The King’s Jesters – Phantom Dancer 17 Jan 2023

The King’s Jesters, billed as America’s ‘biggest little band’ is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artists. They were a vocal group who accompanied themselves on guitar, banjo and other instruments and with orchestra. They were household names in the 1930s and early 1940s.

You’ve heard them previously on The Phantom Dancer featured as a male vocal trio with Ben Bernie’s Orchestra on 1942 episodes of the weekday ‘Ben Bernie’s War Workers’ Program’.

Here’s a 1938 Standard radio transcription ofThe King’s Jesters…

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 17 January) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

The King Jesters’s singing for Paul Whiteman in the early 1930s…

START

The King’s Jesters began as a comic vocal trio that also played instruments along with an accompanist.

They were John Ravencroft – sax and clarinet, Francis “Fritz” Bastow – banjo and guitar, George Howard – drums and vibraphone, along with Ray McDermott – piano, accordion, and arranger.

They were hired by Paul Whiteman to replace The Rhythm Boys and sang with him from 1930 to 1931.

When they left Whiteman, they added vocalist Marjorie Whitney and called her their queen. These five were the core of the King’s Jesters.

Here are The King’s Jesters on a 1932 LP released by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1932…

BREAK

The King’s Jesters were discovered by Ray McDermott. He managed them and set up an audition for Paul Whiteman, the leading orchestra leader of the 1920s, while he was touring with his band in Cincinnati.

Whiteman named them The King’s Jesters. They toured and recorded with the Whiteman band from 1931 – 32, replacing Whiteman’s famous Rhythm Boys which had included Bing Crosby.

AFTER

In 1932, after leaving Paul Whiteman, The King’s Jesters formed a new band of seven members: Fritz Bastow, George Howard and John Ravencroft, Ray McDermott who was the piano accompanist, Jimmy Awad on trumpet, Bob Casey on string bass, and singer, Marjorie Whitney, who you’ll hear this week singing, ‘Same Old Lines’, and with George Howard on ‘I’ll Love You Coast to Coast’.

The King’s Jesters broadcast daily over NBC from the Hotel Morrison in Chicago.

In June 1936 The King’s Jesters begin playing at the Bismark Hotel in Chicago, from where you’ll hear them on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

Their repertoire mixed instrumental fox trots for dancing and and vocal harmony numbers.

Pianist Ray McDermott died of pneumonia in 1937. The King’s Jesters and band then opened a new floor show in the Blue Fountain Room at the La Salle Hotel.

In July 1937, The King’s Jesters were on the front cover of the July 3, 1937 issue of the trade music bible, Billboard. They were billed as “America’s Biggest Little Band.”

After their months-long engagement at the La Salle Hotel in 1937, The King’s Jesters moved to the Fairview Hotel & Dance Gardens in Chicago.

Their 1937 show included songs like ‘Turkish Delight’,’The Deacon Steps Out’, sung with the ‘Peck-in’ dance introduced in ‘New Faces of 1937’ and ‘Today I am a Man’. Their queen, Marjorie Whitney, had a number of songs to herself, which include ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ and ‘There’ll be Changes Made’.

BENNY GOODMAN

The King’s Jesters band made two guest radio appearances with Benny Goodman and his orchestra on July 7, 1941, and one on July 24, 1941.

They appeared in the Sir Francis Drake hotel in San Francisco; William Penn hotel in Pittsburgh; LaSalle hotel in Chicago; the Carlton hotel in Washington, and the Philadelphia hotel in Philadelphia. For all these spots they broadcast over the NBC and Mutual.

The King’s Jesters stopped performing in 1962.

17 JANUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #581
107.3 2SER Tuesday 17 January 2023 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 2RDJ Burwood Wednesday 12 – 1pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Champagne Music
Champagne Music (theme) + Annabelle	Lawrence Welk Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Aragon Ballroom Lick Pier Ocean Park Ca KNX CBS LA AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1951
Wang Wang Blues	Lawrence Welk Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Aragon Ballroom Lick Pier Ocean Park Ca KNX CBS LA AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1951
In The Mood	Lawrence Welk Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Aragon Ballroom Lick Pier Ocean Park Ca KNX CBS LA AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1951
Wonder Why? + Close	Lawrence Welk Orchestra (voc) Dick Dale	‘One Night Stand’ Aragon Ballroom Lick Pier Ocean Park Ca KNX CBS LA AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1951
Set 2	Kay Kyser
You Ought to Be in Pictures	Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines (voc) Art Wilson	Radio Transcription 1934
Liza	Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines	Radio Transcription 1934
Vieni Su	Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines (voc) Glee Club	Radio Transcription 1934
Rhapsody in Rain	Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines	Radio Transcription 1934
Set 3	More Breakfast Radio
Open Theme	Unidentified Orchestra	‘Breakfast with Bill’ WNAC Yankee Network Boston 5 Jan 1950
Chicago	Guy Lombardo Orchestra	‘Breakfast with Bill’ WNAC Yankee Network Boston 5 Jan 1950
Good News	Unannounced Orchestra	‘Breakfast with Bill’ WNAC Yankee Network Boston 5 Jan 1950
Dixie + Close	Ray Anthony Orchestra	‘Breakfast with Bill’ WNAC Yankee Network Boston 5 Jan 1950
Set 4	The King’s Jesters
Changes (theme) + I’ll Sing You a Thousand Love Songs	The King’s Jesters Orchestra	Walnut Room Bismarck Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1936
Medley: Serenade in the Night + Love, What Are You Doing to My Heart?	The King’s Jesters Orchestra	Walnut Room Bismarck Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1936
Same Old Lines	The King’s Jesters Orchestra (voc) Marjorie Whitney	Walnut Room Bismarck Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1936
It’s Still Being Done + I Love You From Coast to Coast + Swingin’ on the Swanee Show + Close	The King’s Jesters Orchestra (voc) Marjorie Whitney and George Howard	Walnut Room Bismarck Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1936
Set 5	Hopkins and Eldridge
Minor Jive	Roy Eldridge Orchestra	Aircheck Arcadia Ballroom New York City 1939
Chasing My Blues Away	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 1935
Mahogany Hall Stomp	Roy Eldridge Orchestra	Aircheck Arcadia Ballroom New York City 1939
Lazybones	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 1935
Set 6	Charlie Barnet
Theme + Back in Your Own Backyard	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Ft Devon Mass. Mutual Network 15 Oct 1945
I Like To Riff	Charlie Barnet Orchestra (voc) Peanuts Holland	‘For the Record’ WEAF NBC NYC 11 Sep 1944
Gulf Coast Blues	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood Feb 1944
Keep the Home Fires Burning	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘For the Record’ WEAF NBC NYC 11 Sep 1944
Set 7	Cotton Club
O, Babe! Maybe Some Day	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Cotton Club WABC CBS NYC 24 Mar 1938
Harlem Speaks	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WABC CBS NYC 18 Mar 1937
Riding on a Blue Note	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WOR Mutual NYC 1 May 1938
Caravan	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WABC CBS NYC 18 Mar 1937
Set 8	Count Basie
One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Why Not?	Count Basie Orchestra	Birdland WNBC NBC NYC 31 Aug 1952
Andy’s Blues	Count Basie Orchestra	Avadon Ballroom KHJ Don Lee Network Los Angeles Jun 1946
Hittin’ 12	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965

Flip Philips Sax from Swing to Stravinsky – Phantom Dancer 10 January 2023

Flip Philips is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist in a broadcast from 1953 with Hank Jones (p/org) and Buddy Rich (d).

Joseph Edward Filippelli aka Flip Philips was a jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinettist who played swing, big band and Stravinsky.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

You’ll also hear Louis Armstrong this week with a set from 1945 radio and a set of his 1920s small groups.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 10 January) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

FLIP

During the 1930s, Phillips played clarinet in a restaurant in Brooklyn. After that he was a member of bands led by Frankie Newton, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, and Wingy Manone. He changed to tenor sax in his late 20s.

He was a regular soloist for the Woody Herman band in the middle 1940s and for the next ten years performed with Jazz at the Philharmonic.

Flip retired to Florida, but after fifteen years he returned to music, recording again and performing into his 80s.

He never lost the knack. On his final recording, made as the new millennium approached, he easily held his own alongside two of today’s big names, with a rounded, breathy tone that never weakened.

PHILIPS

Between 1944-46 he starred in Herman’s First Herd.

Headhunted by Herman, he became known for his contributions to the songs, The Good Earth, Apple Honey, Northwest Passage and many more.

Few musicians in the band were influenced by the new bebop sounds, but Herman’s knack of commissioning such talented young composer/ arrangers as Neal Hefti and Ralph Burns got the First Herd recognised as being in step with postwar progress.

Igor Stravinsky was impressed enough to write his Ebony Concerto specifically for the Herd; the story goes that, at a rehearsal, Phillips, apparently not the quickest of sight-readers, was told by Stravinsky, “What you are playing is very nice, but what I have written is much better.”

When the pressure of being continuously on the road caused Herman to disband at the end of 1946, Phillips worked with small groups, often featuring another ex-Herman star in trombonist Bill Harris, and joined Norman Granz’s JATP for concerts and tours.

During much of the next decade, he toured with Jazz At The Philharmonic (JATP), then at its peak as a high-profile roadshow, in which big-toned tenors were expected to egg the crowd on by indulging the instrument’s capacity to emit honks, squeals and earthshaking belches. One of the tunes used to bring the entertainment to a climax was Perdido, and a suitably rabble-rousing solo by Phillips, recorded at a JATP concert, linked the piece to him long after the event.

During this period, he often shared the stage with other top tenors, notably Lester Young and Ben Webster. They might have inspired his lighter touch on, respectively, blues and ballads, though Phillips was always able to adapt to his surroundings – with both Herman and JATP, he probably felt the need to blow at full throttle much of the time.

Here’s Flip Philips blowing at age 80

LATER

After joining Benny Goodman for a European tour in 1959, he decided to give up full-time playing. With his wife Sophia, he settled in Florida, making a living from non-musical jobs. He managed a beachside housing development and indulged his hobbies of golf and wood work. He also took up the bass clarinet.

But, by 1970, the jazz climate had altered in his favour. Bands were increasingly being formed by players of the past, and Phillips rejoined Herman for a gig at the Newport festival. He was a natural attraction at jazz parties run by wealthy aficionados.

The arrival of musicians whose styles harked back beyond bebop, let alone beyond John Coltrane, found Phillips joining Scott Hamilton on two-tenor dates. He often teamed up with guitarist Howard Alden, a fixture on the neo-swing scene.

Phillips thrived musically, showing he had lost nothing over the years, while adding the ease of expression that comes when you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. On his last record, made at the age of 84, he sounds ultra-relaxed in the company of Joe Lovano, himself a poll-winning tenor, and James Carter. (From All About Jazz).

Highly recommend this thoroughly researched history of Flip Philips http://www.jazzarcheology.com/artists/flip_phillips.pdf

10 JANUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #579
107.3 2SER Tuesday 10 January 2023 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am – 2 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am – 12 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am – 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm
Set 1	Louis Armstrong
Ain’t Misbehavin’	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Barrelhouse Bessie from Basin Street	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Peanut Vendor	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Coquette	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Set 2	Tito Puente Mambo King
Esy	Tito Puente Orchestra	Birdland WABC NYC 1953
Babarabatiri	Tito Puente Orchestra (voc) Vincent Chico Valdes	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NYC 1953
Ron Kan Kan	Tito Puente Orchestra	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NYC 1953
Set 3	Eddie Condon
I Found a New Baby	Eddie Condon Jazz Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1944
What Is There to Say?	Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1944
Jazz Me Blues	Eddie Condon Jazz Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1944
Set 4	Flip Philips
Three Little Words	Flip Philips (ts) Hank Jones (p/org) Buddy Rich (d)	Bandbox WMGM NYC (?) 19 Jan 1953
Carioca	Flip Philips (ts) Hank Jones (p/org) Buddy Rich (d)	Bandbox WMGM NYC (?) 19 Jan 1953
Sweet Lorraine	Flip Philips (ts) Hank Jones (p/org) Buddy Rich (d)	Bandbox WMGM NYC (?) 19 Jan 1953
Bugle Call Rag	Flip Philips (ts) Charlie Shavers (tp) Hank Jones (p/org) Buddy Rich (d)	Bandbox WMGM NYC (?) 19 Jan 1953
Set 5	1940s Women Swing Singers
Baby Boogie	Eliot Lawrence Orchestra (voc) Rosalind Patton	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 2 Dec 1947
Hollywood Bowl	Tony Pastor Orchestra (voc) Rosemay & Betty Clooney, Tony Pastor	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA Jun 1946
Beg Your Pardon	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Dinah Shore	‘Dinah Shore Show’ KNX CBS LA 4 May 1948
You Turned the Tables on Me + But None Like You	Charlie Spivak Orchestra (voc) Irene Day & Tommy Mercer	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 7 Apr 1948
Set 6	Louis Armstrong 1920s
That’s When I’ll Come Back To You	Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven (voc) Louis Armstrong & Lil Hardin	Comm Rec Chicago 13 May 1927
Savoyages’ Stomp	Caroll Dickenson’s Savoyagers	Comm Rec Chicago 5 Jul 1928
Too Busy	Louis Armstrong and his Hot Four (voc) Lillie Delk Christian	Comm Rec Chicago 26 Jun 1928
Basin Street Blues	Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five (voc) Earl Hines & Mancy Cara	Comm Rec Chicago 4 Dec 1928
Set 7	Ella Fitzgerald
Open + Who Ya’ Hunchin’?	Ella Fitzgerald Orchestra	Savoy Ballroom WJZ NBC Blue NYC 26 Feb 1940
You Hit The Spot	Chick Webb Orchestra (voc) Ella Fitzgerald	Radio Transcription 1936
It’s a Blue World	Ella Fitzgerald Orchestra (voc) Ella Fitzgerald	Savoy Ballroom WJZ NBC Blue NYC 4 Mar 1940
Rhythm & Romance	Chick Webb Orchestra (voc) Ella Fitzgerald	Radio Transcription 1936
Set 8	1950s Big Band Radio
Open + Dream a Little Dream of Me	Claude Thornhill Orchestra (voc) Patty Ryan	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Aug 1955
Limelight	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Moonlight Gardens WLW NBC Cincinnati 26 Aug 1952
Two O’Clock Jump	Harry James Orchestra	Hotel Astor Roof WCBS CBS NYC 25 May 1953

Waltzing Matilda – Phantom Dancer 3 January 2023

Waltzing Matilda in swing from World War 2 is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 3 January) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

WALTZING

Waltzing Matilda is a bush ballad described as Australia’s unofficial national anthem.

The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing, from German ‘auf der Walz’) with one’s belongings in a “matilda” (swag) slung over one’s back.

The song tells the story of an itinerant worker, or “swagman”, making a drink of billy tea (the lyrics sung today come from a 1903 re-writing of the original 1895 lyric, to sell Billy Tea) at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat.

When the jumbuck’s owner, a squatter (grazier who stole the land from the Aboriginal people and colonial governments), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares “You’ll never catch me alive!” and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site.

The original lyrics were composed in 1895 by Australian poet, Banjo Paterson, to suit a tune played by Christina Macpherson. In 1903, Marie Cowan changed some of the lyrics, wrote a completely new variation of the tune and published this as sheet music.

The song was first recorded in 1926 as performed by John Collinson and Russell Callow. There are more recordings of “Waltzing Matilda” than any other Australian song.

MATILDA

The song was first performed on 6 April 1895 by Sir Herbert Ramsay, 5th Bart., at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton, Queensland.

The occasion was a banquet for the Premier of Queensland.

A search of hundreds of Australian newspaper titles between 1895 and 1901 reveals only one report of it being sung. However, the cultural critic, A.A. Phillips, born in 1900, recalled being taught it in his childhood.

COPYRIGHT

Paterson sold the rights to Waltzing Matilda and some other pieces to Angus & Robertson for five pounds. In 1903, tea trader James Inglis hired Marie Cowan, who was married to Inglis’s accountant, to alter the song lyrics for use as an advertising jingle for the Billy Tea company, making it nationally famous.

Although no copyright applied to the song in Australia and many other countries, the Australian Olympic organisers had to pay royalties to an American publisher, Carl Fischer Music, following the song being played at the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta.

According to some reports, the song was copyrighted by Carl Fischer Music in 1941 as an original composition.

However, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Carl Fischer Music had collected the royalties on behalf of Messrs Allan & Co, an Australian publisher that claimed to have bought the original copyright, though Allan’s claim “remains unclear”.

Arrangements such as those claimed by Richard D. Magoffin remain in copyright in America. Here’s Johnny Cash singing it…

3 JANUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #578
107.3 2SER Tuesday 3 January 2023 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am – 2 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am – 12 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am – 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm
Set 1	Jan Garber
Silver Bells	Jan Garber Orchestra (voc) Roy Cordell	Melody Mill WGN Chicago Dec 1950
Stardust	Jan Garber Orchestra	Melody Mill WGN Chicago Dec 1950
Once You Find Your Guy	Jan Garber Orchestra (voc) Gloria Allen	Melody Mill WGN Chicago Dec 1950
You’re Just in Love + The Night is Young and You’re So Beautiful + Theme	Jan Garber Orchestra (voc) Roy Cordell & Gloria Allen	Melody Mill WGN Chicago Dec 1950
Set 2	Chicago Jazz
Come On, Get Happy (theme) + You’re Driving Me Crazy	Whitey Berquist and the NBC Orchestra	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
I Know That You Know	Art van Damme Quartet	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
Stompin’ at the Savoy	The Chicago Wolverines	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
St Louis Blues + Johnson Rag + Come On, Get Happy (theme)	Lucille Reid + Whitey Berquist and the NBC Orchestra	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
Set 3	Frankie Masters
Theme + The Lady’s in Love With You	Frankie Masters Orchestra	‘ABC Dancing Party’ Boulevarde Room Conrad Hilton Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 2 Feb 1957
Somebody Somewhere	Frankie Masters Orchestra (voc) Ray MacIntosh	‘ABC Dancing Party’ Boulevarde Room Conrad Hilton Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 2 Feb 1957
Gad About + Namely Me	Frankie Masters Orchestra (voc) Frankie Masters	‘ABC Dancing Party’ Boulevarde Room Conrad Hilton Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 2 Feb 1957
Medley: It Might as Well Be Spring / Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year / Paris in the Spring + What a Heavenly Night for Love + Close	Frankie Masters Orchestra (voc) The Swing Masters	‘ABC Dancing Party’ Boulevarde Room Conrad Hilton Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 2 Feb 1957
Set 4	Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda	Mart Kenney and his Western Gentlemen (voc) Judy Richards & the Trio	Comm Rec Montreal 29 Dec 1941
Waltzing Matilda	116th Rhythm Ensemble (voc) Gordon Andrews	Aircheck Sydney 1944
Waltzing Matilda	Jack White and his Band (voc) jack White and Chorus	Comm Rec London 27 Feb 1941
Set 5	Australian 1930s Swing
Forty-Second Street	Jim Dividson Palais Royale Orchestra (voc) Cantrell Brothers	Comm Rec Sydney 6 Jun 1933
Darktown Strutters’ Ball	Frank Coughlin Trocadero Orchestra	Comm Rec Sydney 25 May 1937
Says My Heart	Jim Dividson Australian Broadcasting Commission Dance  Orchestra (voc) Alice Smith	Comm Rec Sydney 17 Aug 1938
Harlem Heat	Dudley Cantrell and the Grace Grenadiers	Comm Rec Sydney 22 Nov 1937
Set 6	Artie Shaw 1939
Nightmare (theme) + Rose Room	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Summer Terrace Ritz Carlton Hotel WNAC NBC Red Boston 19 Aug 1939
You’re a Lucky Guy	Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Tony Pastor	Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NYC 20 Oct 1939
Day In, Day Out	Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NYC 19 Oct 1939
Man from Mars + Nightmare (theme)	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NYC 21 Oct 1939
Set 7	Early Rock
Let’s Face It	Stan ‘The Man’ Taylor Big Band	Rock’n’Roll Dance Party WCBS CBS NY 1956
Tweedlee Dee	La Verne Baker (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	Rock’n’Roll Dance Party WCBS CBS NY 1956
Dance with Me, Henry	Etta James (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	Rock’n’Roll Dance Party WCBS CBS NY 1956
Woe is Me	Cadillacs (voc) Stan ‘The Man’ Taylor Big Band	Rock’n’Roll Dance Party WCBS CBS NY 1956
Set 8	Jazz Moderne
Three Little Words	Gene Krupa Quartet	London House WBBM CBS Chicago 13 Mar 1959
Woodyn You	Bud Powell	Birdland WJZ ABC NYC 21 Mar 1953
Tiger Rag + 52nd Street theme	Charlie Parker	‘Bands for Bonds’ WOR Mutual NYC 20 Sep 1947

New Year Radio Pt 2 – Phantom Dancer 27 December 2022

New Year radio from 1945-71 swing and jazz broadcasts is the play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer.

Happy New Year!

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 27 December) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

NEW

Each major city in Australia holds New Year’s Eve celebrations, usually accompanied by a fireworks display.

The most prominent celebration in the country is Sydney Harbour New Year’s Eve of two fireworks shows — the evening “Family Fireworks” at 9:00 p.m., and the main fireworks at midnight.

Sydney Harbour Bridge is a focal point of the show, via pyrotechnics launched from the bridge, as well as lighting displays that illuminate it during the show. Fireworks are set off from multiple other pints along the middle of the harbour from barges.

Local Sydney councils also hold firework displays. The northern hill at Sydney Park, 5 km south of the CBD, was a good vantage point, always crowded by thousands of people, to see many of them.

Over the years, local councils have invaded these spontaneous public gatherings by moulding them into uncreative, organised events flattened by mind-numbing, doof-doof, washing-machine rumble. Commercial conformity killing community creativity for “consoomers” to herd in and graze.

Musically, Sydney is a very uncreative place.

It embraces the safe and commercial. The music scene is largely funded by gambling. For rock, doof-doof and rap audiences it’s a race to get drugged or drunk to keep vital against swirling strident soundscapes dead-deafened by deludedly curatorial drones.

YEAR’S

In 1976, the Sydney Committee decided to repackage the failing Waratah Festival into the Festival of Sydney. They agreed that New Year’s Eve should launch the new festival as a ‘big bang affair’. This made New Year’s Eve official in Sydney for the first time.

EVE

Gloucester Park, a racecourse in central Perth, is the largest and most recognized display in the Western Australian city. In Brisbane events are held at Southbank. At night, 50,000 Australians gather at sites around the Brisbane River to watch a fireworks display. In Melbourne, hundreds of thousands of Australians come to the Central Business District to see the fireworks.  In the South Australian capital of Adelaide, events are held at both Rymill Park in the city, Semaphore and at Glenelg beach.

Here’s TV coverage of the Sydney New Year fireworks in 2021. TV coverage of the Sydney fireworks has two embarrassing traditions,

1. Struggling hosts (with the exception of Lawrence Mooney),
2. Cringey muzak smothering the exciting atmosphere of the fireworks going off and the cheering of millions.

Millions of dollars are spent on the fireworks. The talent and craft of the pyrotechnicians is extraordinary as you’ll see in the clip. The insta-music soundtrack is like putting a butterfly decal over the Mona Lisa. “Here’s the butterfly decal, everybody! Yay!”

The video is best watched with the sound off…

27 DECEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #577
107.3 2SER Tuesday 27 December 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am – 2 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am – 12 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am – 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm
Set 1	Count Basie 1960
One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Jingle Bells	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Monitor’ Birdland WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1960
Alright, Okay, You Win	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Joe Williams	‘Monitor’ Birdland WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1960
Jumpin’ at the Woodside	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Monitor’ Birdland WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1960
One O’Clock Jump (extended theme)	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Monitor’ Birdland WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1960
Set 2	Woody Herman 1954
Blue Flame + Third Herd	Woody Herman’s Third Herd	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 31 Dec 1954
Sleepy Serenade	Woody Herman’s Third Herd	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 31 Dec 1954
Get Outta Town	Woody Herman’s Third Herd (voc) Leah Matthews	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 31 Dec 1954
Apple Honey	Woody Herman’s Third Herd	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 31 Dec 1954
Set 3	Dorsey Brothers 1954
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) + Lover	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler WRCA NBC NYC 31 Dec 1954
Do it Yourself	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler WRCA NBC NYC 31 Dec 1954
Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight + Happy Days Are Here Again + Well Get It	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (d) Buddy Rich	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler WRCA NBC NYC 1 Jan 1955
It Happens to Be Me + Stomping Down Broadway	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Lynn Roberts	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler WRCA NBC NYC 1 Jan 1955
Set 4	Sy Oliver & Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines
Theme + Rumble	Sy Oliver Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Riverboat WNBC NBC NYC 1 Jan 1971
Deep Forest (theme) + Dippermouth Blues	Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Club Hangover KCBS CBS San Francisco 1 Jan 1957
When the Saints Go Marching In	Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Club Hangover KCBS CBS San Francisco 1 Jan 1957
Tiger Rag	Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Club Hangover KCBS CBS San Francisco 1 Jan 1957
Set 5	New Years Eve 1945
Robin Hood	Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) LP	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Salt Lake City AFRS Hollywood 31 Dec 1945
Gotta Be This or That	Benny Goodman Orchestra with Red Norvo & Slam Stewart	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Boston AFRS Hollywood 31 Dec 1945
Let the Zoomers’ Drool	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Evansville IN AFRS Hollywood 31 Dec 1945
Auld Lang Syne	Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians	‘New Year’s Dancing Party’ Gril Room Hotel Roosevelt NYC AFRS Hollywood 31 Dec 1945
Set 6	Gene Krupa
Open + Flying Home	Gene Krupa Quartet	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Metropole Cafe WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965
Dark Eyes	Gene Krupa Quartet	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Metropole Cafe WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965
Set 7	Dorsey Brothers
Green Eyes	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Jilla Webb & Tommy Mercer	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WCBS CBS NY 1 Jan 1956
Flagler’s Drive	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WCBS CBS NY 1 Jan 1956
Your Daddy’s Got the Gleeks	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Charlie Shavers	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WCBS CBS NY 1 Jan 1956
Stomping Down Broadway	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WCBS CBS NY 1 Jan 1956
Set 8	Charlie Parker
Jumping with Symphony Sid (theme) + Be Bop	Charlie Parker	Royal Roost WMCA NYC 1 Jan 1949
Slow Boat to China	Charlie Parker	Royal Roost WMCA NYC 1 Jan 1949
Ornithology	Charlie Parker	Royal Roost WMCA NYC 1 Jan 1949

New Year Radio Pt 1 Xmas Radio Pt 2- Phantom Dancer 20 December 2022

New Year radio from NBC’s ‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ 1965-66 and 1970-71 radio plus Swing and jazz programming from the Christmas season is the focus for the first part of this week’s Phantom Dancer.

And a song never before played on The Phantom Dancer gets two live radio airings on this week’s show, ‘Teach Me Tonight’, from live 1954 and 65 radio.

The first part of the Phantom Dancer is nationally networked and will be on radio across Australia from 26 November.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 20 December) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

1966

I remember waking up New Year morning, 1 January 1966, watching the sun rise next to the neighbour’s camphor laurel from my bed on the back verandah of the house I grew up in.

It was a beautiful yellow orp in a cloudless lapis blue sky. I made a note to my 5 year old self to remember the joy of the moment forever. It was a year of optimism. Then within a few short months, in April of that year, I was fighting for my life.

1969

New Years Eve night 31 December 1969 was what I recall to be a three hour special on a local commercial station (Channel 9) covering the momentous decade that was the 1960s.

I thought at the time the same thing would happen in 1979, 1989 and so on. But no decade has been so optimistically radical since.

Australia did have a bright three years with the progressive Whitlam government 1972-75.

And, since you’ll be hearing Tuxedo Junction live from 1970 radio on this week’s show, it reminds me that in the early 70s, Sydney ABC station 2BL always played Tuxedo Junction sung by a blues singer as its open song after the station came on the air for the morning at 5:45am.

However, by 1979 the country was in the doldrums under the ‘austerity’ of a wealthy farmer prime minister and a suburban lawyer treasurer.

20 DECEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #576
107.3 2SER Tuesday 20 December 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am – 2 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am – 12 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am – 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm
Set 1	Glenn Miller 1965
Open + Moonlight Serenade (theme) + St Louis Blues March	Ray McKinley and the Glenn Miller Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Riverboat WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965
Teach Me Tonight	Ray McKinley and the Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Joan Shephard	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Riverboat WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965
Hallelujah, I Love Her So	Ray McKinley and the Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Ray McKinley	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Riverboat WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965
Moonlight Serenade (extended theme)	Ray McKinley and the Glenn Miller Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Riverboat WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1965
Set 2	Glenn Miller 1970
Moonlight Serenade + Tuxedo Junction	Buddy de Franco and the Glenn Miller Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Gull Golden Mile Hotel Fort Laudedale FL 1 Jan 1970
Set 3	Count Basie 1965
One O’clock Jump (theme) + Splanky	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Pick Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 31 Dec 1965
Auld Lang Syne	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Pick Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 1 Jan 1966
Chestnut Street Ramble + One O’Clock Jump (theme)	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Pick Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Chicago 1 Jan 1966
Set 4	World’s Greatest Jazz Band
My Inspiration (Theme) Son of a Preacher Man	World’s Greatest Jazz Band (Bobby Hackett, Yank Lawson, Bud Freeman, Ralph Sutton, Carl Fontana, Bob Wilber, Lou McGarity, Billy Butterfield, Wes Johnson Jnr)	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Roosevelt Grill WNBC NBC NYC 1 Jan 1970
Mercy, Mercy	World’s Greatest Jazz Band	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Roosevelt Grill WNBC NBC NYC 1 Jan 1970
Spinning Wheel	World’s Greatest Jazz Band	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Roosevelt Grill WNBC NBC NYC 1 Jan 1970
South Rampart Street Parade	World’s Greatest Jazz Band	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Roosevelt Grill WNBC NBC NYC 1 Jan 1970
Set 5	Dizzy Gillespie & Jonah Jones
Theme + Soul Kiss	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ London House WMAQ NBC Chicago 31 Dec 1969
On the Street Where You Live (theme) + Baubles, Bangles and Beads	Jonah Jones Quartet	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Rainbow Grill WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1969
Mack the Knife	Jonah Jones Quartet (voc) Jonah Jones	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Rainbow Grill WNBC NBC NYC 31 Dec 1969
Set 6	Dinah Shore
Open + Let It Snow	Dinah Shore	‘The Dinah Shore Show’ WRCA NBC NYC 24 Dec 1954
Happy Christmas, Little Friend	Dinah Shore	‘The Dinah Shore Show’ WRCA NBC NYC 24 Dec 1954
Walkin’ Down the Road	Dinah Shore	‘The Dinah Shore Show’ WRCA NBC NYC 24 Dec 1954
Teach Me Tonight + Close	Dinah Shore	‘The Dinah Shore Show’ WRCA NBC NYC 24 Dec 1954
Set 7	Jingle Bells
Let’s Dance (theme) + Jingle Bells	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1936
Jingle Bells	Mel Blanc and The Sportsmen	‘Mail Call’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Jingle Bells	Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Tex Beneke and The Modernaires	‘Sunset Serenade’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WJZ NBC Blue NYC 27 Dec 1941
Jingle Bells	Dave Brubeck Quartet	Birdland WJZ ABC NYC Jan 1954
Set 8	Charlie Parker
Jumping with Symphony Sid/Jingle Bells (theme) + Half Nelson	Charlie Parker	Royal Roost WMCA NYC 25 Dec 1948
White Christmas	Charlie Parker	Royal Roost WMCA NYC 25 Dec 1948
Little Willie Leaps	Charlie Parker	Royal Roost WMCA NYC 25 Dec 1948

Christmas Radio Part 1 – Phantom Dancer 13 December 2022

Christmas radio carols from 1930s – 50s radio plus pop music programming from the season is the focus for the first part of this week’s Phantom Dancer. The first part of the Phantom Dancer is nationally networked and will be on radio across Australia from 19 November.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 13 December) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

MERRY

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2016, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”, written by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934, is the most played Christmas song of the last 50 years.

It was first performed live by Eddie Cantor on his Christmas radio show in November 1934. Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded their version in 1935, followed later by a range of artists including Frank Sinatra in 1948.

Long-time Christmas classics still dominate the Christmas charts – such as “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, “Winter Wonderland”, “Sleigh Ride” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.

The most popular set of these titles—heard over airwaves, on the internet, in shopping malls, in elevators and lobbies, and on the street during the Christmas season—have been composed and performed from the 1930s onward.

CHRISTMAS TOP 5

The most performed Christmas songs in 2015 according to ASCAP…

Rank	Song	Composers	Year
1	Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town	J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie	1934
2	Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas	Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin	1944
3	Winter Wonderland	Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith	1934
4	Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!	Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne	1945
5	The Christmas Song	Mel Tormé, Robert Wells	1944

13 DECEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #575
107.3 2SER Tuesday 13 December 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am – 2 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am – 12 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am – 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm
Set 1	Kid Ory
Theme + Maple Leaf Rag	Kid Ory and his San Francisco Jazz Band	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 25 Dec 1954
Basin Street Blues	Kid Ory and his San Francisco Jazz Band	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 25 Dec 1954
That’s a’Plenty	Kid Ory and his San Francisco Jazz Band	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 25 Dec 1954
Set 2	Jubilee 1944
Jingle Bells (intro) + One O’Clock Jump + Jumping at Ten	Delta Rhythm Boys (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1944
Just a-Sittin’ and a Rockin’	Delta Rhythm Boys (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1944
My Silent Love	Lena Horne	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1944
Set 3	Henry Hall Christmas
Theme + It Had to Be You	Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra (MC: Oliver Wakefield)	‘Henry Hall Program’ BBC London 21 Nov 1936
The Fairy on the Christmas Tree	Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra (voc) Molly, Marie and Mary	‘Henry Hall Program’ BBC London 21 Nov 1936
Serenade in the Night	Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra (voc) Don Donovan	‘Henry Hall Program’ BBC London 21 Nov 1936
Set 4	Jubilee 1947
Jack Armstrong Blues	Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1947
Rock-a-Bye River + Ring Dem Bells	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1947
The Christmas Song	King Cole Trio	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1947
Jingle Bells + Close	Paul Baron Orchestra + Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 25 Dec 1947
Set 5	Bunny Berrigan
Theme + Mr Ghost Goes To Town	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	WEAF NBC Red NYC 31 Jan 1937
Moonshine Over Kentucky + Heigh Ho	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra (voc) Ruth Gaylor	Paradise Restaurant WEAF NBC Red NYC 3 May 1938
Swinging & Jumping	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Manhattan Centre WNEW NYC 24 Sep 1939
Little Gate Special + I Can’t Get Started (theme)	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Manhattan Centre WNEW NYC 24 Sep 1939
Set 6	1930s-40s English Dance Bands
On The Air	Carroll Gibbons and The Savoy Hotel Orpheans (voc) Dorothy Stedeford	Comm Rec London 7 Nov 1932
The Man Who Comes Around	Nat Gonella and his New Georgians (voc) Nat Gonella, Stella Moya, Jack Wallace	Comm Rec London 1940
Tony’s Wife	Carroll Gibbons and The Savoy Hotel Orpheans	Comm Rec London 28 Jun 1933
Oh Buddy, I’m in Love	Nat Gonella and his New Georgians (voc) Stella Moya	Comm Rec London 1941
Set 7	Paper Records
Pardon Me Pretty Baby	Sam Lanin Orchestra (voc) Paul Small	‘Hit of the Week Records’ NYC Aug 1931
I Found a Million Dollar Baby	Don Voorhees Orchestra	‘Hit of the Week Records’ NYC 10 Sep 1931
Home	Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees (voc) Rudy Vallee	‘Hit of the Week Records’ NYC Jan 1932
I’m Keeping Company	Hit of the Week Orchestra (voc) Scrappy Lambert	‘Hit of the Week Records’ NYC Aug 1931
Set 8	Jazz Moderne
I’ll Remember April	Erroll Garner Trio	Peacock Lane KNX CBS LA Mar 1957
Dreamin’	Erroll Garner Trio	Peacock Lane KNX CBS LA Mar 1957
Flat Foot Floogie	Slim Gaillard	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NYC 28 May 1951

Gus Arnheim Introduces Bing Crosby – Phantom Dancer 6 December 2022

Gus Arnheim was a popular US band leader, composer and pianist. Bing Crosby first achieved solo popularity singing with the Arnheim band. You’ll hear Bing sing live with Arnheim on live 1931 radio on this week’s Phantom Dancer. Gus Arnheim is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 6 December) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

GUS

Gus Arnheim was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s. He wrote the pop hits ‘Sweet & Lovely’ (his radio theme) and I Cried For You amongst others.

He began his professional music career in 1919 playing piano at the Sunset Inn, Santa Monica with fellow future band leaders, Abe Lyman, on drums and, Harry Halstead, on viloin.

He was accompanist to vaudevillian Sophie Tucker.

When Lyman organized a full dance orchestra, Arnheim came along as pianist. He left to start his own group in 1927. Arnheim’s orchestra made at least three film short subjects for Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone Corporation in 1928–29.

Arnheim first recorded for OKeh in 1928–1929. He signed with Victor in 1929 –  1933, then Brunswick 1933 – 1937.

COCOANUT GROVE

During 1928–31, Arnheim had an extended engagement at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. That’s where you’ll hear him from in 1931 radio broadcasts on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

In 1930, when Paul Whiteman finished filming The King of Jazz for Universal, The Rhythm Boys vocal trio, consisting of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker decided to stay in California. They signed up with Arnheim’s band.

The Rhythm Boys only recorded one song with Arnheim, “Them There Eyes” (which also happened to be The Rhythm Boys final recording).

Arnheim’s Orchestra backed Crosby on a number of songs released by Victor Records in 1931. These popular records, coupled with Arnheim’s radio broadcasts featuring Crosby’s solo vocals, were a key element to the beginning of Crosby’s popularity as a crooner.

NOTABLE

Between 1930 and 1933, some notable people worked in or with Arnheim’s band:

• • Fred MacMurray played clarinet and tenor sax in 1930-31 and sang on one recording “All I Want Is Just One”.

• • Russ Columbo played violin in 1930 and sang on “A Peach of a Pair”.

• Future popular bandleader Jimmie Grier was staff arranger during this time. Grier had played lead alto saxophone and clarinet in Arnheim’s band from its founding in 1928.
• Eddie Cantor and Joan Crawford each recorded a song for Arnheim on July 23, 1931, although the Crawford side (“How Long Will It Last?”) was not issued. Cantor’s side, “There’s Nothing Too Good for My Baby,” was issued but without vocalist credit.

• • Future popular singer Buddy Clark sang with Arnheim in 1932.

• • Shirley Ross sang with Arnheim in 1933

• • Stan Kenton played piano with Arnheim starting in 1937.

Between 1939 and 1944, Mexican American crooner Andy Russell played the drums and sang with Arnheim. Arnheim was the one who suggested that Russell sing bilingually in English and Spanish and change his last name from Rábago to Russell (in honor of Russ Columbo) leading to his first million-selling record “Bésame Mucho”.

Here’s Arnheim on a 1927 Vitaphone music short…

6 DECEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #574
107.3 2SER Tuesday 6 December 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am – 2 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am – 12 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am – 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm
Set 1	Xavier Cugat
Theme + Temptation	Xavier Cugat Orchestra (voc) Choir	‘Xavier Cugat ‘ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Alma Llanera	Xavier Cugat Orchestra (voc) Miguelito Valdés & Choir	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Say Si Si	Xavier Cugat Orchestra (voc) Nito Rosa & Choir	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Canta Noche un Amor	Xavier Cugat Orchestra (voc) Del Campo & Choir	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Set 2	Dodo
Rose Room + Close	Dodo Marmarosa	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1947
Set 3	Les Paul and Mary Ford
Theme + Little Rock Getaway	Les Paul and Mary Ford	‘Les Paul & Mary Ford Show’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 26 May 1950
Until I Hold You Again	Les Paul (voc) Mary Ford	‘Les Paul & Mary Ford Show’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 26 May 1950
Puttin’ on the Style	Les Paul and Mary Ford (voc) LP and MF	‘Les Paul & Mary Ford Show’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 26 May 1950
What is This Thing Called Love + If a Nightingale Could Sing Like You	Les Paul and Mary Ford	‘Les Paul & Mary Ford Show’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 26 May 1950
Set 4	Gus Arnheim
Sweet and Lovely (theme) + Can’t You Read Between the Lines	Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) George Gramlich	‘Cocoanut Grove Show’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
Making Faces at the Man in the Moon	Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) Loyce Whiteman	‘Cocoanut Grove Show’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
Dancing with the Daffodils	Gus Arnheim Orchestra	‘Cocoanut Grove Show’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
Out of Nowhere + What is It?	Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) Bing Crosby & Loyce Whiteman	‘MJB Demi-Tasse Revue’ KFI NBC Gold Los Angeles 1931
Set 5	Jimmy Dorsey
Contrasts (theme) + Just You, Just Me	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 8 Feb 1943
Jug Music	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KFI NBC Red LA 20 Oct 1941
Moonlight on the Ganges	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 8 Feb 1943
Mood in Da Groove	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KFI NBC Red LA 20 Oct 1941
Set 6	1930s English Dance Bands
Young & Healthy	Billy Cotton Band (voc) Alan Breeze	Comm Rec London 18 Mar 1933
The Gold Diggers’ Song	Jack Hylton Orchestra	Comm Rec London 28 Jul 1933
I’ve Had My Moments	Billy Cotton Band (voc) Chips Chippendale	Comm Rec London 14 Aug 1934
Hylton Stomp	Jack Hylton Orchestra	Comm Rec London 12 Oct 1932
Set 7	Ford Startime
Intro by Ronald Reagan _ Drum Boogie	Gene Krupa Orchestra (voc) Anita O’Day	‘Ford Startime’ KFI NBC TV 9 Feb 1960
Chatanooga Choo Choo	Tex Beneke & The Modernaires	‘Ford Startime’ KFI NBC TV 9 Feb 1960
South Rampart Street Parade	Bob Crosby Bobcats	‘Ford Startime’ KFI NBC TV 9 Feb 1960
Big Noise from Winnetka	Ray Bauduc & Bobby Haggart	‘Ford Startime’ KFI NBC TV 9 Feb 1960
Set 8	Ellington 64
Afro Bossa	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964
Call Me Irresponsible	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964
Hello Dolly	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964

Freddy Martin’s Singing Saxophone – Phantom Dancer 29 Nov 2022

Freddy Martin was a U.S band leader and tenor saxophonist. His singing saxophone and his orchestra became one of the most popular and musical sweet bands. He made his first recording in 1930 and was leading bands until 1983. He is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 29 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

ORPHAN

Freddy Martin was raised largely in an orphanage and by various relatives. His first learned drums, then changed to C melody saxophone and ultimately tenor saxophone.

He had intended to be a journalist and hoped he would earn enough money from his musical work to enter Ohio State University. Instead, he became a professional musician.

Martin led his own band while he was in high school, then played in various local bands. He spent his spare time selling musical instruments.

After working on a ship’s band, Martin joined the Mason-Dixon band, then joined Arnold Johnson and Jack Albin. It was with Albin’s “Hotel Pennsylvania Music” that he made his first recordings, for Columbia’s Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Clarion 50-cent labels in 1930.

After a couple of years, his skill began attracting other musicians. One was Guy Lombardo, who remained friends with Martin throughout his life and gets a mention in the 1950s Freddy Martin broadcast in this week’s Phantom Dancer.

LOMBARDO

One night, when Lombardo could not do a certain date, he suggested that Martin’s band could fill in for him. The band did very well and Martin’s career got started. But, the band broke up and he did not form a permanent band until 1931, at the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn.

At the Bossert Marine Roof, a nautical-themed restaurant positioned on the roof of the hotel, Martin pioneered the “Tenor Band” style that swept the sweet-music industry.

With his own tenor sax as melodic lead, Martin fronted an all-tenor sax section with just two brasses and a violin trio plus rhythm. The rich, lilting style quickly spawned imitators in hotels and ballrooms nationwide. “Tenor bands”, usually with just the three tenors and one trumpet, could occasionally be found playing for older dancers well into the 1980s.

The Martin band recorded first for Columbia Records in 1932. As the company was broke and signing no new contracts, the band switched to Brunswick Records after one session and remained with that label till 1938. During his tenure at Brunswick/ARC, half of his recordings were issued on ARC’s stable of budget priced labels (Banner, Conqueror, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, and Vocalion) as well as scores of non-vocal takes issued on ARC’s special theater use label, sold only to movie theaters as background music.

SUCCESS

In 1938, he signed with RCA Victor and was assigned to Bluebird. The band also recorded pseudonymously in the early 1930s, backing singers such as Will Osborne. From 1932 to 1938, the band’s primary vocalists were saxophonist Elmer Feldkamp and pianist Terry Shand. The former primarily sang romantic ballads, while the latter was used mostly for ‘hot’ dance tunes.

Martin took his band into many prestigious hotels, including the Roosevelt Grill in New York City, and the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A fixture on radio, his sponsored shows included NBC’s Maybelline Penthouse Serenade of 1937.

For Martin, real success came in 1941 with an arrangement from the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor. Martin recorded the piece instrumentally, but soon lyrics were added by Ray Austin, and it was re-cut as “Tonight We Love” with Clyde Rogers’ vocal – becoming his biggest hit. It sold over one million copies by 1946, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

The success of “Tonight We Love” prompted Martin to adopt several other classical themes (of Rachmaninoff, Grieg, and others), which featured the band’s pianists Jack Fina, Murray Arnold, and Barclay Allen.

In 1946, he recorded “Dingbat the Singing Cat” adapted from Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, and later recorded “A Lover’s Concerto”, adapted from baroque composer Christian Petzold’s “Minuet in G major”, two decades before pop group The Toys released it. At this time, Martin enlarged the orchestra to a strength of six violins, four brasses, and a like number of saxes.

STYLE

Martin was nicknamed “Mr. Silvertone” by saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Chu Berry named Martin his favorite saxophonist. He has also been idolized by many other saxophonists, including Eddie Miller. Although his playing has been admired by so many jazz musicians, Martin never tried to be a jazz musician.

Martin always led a sweet styled band. Unlike most sweet bands that just played dull music, Martin’s band turned out to be one of the most musical and most melodic of all the typical hotel-room sweet bands. According to George T. Simon, Martin’s band was “one of the most pleasant, most relaxed dance bands that ever flowed across the band scene.”

He used the banner “Music in the Martin Manner.” Russ Morgan used a similar banner when he finally landed a radio series with his own band in 1936. (Morgan’s title was “Music in the Morgan Manner”.) Morgan had been playing in Martin’s band and the two were good friends for years. Morgan used some of Martin’s arrangements when he started his band.

LATER

Martin had a good ear for singers. He employed Merv Griffin, Buddy Clark, Gene Merlino, pianists Sid Appleman and Terry Shand, saxophonist Elmer Feldkamp, Stuart Wade, violinist Eddie Stone, and many others. Helen Ward was also a singer for Martin, just before she joined Benny Goodman’s new band.

Martin’s popularity as a bandleader led him to Hollywood in the 1940s where he and his band appeared in a handful of films, including Seven Days’ Leave (1942), Stage Door Canteen (1943), and Melody Time (1948), among others.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Martin continued to perform on the radio and also appeared on TV. Untroubled by changing musical tastes, he continued to work at major venues and was musical director for Elvis Presley’s first appearance in Las Vegas.

Still in demand for hotel work, Martin entered the 1970s with an engagement at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. In the early 1970s, he was part of two tours of one-nighters that were known as ‘The Big Band Cavalcade’. Among the other performers on the show were Margaret Whiting, Bob Crosby, Frankie Carle, Buddy Morrow, Art Mooney, and George Shearing. When the tours ended, Martin returned to the West Coast. In 1977, Martin was asked to lead Guy Lombardo’s band when Lombardo was hospitalized with a heart condition.

Martin continued leading his band until the early 1980s, although by then, he was semi-retired. 

His 1947 song “Pico and Sepulveda” was recorded by Martin under the alias of “Felix Figueroa and his Orchestra” featured in the 1980 surrealist film Forbidden Zone.

29 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #554
107.3 2SER Tuesday 29 November 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Selling Bonds
Moonlight Serenade (theme) + Uncle Remus	Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Ginny O’Connor + Tex Beneke and The Mellowlarks	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Falling Leaves	Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Somewhere in the Night	Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Gary Stevens	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Give Me Five Minutes More + Moonlight Serenade (theme)	Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Tex Beneke	‘March of Dimes’ Radio Transcription 1 Dec 1946
Set 2	Chamber Music
My Mother was a Lady + She May Have Seen Better Days	Tonsorial Twitterbugs	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 14 Jul 1941
I Dreamt I Dwelled in Harlem	Paul Lavalle	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 14 Jul 1941
The Booglie-Wooglie Piggy	Diane Courtney	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 14 Jul 1941
Beyond the Moon + Bugle Woogie + Close	Toots Mondello + Henry Levine	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 14 Jul 1941
Set 3	Count Basie Rock
One O’Clock Jump (theme) + You For Me	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 7 Apr 1956
Play It Fair	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) LaVern Baker	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 7 Apr 1956
Ev’ry Day	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Joe Williams	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 7 Apr 1956
Cherry Point + One O’Clock Jump (theme)	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 7 Apr 1956
Set 4	Freddy Martin
You’re Beautiful Tonight (theme) + The More the Merrier	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Edens Shampoo College Sorority Dance’ Radio Transcription New York City 1933
The Sweetheart of Sigma Phi	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Edens Shampoo College Sorority Dance’ Radio Transcription New York City 1933
The Piano Portrait	Freddy Martin Orchestra (piano) Jack Fina	‘One Night Stand’ Cocoanut Grove Ambassador Hotel Los Angeles AFRS Re-broadcast 12 Aug 1944
Just Close Your Eyes + Early in the Morning + Tchaikovsky Piano Concert #1 (theme)	Freddy Martin Orchestra (voc) Artie Wayne, The Martin Man	‘One Night Stand’ Cocoanut Grove Ambassador Hotel Los Angeles AFRS Re-broadcast 12 Aug 1944
Set 5	Uptempo 1940s Orchestra
Theme + Loose Wig	Lionel Hampton Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 16 Oct 1944
Melancholy Lullaby (theme) + Old Man River	Benny Carter Orchestra	Trianon Ballroom Southgate Ca KECA ABC LA 1944
Wham!	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
For Dancers Only	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Set 6	1930s English Dance Bands
Five Fifteen	Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchesta (voc) Band	Comm Rec London 24 Jul 1933
Love is the Sweetest Thing	Ambrose and his  Orchestra (voc) Sam Brown	Comm Rec London 28 Oct 1932
I Cover the Waterfront	Ambrose and his  Orchestra (voc) Les Allen	Comm Rec London Jul 1933
Let’s Put Out the Lights and Go to Sleep	Ambrose and his  Orchestra (voc) Sam Brown and Elsie Carlisle	Comm Rec London 26 Oct 1932
Set 7	Duke Ellington Extended Works
Minnehaha (from ‘The Beautiful Indians’)	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Kay Davis	Ciro’s Hollywood KNX CBS LA 25 Jul 1947
Hiawatha (from ‘The Beautiful Indians’)	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Ciro’s Hollywood KNX CBS LA 25 Jul 1947
New World a’Comin’	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘Date With the Duke’ ABC Evansville IN. 16 Jun 1964
Set 8	Ellington 64
Afro Bossa	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964
Call Me Irresponsible	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964
Hello Dolly	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964

Tony Bennett – Phantom Dancer 22 November 2022

Tony Bennett, singer, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. You’ll hear him and his music in a 1955 interview. Bennett has released over 70 albums during his career. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. have been I Left My Heart in San Francisco, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, and Duets: An American Classic, all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies. Eight other albums of his have gone gold in the U.S. Bennett also charted over 30 singles during his career.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday22 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

EARLY YEARS & WAR

At age 10, Tony Bennett sang at the opening of the Triborough Bridge in New York City, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head.

He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens.

Drawing was another early passion and he saw himself having a career in commercial art. He attended New York’s School of Industrial Art studying painting and music . He later appreciated their emphasis on proper technique.

He dropped out at age 16 to help support his family and worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan

He then set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and having a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey, nightclub

As an infantryman in the US Army from 1944 during World War 2 in Germany, Tony Bennett narrowly escaped death in combat several times. The experience made him a pacifist. He later wrote, “Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn’t gone through one…It was a nightmare that’s permanent. I just said, ‘This is not life. This is not life.'” At the war’s end he was part of the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg.

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Tony Bennett studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught bel canto singing which has kept his voice in good shape for his entire career.

NEW AUDIENCE

Around 1990, Tony’s son, Danny Bennett, (who you will hear as a 17 month old in the 1955 Tony Bennett interview in this week’s Phantom Dancer) felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with his father would respond to his music if given a chance. No changes to Tony’s formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.

Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman, a show with a younger, “hip” audience. This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Simpsons, Muppets Tonight, and various MTV programs.

In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, “I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, ‘Who wrote that?’ To them, it was different. If you’re different, you stand out.”

Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his “Steppin’ Out with My Baby” video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, “Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises.”

His 1994 MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year.

TECHNIQUE

Bennett had no intention of retiring until his announcement on stage in 2021, saying that he had to retire due to health reasons. He was 95.

Refering to artists like Pablo Picasso, Jack Benny, and Fred Astaire, Bennett said “right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.”

Regarding his choices in music, Bennett stated his artistic stance in a 2010 interview:

“I’m not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don’t follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that’s badly written. In the 1920s and ’30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they’re not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music.”

22 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #570
107.3 2SER Tuesday 22 November 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Ben Burnie – Music While You Work
It’s a Lonesome Old Town (theme) + The Army Air Corp	Ben Bernie Orchestra	‘War Workers’ Program’ relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
The Singing Sands	Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) Jack Fulton	‘War Workers’ Program’ relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
Put-Put-Put-Put-Put Your Arms Around Me	Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) The King’s Jesters	‘War Workers’ Program’ relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry + Rosalie + Close	Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) Gail Robbins	‘War Workers’ Program’ relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
Set 2	Sauter-Finnegan
Open + Liza	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
Midnight Sleighride	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
April in Paris	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra (voc) Anita Darian	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
Doodle Town Fifers + Close	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
Set 3	Smooth Music
Song of the West  (theme) + Hooray for Love	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Elaine Rodgers	‘The Chicagoans’ WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Dancing in the Dark + Old Pal	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra	‘The Chicagoans’ WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Black Lace	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Lon Saxon	‘The Chicagoans’ WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Happy Times + Song of the West (theme)	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Elaine Rodgers	‘The Chicagoans’ WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Set 4	Tony Bennett
Who Wants My Bublinsky? (theme) + Open	Howard Miller	‘Howard Miller Show’ WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
Because of You	Tony Bennett	‘Howard Miller Show’ WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
Interview	Tony, Sandy & Danny Bennett	‘Howard Miller Show’ WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
May I Never Love Again + Close	Tony Bennett	‘Howard Miller Show’ WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
Set 5	1930s-40s Swing
Cotton Pickers’ Congregation	Russ Morgan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC 14 Oct 1938
Down South Camp Meeting	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Madhattan Room Hotel Pennsylvania NYC 20 Nov 1937
Boogie Woogie Lullaby	Ted Fio Rito Orchestra (voc) Madeline Mahoney	Naval Air Station Banana River FL 12 Aug 1945
Flying Home	Will Bradley Orchestra	Famous Door New York City 21 Feb 1941
Set 6	Harmonists
For You	King Sisters	Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1947
Blues in the Night	Trio (voc) Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Jefferson Barracks MI Mutual Network 23 Nov 1945
Just Squeeze Me	King Sisters	Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1947
Heebie Geebie Blues	Boswell Sisters	‘Woodbury Program’ KNX CBS LA 18 Sep 1934
Set 7	Jimmy Dorsey
Contrasts (theme) + Jug Music	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Aircheck 20 Oct 1941
Hit the Note	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 5 Sep 1943
Dixieland Detour	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WABC CBS NY 5 Oct 1939
Saturday Night	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Patti Thomas	‘Spotlight Bands’ 11 Feb 1945
Set 8	Bop 1949
Tiny’s Blues	Chubby Jackson Orchestra	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NYC 5 Mar 1949
Esy	Tito Puente Orchestra	‘Birdland Show’ WABC ABC NYC 1951

Spike Jones – Phantom Dancer 15 Nov 2022

Spike Jones is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. He was a US drummer, percussionist and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells, hiccups, burps and outlandish and comedic vocals. He toured the United States and Canada as “The Musical Depreciation Revue”.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 15 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

POTS, PANS & DRUMS

At the age of 11 Spike Jones got his first set of drums. As a teenager he played in bands that he formed himself. His first band was called Spike Jones and his Five Tacks. A railroad restaurant chef taught him how to use pots and pans, forks, knives and spoons as musical instruments. Jones frequently played in theater pit orchestras. In the 1930s, he joined the Victor Young orchestra and got many offers to appear on radio shows, including Al Jolson’s Lifebuoy Program, Burns and Allen and Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall.

From 1937 to 1942, Jones was the percussionist for the John Scott Trotter Orchestra,which played on Bing Crosby’s first recording of “White Christmas”.

He was part of a backing band for songwriter Cindy Walker during her early recording career with Decca Records and Standard Transcriptions. Her song “We’re Gonna Stomp Them City Slickers Down” provided the inspiration for the name of Jones’s future band.

PARODIES

Jones became bored playing the same music each night with the orchestras. Spike Jones found other like-minded musicians and they began playing parodies of standard songs for their own entertainment.

The musicians wanted their wives to share their enjoyment, so they recorded their weekly performances. One of the recordings made its way into the hands of an RCA Victor executive, who offered the musicians a recording contract.

One of the City Slickers’ early recordings for the label was a Del Porter arrangement of “Der Fuehrer’s Face”. The record’s success inspired Jones to become the band’s leader. He initially thought the popularity the record brought them would fade. However, audiences kept asking for more, so Jones started working on more comic arrangements.

RADIO

After appearing as the house band on The Bob Burns Show, Spike got his own radio show on NBC, The Chase and Sanborn Program, as Edgar Bergen’s summer replacement in 1945.

The guest list for Jones’s 1947–49 CBS program for Coca-Cola (originally The Spotlight Revue, retitled The Spike Jones Show for its final season) included Frankie Laine, Mel Torme, Peter Lorre, Don Ameche and Burl Ives.

Frank Sinatra appeared on the show in October 1948, and Lassie in May 1949. You’ll hear Lassie’s appearance on this week’s Phantom Dancer singing ‘El Barkio’.

In 1942, the Jones gang worked on numerous Soundies, musical shorts similar to later music videos which were shown on coin-operated projectors in small nightclubs, arcades, malt shops, and taverns.

The band appeared on camera under their own name in four Soundies.

TV & MOVIES

Jones saw the potential of television and filmed two half-hour pilot films, Foreign Legion and Wild Bill Hiccup, in the summer of 1950. Veteran comedy director Eddie Cline worked on both, but neither was successful.

The band fared much better on live television, where their spontaneous antics and crazy visual gags guaranteed the viewers a good time. Spike usually dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern and was seen leaping around playing a washboard, cowbells, a suite of klaxons and foghorns, then xylophone, then shooting a pistol.

The band starred in variety shows, such as The Colgate Comedy Hour (1951, 1955) and their All Star Revue (1952) before being given his own slot by NBC, The Spike Jones Show, which aired early in 1954, and Club Oasis on NBC, in the summer of 1958; and by CBS, as The Spike Jones Show, in the summers of 1957, 1960, and 1961.

Spike Jones and his City Slickers also appeared on NBC’s The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford in the episode which aired on November 15, 1956.

In 1940, Spike Jones had an uncredited bandleading part in the Dead End Kids film Give Us Wings, appearing on camera for about four seconds.

As the band’s fame grew, Hollywood producers hired the Slickers as a specialty act for feature films, including Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Meet the People (1944), Bring on the Girls (1945), Breakfast in Hollywood (1946) and Variety Girl (1947). Jones was set to team with Abbott and Costello for a 1954 Universal Pictures comedy, but when Lou Costello withdrew for medical reasons, Universal replaced the comedy team with look-alikes Hugh O’Brian and Buddy Hackett, and promoted Jones to the leading role. The finished film, Fireman Save My Child, turned out to be Spike Jones’s only top-billed theatrical movie

15 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #562
107.3 2SER Tuesday 15 November 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Buddy Moreno
You’re the Top (theme) + Who Cares?	Buddy Moreno (voc) Len Cleary Quartet	‘Top Tunes’ WBBM CBS Chicago 1950
Miserlou + Take the A Train	Len Cleary Quartet	‘Top Tunes’ WBBM CBS Chicago 1950
Careless	Buddy Moreno (voc) Len Cleary Quartet	‘Top Tunes’ WBBM CBS Chicago 1950
The Glory of Love + Close	Buddy Moreno (voc) Len Cleary Quartet	‘Top Tunes’ WBBM CBS Chicago 1950
Set 2	Dixie Swing from ‘The Voice of Labour’ WCFL Chicago
Open + Chinatown My Chinatown	Jack Kelly’s Swing Ensemble	WCFL Chicago 1942
My Melancholy Baby	Jack Kelly’s Swing Ensemble	WCFL Chicago 1942
Exactly Like You	Jack Kelly’s Swing Ensemble	WCFL Chicago 1942
Tangerine + Runnin’ Wild + Theme	Jack Kelly’s Swing Ensemble	WCFL Chicago 1942
Set 3	Count Basie
Open + Blue Room	Coleman Hawkins	London House WBBM CBS Chicago 19 Jun 1963
All the Things You Are	Coleman Hawkins	London House WBBM CBS Chicago 19 Jun 1963
Set 4	Spike Jones
El Barkio	Spike Jones and his City Slickers (voc) Eileen Gallagher and Lassie.	‘Spike Jones Show’ KNX CBS LA 28 May 1949
Our Hour	Spike Jones and his City Slickers (voc) The Sportsmen Quartet (Bill Days, Max Smith, Marty Sperzel and Gurney Bell)	Comm Rec Los Angeles 1947
Set 5	Selling Coffee
Open + I’m Breezin’ Along with the Breeze	Skip Farrell (voc) The Manor House Quintet	‘Manor House Party’ WMAQ CBS Chicago 20 Jan 1948
Now is the Hour + Pennies From Heaven	Skip Farrell (voc) The Manor House Quintet	‘Manor House Party’ WMAQ CBS Chicago 20 Jan 1948
When Day is Done	The Manor House Quintet	‘Manor House Party’ WMAQ CBS Chicago 20 Jan 1948
My How the Time Goes By + I Just Kissed Your Picture Goodnight + Close	Skip Farrell (voc) The Manor House Quintet	‘Manor House Party’ WMAQ CBS Chicago 20 Jan 1948
Set 6	Martha Tilton
If It’s The Last Thing I Do	Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 16 Nov 1937
Gotta Get Some Shuteye	Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 7 Feb 1939
Hurry Home	Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 3 Jan 1939
A Home in the Clouds	Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 14 Feb 1939
Set 7	Tommy Dorsey
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) + You’re Driving me Crazy	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) The Sentimentalists	‘Spotlight Bands’ Blue Network 29 Jan 1945
Hawaiian War Chan	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (d) Buddy Rich	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 26 Nov 1944
Song of India	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Blue Network 12 Feb 1945
Losers Weepers	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘For the Record’ WEAF NBC NY 17 Apr 1944
Set 8	Dave Brubeck
Perfume Counter	Dave Brubeck	‘Symphony Sid Show’ WJZ ABC NYC Dec 1953
Intro + The Duke	Dave Brubeck	Basin Street WCBS CBS NYC Feb 1956
Love Walked In	Dave Brubeck	Basin Street WCBS CBS NYC Feb 1956