Diana Krall: Best Female Singer Today

I was looking for good music at amazon.com back in 2001. I stumbled across a Diana Krall album named The Look of Love that to me is the best easy listening album ever made.  The album was released exactly one week after the terrorist attacks in the United States had left us in a state of shock.

The album had a calming effect on listeners since the music was perfect for the times since all of the songs on the album were slow songs that were very relaxing. My favorite cut on the album was Cry Me A River the old Julie London standard. Diana sang this as well as Julie if not better.

The title song The Look of Love was another one of my favorites along with Maybe You’ll Be There. In my book she is the best female singer today with nobody coming close to her vocalizing and piano playing.

Diana Krall released her newest album named Quiet Nights featuring songs with a bossa nova flavor on March 30th.

This video of  Diana singing Fly Me To The Moon  shows her artistry combining great vocals with excellent piano playing.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?rlz=1C1CHMI_en-USUS292US303&sourceid=chrome&q=diana+krall&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8SHmSfOgJMqDtgeWpPGwDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

Lindy Hop

Many years have gone by since the heyday of the Lindy Hop but it is still alive after all these years. It is not nearly as popular as it once was but the lindy hop dancers of today are as much into it as the dancers from the 40′s and 50′s.

Here is a couple of examples of how it is still alive even today.

This is a fast dance contest from about three years ago:

List Of Old Time Radio Shows

This is a list of my old time radio shows and the first number is how many episodes of a show I have in the collection and the last number on the right is the total number of hours of that show:

No. Of Shows CDs Name of Show Hours Total

44 same CD Maisie 22:00 22:00

1 same CD Breakfast Club 1:00 23:00

1 same CD Candid Microphone 1:00 24:00

2 same CD Groucho Marx 1:00 25:00

9 same CD Martin and Lewis 4:50 29:50

36 same CD My Favorite Husband 18:00 47:50

5 same CD Nazi Eyes 2:50 50:40

2 same CD Pete Kelly\’s Blues 1:00 51:40

100 1 Jack Benny 50:00 101:40

70 1 OTR Sampler 35:00 136:40

62 1 My Favorite Husband 31:00 167:40

296 2 Bob and Ray 100:00 267:40

360 4 Dragnet 180:00 447:40

190 2 Burns and Allen 95:00 542:40

138 2 Fred Allen 69:00 611:40

182 2 Life of Riley 91:00 702:40

869 9 Jack Benny 433:00 1135:40

199 1 Red Skelton 98:00 1233:40

96 1 Phillip Marlowe 48:00 1281:40

230 1 Cavalcade of America 115:00 1396:40

52 1 Damon Runyon Theater 26:00 1422:40

79 1 Gangbusters 39:50 1462:30

114 1 Inner Sanctum 57:00 1519:30

41 1 Mel Blanc 20:50 1540:20

101 1 Our Miss Brooks 50:50 1591:10

209 2 Christmas Collection 104:50 1696:00

106 1 OTR CAT Sampler 53:00 1749:00

54 1 The Bickersons 25:00 1774:00

52 1 Box 13 26:00 1800:00

381 4 Family Theatre 190:50 1990:50

60 20 cass Walter Cronkite 60 Best 30:00 2020:50

64 1 Abbott and Costello 37:00 2057:50

76 1 Bob Hope 38:00 2095:50

164 1 Groucho Marx 82:00 2177:50

60 1 Ozzie and Harriet 30:00 2207:50

249 3 This Is Your FBI 124:50 2332:40

290 1 Easy Aces and Mr. Ace 75:00 2407:40

510 6 Great Gildersleeve 255:00 2662:40

105 1 Phil Harris-Alice Faye 52:50 2715:30

95 1 Nick Carter 47:50 2763:20

734 7 Fibber McGee and Molly 367:00 3130:20

189 2 Command Performance 12:00 3142:20

2 1 2 Complete Broadcast Days 36:00 3178:20

183 1 Variety CD 91:50 3270:10

78 1 Richard Diamond 39:50 3310:00

102 1 You Bet Your Life 56:00 3366:00

30 1 Mike Shayne 15:00 3381:00

95 1 Sampler CD 47:50 3428:50

82 1 Jack Webb Collection 41:00 3469:50

52 1 Damon Runyon Theater 26:00 3495:50

255 1 Lum and Abner 64:00 3559:50

25 1 Rocky Forturne 12:50 3572:40

33 1 Milton Berle 16:50 3589:30

45 1 Big Band Remotes 22:50 3612:20

240 1 Easy Aces 60:00 3672:20

51 1 My Friend Irma 25:50 3698:10

539 10 Lux Radio Theater 535:00 4233:10

57 1 Dinah Shore Collection 28:50 4262:00

146 1 Couple Next Door 36:50 4298:50

38 1 Honest Harold 19:00 4317:50

64 1 Gangbusters 32:00 4349:50

186 1 Your Hit Parade 50:00 4399:50

146 1 Couple Next Door 36:50 4436:40

49 1 Richard Diamond 24:50 4461:30

71 1 Adventures of Maisie 35:50 4497:20

75 1 Father Knows Best 27:50 4525:10

182 2 Boston Blackie 91:00 4616:10

68 1 Nightbeat 34:00 4650:10

931 4 Lum and Abner 232:00 4882:10

201 2 Red Skelton 100:50 4983:00

367 3 Amos and Andy 183:50 5166:50

Part of shows 1 Bloopers and Outtakes 12:00 5178:50

65 1 Broadway Is My Beat 32:50 5211:40

101 1 Our Miss Brooks 50:50 5262:30

24 1 Martin and Lewis 12:50 5275:20

104 1 OTR CAT Sampler Vol. 2 52:00 5327:20

62 1 Sam Spade 31:00 5358:20

485 5 Gunsmoke 242:50 5601:10

94 1 Let George Do It 47:00 5648:10

81 1 Duffy\’s Tavern 40:50 5689:00

181 1 Mary Noble 40:50 5648:50

414 4 Bing Crosby 212:00 5860:50

68 1 Birthday CD 34:00 5894:50

129 1 Bill Stern 30:00 5924:50

117 1 Johnny Dollar Vol. 4 47:00 5971:50

61 1 Radio City Playhouse 30:50 6002:40

48 1 Railroad Hour 24:00 6026:40

88 1 Words of War 44:00 6070:40

88 1 Christmas Collection 44:00 6114:40

48 1 Nightwatch 22:00 6136:40

124 1 Christmas-Cinnamon Bears 50:00 6186:40

79 1 Jimmy Durante-Martin & Lewis 39:00 6225:40

48 1 Nightwatch 24:00 6249:40

81 1 Broadway Is My Beat OTR CAT 42:00 6291:40

232 1 Perry Mason 58:00 6349:40

25 1 Stand By For Crime 12:50 6362:30

96 1 Hopalong Cassidy 48:00 6410:30

94 2 Screen Director\’s Playhouse 47:00 6457:30

34 1 It Pays To Be Ignorant 17:00 6474:30

99 2 My Favorite Husband 44:50 6519:20

19 1 Curtain Time 9:50 6529:20

104 1 Guest Star 25:00 6554:10

175 2 Screen Guild Theater 87:50 6642:00

92 1 Theater Of Romance 46:00 6596:00

34 1 Bright Star 17:00 6613:00

205 2 Escape 102:50 6715:50

31 1 Nero Wolfe 15:50 6731:40

30 same Crime Club 15:00 6746:40

141 1 Grand Ole Opry 50:00 6796:40

122 1 Christmas Shows-Cinnamon Bears 61:00 6857:40

53 1 The Lineup 106:00 6963:40

258 3 Calling All Cars 129:00 7092:40

929 7 Suspense 464:50 7557:30

41 1 Six Shooter 20:00 7577:30

79 1 OTRCAT Sampler #5 43:30 7620:30

229 2 Wild Bill Hickok 47:00 7667:30

22 1 Arthur Godfrey 11:00 7678:30

61 1 Eddie Cantor 30:30 7719:00

29 1 My Little Margie 14:30 7733:30

102 1 Bickersons – Blondie 51:00 7784:30

174 2 Bob Hope 87:00 7871:30

56 1 Frances Langford 28:00 7899:30

85 1 Mr. District Attorney 42:30 7942:00

31 1 Henry Morgan 13:00 7955:00

68 1 I Was A Communist For FBI 34:00 7989:00

78 1 Information Please 39:00 8028:00

36 1 FBI In Peace And War 18:00 8046:00

49 1 Edward G. Robinson 24:30 8070:30

17225 178 8070:30

The 17,225 is the number of episodes…178 is number of MP3 CD’s the shows are on…The 8070:30 is the number of total hours of old time radio in the collection.

Jimmy Boyd Dies At 70

I just found out that Jimmy Boyd died last month at the age of 70. He is best known for singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” that became popular in 1952. He got his start singing on local radio shows and I want to thank Ron Sayles who keeps the Births/Deaths list of old time radio stars  for letting me know of his death.

Jimmy Boyd the singer who recorded "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in 1952 died last month of cancer.

Boyd died on March 7 at the age of 70. He was in the classic movie “Inherit The Wind” and was on television shows like Ed Sullivan, Date With The Angels, Bachelor Father and My Three Sons.

He sang in Las Vegas at the Sands Hotel and was so popular the audience kept asking for more encores but was so popular the audience kept requesting more encores until Jack Entratter the boss of the Sands stopped him from singing any more encores since it was 2AM and he wanted the guests to start gambling instead of listening to Jimmy sing any longer.

Despite his success as a singer and actor he will always be remembered as the 12 year old kid who sang “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”

Five cent Cokes

The good old days when Coca-Cola sold for a nickel.

Those were the good old days when you could buy a six ounce bottle of Coca-Cola for only five cents. Now it usually cost over a dollar to buy a 20 ounce bottle of  Coca-Cola.

It is amazing that the price of Coca-Cola remained at five cents from 1886-1959. Not many products stay the same price over such a long period. Cokes out of the bottles back then seemed to taste better than the cokes out of bottles today but that is just my opinion.

This article tells more about the history of Coca-Cola and the five cent bottle:

http://www.slate.com/id/2165787/

If only Coca-Cola could come up with a diet Coca-Cola that actually tasted good. Usually with diet colas the drinker has to brace themselves for the bad taste they know is coming when they take the first sip.

Many years ago I drank a cherry coke from a soda fountain and until this day I have never encountered that taste again in a cherry coke product sold on a store shelf. The only way to get that sweet cherry flavor these days is to go to a convenience store that has cherry shots as an option in their soft drink dispensing machines. The first time I added the cherry shots to the coke or root beer it was like going back fifty years in time to recapture that special flavor I had missed for so long.