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[josemas]

lately I haven't got much OTR in beyond my weekly episodes of Box 13 and The Lives of Harry Lime but did squeeze in episodes of Our Miss Brooks, Philco Radio Time (Bing Crosby), Shorty Bell, Cub Reporter (Mickey Rooney) and Stars Over Hollywood (Ronald Reagan).

On the music side I've most recently been listening to a four CD set of well over a hundred songs from the British Hit Parade of September-December, 1961.  Features songs by the likes of Cliff Richards, Duane Eddy, Connie Francis, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Billy Fury, Del Shannon, Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, Helen Shapiro, the Temperance Seven, Charlie Drake, Nina & Frederick, the Everly Brothers, Jon Leyton, Bobby Darin, Haley Mills, Ray Charles, Dion, Frankie Vaughan, Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, Henry Mancini, the Tokens, Gary Miller and quite a few more.

Best

Joe

[bowers]

Saw a couple of really excellent concerts on PBS last week. One was "Hugh Laurie Live at the Queen Mary". This concert featured a slightly different (and larger) version of The Copper Bottom Band, and TWO excellent female vocalists. One was Gaby Moreno who did a duet version of "Kiss of Fire" with Laurie. I didn't get the other vocalist's name, but she was incredible. She also appeared on the New Orleans concert. Laurie is , of course, the front man but he didn't try to hog the show, letting the singers and the band shine on their own. The other concert was "Joe Bonamassa at The Beacon Theater". Bonamassa  has sort of flown under the radar for a long time, and has just recently started getting the attention he deserves. On YouTube you can see this guy laying down some riffs when he was only twelve and thirteen! Absolutely one of the best bluesmen around! Guests included the almost Joplinesque Beth Hart. Her version of "I'll Take Care of You" sent shivers down my spine. Also guesting were Paul Rodgers and John Hiatt. Both concerts well worth watching if they come around again. Cheers, Bowers

[josemas]

Finished up my 52 week runs of both Box 13 and The Lives of Harry Lime just before the New Year.  Also squeezed in a number of vintage OTR Christmas shows around the Holidays.  I'm gonna concentrate on shorter runs of shows this year.  Have a few episodes of Gasoline Alley and the Gracie Fields Show coming up soon.

On the music side of things I found another CD of vintage British Hit Parade (April-September 1961) at the library and have been listening to that this week.  Songs by the likes of Ricky Nelson, Brenda Lee, Helen Shapiro, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Petula Clark, Chubby Checker, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Benny Hill, Gene Vincent, Roy Orbison, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Shirley Bassey, Neil Sedaka, the Shadows, Gary "U. S." Bonds, Lonnie Donegan, Jan & Dean, Jo Ann Campbell, Billy Fury, Johnny & the Hurricanes, the Marcels, Matt Munro, Tommy Cooper, Duane Eddy, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, the Highwaymen, Bobby Darin, the Ventures, Cliff Richard, the Velvets and quite a few more.  These are interesting time capsules of the era in their own way.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

What a line-up!  I have some of those on 45 vinyl.  Loved U.S. Bonds and still am a huge fan of The Ventures.  The one name that stands out like a sore thumb is Tommy Cooper.  I haven't a clue what he recorded that got into the British charts.  One of the funniest men ever, but a pop hit!  I bet The Marcels entry is Blue Moon.

[josemas]

The Tommy Cooper song in the collection is Don't Jump Off the Roof Dad.  I haven't listened to it yet but I imagine its played for laughs.  Apparently it was his only recording to chart.

The Marcels tune in this collection is another reworking of an old tune-Summertime which was their followup to Blue Moon.
Gary "U.S." Bonds is represented by Quarter to Three and the Ventures by a reworking of Lullabye of the Leaves.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

Listened to some 1945 episodes of Night Editor recently.  Each one tells a little human interest story.    Musically I've been bouncing back and forth between some vintage Bluegrass and Doo Wop lately.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

Just finished listening to an album from the Cactus Blossoms.  They're a coupla brothers who perform old time country and western.  I first heard them on NPR (where they appeared on Prairie Home Companion).

OTR listened to the last month or two included episodes of Perry Mason, Oklahoma Roundup, Plantation Jubilee and Old Kentucky Barndance.
I've also started working my way through Orson Welles' Radio Almanac (a WWII era variety show he did for a while in 1944) and some early episodes of the cop show Broadway is My Beat which ran from the late 1940s into the mid 1950s.

Best

Joe

[Coleoptere]

Let me share some 80s albums I still listen to:
A-ha - Hunting High and Low
Care - Diamonds and Emeralds
Lotus Eaters - No Sense of Sin

[paw broon]

A-Ha.  The one track I know and still enjoy hearing is Take On Me. 

[jarrodmon]

The Puppini Sisters - A swing revival group, very similar to The Andrews Sisters. They even do some of their big hits.

Lindsay Sterling, Black Violin, Piano Guys.

[mr_goldenage]

Uh.....................I guess I'm the only hard rock/metalhead/prog frog here then eh? Listening to "the Day After The Sabbath Vol # 101" & "The Doom That Time Forgot Vol # 9. Both can be found @
www.thedayafterthesabbath.com

the resident psychedelic punkaroo....

[josemas]

Very little OTR recently.  Just a few more episodes of Broadway is my Beat and Orson Welles' Radio Almanac including the D-Day broadcast which I listened to appropriately on the 60th anniversary of that historic event.

Musically I most recently listened to a live concert by The Weavers recorded at a Carnegie Hall performance on Christmas Eve 1955.

Best

Joe

[Coleoptere]

A-Ha.  The one track I know and still enjoy hearing is Take On Me.

Yeah, that's so iconic, though there's really a lot more they've got that gives a good listen.

Also listening to Dream by P. Lion.

[josemas]

Very little OTR this month.  Just some of Gene Autry's Melody Ranch.

Just finished listening to a CD entitled  Rev. Louis Oversteet with his sons and the congregation of St Luke's Powerhouse Church of God in Christ.  This was recorded live here in Phoenix back in 1962 but the the Reverend had his beginnings in the South.  Listening to the album it's very easy to see the influence these sort of Gospel singers had on the Rock 'n Roll singers of the 1950s such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.

Best

Joe

[malaprop]

  Not sure where to post this, but have mercy on me, I'm a newby. Not OTR, but OTT (television). I got a DVD on ebay recently of Vol. 1 of The Third Man, a TV series that ran for 8 years based on the classic Graham Greene novel and Orson Welles as Harry Lime film. The series starred Michael Rennie (aka Klaatu) as Lime, and has a noir feel with international intrigue type settings. Good stuff, I'm surprised I never heard of it before. Maybe my parents kept it from me.

I am an OTR fan, and go to sleep to it every night. Right now I'm into Barry Craig detective stories.

[jimmm kelly]

This show used to be run on local TV here, many years back in my younger days. In fact, I think I saw it before I even knew about the movie. As I recall, this Harry Lime is not quite the cad he was as played by Welles in the original film. That really screwed me up when I later came to watch the movie and discovered a very different character.

The theme music was the main thing that caught my interest--but back in those days I found such shows as this and THE SAINT kind of boring. It was all so much intrigue above my head.

I've also heard THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY LIME on the radio from time to time, with Welles narrating and voicing the main character.

You can do a Third Man tour if you're ever in Vienna. Although when I showed up for the tour one day in Vienna no one arrived--waited all day with no luck. Maybe next time I'm there.

[josemas]

Jonathan Harris adds nice support to the Third Man television series too.  I gather that the series moved back and forth between Britain and America filming the show in bits and spurts.

I listened to the entire run of the radio show this past year.  Welles plays the character as a real rascal in it. Not nearly as dark as the film.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

Richard, you're not alone.  I'm a huge fan of Atomic Rooster, trio/later 4 piece, wth the late, wonderful Vincent Crane as keyboard genius.  For those who don't know what I'm blethering on about, think back to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and the colossal hit, "Fire".  Well, the Rooster came out of that.
Fire:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1uwIzI3SE
Sample of Atomic Rooster:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gipOgNytdqY
And:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OglDOOaTkPw
These should be played really loud, so youtube doesn't show them off to their best.
Mind, a bit of Motorhead goes down well too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iwC2QljLn4

Saw an episode of Third Man the other night.  A bit disappointing apart from Roger Delgado. But malaprop rates it so I'll look up some other episodes and give them a go.

I think I mentioned Dial 999 ages ago, but I go back to it now and then.  A good police procedural with Robert Beatty as a Canadian copper attached to Scotland Yard. An episode with Hartnell and Troughton:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkpwPjakVmc

[bowers]

What am I listening to? What else? The great new old-time programs newly posted here! Surprised to see the depth of downloads available. I'm starting off with Jungle Jim, one of my favorite GA comic strips. Never cared for the Weismuller TV or film versions, but I do enjoy the radio episodes. I haven't found so many episodes in sequence in one place before. Thanks, Mark! Cheers, Bowers

[MarkWarner]

I have been listening to them as well. I am very impressed by the general quality for these mass produced shows. Terry and the Pirates is rip roaring fun. The Mysterious Traveler is a tad predictable, but very well acted (also great sound quality). Ellery Queen one minutes are very silly and the one minute Ripley's I think so far I have half believed one! lol

[narfstar]

I have listened to some Terry and the Pirates before and was very impressed

[jimmm kelly]

There used to be a radio station here that broadcast old radio shows each week at night. And I made a habit of listening to them. The downside is that I always fell asleep and usually missed the end of a story.

I think I shall do the same thing with the radio shows available on CB+, although I will probably drift off to sleep before I get to the end. On the one hand that's bad, on the other hand that's good.

[josemas]

About the only OTR I've listened to recently has been some episodes of Hank Williams Health and Happiness shows from 1949.

Some CDs listened to lately

Get Your Soul Right: The Gospel Quartets and the Roots Of Soul Music- An excellent 3 Disc-90 Track set from out of London England   Features songs recorded between 1949-1962 by such groups as the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Soul Stirrers, Staple Singers, Gospelaires, Dixie Hummingbirds, Clefs of Calvary, Spirit of Memphis Quartet, Pilgrim Travelers, Mahalia Jackson and others.  Really shows the sort of influence Gospel singers had on 1950s Rock n' Rollers and the Soul Singers of the 1960s.

Our local library has a little shop by the entrance where they sell discards and donated items to raise money for the library.  I usually stop by it every time I'm at the library and browse the books, magazines, CDs and DVDs.  Most CDs sell for only a buck (with multi-disc sets going for a little more).  I can get some real bargains here and also sample things I normally wouldn't without risking much financially.  The following were all picked up at this shop.

Harlem in My Heart- Elizabeth Welch   Another fine British collection containing 21 tracks recorded between 1928-1943 and featuring Welch, who is a fine bluesy, Jazz singer.

Bywater Dance- Mary Flower   A 14 track album from Memphis, TN     Flowers is an accomplished Mississippi blues, ragtime musician who has several albums out.  I am certainly up for checking more of them out after listening to this one.

The Morning Glory Ramblers- Norman and Nancy Blake  from Nashville, TN comes this 17 track album of old-timey country, gospel, and bluegrass numbers.  This couple has been recording for a couple of decades or so and Id certainly enjoy seeing them perform live.

Your Hit Parade  Picked up volumes for 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, and 1952-  Each of these Time-Life collections has 24 tracks each and features some of the popular hits from that particular year.  Many of the popular singers of the era are represented such as Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Perry Como. Nat King Cole, Jo Stafford, Doris Day, the Andrews Sisters, the Ink Spots, Johnnie Ray, Margaret Whiting, the Ink Spots and more.
You can see things beginning to change during these years between the end of WWII and the coming of Rock n' Roll.  The Big Bands, so popular during the swing era. are all over the hits of 1946 and 47 but by 1952 they are only represented by a couple of entries.
I gotta admit that the 1950 album is my favorite as it contains two of all time favs- the Weavers' Goodnight Irene and Patti Page's haunting, heartfelt rendition of The Tennesssee Waltz.

Best

Joe

[jimmm kelly]

This morning, I listened to the first episode of SUSPENSE that they have on OTR, which adapts THE LODGER (a Hitchcock movie based on the novel of the same name).

The funny thing is "Alfred Hitchcock" comes on at the end. But it doesn't sound like the Alfred Hitchcock we know from movies and TV. I guess his voice could have changed over the years, but I was wondering if in fact they had hired a voice actor to play Hitch rather than the man himself.

[mr_goldenage]

Matching Mole Live @ The BBC (1976?)......& Budgie Live in Houston 1985

Richard