Sound Beat

The Lost Chord

Arthur Sullivan was one of Britain’s most important composers, one half of a little theatrical team known as Gilbert and Sullivan.

The Legend of Wyatt Earp

Famed lawman Wyatt Earp has been the subject of nearly a dozen movies, but his role as on-set advisor for westerns would have a major impact on film history.

Danza Number 5!

You’re listening to Johannes Brahms and the Banda de Estado Mayor de Mexico. That’s right, a Hungarian danza by a Mexican banda. You're on the Sound Beat. 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 ...

Calling Most Birds!

Dark Was the Night…

...cold was the ground.

The Fisk University Jubilee Singers

You’re listening to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University sing Peter on the Sea, from 1927,

The Coffee Cantata

Two keys to any good marriage: understanding and coffee.

Sitting On Top Of The World

GRATEFUL ROOTS: Sittin’ On Top of the World

Somewhere Beyond La Mer

A man as prolific as Charles Trenet (850 songs published over a 60 year career) probably doesn’t rest much, even on the train.

If a Table at Rector’s Could Talk

There's "hungry" and then there's "Diamond Jim Brady hungry".

Hymn to Apollo

You’re listening to the Palestrina Choir on a Victor 78 from 1927 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 appro...

Listen Mr. Bilbo

Mr. Theodore G. Bilbo was a US senator....and not a good one.

The Story of STAR WARS

May the 4th be with you.

Ain’t It The Truth

William James Basie got his start in Harlem, but he wasn’t “Count Basie” ‘til he got to Kansas City.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

The song you hear ”Let Me Call You Sweetheart” by Bing Crosby with Georgie Stoll and His Orchestra was recorded in 1934 on the Decca label. You’re on the Sound Beat. “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 ...

Mal Reggendo

Il Travatore remains one of Guiseppe Verdi’s most popular operas, but it almost had a different name. Two, actually.

Atomic Cocktail

Up and Atom! It’s the Music of the Atomic Age, and…

Who Wants S’more(s)?

The best thing to happen to campfires since split wood.

Coast Guard Forever!

You’re listening to Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians with Coast Guard Forever.

Sweet Afton

Robert Burns was also known as “the Ploughman Poet” and, in Scotland, simply, “The Bard”.

American Archives Month: Records Revisited

When you wanted a rare or even obscure 78, Records Revisited on West 33rd in New York was your place. Unless, that is, it was the last copy.

American Archives Month: We Interrupt This Program….

In 1967, WSYR in Syracuse, NY issued the following message, an interruption to their scheduled broadcast.

Billie’s Blues

Wait, they banned what?

Open, Parachute!

The history books are full of names of inventors who have, through struggle and determination, brought innovation to humankind. But what of those who make the ultimate sacrifice?

Christmas at Sea

Story’s Texas Moon

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.

At The Flying W

Between 1939 and 1952 Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded 46 times. Exactly half of those were major hit records.

The Picks

You’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.

Talkin’ Blues

You’re on the Sound Beat…with Anna Canoni, the granddaughter of Woody Guthrie. 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...

STAR WARS Week: Lord Vader

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