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

BBC Radio 2

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Russell Davies

Music: Easy Listening, Soundtracks & Musicals

BBC Radio 4 Extra

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

Russell Davies: 03/07/2011

Music: Jazz & Blues

03/07/2011

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Russell Davies, 03/07/2011

This show features Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, Edith Piaf, Harry Nilsson and more.

Russell continues to celebrate the art, craft and inspiration of the popular song. This show features Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, Edith Piaf, Harry Nilsson and more.

The observation that this week marks the death of one of popular music's most propulsive forces - Louis Armstrong - brings Russell to a short celebration of Satch, through two of his own recordings and one by an admiring contemporary: Ethel Waters.

Next, noticing that Jim Morrison, singer, poet and founder of The Doors died exactly 40 years ago, Russell notes that it's the most visited tomb in the Paris cemetery Pere Lachaise. This leads to a tour round the famous graves therein, through which we meet Dick Haymes and Edith Piaf, singing songs of Bruno Coquatrix. Both Coquatrix and Piaf lie there, as does Gilbert Becaud whose The Day the Rains Came is sung by Jane Morgan. 

Chopin, another occupant, is represented by Harry Nilsson's I'm Always Chasing Rainbows. Dancer Isadora Duncan and violinist Stephane Grappelli, who worked for her, are also buried here. Grappelli turns up on Jean Sablon's Prenez Garde Au Grand Mechant Loup. The cemetery is also home to a tomb dedicated to the 12th-century theologian Pierre Abelard, and he's mentioned in Cole Porter's Just One of Those Things [sung here by Rosemary Clooney]. 

The last Pere Lachaise resident of the show is Yves Montand whose greatest success was Les Feuilles Mortes. Russell then returns to the subject of Louis Armstrong for two more tracks and we close with a wartime novelty by Tony Pastor and His Band, Obey Your Air-Raid Warden!

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

03/07/2011

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