Russell Davies - 26/07/2009

Frank Loesser, songwriter, composer and creator of some of Broadway's and Hollywood's most successful musical shows is under the spotlight this week with Russell singling out examples from The Most Happy Fella (The Four Lads and Jo Sullivan); The Perils Of Pauline (Betty Hutton) and Hans Christian Andersen (Lucy Reed and - from the soundtrack - Danny Kaye & Jane Wyman). Russell considers the possibility of one subject providing the seed for another, suggesting that a line from Schwartz & Dietz's Shine On Your Shoes is responsible for Loesser's Can't Get Out Of This Mood. One more Loesser novelty song Bloop Bleep , which we hear sung by the composer, gives rise to an exploration of plumbing in song. Russell comes up with some gems like The Bathtub Ran Over Again and - amazingly - Plumbing, a Cole Porter song from his 1933 show Nymph Errant.