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Well, it’s not the night before Christmas…and there’s a creature stirring alright
December 21, 2016You’re listening to “Oh, Boy!” by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and a vocal group you may never have heard of…because they were left out of the credits.
November 26, 2016In the nineteen-forties, American and German soldiers had little in common. Except the lyrics to this song.
November 7, 2016You’re listening to Billy Murray with “Doin’ the Racoon” on a cylinder from 1926 and…
October 27, 2016Basil Fomeen was a composer, arranger, conductor and very nearly a one-man band. Born Wasily Fomin in Kharkoff, Russia, Basil Fomeen headed the…Basil Fomeen Orchestra. Here they are with 1928 Medley, Part 2 recorded in 1942. The Orchestra was a fixture at NY’s Savoy Plaza hotel and the Waldorf Astoria in the nineteen thirties, and performed with ...
October 25, 2016At the outset, Big Rock Candy Mountain seems like a child’s dreamland. So…why all the cigarette trees?
October 21, 2016Pete Seeger recorded his arrangement of “On Top of Old Smoky” with The Weavers in 1951, but the tune had been traveling the Appalachians and Ozarks for over a century. You’re on the Sound Beat. The Weavers recorded the song for Decca Records and it reached #2 on Billboard that year. It’s classic Seeger, his characteristic ...
October 17, 2016There’s not a word in the English language to describe how cool Slim Gaillard was.
September 16, 2016