As I’ve said on the air, I don’t really have any songs in regular rotation on SWING ON THIS, with the exception of the weekly “San Antonio Rose.” That’s a special case, of course, as the crackerjack SWING ON THIS researchers and I continue to try to find as many different versions as we can.
However, there are a few tunes I have a deep and abiding fondness for, and those may sneak onto the playlist as often as every two or three months.
I’m not only featuring two of those Saturday; I’m also sending them out to special folks. The first one is our glass-lifting number, “Hollywood and Wine,” by Rodney Lay and the Wild West. I believe this is one of the great drinking songs of all time, and I’ve shared that observation with Rodney himself (who neither agreed nor disagreed). This week, in addition to going out to all the glass lifters, I’m sending it to Jack Bender, who just celebrated a birthday, and Carole Bender, a recent inductee into the Ponca City High School Hall of Fame, due in no small part to her former work with Jack as the duo behind the Alley Oop comic strip.
The second, “There’s A Man That Comes to Our House,” is a ‘30s release by the Sweet Violet Boys, the name the Prairie Ramblers took when they recorded something a little naughtier than their mainstream swing and cowboy material. It’s one of those great double entendre numbers that seemed especially prevalent in pre-1940s America, and I’m sending it out in memory of a guy who really loved it — Tulsa drummer Jim Karstein, one of the great ones.
Plus, if you stick around until the end, you’ll hear Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys putting their own spin on a song many say was the very first rock ’n’ roll tune ever recorded.
That and the usual plenty more this Saturday, 7 p.m. Tulsa time, over radio station KWGS, 89.5 FM and live-streaming everywhere at publicradiotulsa.org. C’m’on along!
1. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
2. “Seven Come Eleven,” Tom Morrell and the Time-Warp Tophands
3, “Hollywood and Wine,” Rodney Lay
(for JACK & CAROLE BENDER and the GLASS LIFTERS)
4. “Hear Me Now,” Leon McAuliffe
5. “What’s the Chance,” Red Dirt Rangers
6. “There’s A Man That Comes to Our House,” Sweet Violet Boys
(in memory of JIM KARSTEIN)
7. “She’s Killin’ Me,” Hot Club of Cowtown
(for CARL EDDY)
8. “Swinging on the Garden Gate,” Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies
9. “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” Jo Stafford
(for HAMILL TIME)
10. “San Antonio Rose,” Mason Williams
(for AP MCQUIDDY, DONNA MATTHEWS, and PATRICK MAHONE)
11. “I’ve Got the Hesitation Blues,” Jimmie Widener
12. “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” Billy Parker and Johnnie Lee Wills
13. “Rosetta,” Michael H. Price and His Western Swingmasters
14. “Sixty Minute Man,” Hank Thompson