TOP WOMEN STARS

They were some of the biggest stars in the business from the 1940s onwards. they are this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artists with Greg Poppleton. Read on to discover one unusual fact about each of these three great singers, Jo Stafford, Georgia Gibbs and Dinah Shore. Plus, Fletcher Henderson shows us how to write a swing band arrangement with the Benny Goodman Orchestra on a 1938 Camel Caravan.

PHANTOM DANCER

This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online immediately after the 12 March 2SER live mix at 2ser.com.
You can hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney

JO STAFFORD

In 1950, Stafford began working for Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government broadcaster transmitting programmes overseas to undermine the influence of communism.[64] She presented a weekly show that aired in Eastern Europe, and Collier’s magazine published an article about the program in its April 21, 1951 issue that discussed her worldwide popularity, including in countries behind the Iron Curtain. The article, titled “Jo Stafford: Her Songs Upset Joe Stalin”, earned her the wrath of the U.S. Communist Daily Worker newspaper, which published a column critical of Stafford and VOA.

GEORGIA GIBBS

Her key attribute was tremendous versatility and an uncommon stylistic range from melancholy ballad to uptempo swinging jazz and rock and roll.

In her 2006 book, ‘Great Pretenders: My Strange Love Affair With 50s Pop Music’, Newsweek music critic Karen Schoemer wrote: “What really turned me around, though, were her R&B covers … Georgia was the rare fifties canary with a genuine flair for rock and roll … by the time I was through listening … I had a healthy new respect for Georgia, and a sense of indignation over her neglect by critics.”

DINAH SHORE

After failing singing auditions for the bands of Benny Goodman, and both Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Shore struck out on her own to become the first singer of her era to achieve huge solo success. She had a string of 80 charted popular hits, spanning 1940–1957, and after appearing in a handful of feature films, she went on to a four-decade career in American television, starring in her own music and variety shows from 1951 through 1963 and hosting two talk shows in the 1970s.

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is an hour Dinah Shore TV Show from 1960 featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Prado Perez and Al Hirt. Happy televiewing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onJifdtIsZU

12 MARCH PLAY LIST