Fascinatin' Rhythm

KPBX 91.1fm, Saturday, 1pm to 2pm

Program Listings:

July 31, 2010
Why Marry Them
The goal in a lot of songs is marriage as the culmination of love, but sometimes another question, not quite uttered, floats underneath.

August 7, 2010
Marriage, Sort Of
Some harder truths about the joys of marriage, given vivid expression often in the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim.

August 14, 2010
Hutchinson Family Singers
Together, they were one of America's first important professional singers, performing the songs of abolition, temperance, war, and love.

August 21, 2010
Sinatra Starts
With Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, young Frank Sinatra became America's heartthrob.

August 28, 2010
Richard Whiting in the 1920s
The first of two parts devoted to the songs of one of the Hollywood's major songwriters.

September 4, 2010
Richard Whiting in the 1930s
The second hour of Richard Whiting's songs, culminating in his untimely death at the age of 46.

September 11, 2010
Trotting the Fox
The Fox Trot is the most durable dance of the 20th century. It appears on Broadway before WW1 and we're still doing it.

September 18, 2010
Barrooms and Bartenders
All those evenings of bibulous conviviality and sentimental weeping in one's beer captured in song.

September 25, 2010
Marital Bumps and Bruises
Comic songs about being married that admit of true love but also come pretty close to the truth.

October 2, 2010
Who's Sorry Now
A love affair ends and we hear the despair; that we understand. But these songs take a different approach: they're out to get even.

About the Program:
Michael Lasser explores the history and themes of
American popular song and musical theater each week.
This Peabody Award winning series shares nostalgic
recordings from the 1920s onward.

The program explores the history and themes of American popular music from Stephen Foster to Stephen Sondheim.
These weekly "radio essays" illustrated by recordings won the 1994 George Foster Peabody Award for letting "our treasury of popular tunes speak (and sing) for itself with sparkling commentary tracing the contributions of the composers and performers to American society." The Peabody citation called Fascinatin' Rhythm "a celebration of American culture."

Each program features a theme - a particular kind of stage or movie musical, a single composer or lyricist, a distinctive performer, or defining image or idea. Fascinatin' Rhythm blends education and entertainment, as it also shows how songs from the Golden Age of American popular music (1920-1960) anticipate today's popular music. Heard nationally from Orlando to San Francisco and Honolulu, Fascinatin' Rhythm reveals America to America through popular songs.