Dame Vera Lynn, the Forces’ Sweetheart, dies aged 103

The Radio Times ^ | June 18,2020 | Minnie Wright

[Songcraft]

God rest her soul.

[TBP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5C4meGkNyc

[mass55th]

Thanks!! That was great!!

[Sans-Culotte]

Johnny Mercer's G.I. Jive:

I always preferred Louis Jordan for G.I. Jive, which I heard a day or two ago on the Sirius 40's channel. I think Johnny wrote it, but Louis always cracks me up.

[mass55th]

I think I’ve heard Louis Jordan’s version at one time. He and Maurice Chevalier were great entertainers in their days. Doris Day also sang during the war, and of course Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Mercer wrote many tunes over the years. I’ve got a crapload of Big Band and WWII albums...both U.S. and British. I was the baby of the family born in ‘47. My two older sisters were into the 50’s music, so I grew up with all the great groups, and single artists like Pat Boone. Me and my 2nd oldest sister had to get ourselves white bucks because of Pat.

[Sans-Culotte]

I am about 9 years your junior, so WW2 songs are not something I was brought up on, but I have enjoyed hearing big band recordings and big band singers since I was in high school. I have several collections of those songs, too. that's why the Sirius '40s channel is one I listen to a lot, though I always change it if they play Billie Holliday. I never understood what people saw in her. She sounds like a drunk crack ho' to me.

About 30 years ago, I won a jukebox in a contest. It plays 45s, and I have it loaded with songs from the 40s, 50 and 60s and nothing later.

[Fiji Hill]

About 30 years ago, I won a jukebox in a contest. It plays 45s, and I have it loaded with songs from the 40s, 50 and 60s and nothing later.

Lucky you! Most of the music I listen to is from the mid-1920's to the onset of Beatlemania in the mid-'60's. But I'm not sure I can name so much as a dozen songs that charted from Ronald Reagan's inauguration to the present day.

[mass55th]

"About 30 years ago, I won a jukebox in a contest. It plays 45s..."

Reminds me of my high school days in the 60's. When lunch break came, a bunch of us kids would run a few blocks down from the school, and have lunch at the sweet shoppe. My mother gave me a dollar everyday, and I'd get a small tuna sub, a bag of chips, and a soda. And I'd still have a couple of nickels to put into the juke box they had there. I remember the place like it was yesterday.

[Fiji Hill]

How can people miss the best known use of this song;

Once while driving west along Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, Calif. late at night, I saw a bright light streaking through the sky in my direction, obviously a rocket. So I parked to watch the light streak overhead and turned on the radio.

I figured that if I heard the voice of Vera Lynn singing "We'll Meet Again," it would mean that the rocket was coming from the other side of the world. But I didn't hear her voice, which assured me that the launch was from Vandenberg Air Force Base up the coast.

[Fiji Hill]

A tribute to juke boxes, coke machines and photo machines.

Teenage Machine Age--The Travelers (1958)

[Sans-Culotte]

But I'm not sure I can name so much as a dozen songs that charted from Ronald Reagan's inauguration to the present day.

The 80's is probably the last time I kept up with new music. It was the MTV era, and there were a lot of one or two hit wonders at that time. My wife and I watch Jeopardy every day and we always groan when the topics are about pop culture from after the 80s. I mainly listen to classical these days. Listening to a Mozart symphony right now.

[mass55th]

Thanks...brings back some great memories. I see the song was from '58. I was 11 at the time. My oldest sister had graduated the year before, and my 2nd oldest sister was a Sophomore. My 2nd oldest sister bought the first stereo record player for our home. This is the vinyl sample record that came with it:

Living Sound