The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa #115 Early BBC Music and Gramophone Records with Earl Okin
Our timeline has reached the end of the BBC's first year in November 1923. So we're looking back at music broadcast in that period, with gramophone enthusiast, expert and entertainer Earl Okin.
From the BBC's first song (Kreisler's Liebesleid, played 15 November 1922) to the last in the listings of its first year (John Ireland's Phantasie Trio in A Minor), it was a pre-jazz era of light opera and the odd dose of music hall.
Guiding us through songs that were on air, plus a few other favourites from that era, musician and comedian Earl Okin handpicks from his collection of over 10,000 78s, along with a few of Auntie's early favourites from elsewhere.
You'll hear the music and tales behind:
- Liebesleid – Fritz Kreisler
- Annie Laurie – Clara Butt
- Lemare’s Andantino – Cecil Dixon
- Abide With Me – Rex Palmer
- Piccadilly Trot – Mari Lloyd
- Softly Awakes My Heart – Marian Anderson
- The Blind Ploughman – Feodor Chaliapin
- if it Wasn’t the House In Between – Gus Elen
- On with the Motley/Vesti La Giubba – Enrico Caruso
- John Willie Come on – George Formby Sr
- Five Foot Two – The Savoy Orpheans
- Passing By – Paul Robeson
- Phantasie Trio in A Minor – John Ireland
SHOWNOTES:
- Earl Okin's Gramophone Show podcast is available wherever you get podcasts, eg http://earlokin.blogspot.com; https://www.earlokin.net/podcast
- John Hannon's Facebook post about Richard H White is here on our Facebook group.
- Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.
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Next time, Episode 116: The BBC's First Birthday
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio