WFMU: Summer Camp: Playlist from February 22, 2025

Listener comments!
	🎸 ♥ 9:27am Austin Rich: Good Hello!
	♥ 11:00am Asheville Jon: lurking
	🎸 ♥ 11:01am Austin Rich: ↳ Asheville Jon @11:00 But of course. How does that poem go? "Lurk, and the world lurks with you!"
	🎸 ♥ 11:01am Krys O.: Howdy!
	🎸 ♥ 11:02am Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @11:01 Good Morning! Here's a few pleasant tunes to keep our feet moving and our mind's grooving...
	♥ 11:05am Asheville Jon: ↳ Austin Rich @11:01 something like that
	11:07am Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:01 you rang? wait, that was Lurch
	🎸 ♥ 11:08am Austin Rich: I have been wanting to listen a little more closely to older music, and in my mind I was trying to think of an era that I like, but don't know well. I have more collections of music from the later 40's and 50's, and I know a smattering of music that was popular before that. As I was thinking about it, anything from around 1940 or older I'm not so familiar with. As a kid, there was an oldies station that played more music like this. As I get older, it's harder and harder to find music like this casually, on the radio. I guess I have to make the radio I want to hear in the world?
	🎸 ♥ 11:09am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:07 We Love The Lurch, too! It's the greatest dance craze to sweep the nation...
	♥ 11:13am WR: Hello Austin and folks. Listening while choring.
	11:14am Roger: ↳ WR @11:13 Hey WR, I posted the Ursa link, thanks for noticing it was missing
	♥ 11:15am gauche knee: ↳ Song: "Playmates" by "Kay Kyser & His College of Musical... Anyone remember this hand-clap game, was played on playgrounds in nyc up til early 90’s!
	🎸 ♥ 11:15am Austin Rich: As I was assembling these playlists, I had to resist the urge to play several songs by the same artist in the same hour. It's not that there wasn't enough music to fill two hours by different artists. More to the point, popular music was a lot different in 1940 than it became in the years afterwards. Shows that played music and only music had a much different approach, and would play the same artist for a whole show, or several songs by that artist. In 1940, the SONG was the star, and other groups would all rush to record their version of a popular song. So I was able to find multiple versions of all of these songs, by artists that you all probably have heard of. I went out of my way to not repeat songs, and try to include more artists than you would usually hear in a typical two-hour slot, in 1940.
	🎸 ♥ 11:16am Austin Rich: Thanks for tuning in, WR and gauche knee! I'm not familiar with the hand-clap game you describe! How did it work?
	11:16am Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:08 My Dad played a lot of 40's music, then I discovered Danny Styles show when I moved to NYC. Sadly, there is nothing to replace him. UNTIL NOW!
	🎸 ♥ 11:17am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:16 If this takes off, I might do a series, and follow this with a few shows from 1939, then 1938, 37...
	🎸 ♥ 11:20am Austin Rich: As implied: I have stuck to all records that were released in 1940. Obviously, people in 1940 listened to all the music that came before 1940 as well, so this aspect of the show is also pretty contrived. I don't think any DJ in 1940 ONLY played records from 1940. They would certainly mix it up a bit, since some hit songs from years past were still popular in 1940.
	🎸 ♥ 11:23am Austin Rich: While much of the rivalry was contrived for media, Bing and Frank were competing crooners in this era. Bing was thought to be of the older generation, where Frank commanded the younger fans. Sometimes Bing and Frank were used to illustrate that generation gap, and played up that comedy here and there in public appearances. I have no idea what they thought of each other in real life, but they loved to jokingly compete in public.
	11:24am Roger: ↳ Song: "Tuxedo Junction" by "Erskine Hawkins" I was going to request this!
	🎸 ♥ 11:24am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:24 Yeah, this tune rules! I think I'll play a different version for Part II, the next time I do this. It's a great tune!
	11:25am Roger: And Pennsylvania 6-5000
	11:25am Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:24 Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive schooled me on a lot of 40's goodies.
	🎸 ♥ 11:26am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:25 Ahhh, yes! It's not in this playlist, but I do have it for the future.
	♥ 11:31am gauche knee: ↳ Austin Rich @11:16 The Playmates hand clap game was taught to my friends by their moms & sisters heard it’s been around since the 1950’s despite the Playmates song being around since 1910’s . Here’s how the hand clap game went m.youtube.com...
	🎸 ♥ 11:35am Austin Rich: ↳ gauche knee @11:31 Oooo! Thanks for the link. I will investigate. I love the way that kids have a Oral Tradition, that keeps certain kinds of information in the collective consciousness.
	11:38am Roger: ↳ gauche knee @11:31 Wow, that's great! Thinking about how I can teach it on Double Dip Recess! I have played various versions of it over the years.
	♥ 11:47am gauche knee: Yes, Oral tradition is so vital to a rich vibrant culture. It’s especially important in times stories/histories are being erased purposefully or just eroded due to time. FMU DJ’s do a great service by keeping forgotten or hidden music /stories alive, greatly appreciated & a good time to boot!
	11:47am Roger: Really loving the show. How often is the rotation for Summer Camp?
	🎸 ♥ 11:48am Austin Rich: ↳ gauche knee @11:47 That's a good point! I have been feeling very down lately, for a lot of reasons. But maybe my role here at WFMU can be the thing I tie my thoughts to. I'm helping by helping keep this station alive!
	11:50am Mr Fab: Hey Austin, I’m semi-awake now! Cool concept for a show. Esp for a Saturday morning - Good way to slowly come to consciousness.
	🎸 ♥ 11:50am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:47 Right now we have regular DJs on the Second and Third weeks of every month, and I've voluntered to fill in for the rest of the Summer Camp weeks. I don't know how often I'll do this kind of show, but I preped about six or seven shows worth of songs, just in case.
	🎸 ♥ 11:51am Austin Rich: ↳ Mr Fab @11:50 I was saying earlier: there used to always be a station that played stuff like this when I was growing up, but now it's harder and harder to find. "Make the radio you wanna hear in the world!"
	11:53am Mr Fab: The Forties on 4 channel ain’t bad, lots of Big Band, but of course you have to pay actual $$ for SiriusXM.
	🎸 ♥ 11:54am Austin Rich: I sort of mentioned this in the VO, but I feel like one of the hallmarks of the transition from 1940 to 1950, in popular music, is the move from orchestras and big groups, to small combos and bands. A music group in 1940 would include a large number of performers and singers, men and women, so you could better serve the song that was currently hip. By the end of the 40's, you start to see much smaller groups, with one singer who has a bit of a gimmick.
	🎸 ♥ 11:55am Austin Rich: ↳ Austin Rich @11:54 There are, of course, many exceptions. But I think that frame helps give you some insight into the change in popular music from 1940 to 1950.
	♥ 11:56am gauche knee: ↳ Roger @11:38 Roger, Came here from your fantastic show! Would be so fun to hear a Playmates hand clap tutorial on DDR…a doozy of a puzzle to figure out sans visuals, lol! 🍀
	🎸 ♥ 11:57am Austin Rich: ↳ gauche knee @11:56 Maybe Roger could post images in the chat, that people could use to follow the audio instructions?
	12:00pm Barbaric Yawp: Loving 1940! Anything to take me away from The era in which we live now…..
	🎸 ♥ 12:05pm Austin Rich: ↳ Barbaric Yawp @12:00 It's not so much that I want to live in the past. There was too much wrong with the past, too. But I'd like the good parts of the past to exist now, and maybe have them replace all the awful parts of now.
	12:07pm Roger: ↳ gauche knee @11:56 ah, you are too kind. I don't know how long I can make the gifs that play....maybe that way. Maybe something else. Trying to solve a similar problem, as I am working with a former student of mine to do "dance instruction" on the show somehow. Workin' in it!
	12:07pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:57 this could work... a bunch of still images stacked
	🎸 ♥ 12:07pm Austin Rich: I allowed myself to repeat artists once an hour.
	12:09pm Roger: ↳ Song: "Sierra Sue" by "Bing Crosby" this would go well with Sioux City Sue, but that wasn't until 46
	🎸 ♥ 12:10pm Austin Rich: Sometimes I hear people say, "All music sounds the same today." Then I listen to a LOT of music from 1940, and I think, "You know, a lot of music from 1940 have very similar qualities..." I start to think that, maybe EVERY year has that same syndrome, and we're more prone to "wincing" at current music that all sounds the same?
	12:12pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:10 I think you are onto something.
	🎸 ♥ 12:12pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:09 I think there's a fair number of songs about different people named "Sue." I do think that name is sweet. I've been thinking about a show full of songs about women who are named in the song.
	🎸 ♥ 12:15pm Austin Rich: I remember thinking, in 1990, "Damn, every song on the radio sort of sounds the same." Now, 30+ years later, I hear a song and within a few notes, I can say, "Oh, that song is so 1990..."
	♥ 12:17pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:12 And the occasional boy (as a nod to Sheila B) at least for "Sue"
	🎸 ♥ 12:18pm Austin Rich: Listening to so much music from recent years, I love hearing something from an era where the drums aren't quantized, the singing isn't pitch-shifted to perfection, and the song is so much more organic. Sometimes the beat is just SLIGHTLY off on one measure. It's sort of nice to hear.
	🎸 ♥ 12:18pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:17 That song is AMAZING. That's a Shel Silverstein song, right?
	♥ 12:19pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:18 Yep
	🎸 ♥ 12:20pm Austin Rich: ↳ Song: "I'm Nobody's Baby" by "Judy Garland" I think I really imprinted on The Wizard of Oz as a kid, because I had a crush on Judy Garland for so long. Her voice is just the best.
	🎸 ♥ 12:21pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:19 That guy! Whenever I like a song that's in that vein, I often find out he had something to do with it. What a great songwriter.
	12:22pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:20 I wonder if kids still watch the Wizard of Oz, such an important touchstone for so many things. It used to be aired annually ( thanksgiving?) so there was kind of a national tradition. The days of mass group viewing are over, sadly.
	🎸 ♥ 12:23pm Austin Rich: 1940, the War was going in Europe, but the US had not entered the war. We were ignoring the horrors that were happening in the world around us, and often retreated into popular culture. (Movies, music.) I think people in 2025 can relate...
	🎸 ♥ 12:24pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:22 I have a 4K BluRay, so I can now watch it every year! I just replaced my old DVD I got almost 20 years ago.
	♥ 12:26pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:18 I read some papers studying the "decade effect" for work. Turns out a lot of it is production, including the loudness war of the '90s. One result that blew my mind is that it takes an average of less than two seconds for someone to identify the decade (defined as guessing the release date within 5 years) for mainstream stuff
	🎸 ♥ 12:27pm Austin Rich: I don't have any "LIVE" TV in my house anymore, unless I use some website to show me something like that, so it would be hard for me to know anything about how often any movie or show is shown on TV. But I bet there's probably some channel that still shows it every year, but the modern digital streaming wars have made most folks forget that it's happening.
	♥ 12:29pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:27 I'd bet Wicked will prompt more offerings
	🎸 ♥ 12:29pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:26 I totally believe that! I'm sure I'm not the only one that can pick out eras just on the sound of the recording. Those loudness wars were so dumb, and so real. Some albums were just RIDICULOUSLY compressed.
	🎸 ♥ 12:29pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:29 Oh, good point!
	♥ 12:31pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:29 Have you listened to ChartSweep? You can hear the production shifts, once you get through the trauma of reliving your teenage years
	12:32pm Roger: ↳ fred @12:19 I love Shel. He wrote another called "the Father of a Boy Named Sue" where the father says Sue's version of the song is wrong. One of my favorite lines is "He hit me in the navel and knocked out a piece of my lint" However the humor goes very dark. there's gay bashing, there's father on son incest (I'm not joking) ... Certainly not material for my show! Of an era, you might say.
	🎸 ♥ 12:37pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:32 Shel could get weird and dark in a lot of ways. I certainly don't know everything, but I remember some of his books having some very adult poems and themes in them, not all for kids.
	12:41pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:37 Oh yeah, he has some great adult books, not to be confused with his great kid material
	♥ 12:41pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:29 Not to depreciate your skills, but it's actually extremely easy. Just a few tenths of a second of frequency profiles are enough for a computer, no fancy AI needed
	🎸 ♥ 12:43pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:41 Like the artists I find the most interesting, they are complicated and have faults and make things that have varied audiences. I'll hopefully be described similarly, if I'm lucky.
	12:43pm Roger: There is a funny "cross over" book, Uncle Shelby's ABZ book, that looks like a kid's book, but is an adult spoof on a kids book. But nothing nasty about it.
	🎸 ♥ 12:43pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:41 Oh, sure. You can totally program for that kind of quality. I'm probably terrible at it, compared to some computers.
	🎸 ♥ 12:43pm Krys O.: I've been listening, but doing chores and making lunch. Lovely music, Austin.
	🎸 ♥ 12:44pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:43 Oh, right! I work at a bookstore, and I was trying to remember that title.
	🎸 ♥ 12:44pm Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @12:43 Thanks Krys! I had fun assembling this show.
	🎸 ♥ 12:46pm Austin Rich: One thing I think a lot of these songs have: pretty silly lyrics. A lot of them don't always make sense, some of them are just silly rhymes or just a few short lines before the music break. Pop music has always had a certain kind of, "Hey, we're just having fun! Even the lyricist!" quality to it.
	🎸 ♥ 12:47pm Krys O.: ↳ Austin Rich @12:44 I played the Andrews Sisters last week, and described how I was drawn as a kid to movies from the 1940s with their awesome musical segments. Films like those with Abbott & Costello had choice music.
	🎸 ♥ 12:48pm Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @12:47 Oh, yes! That's some of the best stuff in old movies: when the whole film stops for a musical number!
	12:49pm Mr Fab: ↳ Krys O. @12:47 I was probably the only kid at my school who liked dorothy Lamour’a “moonlight becomes you,” thanks to Abbott and Costello movie. Still a classic scene!
	♥ 12:49pm gauche knee: Great show & now see you have a radio theater show…dreamy!! Will be tuning in! Glad I stumbled on in here today, dancing my way out👯‍♀️
	🎸 ♥ 12:50pm Austin Rich: I'll have to do this more often, as this seems to have been a hit! Thanks everyone! Stay tuned for Krys O!
	12:51pm Mr Fab: ↳ Austin Rich @12:46 My mom used to sing that “Mairzy Dotes” song. It’s practically Dada.
	🎸 ♥ 12:51pm Krys O.: ↳ Mr Fab @12:49 Dorothy was in The Road films with Hope and Crosby. I loved those too.
	12:51pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:43 I'm not dissing Shel at all. I am huge fan and give him regular spins. I found that "father of a boy named sue" song when I was working on a fill-in for Honky Tonk Radio Girl, that started with Johnny Cash singing "Back Stage Pass", then Shel singing " a Front Row Pass to Hear old Johnny Sing" I was then going to follow up with JC doing a Boy Named Sue, then the Shel's sequel, until I gave it a good listen. Ah, the sets that never were...
	🎸 ♥ 12:51pm Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @12:51 Oh, right! Yeah, I should watch those again. They're silly fun!
	12:52pm Roger: ↳ Mr Fab @12:51 Ha, so true
	12:52pm Mr Fab: ↳ Krys O. @12:51 That’s it! Not Abbott & Costello, but “the road to Morocco,“ with Bob and Bing. That was my favorite of the “road” movies.
	🎸 ♥ 12:53pm Krys O.: ↳ Mr Fab @12:52 The humor was almost anarchic, and they always broke the fourth wall.
	🎸 ♥ 12:53pm Austin Rich: Didn't she invent radar or something?
	🎸 ♥ 12:54pm Krys O.: ↳ Austin Rich @12:53 Hedy Lamar created the technology known as signal hopping. It's used in cell phone towers, etc.
	🎸 ♥ 12:55pm Krys O.: I mess things up A LOT.
	♥ 12:55pm fred: ↳ Krys O. @12:54 A personal hero of mine
	🎸 ♥ 12:56pm Krys O.: ↳ fred @12:55 She really was a great actress and so beautiful.
	12:56pm Roger: great show, thanks!
	♥ 12:57pm WR: Thanks for bringing us some swing, Rich.
	♥ 12:57pm fred: "Be seeing you" reminds me of The Prisoner
	12:57pm Roger: Wow, I only know this song from one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons!
	🎸 ♥ 12:57pm Austin Rich: Thanks for tuning in!
	🎸 ♥ 12:58pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:57 It's one of my favorite TV shows. It's so wonderfully weird and great, and Mr. McGoohan was just the best!
	12:58pm Roger: ↳ Krys O. @12:56 Krys, sorry I am going to miss your show. Hope it goes great.
	🎸 ♥ 12:58pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:57 Bugs always had the best taste.
	12:59pm Roger: Little Red Riding Rabbit
	1:00pm Mr Fab: ↳ Roger @12:57 One of my favorite songs is “blues in the night,” but anytime I play it or sing it around the house, my wife starts singing the Bugs Bunny version:” my mama done told me/a buzzard is two-faced…”
	♥ 1:35pm coelacanth∅: Thanks Rich! (i was lurking)

Summer Camp: Playlist from February 22, 2025

An eclectic selection of musical s’mores from around the virtual campfire will be presented each week by a rotating cast of DJs. Summer has never been so campy.

Saturday 11am - 1pm (EST) | On WFMU's Sheena's Jungle Room
Sheena's Jungle Room LIVE Audio Streams (Get help): Pop-up | 128k MP3

<-- Previous playlist | Back to Summer Camp playlists |

February 22, 2025: Weekend Rewind 1940: Part 1

Listen to this show: MP3 - 128K | Pop-up listen Pop-up player!

Artist	Track	Approx. start time
Hour 1 "Hour 1"
The Andrews Sisters	Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar	0:00:25 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Glenn Miller & His Orchestra	Crosstown	0:03:17 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Cliff Edwards	When You Wish Upon A Star	0:06:12 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Bob Chester & His Orchestra	Practice Makes Perfect	0:08:08 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Kay Kyser & His College of Musical Knowledge	Playmates	0:11:19 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra	Pompton Turnpike	0:14:12 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Bing Crosby	The Singing Hills "The Singing Hills" by "Bing Crosby"	0:17:10 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Frank Sinatra	Imagination "Imagination" by "Frank Sinatra"	0:20:00 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Erskine Hawkins	Tuxedo Junction "Tuxedo Junction" by "Erskine Hawkins"	0:23:17 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Tony Martin	It’s A Blue World "It’s A Blue World" by "Tony Martin"	0:26:27 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Music behind DJ: Chalfont Orchestra And Singers	Falling Leaves	0:29:04 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	In A Mellotone	0:34:39 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Glen Gray & the Casa Loma Orchestra	No Name Jive	0:37:52 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Earl “Fatha” Hines	Boogie Woogie On St. Louis Blues	0:44:26 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Bob Crosby & His Orchestra	With The Wind And The Rain In Your Hair	0:47:16 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Frankie Masters & His Orchestra	Alice Blue Gown	0:50:27 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Benny Goodman & His Orchestra	Darn That Dream	0:53:09 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra	The Breeze And I	0:56:03 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Music behind DJ: Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra	Flying Home	0:58:59 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Hour 2 "Hour 2"
Glenn Miller & His Orchestra	Boog It	1:04:09 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Bing Crosby	Sierra Sue "Sierra Sue" by "Bing Crosby"	1:06:20 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Kay Kyser & His College of Musical Knowledge	Blue Love Bird	1:09:18 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
The Andrews Sisters	The Woodpecker Song	1:12:24 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Will Bradley & His Orchestra	There I Go	1:15:20 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Judy Garland	I'm Nobody's Baby "I'm Nobody's Baby" by "Judy Garland"	1:18:26 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
The Cats & The Fiddle	I Miss You So	1:21:18 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra with Frank Sinatra	Our Love Affair	1:24:03 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Artie Shaw & His Orchestra	All the Things You Are	1:27:03 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Music behind DJ: Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Cotton Tail	1:30:17 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Leo Reisman & His Orchestra	Do I Love You?	1:36:32 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Dick Jurgens & His Orchestra	A Million Dreams Ago	1:39:49 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Helen Forrest	How High the Moon "How High the Moon" by "Helen Forrest"	1:42:52 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Bob Crosby & His Orchestra	Down Argentina Way	1:45:37 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra	Let There Be Love	1:48:08 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra	It's A Wonderful	1:51:12 (MP3 \| Pop-up)

Ella Fitzgerald	Five O'Clock Whistle	1:56:34 (MP3 \| Pop-up)

RSS feeds for Summer Camp: Playlists feed | MP3 archives feed

| Email the Program Director | Other WFMU Playlists | All artists played by Summer Camp |

Listener comments!
	🎸 ♥ 9:27am Austin Rich: Good Hello!
	♥ 11:00am Asheville Jon: lurking
	🎸 ♥ 11:01am Austin Rich: ↳ Asheville Jon @11:00 But of course. How does that poem go? "Lurk, and the world lurks with you!"
	🎸 ♥ 11:01am Krys O.: Howdy!
	🎸 ♥ 11:02am Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @11:01 Good Morning! Here's a few pleasant tunes to keep our feet moving and our mind's grooving...
	♥ 11:05am Asheville Jon: ↳ Austin Rich @11:01 something like that
	11:07am Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:01 you rang? wait, that was Lurch
	🎸 ♥ 11:08am Austin Rich: I have been wanting to listen a little more closely to older music, and in my mind I was trying to think of an era that I like, but don't know well. I have more collections of music from the later 40's and 50's, and I know a smattering of music that was popular before that. As I was thinking about it, anything from around 1940 or older I'm not so familiar with. As a kid, there was an oldies station that played more music like this. As I get older, it's harder and harder to find music like this casually, on the radio. I guess I have to make the radio I want to hear in the world?
	🎸 ♥ 11:09am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:07 We Love The Lurch, too! It's the greatest dance craze to sweep the nation...
	♥ 11:13am WR: Hello Austin and folks. Listening while choring.
	11:14am Roger: ↳ WR @11:13 Hey WR, I posted the Ursa link, thanks for noticing it was missing
	♥ 11:15am gauche knee: ↳ Song: "Playmates" by "Kay Kyser & His College of Musical... Anyone remember this hand-clap game, was played on playgrounds in nyc up til early 90’s!
	🎸 ♥ 11:15am Austin Rich: As I was assembling these playlists, I had to resist the urge to play several songs by the same artist in the same hour. It's not that there wasn't enough music to fill two hours by different artists. More to the point, popular music was a lot different in 1940 than it became in the years afterwards. Shows that played music and only music had a much different approach, and would play the same artist for a whole show, or several songs by that artist. In 1940, the SONG was the star, and other groups would all rush to record their version of a popular song. So I was able to find multiple versions of all of these songs, by artists that you all probably have heard of. I went out of my way to not repeat songs, and try to include more artists than you would usually hear in a typical two-hour slot, in 1940.
	🎸 ♥ 11:16am Austin Rich: Thanks for tuning in, WR and gauche knee! I'm not familiar with the hand-clap game you describe! How did it work?
	11:16am Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:08 My Dad played a lot of 40's music, then I discovered Danny Styles show when I moved to NYC. Sadly, there is nothing to replace him. UNTIL NOW!
	🎸 ♥ 11:17am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:16 If this takes off, I might do a series, and follow this with a few shows from 1939, then 1938, 37...
	🎸 ♥ 11:20am Austin Rich: As implied: I have stuck to all records that were released in 1940. Obviously, people in 1940 listened to all the music that came before 1940 as well, so this aspect of the show is also pretty contrived. I don't think any DJ in 1940 ONLY played records from 1940. They would certainly mix it up a bit, since some hit songs from years past were still popular in 1940.
	🎸 ♥ 11:23am Austin Rich: While much of the rivalry was contrived for media, Bing and Frank were competing crooners in this era. Bing was thought to be of the older generation, where Frank commanded the younger fans. Sometimes Bing and Frank were used to illustrate that generation gap, and played up that comedy here and there in public appearances. I have no idea what they thought of each other in real life, but they loved to jokingly compete in public.
	11:24am Roger: ↳ Song: "Tuxedo Junction" by "Erskine Hawkins" I was going to request this!
	🎸 ♥ 11:24am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:24 Yeah, this tune rules! I think I'll play a different version for Part II, the next time I do this. It's a great tune!
	11:25am Roger: And Pennsylvania 6-5000
	11:25am Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:24 Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive schooled me on a lot of 40's goodies.
	🎸 ♥ 11:26am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:25 Ahhh, yes! It's not in this playlist, but I do have it for the future.
	♥ 11:31am gauche knee: ↳ Austin Rich @11:16 The Playmates hand clap game was taught to my friends by their moms & sisters heard it’s been around since the 1950’s despite the Playmates song being around since 1910’s . Here’s how the hand clap game went m.youtube.com...
	🎸 ♥ 11:35am Austin Rich: ↳ gauche knee @11:31 Oooo! Thanks for the link. I will investigate. I love the way that kids have a Oral Tradition, that keeps certain kinds of information in the collective consciousness.
	11:38am Roger: ↳ gauche knee @11:31 Wow, that's great! Thinking about how I can teach it on Double Dip Recess! I have played various versions of it over the years.
	♥ 11:47am gauche knee: Yes, Oral tradition is so vital to a rich vibrant culture. It’s especially important in times stories/histories are being erased purposefully or just eroded due to time. FMU DJ’s do a great service by keeping forgotten or hidden music /stories alive, greatly appreciated & a good time to boot!
	11:47am Roger: Really loving the show. How often is the rotation for Summer Camp?
	🎸 ♥ 11:48am Austin Rich: ↳ gauche knee @11:47 That's a good point! I have been feeling very down lately, for a lot of reasons. But maybe my role here at WFMU can be the thing I tie my thoughts to. I'm helping by helping keep this station alive!
	11:50am Mr Fab: Hey Austin, I’m semi-awake now! Cool concept for a show. Esp for a Saturday morning - Good way to slowly come to consciousness.
	🎸 ♥ 11:50am Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @11:47 Right now we have regular DJs on the Second and Third weeks of every month, and I've voluntered to fill in for the rest of the Summer Camp weeks. I don't know how often I'll do this kind of show, but I preped about six or seven shows worth of songs, just in case.
	🎸 ♥ 11:51am Austin Rich: ↳ Mr Fab @11:50 I was saying earlier: there used to always be a station that played stuff like this when I was growing up, but now it's harder and harder to find. "Make the radio you wanna hear in the world!"
	11:53am Mr Fab: The Forties on 4 channel ain’t bad, lots of Big Band, but of course you have to pay actual $$ for SiriusXM.
	🎸 ♥ 11:54am Austin Rich: I sort of mentioned this in the VO, but I feel like one of the hallmarks of the transition from 1940 to 1950, in popular music, is the move from orchestras and big groups, to small combos and bands. A music group in 1940 would include a large number of performers and singers, men and women, so you could better serve the song that was currently hip. By the end of the 40's, you start to see much smaller groups, with one singer who has a bit of a gimmick.
	🎸 ♥ 11:55am Austin Rich: ↳ Austin Rich @11:54 There are, of course, many exceptions. But I think that frame helps give you some insight into the change in popular music from 1940 to 1950.
	♥ 11:56am gauche knee: ↳ Roger @11:38 Roger, Came here from your fantastic show! Would be so fun to hear a Playmates hand clap tutorial on DDR…a doozy of a puzzle to figure out sans visuals, lol! 🍀
	🎸 ♥ 11:57am Austin Rich: ↳ gauche knee @11:56 Maybe Roger could post images in the chat, that people could use to follow the audio instructions?
	12:00pm Barbaric Yawp: Loving 1940! Anything to take me away from The era in which we live now…..
	🎸 ♥ 12:05pm Austin Rich: ↳ Barbaric Yawp @12:00 It's not so much that I want to live in the past. There was too much wrong with the past, too. But I'd like the good parts of the past to exist now, and maybe have them replace all the awful parts of now.
	12:07pm Roger: ↳ gauche knee @11:56 ah, you are too kind. I don't know how long I can make the gifs that play....maybe that way. Maybe something else. Trying to solve a similar problem, as I am working with a former student of mine to do "dance instruction" on the show somehow. Workin' in it!
	12:07pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @11:57 this could work... a bunch of still images stacked
	🎸 ♥ 12:07pm Austin Rich: I allowed myself to repeat artists once an hour.
	12:09pm Roger: ↳ Song: "Sierra Sue" by "Bing Crosby" this would go well with Sioux City Sue, but that wasn't until 46
	🎸 ♥ 12:10pm Austin Rich: Sometimes I hear people say, "All music sounds the same today." Then I listen to a LOT of music from 1940, and I think, "You know, a lot of music from 1940 have very similar qualities..." I start to think that, maybe EVERY year has that same syndrome, and we're more prone to "wincing" at current music that all sounds the same?
	12:12pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:10 I think you are onto something.
	🎸 ♥ 12:12pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:09 I think there's a fair number of songs about different people named "Sue." I do think that name is sweet. I've been thinking about a show full of songs about women who are named in the song.
	🎸 ♥ 12:15pm Austin Rich: I remember thinking, in 1990, "Damn, every song on the radio sort of sounds the same." Now, 30+ years later, I hear a song and within a few notes, I can say, "Oh, that song is so 1990..."
	♥ 12:17pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:12 And the occasional boy (as a nod to Sheila B) at least for "Sue"
	🎸 ♥ 12:18pm Austin Rich: Listening to so much music from recent years, I love hearing something from an era where the drums aren't quantized, the singing isn't pitch-shifted to perfection, and the song is so much more organic. Sometimes the beat is just SLIGHTLY off on one measure. It's sort of nice to hear.
	🎸 ♥ 12:18pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:17 That song is AMAZING. That's a Shel Silverstein song, right?
	♥ 12:19pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:18 Yep
	🎸 ♥ 12:20pm Austin Rich: ↳ Song: "I'm Nobody's Baby" by "Judy Garland" I think I really imprinted on The Wizard of Oz as a kid, because I had a crush on Judy Garland for so long. Her voice is just the best.
	🎸 ♥ 12:21pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:19 That guy! Whenever I like a song that's in that vein, I often find out he had something to do with it. What a great songwriter.
	12:22pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:20 I wonder if kids still watch the Wizard of Oz, such an important touchstone for so many things. It used to be aired annually ( thanksgiving?) so there was kind of a national tradition. The days of mass group viewing are over, sadly.
	🎸 ♥ 12:23pm Austin Rich: 1940, the War was going in Europe, but the US had not entered the war. We were ignoring the horrors that were happening in the world around us, and often retreated into popular culture. (Movies, music.) I think people in 2025 can relate...
	🎸 ♥ 12:24pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:22 I have a 4K BluRay, so I can now watch it every year! I just replaced my old DVD I got almost 20 years ago.
	♥ 12:26pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:18 I read some papers studying the "decade effect" for work. Turns out a lot of it is production, including the loudness war of the '90s. One result that blew my mind is that it takes an average of less than two seconds for someone to identify the decade (defined as guessing the release date within 5 years) for mainstream stuff
	🎸 ♥ 12:27pm Austin Rich: I don't have any "LIVE" TV in my house anymore, unless I use some website to show me something like that, so it would be hard for me to know anything about how often any movie or show is shown on TV. But I bet there's probably some channel that still shows it every year, but the modern digital streaming wars have made most folks forget that it's happening.
	♥ 12:29pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:27 I'd bet Wicked will prompt more offerings
	🎸 ♥ 12:29pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:26 I totally believe that! I'm sure I'm not the only one that can pick out eras just on the sound of the recording. Those loudness wars were so dumb, and so real. Some albums were just RIDICULOUSLY compressed.
	🎸 ♥ 12:29pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:29 Oh, good point!
	♥ 12:31pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:29 Have you listened to ChartSweep? You can hear the production shifts, once you get through the trauma of reliving your teenage years
	12:32pm Roger: ↳ fred @12:19 I love Shel. He wrote another called "the Father of a Boy Named Sue" where the father says Sue's version of the song is wrong. One of my favorite lines is "He hit me in the navel and knocked out a piece of my lint" However the humor goes very dark. there's gay bashing, there's father on son incest (I'm not joking) ... Certainly not material for my show! Of an era, you might say.
	🎸 ♥ 12:37pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:32 Shel could get weird and dark in a lot of ways. I certainly don't know everything, but I remember some of his books having some very adult poems and themes in them, not all for kids.
	12:41pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:37 Oh yeah, he has some great adult books, not to be confused with his great kid material
	♥ 12:41pm fred: ↳ Austin Rich @12:29 Not to depreciate your skills, but it's actually extremely easy. Just a few tenths of a second of frequency profiles are enough for a computer, no fancy AI needed
	🎸 ♥ 12:43pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:41 Like the artists I find the most interesting, they are complicated and have faults and make things that have varied audiences. I'll hopefully be described similarly, if I'm lucky.
	12:43pm Roger: There is a funny "cross over" book, Uncle Shelby's ABZ book, that looks like a kid's book, but is an adult spoof on a kids book. But nothing nasty about it.
	🎸 ♥ 12:43pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:41 Oh, sure. You can totally program for that kind of quality. I'm probably terrible at it, compared to some computers.
	🎸 ♥ 12:43pm Krys O.: I've been listening, but doing chores and making lunch. Lovely music, Austin.
	🎸 ♥ 12:44pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:43 Oh, right! I work at a bookstore, and I was trying to remember that title.
	🎸 ♥ 12:44pm Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @12:43 Thanks Krys! I had fun assembling this show.
	🎸 ♥ 12:46pm Austin Rich: One thing I think a lot of these songs have: pretty silly lyrics. A lot of them don't always make sense, some of them are just silly rhymes or just a few short lines before the music break. Pop music has always had a certain kind of, "Hey, we're just having fun! Even the lyricist!" quality to it.
	🎸 ♥ 12:47pm Krys O.: ↳ Austin Rich @12:44 I played the Andrews Sisters last week, and described how I was drawn as a kid to movies from the 1940s with their awesome musical segments. Films like those with Abbott & Costello had choice music.
	🎸 ♥ 12:48pm Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @12:47 Oh, yes! That's some of the best stuff in old movies: when the whole film stops for a musical number!
	12:49pm Mr Fab: ↳ Krys O. @12:47 I was probably the only kid at my school who liked dorothy Lamour’a “moonlight becomes you,” thanks to Abbott and Costello movie. Still a classic scene!
	♥ 12:49pm gauche knee: Great show & now see you have a radio theater show…dreamy!! Will be tuning in! Glad I stumbled on in here today, dancing my way out👯‍♀️
	🎸 ♥ 12:50pm Austin Rich: I'll have to do this more often, as this seems to have been a hit! Thanks everyone! Stay tuned for Krys O!
	12:51pm Mr Fab: ↳ Austin Rich @12:46 My mom used to sing that “Mairzy Dotes” song. It’s practically Dada.
	🎸 ♥ 12:51pm Krys O.: ↳ Mr Fab @12:49 Dorothy was in The Road films with Hope and Crosby. I loved those too.
	12:51pm Roger: ↳ Austin Rich @12:43 I'm not dissing Shel at all. I am huge fan and give him regular spins. I found that "father of a boy named sue" song when I was working on a fill-in for Honky Tonk Radio Girl, that started with Johnny Cash singing "Back Stage Pass", then Shel singing " a Front Row Pass to Hear old Johnny Sing" I was then going to follow up with JC doing a Boy Named Sue, then the Shel's sequel, until I gave it a good listen. Ah, the sets that never were...
	🎸 ♥ 12:51pm Austin Rich: ↳ Krys O. @12:51 Oh, right! Yeah, I should watch those again. They're silly fun!
	12:52pm Roger: ↳ Mr Fab @12:51 Ha, so true
	12:52pm Mr Fab: ↳ Krys O. @12:51 That’s it! Not Abbott & Costello, but “the road to Morocco,“ with Bob and Bing. That was my favorite of the “road” movies.
	🎸 ♥ 12:53pm Krys O.: ↳ Mr Fab @12:52 The humor was almost anarchic, and they always broke the fourth wall.
	🎸 ♥ 12:53pm Austin Rich: Didn't she invent radar or something?
	🎸 ♥ 12:54pm Krys O.: ↳ Austin Rich @12:53 Hedy Lamar created the technology known as signal hopping. It's used in cell phone towers, etc.
	🎸 ♥ 12:55pm Krys O.: I mess things up A LOT.
	♥ 12:55pm fred: ↳ Krys O. @12:54 A personal hero of mine
	🎸 ♥ 12:56pm Krys O.: ↳ fred @12:55 She really was a great actress and so beautiful.
	12:56pm Roger: great show, thanks!
	♥ 12:57pm WR: Thanks for bringing us some swing, Rich.
	♥ 12:57pm fred: "Be seeing you" reminds me of The Prisoner
	12:57pm Roger: Wow, I only know this song from one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons!
	🎸 ♥ 12:57pm Austin Rich: Thanks for tuning in!
	🎸 ♥ 12:58pm Austin Rich: ↳ fred @12:57 It's one of my favorite TV shows. It's so wonderfully weird and great, and Mr. McGoohan was just the best!
	12:58pm Roger: ↳ Krys O. @12:56 Krys, sorry I am going to miss your show. Hope it goes great.
	🎸 ♥ 12:58pm Austin Rich: ↳ Roger @12:57 Bugs always had the best taste.
	12:59pm Roger: Little Red Riding Rabbit
	1:00pm Mr Fab: ↳ Roger @12:57 One of my favorite songs is “blues in the night,” but anytime I play it or sing it around the house, my wife starts singing the Bugs Bunny version:” my mama done told me/a buzzard is two-faced…”
	♥ 1:35pm coelacanth∅: Thanks Rich! (i was lurking)

Summer Camp: Playlist from February 22, 2025

Listener comments!

(C) 2025 WFMU. Generated by KenzoDB, written 2000-2025 by Ken Garson