s a bit like the Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel.  It comes from an old broadside ballad, in which two children are put in their uncle’s charge after their parents’ death. He promptly claims their inheritance and leads them off into the woods, leaving them to their fated deaths.

The term “babe in the woods” has come to express one’s innocence, or even pitiable naivetee. There’s also a correlation to the haunted Tower of London.

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The lyrics of Sixteen Tons paint a grim picture of a Kentucky coal miner’s life.

Tennessee Ernie Ford took a shine to the song, recording and releasing it as a B-side to “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry” in October of ‘55. Two months later, it was the greatest selling single of all time.

Travis would express his thanks onstage, frequently changing the last stanza to “I owe my soul to… Tennessee Ernie Ford.”

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The 30^th president of the United States, bestowing the Flying Cross on Charles Lindbergh. The speech took place in Washington DC on June 11, 1927, just three weeks after Lindy’s achievement. Lindy’s humorous remarks dre laughter from the crowd but he’d leave a bigger mark on the public’s perception of flight. In 1926, the year before his flight, about 6,000 Americans traveled by air. Less than two years later the number had swelled to 180,000!

Hear the entire recording right here.

Mr. Theodore G. Bilbo was a US senator, and not a good one. A member of the Ku Klux Klan, he once proposed a bill that would deport 12 million African-Americans to Liberia… in an effort to save on unemployment costs. He accepted illegal contributions, among them

excavation of a lake for… creating…his…own…island?

And, just when you think he couldn’t get any worse, he was well-known for his frequent practice of illeism, the use of the third person to refer to oneself.

Adrienne Claiborne wrote this song with singer, labor activist and husband Bob Claiborne, in 1938. District voters seemed unswayed by the protest and Bilbo would remain in office for nearly a decade longer.

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Ah, the Force. A supernatural power that binds all entities throughout the universe. George Lucas would borrow the idea from many cultures: chi in traditional Chinese culture, mana in Hawaiian; in Hindu culture it’s “prana” the word translating directly as “life force”. And with the possible exception of light sabers, it’s just about the coolest part of the whole Star Wars universe.

Image courtesy of Thomas S., used under Creative Commons license.

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Fall in love with a movie nowadays, you can watch it pretty much whenever you want; ask any parent of a Frozen fan. WHEN-EV-ER. But for a rabid Star Wars fan in 1977, your options were limited. You went to the movies, or you bought this, a 20^th Century Fox LP. It featured dialogue and sound effects from the film, and was narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne.

The record would go as gold as C-3PO.

Image created by Andrew Forgrave, used under Creative Commons license.

Richard Hollingshead learned a lot from his test run of his big idea. He went through various incarnations of the first drive-in at his home in Camden New Jersey, starting with cars lined up one after another and a single speaker behind the screen. Which, obviously, didn’t work. He gradually arrived at disparate spacing, elevated in the back, and the sound delivery would evolve to the in-car speakers we use today. Or, the last time you were at a drive in. His invention saw the light of day, or dusk, in 1933.

Nelson Riddle is recognized as one of the foremost arrangers in popular music history. According to WNYC’s Jonathan Schwarz, “Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Nelson Riddle stand, in my judgement, at the spine of American popular music”

Check out more episodes right now

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Mark Perkins, as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership project. To learn more about the program, click here!

The aria is from Act II, Scene 1…Azucena has convinced her son Manrico to join her vengeful quest. But with his foe at swordpoint, he stops. The title actually translates as ““At My Mercy Lay The Foe”. So, what stayed his hand? Find out right here.

Hawkins played tenor sax, which wasn’t really recognized as a jazz instrument until he helped make it one. Body and Soul, heard here from 1939, signaled a stylistic change in jazz; the improvisation throughout the song simply hadn’t been recorded in the genre.  The end result? Bebop, a form of jazz dependent on improvisation and a snappy pace.

Hawkins directly influenced the greats that followed soon after. Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis would all play back up for Hawkins.

What extreme honor did the Library of Congress bestow on this recording?

In 2004, Body and Soul was entered into the LOC’s National Recording Registry, for songs that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

Couples sway to the music, hand in hand, step matched for measured step. But we’re not in Austria, or Vienna…we’re in Ponce, Puerto Rico…and YOU’RE on the Sound Beat.”

Known as the Puerto Rican Mozart, Juan Morel Campos is the composer of “Mascaras Alegres”. It’s a form of danza, a genre of Puerto Rican origin. Its slow, romantic rhythm sets the ambiance for elegant, ballroom style dancing. Morel Campos was himself a deep romantic, and composed many of his danzas about his one true love, Mercedes Arias…and, kind of, about her family. See, they never quite approved of Juan, and the titles of his danzas seem to reflect the anguish this caused him. Like: Maldito Amor (Damned Love), Tormento (Torment), Si te toco (Yes, I will Touch You) and No Me Toques (Do Not Touch Me). Mascaras Alegres (Happy Masks) describes his concealed emotion surrounding their eventual, and devastating, breakup.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Juceliz Batista, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

The Campfire Girls predate the Girl Scouts, and count Shirley Temple Black, Beverly Cleary and Madonna as former members.

Of his 144 compositions, Franz Waxman called Rebecca his favorite. He was invited to arrange the piece for the Standard Symphony hour, a popular radio show on the NBC radio network. The arranged suite was broadcast, in the words of production manager Ray Klune “May 9^th at 8:30 PM, over the entire Pacific Northwest Radio Network as far East as but not including Chicago.”

This episode was written in part by Mika Posecion as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

 Over the years, Coast Guard ships have helped destroy derelicts, transport dignitaries and government officials, assist vessels in distress, enforce neutrality laws and serve as convoy escorts. The establishment of Homeland Security greatly increased the Coast Guard’s role in protecting US waters and shorelines.

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Robert Burns was also known as “the Ploughman Poet” and, in Scotland, simply, “The Bard”.  This song, Afton Water, was based on his poem “Sweet Afton” and set to music by Jonathan E. Spilman in 1837. Burns’ birthdate, January 25th, is celebrated throughout Scotland with “Burns Night.” Not only that, a national poll taken in 2009 named him “The Best Scot Ever’, narrowly edging William Wallace. We’ll spare you the “Great Scot” joke we had planned if you promise to check us out on Facebook, @onthesoundbeat on Twitter and our home on the web, Soundbeat.org

Photo: Copyright Bill Copland and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Sound Beat is made possible by in part by a grant from the John Ben Snow Foundation.

You’ve been listening to I’m Going to Vote For a Democrat. We’re fair and balanced here at Sound Beat: listen to the flip side of this record, I’m Going to Vote Republican, at soundbeat.org.

It worked. The Eisenhower/Nixon ticket mopped the floor with Stevenson/Sparkman, winning 39 of the 48 states.

What was the greatest Presidential drubbing of all time? The election of 1936.

“He was running a business, but he knew he had an important archive here and he had a responsibility to maintain it.”

After 30 years in business, and distinguishing itself as a landmark for collectors worldwide, Records Revisited closed. The archive his son spoke of, roughly 200,000 records, was boxed and shipped in 2008 to….Syracuse University. The gift ensures the collection’s preservation for  future researchers. And…it plays a role in a certain radio show of which you may be aware…

You’re listening to Drum Boogie by Gene Krupa, an OKEH 78 from 1941, and one of the last ever played at Records Revisited.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

“We interrupt this program. The Office of Civil Defense has issued the following message: This is an attack warning. Repeat. This is an attack warning. Attack warning means that an actual attack against this country has been detected and that protective actions should be taken. Important instructions will follow in 30 seconds.”

Ok, quickly then…This recording comes to us from the WSYR collection at the Special Collection Research Center here at the Syracuse University Libraries. Much like the famed Mercury Theatre on the Air “The War of the Worlds” Halloween broadcast of 1938, this warning was merely a test and did not reflect an actual state of emergency. In both cases, raising alarm, even false alarm, incited people to pay attention and take notice in a way that they might not have otherwise.

“This station has interrupted its regularly scheduled programming at the request of the United States Government to participate in the Emergency Broadcast System serving Operational Area G, including Onondaga, Cayuga…”

This is a small excerpt of the excellent SCRC Blog, edited by Grace Wagner. All this week they’re celebrating American Archives month at library-blog.syr.edu/scrc/.

Seress actually committed suicide himself in 1968. His obituary in The New York Times claimed that he ” complained that the success of “Gloomy Sunday” actually increased his unhappiness, because he knew he would never be able to write a second hit.”

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‘How High the Moon’ wasn’t a new song when Les Paul and Mary Ford recorded it. As a matter of fact the Les Paul Trio recorded a version on a V-Disc  (records made expressly for military personnel) in November, 1945.

So…how the high the moon? Depends on the time of year. During summer the tilt of the Earth’s axis points us toward the Sun during the day, so at night we are tilted away from the Moon, making it  lower in the sky. In the winter, reverse it: we are tilted toward the Moon at night, making it higher.

Listen to more Moon Month episodes right now!

Image credit: NASA

Photographed by an Expedition 28 crew member aboard the International Space Station, this image shows the moon at center, with the limb of Earth near the bottom transitioning into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth’s atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange- and blue- colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds extend far above the Earth’s troposphere.

]]> Sound Beat full jsoconno@syr.edu (Syracuse University Library) https://soundbeat.org/episode/casey-at-the-bat-how-about-that/ Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:02:51 +0000 http://soundbeat.org/?post_type=episodes&p=4951 https://soundbeat.org/episode/casey-at-the-bat-how-about-that/#respond https://soundbeat.org/episode/casey-at-the-bat-how-about-that/feed/ 0  

Mel Allen is perhaps the most renowned broadcaster in baseball history.  And he got his big break by way of hard work, sure…tireless pursuit of his goal, yes … but also, a timely mispronunciation. You see, sponsors exerted a stronghold on the booth in those days. When then-Yankees-broadcaster Garnett Marks said “Ovary soap” instead of “Ivory”, not once but twice, the Yankees washed their hands of him. In stepped Mel Allen, and he’d remain as Yankees broadcaster for a quarter century. He’d give Joe DiMaggio his “Joltin’ Joe” moniker, coin the home run phrase “going, going, gone” and , of course, he gave us “How About That?”

From Wikipedia:

The full version

For completeness, here is the full six-verse German version, together with a literal English translation.

The bread slicer was invented in 1928. But anthropologists believe humankind has been cooking meat for thousands of years, as evidenced by the existence of bronto-ribs on the Flintstones. These early methods involved low-temp smoking the meat for a long period of time. This “slow and low” process helped to kill bacteria, and the mouthwatering aroma exuded probably didn’t hurt. For What our great ancestors probably lacked in table manners, we haven’t changed their cooking process all too much since then. The iconic Weber Kettle grill brought it to the backyard in 1952, and the gas grill followed shortly after, but purists might flinch a bit at barbecue cooked with charcoal briquettes, never mind propane. And don’t even mention the crock-pot.

You’ve been listening to “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue”, a 1949 Columbia record by Jimmy Dorsey and The Original Dorseyland Jazz Band.

Photo credit: Wally Gobetz

“I remember the last time I saw Buddy. He had me go get us some hot dogs. He was leaning back against the wall in a cane-bottom chair and he was laughing at me. He said, ‘So you’re not going with us tonight on the plane, huh? Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up. It’s 40-below out there and you’re gonna get awful cold.

Jennings’ response: ‘Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes.’”

Most anyone would forgive him the line as joking repartee, but that’s not how guilt works. He would keep the story secret for years. Read his entire account right here

You’ve been listening to “Open, Parachute” by Danny Scholl, with David Terry conducting.

(mock incredulity):  Turns out the parachute design was to blame.  Here’s a little breakdown of the events, with some background info and a picture of the design.

–         Agree: Like, I don’t know, when they ask you at the barber shop if their “intern” can cut your hair: “OKAY.”

–         To ask for agreement: Like when you tell the guy, expressly, that you “don’t want it too short, OKAY!?

–         To…reassure: Like, “it’s OKAY, he’ll stop there…I mean, he has to, he’s seen people’s heads before.”

–         And to interrupt.  “OH-KAY…this is over. This….this is not a haircut.”

Woody Guthrie would use the melody for his “Do Re Mi” an RCA Victor 78, in 1940. And in 2013, Tim Timebomb, a music project from Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, released a unique rendition featuring his trademark gravelly tone. Listen for yourself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mO7jx3JEw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y284eY-Bf8

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Kevin Pacelli, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

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This RCA Victor recording of Winter Wonderland was made in 1946 by Como and the Satisfiers.  The Satisfiers were a vocal group that consisted of Bob Lange, Ted Hansen, and Art Lambert.  The recording also featured Russ Case and his Orchestra.

The music was composed by Felix Bernard and the lyrics were written by Dick Smith. Even though it’s considered a Christmas song, Winter Wonderland doesn’t actually mention the holiday.  Instead it’s about the budding relationship of a couple during the winter season.

This episode was written by Sound Beat intern David Ross.

So, wherever you are right now, you’re listening to the same song Armstrong played in the command module between Earth and Luna. You’re listening to Moon Moods by Les Baxter, featuring the theremin playing of Dr. Samuel Hoffman. They’re from the appropriately-titled album Music out of the Moon, a 1947 album of six songs on three 78s.

Considering the intensity of the Space Race, it was certainly an interesting selection. The theremin is an electronic instrument, and a Russian one, named for inventor Leon Theremin. It evolved as a product of government research into proximity sensors shortly before the outbreak of the Russian Civil War in 1919. It’s so Russian Lenin took lessons on it (that’s Vladimir Ilyich, of course, not Yoko’s husband).

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You’re listening to Flying Home, recorded by the Benny Goodman Sextet. Much like the Apollo crew, the Sextet was made up of pioneers in their field: Goodman, of course, Charlie Christian, Arthur Bernstein, Fletcher Henderson, Nick Fatool, and Lionel Hampton.

The lunar module rendezvoused with Collins, who’d been orbiting the moon while the others had their fun, on the 21^st of July, 1969. On the 22^nd they started flying home in earnest, and would reenter Earth’s gravity (and it’s Pacific ocean) on July 24^th.

Get on the beat! Orbit soundbeat on Facebook, Instagram and twitter @onthesoundbeat.

Most anyone alive during the first lunar landing can tell you exactly where they were. For Dr. Story Musgrave it was a very special room in Houston.

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“I was assigned to a mission already but I was in Mission Control in the back of the room and just by luck, just by total luck, I am standing next to a person called Lewellyn Evans, Lewellyn but he went by Lew. Now this man is the CEO of Grumman. And so I am standing next to the CEO of the company that built this thing that just landed on the moon. So I said to Lew “Sir, let’s go out to the parking lot.” And we’re just walking around the parking lot and suddenly his peripheral vision catches the Moon up there and he looks up at the Moon and he says “Story Musgrave, do you understand that there are humans up on that thing up there?” I said “I understand that Lew, now we can go back to Mission Control.”  

You’ve been listening to Under a Texas Moon by Ted Fiorito and his Orchestra, a Victor 78 from 1929.

Story was an NASA astronaut for over 30 years and flew on six spaceflights. He performed the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger’s first flight, was a pilot on an astronomy mission, conducted two classified DOD missions, was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble Telescope repair mission and on his last flight, he operated an electronic chip manufacturing satellite on Columbia. Listen to our interview with him here

You’ve been listening to Destination Moon featuring Bob Crosby and Connie Haines with the Bobcats, a Coral 78 from 1951.

Listen to more of the interview with Sean O’Keefe right here.

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Only 65 years separated the flights of the Wright Brothers and the Apollo 11 crew. 65 years, with all the achievements in the interim and the names associated with them, Goddard, Lindbergh, Earhart, Yeager, Gagarin, Glenn, all coming down to the one moment when Armstrong left the lunar lander and stepped for the first time onto the surface of the moon. And when he did, he brought a remembrance of home with him: remnants of the propeller and fabric of the original Wright Flyer.

You’ve been listening to the Airborne Symphony, composed by Marc Blitzstein. This RCA Victor 78 features the New York City Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, recorded in 1946.

When astronomer Simon Marius discovered that Jupiter had 4 moons, (he did so about a month before Galileo) he took his friend Johannes Kepler’s advice and gave them rather cheeky names. If you’re not up on your Roman mythology Jupiter was basically God of gods. His marriage to Juno was a rocky one, mainly because Jupiter took his share of lovers. Kepler’s suggestion: name the moons after Jupiter’s main lovers. That’s Io, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. And it was a pretty good joke as it was, for four centuries. But when NASA sent a probe to check up on Jupiter and his lovers in 2011, it was named after his wife Juno: the planetary punchline we didn’t know we needed.

You’ve been listening to Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C major, also known as the Jupiter symphony. It’s the last symphony that he composed and it’s on the short list of the greatest in the history of classical music.

Image:

Jupiter and Juno – Frans Christoph Janneck

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Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, was launched into orbit on October 4^th, 1957. Once up there, or…more correctly, out there, the satellite hurtled along at 18,000 miles per hour, taking just under 100 minutes to circle the earth. But by the time it came back around, everything had changed: humanity had entered the Space Age, and the US/USSR Space Race had begun in earnest.  You’re listening to Underneath The Russian Moon by Belle Baker, a Brunswick 78.

Homer Hickam, (who wrote Rocket Boys, basis for the 1999 film October Sky) watched Sputnik fly over his small town of Coalwood, West Virginia. In his words, “If it had been God in his chariot that had flown over, I could not have been more impressed.”

Click through for more about Sputnik, the Space Race and Homer Hickam,

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You’re listening to By Rocket To the Moon, a Young People’s Record from 1950. The music was composed by Raymond Scott, Ralph Comargo is the narrator and while no credit is given for the lyrics of the accompanying songs, they were sung by the Gene Lowell chorus.

The first lunar orbit would take place 18 years after this recording. In December of 1968, Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell Jr completed ten revolutions around the moon and returned home all in under a week.

Listen to the whole recording here.

Image Credit: NASA “A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla: the Bumper 2, an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 250 miles, higher than the International Space Station’s orbit.

Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, Bumper 2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere. The rockets carried small payloads that allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and cosmic ray impacts. Seven years later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first satellites into Earth orbit.”

Sweet Georgia Brown is a jazz favorite, recorded here by Brother Bones and his Shadows for Tempo in 1949. But to fans of basketball and buckets of confetti the world over, it means one thing: The Harlem Globetrotters. Currently celebrating their eighty-fourth year of existence, the Globetrotters are one-part exhibition basketball, one part circus. The high-flying, dipsy-doo-ing Globetrotters and their long-suffering opponents have entertained an estimated 100 million fans in over ninety countries.

As for Brother Bones, he got his name playing…you guessed it: The bones. They’re large rib and leg animal bones to be precise, though they’re also made of wood or synthetics.

The Globetrotters aren’t all fun and games…in 2000 they lost to Michigan State, the reigning NCAA champions, by only two baskets.

Click here for a thorough Globetrotters history.

Song cue:

Over the land, over the sea, up in the air the fighting Yankees all agree!

There is a gal, oh what a gal, and for the love of her the boys are fighting for democracy.

It’s Lu, Lu, Lalapaluza Lu….

Of course, nothing beat free press. The following comes directly from a Billboard Magazine article, published on…May 9 1942.

“…One can always expect something unusual – and good-when Sammy tries something different on the waxes. Here again he rings the bell. Drake Hoffman and Jerry Livingston have come up with one of those easy-to-rhyme verses which champions Lalapaluza Lu as the girlfriend of the armed forces.”

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

You’re listening to 627 Stomp by Johnson in 1940. The title refers to the Kansas City Musicians Union, Local 627. Founded in 1917, it was known as the “Colored Musicians Union”. Kansas City was, of course, one of the early strongholds of Jazz. And as it grew, so did the 627. It represented many jazz icons, like Bennie Moten, Count Basie and Charlie Parker. Pete Johnson paid tribute to the union in 1940. Here he is with 627 Stomp.

Today, Local 627 is known as Mutual Musicians Foundation. For more background visit University of Missouri – Kansas City’s excellent site,  which traces the history of the union from its inception.

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What’s wrong with having a little fun in poetry? Ogden Nash was known for doing just that, which led to him having a little fun on tv, radio, and in collegiate lecture halls nationwide. Even the uninitiated will recognize some of his lines, no doubt: “If called by a panther/don’t anther” and “Candy/ is dandy/ but liquor/ is quicker”, to name a couple.

This 1943 Decca recording contained poems from his book “The Face is Familiar.” You can listen to the whole thing right here!

Photo: “Money” by 401 (K) 2012, made available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Some Scots were taken captive, others hanged, and some released…but forced to walk…that would be the high road.  Ancient Celts believed in an underground path, by which fairies would travel between the “Otherworld” and the real one. When someone died in battle, their soul would use that Low Road to return to their home village. Where they, hopefully, kept to themselves.

For Scottish 20-somethings, it’s got a whole different meaning. The song is often played as a “closing-time” favorite at pubs, dance-halls etc. It became the signature tune of Scottish folk-rock band Runrig, after their 1979 recording. Watch, and listen, right here! 

The story behind “Gypsy Davy” is the classic boy meets girl meets travelling, wife-stealing gypsy. Woody Guthrie recorded this version in nineteen forty-one.

But the story itself is much older.  It’s based on the traditional Scottish folk ballad “The Gypsy Laddie”, written in the early 1700s.

In Guthrie’s version, the lord rides after his lady, hoping to convince her to return home to their baby.

Alas, the song of the gypsy is too strong. The lady refuses, and Guthrie’s version ends there.  Woody was a peaceful sort of guy.  In an earlier version of the Gypsy Laddie, the gypsy and his six brothers meet a more grisly fate. They were hanged by the Lord and his posse, at which point the Lady decides shuffling on home would indeed be best.

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Between 1939 and 1952 Bing and the gals recorded 46 times. Exactly half of those were major hit records. They recorded “At the Flying W” in December of 1947.

At that time The Flying W was the quintessential  cattle ranch. It became a tourist spot in the mid-1950s complete with cattle-drive- style chuckwagon dinners and an all-cowboy band, the Flying W Wranglers for after-dinner yodelin’ and such.

It’s not exactly been a “life of ease” at the ranch in recent times.  A canyon fire devastated the W in June 2012.  Rebuilding efforts are ongoing. Photo: The Flying W Western Singers, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Still, who deserves it more? Sure, she may gently suggest for you to cut your hair, shave your face, or even “help clean around house a bit because it seems like you don’t have time”.

But it’s her big day.

Woodrow Wilson official recognized Mother’s Day in a 1914 presidential proclamation. Thank Anna Jarvis, who started the movement in 1908…and then criticized it’s commercialism in 1920. See, it’s not just us.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Sound Beat!

Photo: James Vaughan, licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Frank Kamplan and Al Bernard were well-known for the grossly-caricatured tunes that were so popular at the time. They repeatedly urge the train to take them back to 31^st street. So where is the street, and why’s it so important? In the 20s, Chicago was a major center of musical and cultural development, especially for black entertainers. 31^st street was in the center of the jazz district, on Chicago’s south side. It was known as “The Stroll”, or “Broadway of the Black Belt”

If it were not performed by noted genre performers, and the bit of exaggerated, stereotypical pronunciation, the song might not be considered “minstrel”. It seems to reveal respect for the burgeoning scene in Chicago.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Alyssa Gabriele, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

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The traditional Mexican corrido, or narrative ballad, has that uneven 5/4 meter…Which is meant to portray the steps of a cucaracha desmembrado…or dismembered cockroach. On that note, let’s have a little translated vocal accompaniment from my daughter Juliet, with Los Panchos accompanying…Ready?

Juliet:“The cockroach, the cockroach / can no longer walk / because he doesn’t have, because he lacks / a hind leg”

There are many, many different versions of the song, some with deep political messages, and some with content not quite suitable for youngsters. Especially those in our recording booth.

Photo credit: Brent Bristol

So, not to play poet psychologist here, but maybe Frost’s concern for the youngster relates to his own childhood. He was a nervous student from the start; He was sent home from Kindergarten on his first day with stomach pains. The same condition would follow him throughout his schooling, even during college at Harvard. Frost would never receive an actual degree from there, or anywhere, but would amass over 40 honorary ones. He was also named Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a title since renamed “Poet Laureate.”

Corwin himself was known as the “Poet Laureate of Radio.” For more on this giant of broadcasting, go to soundbeat.org right now.

“Oh, Boy!” was released in 1957 by Brunswick Records, the A-side to “Not Fade Away.” Those barbershop harmonies on this and eight other Buddy Holly tracks were supplied by The Picks: a Lubbock, Texas-based trio made up of brothers John and Bill Pick-ering and friend, Bob Lapham. But they didn’t get any official credit until the 1987 CD  liner notes. Buddy appreciated them, though. In a 2010, interview John Pickering recalled driving with the Picks on a busy Lubbock, Texas street in 1957 when Holly stopped traffic to thank them for their work.

This episode was co-written by Meg Lane, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Buddy_Holly_Briefmarke_Deutsche_Bundespost_1988_postfrisch_Schuschke_cropped.png

The lyrics come from one of the most popular poems of World War Two, Frances Angermayer’s “Conversion”.  Denver Darling set it to music for this recording in nineteen forty-five.  It tells the story of a soldier in a foxhole saying his very first prayer to God.

On D-Day a catholic chaplain found thirty copies of the poem on fallen US soldiers. Translated versions were also found on German soldiers.

Denver Darling was best known for his patriotic war songs like this one, but his biggest hit was Choo Choo Ch’Boogie, featured recently on Dancing with the Stars.

While modern, kid-friendly, lyrical changes have made the Mountain safe for younger listeners, Harry McClintock wrote and recorded this version in 1929. It depicts a hobo’s paradise, hence all the handout-bushes and, of course, the cigarette trees.

So, what exactly is a hobo? Travelers of the open roads and rails, they’re akin to itinerant workers…and true hoboes follow The Code.  It stresses chivalry, looking out for fellow travelers, and above all, rule number one… “Decide your own life. ”  And where’d these rules come from? Why, the National Hobo Convention of course, held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1889.

But see for yourself…we’ve got the Code right here:

The Weavers recorded the song for Decca Records and it reached #2 on Billboard that year. It’s classic Seeger, his characteristic songleading on display.

SONG CUE

Bing Crosby called Old Smoky “The big song of the year.” And it was no exaggeration: Burl Ives shared the Billboard list with the Weavers, reaching number 10 with the same song in the same year.

Of course, if you can listen to it and not think about spaghetti, sneezing and meatballs, more power to you.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Dan Stack as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

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James Sanderson composed Hail To The Chief in 1812, adapting Sir Walter Scott’s poem “The Lady of the Lake” for the stage.  But the story of its presidential association all comes down to a first lady. You see, James K. Polk was the 11^th president of the United States, and, well, he was no William Howard Taft!

Uh, that is to say, he was a rather slight man, and also something of a wallflower. Worried that her husband would be overlooked at official gatherings, Sara Polk instructed bands to play the tune upon his entrance.

What would your entrance song be, and why? Tweet us at onthesoundbeat, or tell us on facebook. Winner gets a prize!

Not to be confused with Big Joe Turner, the Joe Turner in this song is actually Joe Turney. He was the brother of Pete Turney, a one-term governor of Tennessee at the end of the 19^th century. Joe’s official duty was the transportation of black prisoners from Memphis to the Nashville penitentiary. And though slavery was illegal at this time, Turney made a practice of pressing the men into labor at the convict farms along the Mississippi. WC Handy wrote the tune; here’s a passage from his autobiography, “Father of the Blues”:

That night, perhaps, there would be weeping and wailing among the dusky belles. If one of them chanced to ask a neighbor what had become of the sweet good man, she was likely to receive the pat reply, “They tell me Joe Turner’s come and gone.”

Sports fans who recognize this tune might be cringing…a 1994 version by Swedish Band Rednex…yes, that’s Rednex with an x, has become a modern-day arena anthem. To some it’s probably a real toe-tapper, and to others it’s as welcome to the ears as the vuvuzuela….The Texas Rangers, though, have used the Al Dean and the All Stars version as their seventh-inning-stretch for over 40 years. The original song propagated through both the United States and Canadian folk traditions, predating the American Civil War.   

Hofner and his San Antonians made this,  the most popular recording of the tune in 1941. Hofner was a pioneer of Western swing, a blend of jazz, polka, folk and blues that would become, in effect, country music..

 For more on the man click right here.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/webersweb/2565590420/

…and you’re on the Sound Beat.

This isn’t the famous “win one for the Gipper” speech, rather a re-creation of a pep talk Rockne would occasionally give his teams. He’d use whatever means necessary to rouse the Irish. Including, well, bending the truth a bit. Here’s former player Sleepy Jim Crowley on one such speech, during which the coach read a wire, (from “his son” who was “critically ill” in the hospital), that read “I want Daddy’s team to win”.

We won the 1922 Georgia Tech game for Billy….There was a big crowd to meet us at the station, and running around in front of everyone was ‘sick’ little Billy Rockne, looking healthy enough for a Pet Milk ad.

So, if you’ve never seen a Pet Milk ad…enjoy.

It’s been said that portions of the melody resemble “The Spirit of Liberty”, composed 7 months before Elbel’s anthem by George Rosenberg. Check out more right here.

No one’s quite sure how he got the nickname: some say he took a round of buckshot to the stomach, some that it was a dialectical change from “Ledbetter”. Bluesman Big Bill Broonzy claimed it came from his…reluctance to engage in chain gangs, as if with “a stomach weighted down by lead”.

Find out more about Lead Belly’s prison exploits right here.

Image: “Rock Island E-8 #652 with E-6 #630 at Midland Railway, Baldwin City, KS“. Photo by Terry Cantrell and originally posted to Flickr.  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Woody once said “If you use more than two chords you’re showing off”. But the simplicity of the music provides the perfect backdrop for Guthrie’s lyrics.

(Interview)

Many credit Woody with inventing the “Talkin’” format, with it’s free-formish, rambling melody.  But Christopher Allan Bouchillon’s recording of “Talking Blues” was made 14 years earlier, in 1926.

Want to hear it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPrnbGm7jas

We’ve mentioned Dalhart a bit on the program, and that’s because the man sold millions of records…in the twenties.

The song concerns a soldier, so disfigured during battle, that he could not be positively identified. His’ remains were buried and marked by a tombstone with no name.

We honor our unidentified soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery, at the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier. Watch is held by Sentinel of the Old Guard, members of the 3rd United States Infantry the oldest active-duty infantry unit of the United States Army. It’s a tremendous honor to achieve Sentinel, making The Tomb of the Unknown badge the second-least awarded badge in the Army…number one being the Astronaut Badge.

For those who have not witnessed it, get more on this touching display right here.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student, Dennis Bitetti as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

After meeting Han Solo and Chewbacca in Mos Eisley, Luke, Ben and the droids persuade the duo to bring them to Leia’s home planet of Alderaan…which has been destroyed. Awkward…especially when they’re tractor-beamed onto Vader’s ship…which has one other special guest.

Check out more Star Wars episodes now.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Image courtesy of Johnny Silvercloud used under Creative Commons license.

Check out more Star Wars episodes now at Soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Image courtesy of Tim Simpson used under Creative Commons license.

One of the best, (eh, worst?) baddies of all time.

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“Vader grips the rebel’s throat. “”If this is a councilor’s ship then where is the Ambassador?””

Would have been nice to play Vader’s theme, the famous Imperial March….

Thing is, John Williams hadn’t composed it yet. It first appeared, courtesy of the London Symphony Orchestra, in the original trilogy’s second film, the Empire Strikes Back. James Earl Jones famously voiced the character, and almost as famously wasn’t credited for the first two films. He’d claim at the time that his work was just “special effects”…something, I don’t know, VOICE ACTORS might disagree with. You’re listening to “The Story of Star Wars”, a 20^th Century Fox LP from 1977.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

Image courtesy of Roger Schultz, used under Creative Commons license.

You’re on the Sound Beat

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Photo: Courtesy of The Mary Baker Eddy Science Institute. (Lots of further reading contained therein!)

This episode was recorded in the studios of WAER at Syracuse University.

I’m Brett Barry.

A pretty little tune written by a couple-a fellas…just walking around…prison. You’re listening to Syracuse University Libraries Cataloger Sophie Rondeau and …

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This episode was recorded at WAER, Syracuse University.

I’m Brett Barry.

Read the article right now.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Lewis Carroll’s tale of “Alice in Wonderland” introduced us to iconic characters. There was Alice, of course, The Mad Hatter… and the White Rabbit, heard here in a Decca recording from1944. 

Does the White Rabbit’s voice sound a bit… weww, wascawwy? That’s because it was voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan, who became famous as the voice of Elmer Fudd.  

So…which voice was the original? It’s a question of which came first, the rabbit or the egg. You see, Elmer Fudd evolved from a character named Egghead, who first appeared in nineteen thirty-seven, years before Alice in Wonderland was recorded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m69aPAo1rXE

Bob Dylan’s 1964 anthem is perhaps inextricable from the decade’s place in American cultural history. But it was released as a 45 in the UK, and inspired by the music on that side of the Atlantic. Said Dylan in a 1985 interview: It was influenced of course by the Irish and Scottish ballads …’Come All Ye Bold Highway Men’, ‘Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens’.

Lyrics like those gave Dylan himself pause on the night of November 23, 1963. President Kennedy had been assassinated the previous day.

‘I thought: Wow, how can I open with that song? I’ll get rocks thrown at me.’ But I had to sing it, my whole concert takes off from there. I know I had no understanding of anything. Something had just gone haywire in the country and they were applauding the song”

Photo: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Entertainment: closeup view of vocalists Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.], 08/28/1963

You’ve been listening to the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra with Lament for Beowulf, composed by Howard Hanson and released in 1951.

Many parallels have been drawn between Beowulf and Lord of the Rings…check out Tolkien and Beowulf or this Salon.com article comparing the films.

And…You’re on the Sound Beat

The song was originally featured in the Broadway production “Rose-Marie” which started its run in 1924. Legend has it that lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach traveled to Quebec after hearing of an annual “ice sculpture festival” – but must’ve gotten some bad intel. There was no festival. Ahh, simpler times.

Still, they persisted, teaming with composers Herbert Stothart and Rudolph Friml to deliver the tale of love in the Candian Rockies..complete with murder and Mounties! It was one of the most popular musicals of the 1920’s, and was made into 3 separate films in 1928, 1936 and 1954. This song became McDonald and Eddy’s signature tune.

Photo: Randi Hausken’s Heather.

You’ve been listening to an excerpt from Pelleas and Melisande by Scottish soprano Mary Garden with Debussy himself at piano. This exceedingly rare recording was made in Paris in 1904 and rerecorded in 1937.

You’ve been listening to Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, which served as the melodic inspiration for …”Catch a Falling Star”.

You’ve been listening to Heather Bells, a Scottish song recorded to cylinder in 1907 and featuring…that’s right, a glockenspiel.

You’ve been listening to March, Strathspey and Reel, a 1913 recording of the Highlanders Bagpipe Band. Check out our producer Jim O’Connor’s entire interview with Patrick Doyle right now

Photo courtesy of Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries

The University of Southern California’s Marching band is one of the oldest and most accomplished in, well, marching band history. Christened “The Spirit of Troy” in reference to their Trojan mascot, they refer to themselves as “The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe” (EVER). Hard to argue, though. They’re the only collegiate band to have two platinum records…

They’ve also played the Academy Awards 3 times, most recently in 2009. That year they backed Hugh Jackman and Beyonce at the Oscars, as well as Radiohead at the Grammys.

They even cheered on Forrest Gump in the film, posing as Alabama’s marching band.

Learn more about college football fight songs on our blog!

It was admittedly rough and tumble, and an early jazz and blues hotspot. In the 1920’s, Elem would attract the likes of Bessie Smith, Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The song was a Grateful Dead favorite, and Jerry Garcia was especially fond. He made it a regular with his side projects…of which there were many. At one time or another, Garcia played with, well, the Jerry Garcia Band, Old And In The Way, The New Riders of the Purple Sage…the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band…and don’t forget the seminal rock group listing him as spiritual advisor. Which one?

The song…er, hymn, makes much of the rivalry with the University of Texas Longhorns, buuuut, as the NCAA landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, the Aggies find themselves in the SEC, leaving the Longhorns and the Big 12 behind. The move angered many, ending a rivalry begun in 1894, and renewed yearly since 1915.

 Aggies in the stands seem to get just as much of a workout as those on the field.

Rossini’s full overture is actually a musical depiction of the Swiss Alps, lasting twelve minutes in four parts. There’s Dawn, Storm, The Call to the Cows (the popular “daybreak”-sounding theme we just heard cowbelled, clown-horned  and gargled). And then, there’s the most famous bit, ( You know, the diddle-unt diddle-unt, diddle unt dunt-dunt part), known as The Cavalry Charge or The March of the Swiss Soldiers.   Now enjoy some good punning.

Who will win?

Well, after this weekend, we’ll know which four teams are Atlanta Bound.

Out of the 330 schools in NCAA Division 1 Men’s basketball, the 68 teams that made the tourney have been whittled to 32, 16, 8, and now, the final four are moving on to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

And, look, crafting episodes with such care as we use takes time…so we’ve made these in advance, buuuuut…we pick… the team with the animal mascot. Every year that the final four have played in Atlanta, a team with an animal mascot has won.

You’re listening to Johnny Marvin with Atlanta Bound, a recording made in 1932 on the Varsity label…a happy coincidence. One of the top crooners of the 20’s, and one of the big kahunas during the ukulele craze of that decade.

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Every year the village of Chittenango NY turns into a veritable Land of Oz, during Oz-Stravaganza. The festival pays tribute to their town’s favorite son, the Royal Historian of Oz, L. Frank Baum. Their theme for 2013? The Patchwork of Oz, a reference to the ever-expansive and all-inclusive Oz universe.  From the books, to stage productions, a traveling picture show, an earlier film, the MGM smash, and beyond….

They celebrate with parades, guests from the Oz universe, including the original munchkins, and even an Emerald Idol singing contest. Would-be participants need not sing Oz-related songs…but we bet it doesn’t hurt with the judges.

They do it every year in Chittenango…though they had to cut festivities short in 2010. That was the year, and you can’t make this stuff up, a tornado warning cut down on the activities.

Thanks to Barbara Evans and Colleen Zimmer, two of the many people who keep the -stravaganza going. This year’s edition will run May 31st to June 2!

For more on Oz-Stravaganza, follow this link to Oz-stravaganza.com.

Good thing they left it…”Over The Rainbow”  won an Oscar that year, and would of course live on as one of the most popular songs in film history.

Whether you loved the film from your first viewing, or were emotionally-scarred by the witch and her flying monkeys, you probably didn’t look at the film as political commentary. But lyricist Yip Harburg pointed the songs, and this one in particular, in support of FDR’s New Deal.

Later, as Dorothy and her crew approach the Emerald City, (sorry, spoiler alert) we hear “You’re out of the woods, You’re out of the dark, You’re out of the night, Step into the sun, Step into the light.” According to Yarburg,”it heralds not only the four principals’ escape from the woods and an evil spell but, on another level, the end of the Depression”

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

I’m Brett Barry.

“Last Night Was the End of the World”.

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Of course, this is omitting mankind’s capacity for nuclear war, and our seemingly-inherent penchant for self-destruction. As astronomer/philosopher Carl Sagan said: “We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction.”

The countdown continues. Read more about End of the World Week right here.

Either way, we’ve kept on making episodes. All week we’ll be talking “end of days… with recorded accompaniment, of course. So again, for perhaps the last time, listen to Bing and Grady Martin, with his Slew Foot Five, and “Til The End of The World”.

Welk’s famous accent actually embarrassed him in early years, prompting him to have someone else introduce musical numbers. But the public seemed to love the “and-a-one, and a-two”s and the like. It might have surprised said public that Welk was born in…South Dakota. Strasburg, actually, in a community of Germans from Russia, a name given to ethnic Germans who left the Russian Empire.

Want to see the very first pilot of the Lawrence Welk show? Go to Soundbeat.org right now.

Philip Phile composed the piece for George Washington’s first inauguration in 1789. For much of the next century, it was the de facto national anthem. Today, you’ll hear it played as the Vice-President’s entrance song, like the JV version of Hail to the Chief.

Finally the song makes sense… a macaroni was actually an outlandishly fashionable man, or, a dandy.

If you’ll indulge us, a bit of etymology. Doodle comes from the German, dudel or dodel, translated as “fool”.

In 1815, the British finally surrendered. In the spirit of good warsmanship, a group of British soldiers stationed at Lake Ontario welcomed the Americans to a dinner in their honor. The outrageously-trusting American troops accepted, crossing from their point in Sackets Harbor. They were greeted with the regiment band playing…this tune. You decide whether it was sarcastic or not.

The song had special meaning for John F. Kennedy and his daughter Caroline.

In spring of 1812, President James Madison declared war. The move pitted the young nation against the greatest Naval power in the world. But the Americans would win the first 5 battles against the British, the first time in history that the British would lose ships in single combat.

You’re listening to The Glory of The Yankee Navy, composed by John Philip Sousa, and performed by his Band in 1926.

Listen to more War of 1812 episodes right now at soundbeat.org

(Interview)

The two men admired each other greatly…fitting, then, that 2012’s Woody Guthrie Centennial celebration included an event with the National Steinbeck Festival.

And the Guthrie/Steinbeck collaborations don’t end there…

(Interview)

Talk about Dust Bowl Royalty.

Others have had success with Guthrie songs as well…

(Interview)

And, bet you weren’t thinking about Woody during “The Departed”…

(Interview)

It should be stressed that Sound Beat is made possible by many men and women alike. A sincere thanks to all of them, and to all of the stations and listeners who have helped in our dual mission to entertain, and preserve historic recordings. For more on how we do this, click here right now. And thanks!

They’ve been celebrating the Mardi Gras in New Orleans for over 200 years, but the celebration goes waaaay back.

Mardi Gras falls on March 8^th this year.  It originated as a 2^nd Century Roman festival named the Lupercalia, which consisted of drinking, merriment, and debauchery… sound familiar? In the US, it’s all but inseparable from N’awlins, Louisiana, where they’ve been celebrating Fat Tuesday since the 1730s. You’re listening to “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” by Jimmie Noone and his New Orleans band, released in 1936 .

Mardi Gras celebrations were cancelled during both World Wars.  But when Hurricane Katrina rocked the Big Easy in 2005, the party kept going. Harry Connick Jr. performed this song for NBC’s “A Concert for Hurricane Relief” that year.

Paul Francis Webster also knew that pain; he wrote the lyrics, and Duke Ellington the music, in 1941. Ella recorded it that year on Decca Records. Despite a friendship that spanned decades, the “First Lady of Song” and Duke only collaborated a few times, and only late in their careers.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Megala Sankrith as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.