Forgotten Musical Masterpieces REVISITED (Series 1: Part 2)

On the day Barry Humphries would have celebrated his 90th birthday, radio producer Clair Wordsworth continues her selection of highlights from the very first series of the entertainer's acclaimed BBC Radio 2 vintage music show.

Barry's Forgotten Musical Masterpieces ran for six series between 2016 and 2022 and picked up a raft of impressive reviews from a wide range of publications.

Below Image: Self Portrait in ink, Barry Humphries as a Disc Jokey.

Highlights: Series 1 - Programme 2

The song Radio Times by Henry Hall & the BBC Dance Orchestra

Barry Humphries was born on 17th February 1934 and he would have been 90 today - 17th February 2024. The Christmas Edition of The Radio Times magazine the year he was born contained a copy of the sheet music for this specially composed song (written by Henry Hall Leader of the BBC Dance Band).

It's perhaps difficult for the You-tube and Facebook generations to understand just how vitally important having a wireless was for those living in in the 1920s, 30s, 40s & 50s. Today's audiences are most definitely 'watchers' rather than 'listeners'. Most children (and grown ups too) around today have the luxury of handheld connected phones and devices to distract them from the boredom of waiting for the dentist or going on a very long journeys. Does anyone anywhere today find joy in the simple act of observing raindrops running down windowpanes on long train or coach journeys, for instance? Am I the only one still doing this?

Perhaps I shouldn't judge. As Barry said, "however much we might dye our hair, or have bits sucked out or nipped in, there is no denying, we're each the product of the era in which we were born."

So, it's perhaps worth noting then that the opening lyrics to the song Radio Times - "olden days had different ways their pleasures then were fewer" - were written in the 1930s, when listening to music on the wireless was still cutting edge technology! The "olden times" referred to in the song, by the way, where those that came before recorded gramophone discs spinning at a rate of 78 r.p.m., the BBC and its infamous Licence Fee, they should perhaps be henceforth referred to has the Recent Dark Ages.

By the way, the BBC Licence Fee is celebrated beautifully in the next forgotten musical gem...

All For Ten Shillings A Year sung by Norman Long & Stanelli

This is an exquisitely amusing song written in the 1930s to celebrate the British Broadcasting Corporation and its funding model. Some readers of this blog will perhaps remember in 1990s Lou Reed and his friends recorded a new version of Perfect Day, specifically to champion the BBC. (More recently, Kylie Minogue, Brian Wilson and a few other artists recorded lines to a new version of The Beach Boys song God Only knows In in a similar vein to Lou Reed's Perfect Day. It had less impact though. In my view using something with God in the title is never going to have universal appeal, perhaps another track would have been wiser, however lush the production.

Yet, Barry's favourite celebration of the way the BBC is funded is very definitely this charmingly satirical track by Norman Long and Stanelli. I really do urge you to seek it out!

Stardust by Marjorie Stedeford

Australian singer Marjorie Stedeford's rich deep tone attracted attention when she arrived in London in 1935 and she soon became a regular on the BBC. She was was reputedly Australia's first female water skier.

The 1920s and 30s was still era of the bandleader and singers could be often left uncredited on recordings and broadcasts. All that was about to change, thanks in no small way, to Harry Lillis Crosby Jr. He's better known to you and me as Bing Crosby. Bing was a childhood nickname that stuck, by the way.

Hot Time in the Town of Berlin - Bing Crosby

Big eared Bing was very soon the world leader in everything, record sales, radio listeners and motion picture grosses! One could say, he was the original global Mega Star, before Dame Edna Everage took on the mantle instead.

This is Only the Beginning - Harold Arlen

Any reader of a blog entitled Vintage Musical Memories is like to know and adore the name Harold Arlen, however we're likely to know him as a composer of countless hit songs including Get Happy, Over the Rainbow, The Man That Got Away and a favourite of Barry's Lydia the Tatooed Lady (the later is another favourite of Barry's by the way) rather than as a singer... This recording as the Harold Arlen performing one of his lesser known compositions.

Barry said: "Harold Arlen must come near the top on any list of America's most successful songwriters. Stephen Sondheim told me, Arlen was his favourite American composers and in all his shows he includes a homage to him."

A Little White Room - John Mills & Frances Day

Another person you're unlikely to associate first with singing is the distinguished British actor Sir John Mills... Ice Cold in Alex, In Which We Serve, Great Expectations and Ryan's Daughter are just a few of the classic movies for which Sir John Mills is best known, but in the 1930s - long before he played it straight - John had started his acting career in West End musicals. As proof I urge you to listen to this charmingly sentimental A Little White Room written for the 1937 London revue Floodlight.

Later on, when he was Sir John Mills, Dame Edna persuaded the national treasure to return to his youth and perform a duet with her of another song I'm on a See-Saw on one of her infamous TV shows.

I Wanna Be Loved By You - Helen Kane

You'll know this tune, but you'll undoubtedly associate it with Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn however wasn't the first person to record the song. Also, when she did record it for the 1959 Billy Wilder movie Some Like It Hot she seems to have done a straight copy of an earlier version by Helen Kane, recorded in 1928. This may of course have been intention, as the character Marilyn played in the movie was Sugar Kane - a nod perhaps to the earlier performer, who'd made it her theme tune.

Take the World Exactly As You Find It - Hutch (Leslie Hutchinson)

In this song the legendary Hutch offers listeners some very fine advice in this song written by Gracie Field's accompanist Harry Parr Davis for the 1943 film Happidrome.

The Channel Swimmer - Horrace Kenney

"When I was a child, as well as music, there were humorous interludes on the wireless, mostly involving pre-war British comics like George Tilley, Syd Field, Cecilly Courtneidge and my very special favourite Horrace Kenney. Laughing to wonderful old jesters got me through measles, mumps, hooping cough unscathed."

The name of comedian Horrace Kenney (1890-1955) isn't widely known today. He had a shaky querulous voice and I certainly had never heard of him before Barry mentioned his name to him.

I've since discovered, during the month Barry was born, in February 1934, Horrace Kenney was pictured on the front cover of The Radio Times, such was his level of fame in that era. I came across this cover image a few months after we heard news of Barry's death in Sydney in April 2023 and I was so sad. I wish I could have shown him this cover. I also wish I was making more series of old music with Barry, rather than writing this tribute, but I remain grateful for the time we had together and the knowledge he generously shared with myself and Radio 2 listeners.

Highlights from programme 3 (series 1) coming soon...

And read about those from programme 1 here.