Happy Easter and Happy Passover to our readers around the world. We
moved our Saturday movie night to Good Friday for Mel Gibson's
blockbuster The Passion Of The Christ. So, for the weekend proper, here's a special podcast, audiophonically adapted from an essay that appears in Steyn's book A Song For The Season.
This year marks the centenary of the most famous pop hit about Easter
- sort of. Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade" has its origins in a very
obscure chin-up song from the Great War written in 1917. In this audio
special, Mark traces its origins as a First World War morale booster to
its re-emergence a generation later as the American Songbook's only
Easter standard. Along the way, we'll also explore the long languished
tradition of Easter parades, the meaning of the word "rotogravure", and
whether anyone actually could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet.
To accompany Mark on the trail of this American anthem, there are
musical performers from Al Jolson and John McCormack to Frank Sinatra
and Rosemary Clooney - plus Irving Berlin himself and a young George
Gershwin. And we'll also touch on a few other numbers that played a role
in this song's story, from "God Bless America" and "Pack Up Your
Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag" to "Hooray For Hollywood" and the haunting
"Supper Time".
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