BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

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Russell Davies

Music: Easy Listening, Soundtracks & Musicals

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Russell Davies celebrates the art, craft and inspiration of the popular song

Russell Davies: 10/04/2011

Music: Jazz & Blues

10/04/2011

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Russell Davies, 10/04/2011

Russell examines the word 'button' in the songwriters' lexicography.

Russell examines the word 'button' in the songwriters' lexicography. Along the way, we hear recordings from Billie Holiday, Mel Torme, Artie Shaw and many more.

This week Russell Davies examines the word "button" in the songwriters' lexicography - taking as a starting point, Push a Little Button, the Tony Hatch recording which features in the current TV Licence campaign.

Songs that include buttons come thick and fast - from Billie Holiday, Mel Torme, Guy Lombardo (in a somewhat obscure version of an ancient song called Hop Scotch Polka), Annette Hanshaw (in an archetypal '20s song), Betty Garrett (in an unusual interpretation of Buttons and Bows), Glenn Miller (whose roster of singers interpret a Cole Porter 'list' song), Artie Shaw (One, Two, Button Your Shoe), and an untypical number from the Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn show High Button Shoes (Can't You Just See Yourself in Love with Me).

Thereafter we have a new release from Rebecca Kilgore, a re-issue of Tony Bennett material, a memory of Billy Cotton's Sunday lunchtime shows, and, from another new release by Nicki Parrott and Ken Peplowski, How Could You Do a Thing Like That to Me.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

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Russell Davies

10/04/2011

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