20/02/2011

This week, Russell pays tribute to two major contributors to the story of our music - singer Mary Cleere Haran and composer John Barry - but we start with songs that share a title and a theme.

Russell investigates two examples of My Resistance Is Low, one by Orrin Tucker and a much more famous one by Hoagy Carmichael. He wonders whether another song on the same subject, Irving Berlin's My Defenses Are Down from Annie Get your Gun, might have been inspired by Tucker's one.

The contribution of Mary Cleere Haran who died recently in Florida, the result of a cycling accident, is evaluated by Russell: We hear her first in a typical introduction to a performance at New York's Algonquin Room; thereafter in three songs, one in company with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.

Russell also remembers John Barry who died recently, playing two of his most famous compositions (sung by Shirley Bassey & Matt Monro) and one most untypical from the musical Billy.

The correction of an omission in a previous show about 1931 and an oblique nod to composer Percy Grainger, who died 50 years ago, complete the mix this week.