There’s a PBS TV special that’s starting this week, called My Music: The British Beat. It’s hosted by none other than Petula Clark. No, I haven’t seen it yet! But I will. It sounds like a fun show, but I think it’s one of those specials that’s run in between pledge requests. Here’s a blurb about it:
In February 1964, a young English rock ‘n’ roll quartet called the Beatles arrived on U.S. shores, kicking off a musical explosion that took the country by storm – and reverberates to this day. PBS revisits the time when the nation’s airwaves grooved to the swinging sounds of London in MY MUSIC: THE BRITISH BEAT. Britain’s first lady of song, Petula Clark, hosts this all-star reunion of some of the best of the British Invasion and performs her #1 million-seller “Downtown.” Beloved duo Peter and Gordon reunite for the first time in nearly four decades to perform their hits “World Without Love” and “I Go to Pieces.” Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of the Zombies bring back the British psychedelic pop sound with the Brit-rock anthems “Time of the Season” and “She’s Not There.”
THE BRITISH BEAT includes numerous #1 Billboard hits such as “Wild Thing” by the Troggs, “To Sir With Love” by Lulu and “Game of Love” by Wayne Fontana, original lead singer of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, who also reprises the favorite “A Groovy Kind of Love.” An archival performance of her 1966 worldwide smash “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” pays tribute to the late Dusty Springfield, while vintage clips from “The Ed Sullivan Show” provide era-defining moments from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
One of the first urban cowboys, Frank Luther (August 4, 1905 – November 16, 1980) made a career out of supplying urban listeners with their fix of traditional country music. A Kansas native, Luther was a professionally trained pianist who played in several vocal groups in his home state before moving to New York in 1928 and meeting fellow Kansas transplant Carson Robinson. The duo wrote and recorded several songs targeted at urbanites [including “Barnacle Bill The Sailor” – DogRat] and regularly guested on a country radio program hosted by Ethel Park Richardson. When Luther met and married a fiddler who had once played with Robinson named Zora Lyman, he began to move away from country music, preferring to write and perform children’s music. ~ Steve Kurutz, All Music Guide
