Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Breakfast Show with William Price King and Sally Cronin – Chart Hits 1940s – The Andrew Sisters, Woodie Guthrie, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington

Welcome to our show and whilst there has been some great music since 2005, we felt that hits from the 40s and 50s deserved a showcase from now to the end of the year and we hope you will enjoy.

Here is my first selection of top 1940s hits which I hope you will enjoy.

The Andrew Sisters – Rhumboogie

The Andrews Sisters (Laverne, Maxena, and Patricia) were a highly successful singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. Throughout their career they sold well over 75 million records. “Rhumboogie” is from the 1940 film “Argentine Nights” directed by Albert S. Rowell, produced by Universal Pictures and starring The Andrew Sisters, The Ritz Brothers, and George Reeves.

News Event – April 28th 1940 Glenn Miller records “Pennsylvania 6-5000”

Woodie Guthrie – This land is your land

Folk singer Woodie Guthrie wrote “This land is your land” in 1940 as a critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” which he thought was too patriotic and too cut off from the hard-knock life many Americans were facing during the Great Depression. The song reflected not only Guthrie’s support for the common folk, but also expressed his deep love for his country while driving home the populist sentiment that the nation belonged to all the people, not merely the rich and powerful. In 2002, “This Land Is Your Land” was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

News event – July 20th 1940 Billboard publishes its 1st singles record chart (#1 is “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey)

Now time for my first picks from the 1940s all tunes that were played in our home by my parents who were wonderful dancers and fans of the old musicals.

Artie Shaw – Frenesi

“Frenesí” is a musical piece originally composed by Alberto Domínguez Borrás for the marimba, and adapted as a jazz standard by Leonard Whitcup and others.
A hit version recorded by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (with an arrangement by William Grant Still) reached number one on the Billboard pop chart on December 21, 1940, staying for 13 weeks, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982

News Event: November 13th 1940 Walt Disney’s animated film “Fantasia”, starring Leopold Stokowski, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mickey Mouse, and ballet dancing hippopotamuses, premieres at the Broadway Theatre, New York City

Duke Ellington – Take the A Train

“Take the ‘A’ Train” is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn that was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington orchestra. Composed in 1939, after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organization and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway, directions that began, “Take the A Train”.  Although Strayhorn said he wrote lyrics for it, the recorded first lyrics were composed by, or for, the Delta Rhythm Boys.

The lyrics used by the Ellington band were added by Joya Sherrill, who was 20 at the time (1944). She made up the words at her home in Detroit, while the song played on the radio. Her father, a noted Detroit activist, set up a meeting with Ellington. Owing to Joya’s remarkable poise and singing ability and her unique take on the song, Ellington hired her as a vocalist and adopted her lyrics.

News Event: February 15th 1941 Greek-American singer Maria Callas makes her professional opera debut as Beatrice, in Franz von Suppé’s “Boccaccio” at the Olympia Theatre in Athens, Greece

Additional sources: On This Day – Music – Hits of the 1940s and 1950ss: Playback FM – Wikipedia

Your Hosts for The Breakfast Show

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

Blog– IMPROVISATION – William Price King on Tumblr – Buy William’s music: William Price King iTunes – Facebook – William Price King – Twitter – @wpkofficial
Regular Venue – Cave Wilson

Sally Cronin is an author, blogger and broadcaster who enjoyed four years as part of the team on Onda Cero International’s English speaking morning show in Marbella and then for two years as a presenter on Expressfm the local radio station in Portsmouth. She co-presented two ‘Drive Time’ shows a week with Adrian Knight, hosted the live Thursday Afternoon Show and The Sunday Morning Show guests including musicians and authors. Following this she became Station Director for a local internet television station for two years, producing and presenting the daily news segment, outside broadcasts and co-presenting the Adrian and Sally chat show live on Friday evenings.

She and her husband David have now returned to Ireland where they live on the Wexford Coast where she blogs and continues to write books.

Books :Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – More reviews: Goodreads – blog: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine Twitter: @sgc58 – Facebook: Sally Cronin – LinkedIn: Sally Cronin

Thanks for tuning in and as always we love to hear from you.. thanks William and Sally.