The Neon Beat on Radio George - 1.30.17

On the Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 1: The Ames Brothers launch this week’s set singing a great jazz standard, “Undecided.” Then Barbra Streisand takes the stage with a fine cut from her highly acclaimed “Broadway Album.” Enjoy some period instrumentals with Morris Stoloff’s “Theme from Picnic,” Bert Kaempfert with “Wonderland by Night” and a 1967 instrumental by The Brass Ring used as image music for Benson and Hedges cigarettes. We’ll remember a great British drama starring Sydney Poitier with the theme from “To Sir with Lohttp://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/
ve’ sung by Lulu. Frank Sinatra sings a snappy version of the song “S’posin. We’ll bring together Bing Crosby with Rosemary Clooney as we “Come to the Mardis Gras.” Hear Kansas City’s Marilyn Maye with a theme from the Broadway play, “Sherry.” Andy Williams sings his 1963 hit, “Can’t Get Used to Losing You.’ Then we’ll count the “Flowers on the Wall” with the Statler Brothers. Hear a sexy rendition the song, “Quiet Nights and Quiet Stars” with Sarah Vaughn, “Memories” by Elvis Presley, and a great old standard by The Casinos. Lots more! Listen at:

On The Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 2: Bobby Goldsboro begins this hour with his surprise hit. A song written by Mac Davis called “Watching Scotty Grow.” Then we’ll reunite the Association to sing two of their chart hits with Barry Manilow. “Cherish” and “Windy.” Listen to The Carpenters with “Rainy Days and Mondays.” We’ll remember the period film “the Graduate” as Simon and Garfunkel sing “Mrs.’ Robinson.” Listen to hit instrumentals by Herb Alpert and the TJB doing their first charting hit “The Lonely Bull,” Henry Mancini with the theme from “Charade” and David Rose with “the Stripper.” Here some 1950’s favorites with Terry Gilkyson and the EZ Riders singing, “Marianne,” Doris Day with “Everybody Loves a Lover,” and The Platters, “Only You.” We’ll enjoy a little Brit invasion music with that big hit by the New Vaudeville Band as we revisit “Winchester Cathedral.” Enjoy some more movie music with the Lettermen and the theme from “A Summer Place” and Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye from “Cat Ballou.” (Bites like the devil!!) Tom Jones, Ray Charles, Jo Stafford and more. Leave comments, see the lists at: http://theneonbeat.blogspot.com/

On the Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 3: Sammy Davis Jr takes the stage for one of his many hits off Broadway, “I’ve Gotta Be Me.” Then listen to a toe tapper by Kansas City’s “Rhumba Girl” Nicolette Larson. (by request) Tony Bennett sings with the Count Basie Orchestra a song about that windy city, and Wilburt Harrison sings one about that city of fountains. We’ll track a bluesy number by Perry Como called “Dream on Little Dreamer” followed up with a Cole Porter song from the film “High Society” with Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong. From the Neon Jazz collection, introducing Lisa Gary, with a tender rendition of “I’ll Be Seeing You.” We’ll step on the set of Stagedoor Canteen for Benny Goodman backing Peggy Lee for “Why Don’t You Do Right?” Listen to show instrumentals by Paul Mauriat and Henry Mancini. We’ll spin records like Patti Page’s “Old Cape Cod” and Johnny Mathis’s “What Will My Mary Say?” You’ll hear a back-of-the-rack selection by Earl Grant called “The End” followed by Oklahoman Kay Starr with “The Man Upstairs” and “The Reverend Mister Black” by The Kingston Trio. Listen now at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/

The Neon Beat on Radio George - 1.25.17

On The Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 1: The Marvelous Marilyn Maye launches this week’s selections with her rousing standard that has kicked of many of my radio shows, “Step to the Rear.” Trini Lopez takes the stage next for a salsa version of “Lemon Tree.” The Lettermen sing their version of “Shangri La” followed by a film song called “Georgie Girl” performed by Australia’s own, “the Seekers.” Enjoy wonderful Broadway selections sung by Mel Torme, Doris Day and Louis Armstrong. Frank Sinatra remembers how “It Happened in Monterrey.” We’ll spin some classic folk by the Kingston Trio as we remember poor Charlie and “the MTA.” Get your kicks
on “Route 66” with the Nat King Cole trio. Robert Goulet performs a great big band standard entitled “I’ll Get By as Long as I Have You.” You’ll hear period instrumentals by Ralph Flanagan’s Orchestra, Ralph Marterie, Walter Wanderley’s Hammond B-3 organ, and Arthur Fieldler conducting the Boston Pops with Chet Atkins. Rosemary Clooney sings a song with Benny Goodman’s Orchestra. Hear songs with Dusty Springfield, and Leroy Van Dyke with “The Auctioneer.”
Listen at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat

On the Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 2: Actor, comedian Jerry Lewis kicks off this set with his 1956 hit, “Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (Jerry sings!) We’ll follow that up with Les Brown and his Band of Renown with the Ames Brothers singing, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.” Hear some great rock-n-roll/jazz fusion with Blood Sweat and Tears doing, “And When I Die.” We’ll track instrumental selections by Hugo Winterhalter, Billy Vaughn, Leroy Anderson, and Spencer Ross. Hear Barry Manilow performing a song he wrote for Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Listen to Bing Crosby singing a song with actress Grace Kelly, “True Love.” Hear Nat King Cole sing the song, “Tenderly” followed up with The Association singing a film song from “Goodbye Columbus” followed by another movie song with Doris Day from the film, “the Man Who Knew Too Much.” Sing along with Mitch Miller doing, “Shine on Harvest Moon”, the Crew Cuts with “Sh’ Boom” and Harry James with Helen Forrest singing “I’m Beginning to See the Light.” Hit songs by Jane Morgan, Bette Midler and Eddie Fisher.
Leave comments and see the lists at: http://theneonbeat.blogspot.com/

On the Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 3: Frank Sinatra begins this hour with Nelson Riddle’s Orchestra singing, “You Do Something to Me.” Then we’ll spend “An Evening in Roma” with the kid: Dean Martin. Listen to the Chordettes with their 1960 hit, “Never on Sunday.” Listen to a couple of back-of-the-rack hits with Don Cherry singing, “Thinking of You” and Jill Corey’s “Love Me to Pieces.” You’ll hear a 1955 hit by a talent from Wellington, Kansas named Chuck Miller performing “The House of Blue Lights.” Nat King Cole spells out that four letter “L” word, “LOVE,” followed by Engelbert Humperdinck’s version of “Spanish Eyes.” We’ll pair up Glen Campbell with Bobbie Gentry for the song, “Morning Glory.” Hear the Andrews Sisters with a song written by Morey Amsterdam (from the Dick Van Dyke show), “Rum and Coca Cola.” Enjoy some honey in the horn with Al Hirt playing, “Java” and a lush version of “Yellow Bird” by period jazz vibraphone artist, “Arthur Lyman.” You’ll hear a country music set with Jimmy Dean, Eddy Arnold. Then laugh a little with the classic standup by Andy Griffith, “What It Was, Was Football.”
Listen at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat

The Neon Beat on Radio George - 1.18.17

On The Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 1: Going into the new week, still, with some minor internet issues. Which we hope to have resolved by mid week. Bear with us as we migrate Radio George to a new hosting site to smooth out the dropouts. Juke 1 begins with The Lettermen singing a great Paul Anka song, “Put Your Head on my Shoulder.” Then we track a bit o-grease as we spin “Little Darlin” by the Diamonds. Perry Como follows with “Jukebox Baby” and a hit song by The McGuire Sisters. Enjoy a little classic folk with Peter Paul and Mary with their version of “Lemon Tree.” Dean Martin performs one of his hit standards, “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You,” and then we “Let Ourselves Go” as we play a swinging version of an Irving Berlin song sung by Ella Fitzgerald. Enjoy a Broadway favorite by Robert Goulet from “Porgy and Bess.” Frank Sinatra laments a “Same Old Saturday Night.” Barbra Streisand sings a film standard, “Taking a Chance on Love.” We’ll team up Doris Day and Buddy Clark with a 1947 tease called “Love Somebody (but I won’t say who). Enjoy period instrumentals with Herb Alpert and the TJB, and the soulful clarinet of Acker Bilk. Hear hit songs by Sam Cooke, Patti Page, Lou Rawls and more.
Listen today at: (fingers crossed) http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/

On the Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 2: Tony Bennett launches this hour singin’ with the Mitch Miller Gang a song from “Bye Bye Birdie.” Sammy Davis performs a fun live Vegas version of the song “On A Clear Day.” (listen for the end and Sammy’s reference to Eastern Airlines.) Enjoy some great big band with Harry James with Helen Forrest singing, “It’s Been a Long Long Time.” We’ll put Frank Sinatra together with Keely Smith for the song, “How Ya Fixed for Love?” and then enjoy actress Judy Garland with the song “I Got Rhythm.” Listen to some great period groups like, The Hilltoppers, The Limeliters, The Vogues, and the Lovin’ Spoonful.” Pat Boone performs one of two top charting 1957 hit songs, “Love Letters in the Sand,” followed with Peggy Lee’s “A Doodling Song.” We’ll track some hit instrumentals by Bert Kaempfert and Horst Jankowski’s “A Walk in the Black Forest.” Watch out for those “American Boys.” That according to Brit talent Petula Clark. Hear songs with Nat King Cole singing with The Four Knights, Robert Goulet and Les Baxter. Listen now at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/

On The Neon Beat, Jukebox 3: Tom Jones storms on stage with his biggest hit record, “She’s a Lady.” A song written by Paul Anka. Next we go to the London/Parrot label for Engelbert Humperdinck’s comeback hit, “After the Loving.” Listen to Sarah Vaughan with her lush rendition of “Misty” with an orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones. We’ll track a hit song sung by Paul Anka used as imaging music for Eastman Kodak. Listen to movie/film music with Rosemary Clooney singing a song from “The Harvey Girls,” Ferrante and Teicher with “the Theme From Exodus”, and Doris Day’s “Secret Love” from “Romance on the High Seas.” Frank Sinatra will brew up a little “Witchcraft” with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. We’ll bring in The Gaylords for their charming hit, “the Little Shoemaker.” We’ll spin some great Burt Bacharach-Hal David music with Dionne Warwick singing “I Say a Little Prayer” followed up by “The Straight Life” with Bobby Goldsboro. We’ll blow ya a kiss with Jimmie Rodgers 1958 hit song, “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.” We’ll close the hour with the Village Stompers hit record, “Washington Square.” Much more. Listen now at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/

Neon Beat Update on Radio George - 1.9.16

On the Neon Beat this week: Well kids we’re into week two of an apparent hack and meltdown of our hosting site and though, it’s better than last week, the streaming of the Neon Beat is still undergoing periodic outages and dropouts. Radio George is acting quickly as possible to move to a new host. Meantime, be assured the trouble is not in your set. Nor is it a danger to your computer as you listen. The problem is totally isolated to the hosting end. This week’s offerings, along with the great selection of the artists you know and love, include some songs sung by the late actress Debbie Reynolds. Again, sorry for the problems. We are working on a solid solution and hope to have this thing back on all fours shortly. Thanks for the input from those of you who have written in. It’s those comments that let us know that this was, indeed, network wide. As we tech-y guys say: DOS is good! (21 groan salute) Have a great week! John

Neon Beat Update on Radio George - 1.3.16

On The Neon Beat this Week: Some problems to begin the new year. Please note: The trouble is not in your set. Read on. Quick Note on Radio George Status/Performance
You may have experienced unexplained pauses and/or delays in music on Radio George the last couple of days, especially on The Neon Beat. Our site host came under a Denial of Service hacking attack 3 days ago, which is causing visitors a lot of annoyance.

Don't worry about anything affecting your computer!

This is a massive attempt by some hacker to cause trouble for the web host company, not for the sites it hosts. The "shields were up" right away when the trouble started, and the ripple effects are simply nuisances.

We have literally spent hours with techs and engineers checking this out for your safety and are as happy as we can be to say that any slowdowns are purely on our end and cannot affect your computer.
When will it end? Amazingly enough, no one can even make a likely guess! The general consensus seems to be anytime between a few minutes from now to a few more days.

We can tell you that we've already begun steps to add another layer of security so that if anything like this should happen again, Radio George will not be affected by it--and yes, there is a way to do that!
So hang in there with us. We'll let you know when everything is back to where it's supposed to be in the January 2017 newsletter---soon, we hope!

Kind regards,
Radio George Team

The Neon Beat on Radio George - 12.27.16

On The Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 1: Rosemary Clooney powers up this set with a song used as a period track in the first season of the TV series “Madmen.” Then we bring on the horn of Louis Prima as the “Music Goes Round and Round” and it comes out here. “Make Yourself Comfortable” with Sarah Vaughan. Enjoy period instrumental selections with Hugo Winterhalter’s RCA Orchestra with jazz pianist Eddie Heywood, Benny Goodman’s “One O’clock Jump” and Michel Legrand’s Orchestra with “Delicado.” Hear some lovely film music from Doctor Zhivago sung by the chorus of Ray Conniff. Dean Martin croons the song “Just in Time” followed bhttp://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/
y an old 1960’s folk favorite by The Seekers. Enjoy a lovely 1953 hit with the Ames Brothers, “You, You, You.” Then listen to Dinah Shore’s version of the song “Love and Marriage.” We’ll track a rousing version of “Kansas City Here I Come” sung by Kansas City’s own Marilyn Maye. Listen to Johnny Mathis sing ‘A Certain Smile” backed by the orchestra of Percy Faith. Songs by The McGuire Sisters, Al Martino, Andy Williams and more. Listen now at:

On The Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 2: The Four Lads kick off this set with the Ray Conniff singers singing “Put a Light in the Window.” Frank Sinatra takes the mic next with Nelson Riddle’s Orchestra with a song about The Windy City. Then daughter Nancy performs a song from the James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice.” Enjoy some great period TV music with the theme from “Mission Impossible” by Lalo Schifrin. Nat King Cole performs a great Fats Waller standard, “Aint Misbehaving” followed by a fun find from the back of the rack sung by Margaret Whiting. We’ll play some great film music with Judy Garland performing an old Al Jolson standard, and a song from South Pacific sung by Perry Como. Mel Torme sings “Get Outta Town” followed up with some swingin’ big band with Harry James. Hang on to your hat as Gogi Grant sings her 1956 hit, “the Wayward Wind.” Then we’ll spin a one-hit-wonder record for a group called, “Sumpthin’ Smith and the Redheads.” Hear The Platters, Tony Bennett and more.

On the Neon Beat this week, Jukebox 3: America’s sweethearts, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme open this hour with an old big band era song, “Bei Mir Bistu Schon.” (spell check!) Perry Como takes the stage next for a bluesy favorite called, “Dream on Little Dreamer.” Then hear an early Nat King Cole hit, “Nature Boy.” We’ll team up Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters for “Pistol Packin’ Mama.” Listen to a lovely song that won the Academy Award for the best original song in the 1936 production of “Swingtime.” The Lettermen sing, “The Way You Look Tonight.” Then listen to the keyboards of Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher as they play a great song from “West Side Story.” A Texas dance instructor named Mary Martin will perform the hit song that put her on the map, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Then listen to Frank Sinatra sing a torch song called “The World We Knew” followed up with some great big band as Billy May’s orchestra play, “Stompin’ at the Savoy.” We’ll spin The Association with “Cherish” and Herb Alpert and the TJB with “the Mexican Shuffle.” Hear songs by Tony Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Dinah Washington, and more.
Listen now at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/

The Neon Beat on Radio George - 12.19.16

On The Neon Beat this week: Join us for this week's Christmas extravaganza, with a pleasant blend of Christmas music. Hear The standards, glorious instrumental selections and some back of the rack stuff you may not have heard in a long time. I'll be there offering some commentary, context, and tidbits about the songs and the artists we know and love. Artists like Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Al Caiola, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Norman Luboff's Choir, The Cincinnati Pops, The London Symphony, Louis Armstrong, Kay Starr, Barbra Streisand Robert Goulet, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, Pearl Bailey and many more. Like a big wonderful reunion. Join me, John Christopher, for this holiday edition of the Beat called, Neon Christmas!
Listen now at: http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat.htm