Sound Beat

You’re listening to Indian Love Call, recorded by Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy for Victor in 1936.

And…You’re on the Sound Beat

The song was originally featured in the Broadway production “Rose-Marie” which started its run in 1924. Legend has it that lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach traveled to Quebec after hearing of an annual “ice sculpture festival” – but must’ve gotten some bad intel. There was no festival. Ahh, simpler times.

Still, they persisted, teaming with composers Herbert Stothart and Rudolph Friml to deliver the tale of love in the Candian Rockies..complete with murder and Mounties! It was one of the most popular musicals of the 1920’s, and was made into 3 separate films in 1928, 1936 and 1954. This song became McDonald and Eddy’s signature tune.

You’ve been listening to John Anderson, My Jo, based on a poem by Robert Burnssung by Elsie Baker in 1913. Check out our producer Jim O’Connor’s entire interview with Patrick Doyle right now.

Photo: Randi Hausken’s Heather.

(Interview)

You’ve been listening to an excerpt from Pelleas and Melisande by Scottish soprano Mary Garden with Debussy himself at piano. This exceedingly rare recording was made in Paris in 1904 and rerecorded in 1937.

(Interview)

You’ve been listening to Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, which served as the melodic inspiration for …”Catch a Falling Star”.

You’ve been listening to Heather Bells, a Scottish song recorded to cylinder in 1907 and featuring…that’s right, a glockenspiel.

(Interview)

You’ve been listening to March, Strathspey and Reel, a 1913 recording of the Highlanders Bagpipe Band. Check out our producer Jim O’Connor’s entire interview with Patrick Doyle right now

Photo courtesy of Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries

You’re listening to the Columbia Military Band with “Fight On”, recorded in 1939. Since that time “The Spirit of Troy” handles fighting duties.

The University of Southern California’s Marching band is one of the oldest and most accomplished in, well, marching band history. Christened “The Spirit of Troy” in reference to their Trojan mascot, they refer to themselves as “The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe” (EVER). Hard to argue, though. They’re the only collegiate band to have two platinum records…

They’ve also played the Academy Awards 3 times, most recently in 2009. That year they backed Hugh Jackman and Beyonce at the Oscars, as well as Radiohead at the Grammys.

They even cheered on Forrest Gump in the film, posing as Alabama’s marching band.

Learn more about college football fight songs on our blog!

You’re listening to Deep Elem blues, performed by Dick Stabile and His Orchestra, with vocal chorus by Billy Wilson. Deep Elm is a real town near Houston, Texas but the local pronunciation led to that Deep El-um branding.

It was admittedly rough and tumble, and an early jazz and blues hotspot. In the 1920’s, Elem would attract the likes of Bessie Smith, Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The song was a Grateful Dead favorite, and Jerry Garcia was especially fond. He made it a regular with his side projects…of which there were many. At one time or another, Garcia played with, well, the Jerry Garcia Band, Old And In The Way, The New Riders of the Purple Sage…the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band…and don’t forget the seminal rock group listing him as spiritual advisor. Which one?

Almost a century before Twitter, Vaudeville was really tweeting.

The title “Aggie War Hymn” may sound a bit dramatic for a fight song. But it’s understandable when you consider the song was written on the banks of the Rhine after World War I by soldier and former student J.V. Wilson. Texas A&M was previously a military institution; indeed by 1918, 49% of graduates served in the military, more than any other school in the states. Accordingly, A&M doesn’t have an official fight song…they have a war hymn.

The song…er, hymn, makes much of the rivalry with the University of Texas Longhorns, buuuut, as the NCAA landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, the Aggies find themselves in the SEC, leaving the Longhorns and the Big 12 behind. The move angered many, ending a rivalry begun in 1894, and renewed yearly since 1915.

 Aggies in the stands seem to get just as much of a workout as those on the field.