Sound Beat

Cold, Cold Heart

Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown

Everything Melba

Dame Nellie Melba’s Farewell speech, recorded at Covent Garden in 1926. Plus...dessert!

Honey in the Rock

The Carter Family’s rendition of "Honey in the Rock", a Coral Record from 1949.

In the Still of the Night

Nighttime is often the right time for thoughtful reflection..especially when one is on guard duty in the Army.

Whoopin’ the Blues

One of the most distinctive signature sounds in all of recorded music.

Put It There Pal!

A buddy song from two of the best buds in the biz.

Ambassador of Love

You're listening to Pearl Bailey from 1946 and you're on the Sound Beat. Pearl made her Broadway debut that year, performing "It's a Woman's Prerogative" in St. Louis Woman. Though audiences weren't enamored of the play, her performance marked the beginning of a decades-long love affair between Bailey and the American public. That "special time together" included a Tony award for Hello, Dolly! and later pop-culture staples like "The Love Boat", "The Muppet Show" and "Hollywood Squares". Ol'...

Big Stuff

Billie Holiday was known to record with ease, often needing only one take for her best studio recordings. This tune, however, was a whole different story.

Insurance Policy Blues

What happens when the high-gloss worlds of archived sound and auto insurance collide? Hope you’ve got a policy for excitement.

Camp Meeting Jubilee

Alan Freed may have been the first to attribute "Rock and Roll" to a musical form, but he wasn't the first to use the words together.

The Walking Blues

Censorship has been a big issue in the U.S. since, well, before there was a U.S.

The Awakening of Scrooge

You’re listening to Bransby Williams with Charles Dickens’ redeemed cheapskate.

Begin The Beguine

As a musician, Art Tatum was a true original – if a recording sounds like Tatum’s…it almost certainly IS Tatum’s.

The Blue Tail Fly

You’re listening to Burl Ives with “Blue Tail Fly” from 1944 and…

To The North Pole!

Finding the North Pole is hard enough. The harsh terrain, subzero temperatures…oh, and the fact that the pole isn’t even located on land.

The Devil and Niccolo Paganini

Paganini's talents made him a celebrity, but also inspired "devilish" rumors.

The Okeh Laughing Record

This one’s good for a laugh.

Crazy with the Blues

History’s full of musicians claiming to have made deals with the devil. But only one claimed to have married into one.

25 Minutes to Go

Johnny Cash got a little help from a beloved children's book author on this one.

Whatever Lola Wants

Men, title, even a new name: whatever she wanted, she got.

The Death of a President

Cylinders served as much more than simple entertainment. This one aimed to capture, and perhaps ease, a nation’s sorrow.

I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier

A mother’s lament that perfectly encapsulated American anti-war sentiment.

Your Cheatin’ Heart

Legend has it this song came to Williams while with fiancé Billie Jean Horton. Just driving around, talking about standard fiancé stuff…like, his ex-wife.

The Little Man Who Wasn’t There

It’s hard to imagine a jazzy Hit Parade favorite having once been a poem…and a super-creepy poem at that.

Der Graf von Luxemburg

It’s that age old tale of love and marriage…and money.

Lester’s Savoy Jump

Considered one of the most influential saxophonists in history, Lester “Prez” Young succeeded Coleman Hawkins at the height of the swing era.

Crazy Blues

A milestone recording that came about quite by accident.

Bei Mir Bistu Shein

Sholom Secunda was a songwriter, not a fisherman. But he could tell you all about the “one that got away.”

12th Street Rag

Few today recognize the name Euday Bowman, yet during ragtime’s heyday Bowman’s 12th Street Rag was one of the most well-known tunes around.

The Fabulous Bremen Boys

When you think of early aviators, names like Wright, Earhart and Lindbergh probably spring to mind. But unless you're a confessed aviaphile, names like Cole, Fitzmaurice and  von Hünefeld probably do not. You're on the Sound Beat. When the three made an emergency landing in Greeley Island, Canada in 1928, they'd completed the first transatlantic flight, from East to West, mind you. It's a much more difficult trip in that direction due to dangerous headwinds. As a matter of fact, Charles Lin...

Murder on the High C’s

Do not adjust your radio. It’s actually supposed to sound like this.

Waltzing Matilda

Australia's unofficial anthem.

Old King Tut

  For listeners of a certain age, a song about King Tutankhamen immediately brings Steve Martin to the mind’s theater. His “King Tut” mock-reprimanded the commercialization of the Treasures of Tutankhamen exhibit that toured from 1976 to ’79.  But this one, “Old King Tut”, was recorded in 1923, the year AFTER the ancient Pharaoh’s tomb was found. Howard Carter and company made the discovery at a time when many had abandoned the famous Valley of the Kings. Shortly after confirming the validi...

Anchors Aweigh

You’re listening to Anchors Aweigh by the United States Naval Academy Band, and… You’re on the Sound Beat. Spelling seldom makes for great radio, but “Aweigh” in this case is spelled “A-W-E-I-G-H”, and it means that the anchors have been raised, and the ship is ready for action. It also makes this the perfect fight song for the US Naval Academy. The song was composed by Charles Zimmerman, the bandmaster of the Naval Academy Band, in 1905. It was first played publicly at the 1906 Army-Navy ...

Beethoven Hearts Bach

Johannes Sebastian Bach’s first published piece

Caldonia!

In his hit “Caldonia,” Louis Jordan wasn’t singing about his wife Fleecie Moore’s “hard head”, but, you know, he could have been.

Django!

One of the most influential guitarists in jazz, and indeed all of music history.

Square Dancing

Now grab your partner by the hand…

Cinderell-y Man

As far as boxing names go, there are lots of “Sugar Rays”, plenty of “Golden Boys”…but only one Cinderella Man.

Jolie Blon

Get out your Cajun dictionary...you're gonna need it.

All Shook Up

Elvis played guitar on this 1957 RCA recording, but…not in the way you’d think.

Oh Captain, My Captain

Walter Huston recites the words of Walt Whitman.

Mary and the Lamb

Well you know this one…the first verse anyway.

Rocket 88

One of the first songs in rock and roll history, and maybe the first to use guitar distortion…but, not on purpose.

Gallis Pole

Perhaps no man is more qualified to sing a song of impending execution than the "Murderous Minstrel" himself, Huddie Ledbetter.

Euridice!

One of the first operas. Period.

Big Maceo

You’re listening to Big Maceo, a pioneer of Chicago Blues, and you’re on the Sound Beat.

The Cruelest Cut

DISCLAIMER: Sound Beat, its producers and support staff do not, in any way, promote or condone the actions of 19th century Italian doctors or Opera House directors.

Stealin’

We’re going back, before tie-dye was even a thing, to the Grateful Roots: songs that influenced the Grateful Dead.