Playlist For Sunday, May 2, 2021: Classic Je Ne Sais Quoi!

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi.

That's the quote that would end every Schickele Mix radio broadcast, created and hosted by Peter Schickele. Peter is perhaps best known as the creator (or shall we say discoverer!) of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictitious 17th child of Johann Sebastian. Every year Peter would proclaim to have unearthed another composition by this Bach sibling, like "Concerto For Horn And Hardart", "O Little Town Of Hackensack", and "Pervertimento For Bagpipes, Bicycles, and Balloons." And he'd also invent correspondingly ridiculous instruments to play these "works" on, like the dill piccolo and the left-handed sewer flute. He was a "serious" composer as well, having earned composition degrees from Swarthmore and Julliard, writing symphonies, earning Grammies, all that long-hair sorta stuff. 

 While in I was in college (SUNY Oswego), Peter did a concert AND a master class for music students. Of course, I was in the FRONT ROW for both. 

 

And if all that wasn't enough, he hosted a radio show back in the 1990s (aired on several public radio stations), and in that mix he would pull from a very WIDE spectrum of musical genres, cultures, and eras to demonstrate, for instance, the use of accapella or song-speak or trios. You know, Gilbert & Sullivan followed by Elvis Presley. (Three Little Maids meet The King?) All narrated by a witty, punning, tongue-in-cheek Peter. It was super. Humor "mixed" with a pretty damn good breadth of musical knowledge. I sooooo wish I had his talent(s). And chutzpah. 

 

 

So whenever you hear Hallelujah, Baby! snuggled up to James Brown "feeling good", that's who I'm emulating. It's deliberate. I'm TRYING. :))) 

All that to say, there won't be much of that mixing this week...this is a straight-out, Classic Broadway Edition, with no flying off to other crazy genres or categories. Just normal connectivity. But watch for IT, okay? Let's mix it up, folks. Otherwise, "it won't mean a je ne sais quoi".

Melancholy Serenade (Instrumental, The Jackie Gleason Orchestra)

The Lusty Month Of May (Julie Andrews, Camelot)

The Seven Deadly Virtures (Roddy McDowall, Camelot)

How To Handle A Woman (Richard Burton, Camelot)

C'est Moi (Robert Goulet, Camelot)

You're A Builder Upper (Christopher Fitzgerald, Jessica Stone, Life Begins At 8:40)

You're A Lovable Lunatic (Ken Howard, Seesaw)

You're A D'ysquith (Jane Carr, Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder)

Delishious (Bobby Short, Bobby Short Is K-RA-ZY For Gershwin)

Joey, Joey, Joey (Leslie Odom, Jr., Leslie Odom, Jr.) 

On The Street Where You Live (Harry Connick, Jr., 25)

Mama Will Provide (Kecia Lewis-Evans, "The Storytellers", Once On This Island)

Once Upon A December (Christy Altomare, Anastasia)

What A Game (Peter Friedman, Alex Strange, Ragtime)

If I Were A Rich Man (Zero Mostel, Fiddler On The Roof)

Matchmaker (Julia Migenes, Tanya Everett, Joanna Merlin, Fiddler On The Roof)

Prologue/Tradition (Zero Mostel, Company, Fiddler On The Roof)

Soon It's Gonna Rain (Rita Gardner, Kenneth Nelson, The Fantasticks)

I Can See It (Kenneth Nelson, Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)

Never Say No (Hugh Thomas, William Larson, The Fantasticks)

Meadowlark (Patti LuPone, Don't Monkey With Broadway)

Right As The Rain (Jessica Molaskey, Make Believe)

Sooner Or Later (Bernadette Peters, Sondheim, Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live At Carnegie Hall)

Perfidia (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy Stroman, Forever Plaid)

Cry (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy StromanForever Plaid)

Crazy 'Bout Ya Baby (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy StromanForever Plaid)

Song On The Sand (Gene Barry, La Cage Aux Folles)

The Best Of Times Is Now (George Hearn, Company, La Cage Aux Folles)