The Greatest Popular Song Ever

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At the live broadcast of Everything Old is New Again Live at the Metropolitan Room last Sunday, my heart leapt when I heard music historian David Hadju, author of the new history of popular music, Love For Sale, say that the most highly regarded popular song of all time was “All The Things You Are.” Well, of course, a statement like that is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, but it made me happy because I thought my obsession with that song (see here, here, and here) was strictly an idiosyncratic preference of mine. So it was nice to hear someone else say it.

And if you click on the grey triangle above, you can hear Mr. Hadju’s wife, singer Karen Oberlin, sing her lovely version of the song, complete with introductory verse.

Ms. Oberlin was just one of many fine performers in this second season of David Kenney’s and Frank Dain’s Everything Old Is New Again—Live aired on WBAI 99.5 FM NY. The other strong performers included  Alfio, Danny Bacher, Alex Leonard, Luba Mason, Tanya Moberly, T. Oliver Reid, Jacob Storms, and The Starlite Sisters. Definitely worth a visit, it’s the first Sunday of every month.

Good Things Happen Slowly

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Last Sunday,  David Kenney, of radio station WBAI’s Everything Old Is New Again program, generously kicked off a dynamite cabaret fundraiser series for WBAI at the chic Metropolitan Room in Manhattan. One of the highlights of this recent inaugural effort was Karen Oberlin’s moving rendition of David Hadju’s and Fred Hersch’s touching song, Good Things Happen Slowly.

David’s show can be heard on Sunday nights from 9-11pm on WBAI 99.5 FM, simulcast on WBAI.org on the Internet. And from now on, the first Sunday of each month will be hosted live by David from the Metropolitan. Karen Oberlin’s performance  is from the very first of this new series.

Click on the gray triangle to hear Oberlin’s heartfelt interpretation. (Hanky alert!)