CD of the Week


Yes, the artwork is horrible, but the songs on "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?": Songs of the Depression are really nice to listen to. As you might guess, the High Hatters' version of "Ten Cents a Dance" is one of my favorite songs on this CD. Nor does it hurt that this CD contains Dick Robertson's surprisingly witty tribute to vocational hindsight, "If I Ever Get a Job Again." Then, of course, there's Eddie Cantor's classic mocking of Panglossian economics, "Cheer Up! Smile! Nertz! (Ballyhoo)" a song that seems almost as relevant today as it did back in 1931. Plus there's a great many songs on this CD including a version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" that has actual vocals.

It's not the easiest CD to find, but I found it to be worth the effort. After all, if we must relive the 1930s, we might as well have some decent music to listen to.

Pop Song of the Week: “Ten Cents a Dance”

I'll probably be posting less songs with the advent of Lent next week. Not that I consider these posts to be all that sinful but I originally started this blog to give me an opportunity to do a lot more writing than I'm actually do at the moment. And not hunting down songs to post every week should give me time to do that. I'll probably ease up on the quotes, too. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm posting one of my favorite songs from the 1930s, 1930's “Ten Cents a Dance” from the High Hatters. It's a nifty tune in which lead singer Welcome Lewis -- no, I didn't make that name up -- manages to sum up the downside of being a taxi dancer far more succinctly than Shirley MacLaine's Charity Hope Valentine managed to do in an entire movie. I originally encountered the song on an old CD of 1930s tunes that I recently purchased and I liked it so much I tracked it down on YouTube. I hope you all like the song and don't mind the less-than-interesting visuals.

And God bless those taxi dancers!