In The...
Mood
In The...
Mood
Episode 1
The first in Leo’s new series, celebrating the great and good of Hollywood & Broadway musicals. Songs, stories and voices behind the Great American Songbook. We’ll enjoy recordings from Ray Charles, Dakota Staton and we’ll find out what happened to Saul Chaplin, when he walked away from his career as a successful songwriter to become a movie Producer – it’s fair to say that things didn’t work out too bad for him….
Episode 2
What inspired the great Johnny Mercer to write a song? How on earth did Irving Berlin become such a successful songwriter without being able to play the piano? All shall be revealed – along with recordings featuring Sammy Davis Jr, Keely Smith, Ella & Louis, Lou Rawls and others.
Episode 3
As well as hearing from the score of the interestingly titled Broadway show “50 Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong”, we’ll find out how the pen of Irving Berlin saved MGM studios and how a housewife from Ohio changed Johnny Mercer’s life. Leo also shares recordings from Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald and others.
Episode 4
More gems from the great American songbook, featuring stories and recordings from the greatest singers, singing the most loved songs from Hollywood and Broadway – in this episode, we’ll hear from the score of Guys & Dolls, the pen of the great Johnny Mercer and the soundtrack of a 1955 movie. We’ll also find out why Frank Sinatra was frustrated with Marlon Brando, along with recordings from Matt Monroe, Dean Martin, Stacey Kent, Rosemary Clooney and many others.
Episode 5
There are recordings from old friends, Dean Martin and Matt Monore, as well as old songs from newer recording artists, such as Matt Belsante and Michael Andrew. We’ll also hear the song that turned out to be the very last one Frank Sinatra ever performed in public. And we’ll also hear about the ultimate musical rarity – a jazz Trombonist who had a hand in one of the biggest hits of all time….
Episode 6
The great Nancy Wilson kicks off this episode, with a classic from Funny Girl. We’ll then hear a much-remembered song that had featured in a fast forgotten movie with a very unmemorable plot. Natalie Cole pays tribute to her father and Tony Bennett gives us a song written by Walter Marx, that had been a hit for Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and Michael Jackson. There’s something from the Gershwins and a recording from Steve Lawrence. Perfect.
Episode 7
As well as hearing from Bobby Darin, we’ll find out what made Johnny Mercer different from so many of the other composers who contributed to the Great American Songbook; how did the song ‘Everything Happens To Me’ come to exist; what did Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn get up to and what historical event took place in a recording studio in 1961…plus there’s recordings from Dina Washington, Diana Krall and of course, Mr Sinatra.
Episode 8
We’ll hear one of Leo’s homeless songs – a rare standard that hadn’t started out life in a Hollywood Movie or Broadway Musical, there’s the song that Johnny Mercer said he didn’t have time to write – only to produce one of the most loved sets of lyrics of all time. Nad there’s recordings from Sammy Davis Jr, Harry Connick Jr Jane Monheit and others – as well as real rarity – a song that everyone thinks of as being in The Great American Songbook but was actually the result of a collaboration by a bloke from a North London teaming up with another bloke from Hackney.
Episode 9
Sammy Davis Jr gives us a much-loved gem from a 1929 Cole Porter show, Brooke Benton sings about finding love later in life, Leo shares details of a conversation he once had with the great Buddy Greco, Katherine Russell performs a Bill Strayhorn song and Tony Bennet and Count Basie team up to give us Harry Warren Al Dubin classic, from the score of 42nd Street.
Episode 10
How did one of the greatest singers of all time end up having to sing to a horse? There’s a classic song from Cy Coleman and Carolyn Lee courtesy of Stacey Kent, plus Leo features another of his ‘homeless’ songs – songs that have become famous, but rarely for the Great American Songbook, hadn’t originated from Hollywood or Broadway.
Episode 11
We’ll hear the song that consists of just two sentences; a new singer singing a very old song; there are recordings from Johnny Mathis, Queen Latifah and Frank Sinatra, plus a visit to the score of 1937’s Babes In Arms.
Episode 12
Who were the unknown songwriters who managed to clock up sales of 130 million? We’ll hear from Melody Gardot; we’ll hear the Jerry Herman song that nobody wanted to record, until Louis Armstrong heard it, and we’ll also hear how Dinah Washington managed to achieve the impossible and marry 6 different drummers over the course of her very busy life.
Episode 13
More gems from the Great American Songbook that are easy to remember and hard to forget – delivered to us in this episode, thanks to recordings from Stacey Kent, Tony Bennett, Sam Cooke and others, along with a duet from Bobby Darin and Johnny Mercer.
Episode 14
What better way to start a radio programme than with a track from the best-selling album of Frank Sinatra’s career! There’s also stories and recordings from Rachael Price, Johnny Mathis, Curtis Stigers and Peggy Lee. One of the singers featured in this episode, still currently holds the high jimp record at the school he attended, way back in the last century and we’ll also hear something from the singer who had been the very first to portray Effie White on stage in Dreamgirls, when the musical first arrived on Broadway, in 1981, when she had brought the house down every night – aged just 17 – with her rendition of “And I Am Telling You”.
Episode 15
There’s a collaboration between Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Quincy Jones, plus recordings from George Benson, Peggy Lee and a hit song from one of the great composers of Popular song who taught himself the piano, just so he could write songs. There’s also a new recording from Carsey Blanton, with a song from an absolute trainwreck of a show, whose run-on Broadway lasted about half an hour back in 1938.
Episode 16
We’ll hear the very last melody George Gershwin ever composed, there’s a song from 1935’s Top Hat, performed by Matt Belsante. A recording from the singer that Frank Sinatra said he listened to when he wanted to relax at home, plus recordings from Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong and others.
Episode 17
Featuring all of the classic ingredients for an episode of In the Mood: a homeless song; a singer who at the time was marketed as the greatest ever who now nobody knows, a Jerome Kern song that almost didn’t make it; a world famous song written by an unknown husband and wife called Mr and Mrs Hollander and recordings from the likes of Peggy Lee, Jessica Molaskey, Dean Martin and others.
