The New Year holiday is upon us, with all of its festivity, its resolutions, and its high-and sometimes low-spirits.  We'll be celebrating and reflecting with music from Dean Martin, June Christy, Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, and a host of other artists, all as part of Afterglow's standard mix of jazz, ballads, and American popular song.  We'll feature a birthday  salute to New Year's Eve baby songwriter Jule Styne  (born Dec. 31, 1905) with a set of New Year's-appropriate Styne songs such as "Time After Time," "Three Coins in the Fountain," and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (we'll also talk about how the last song came to be written).  Other songs include some lesser-known and interesting tunes such as Bing Crosby's "Let's Start the New Year Right" (written by Irving Berlin for the film HOLIDAY INN, it was the B-side to "White Christmas!") and Nat King Cole's melancholic performance of Gordon Jenkins' "Happy New Year."  The program concludes with a rousing, vintage big-band-era recording of Vaughn Monroe doing "Auld Lang Syne." 

The New Year holiday is upon us, with all of its festivity, its resolutions, and its high-and sometimes low-spirits.  We'll be celebrating and reflecting with music from Dean Martin, June Christy, Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, and a host of other artists, all as part of Afterglow's standard mix of jazz, ballads, and American popular song.  We'll feature a birthday  salute to New Year's Eve baby songwriter Jule Styne  (born Dec. 31, 1905) with a set of New Year's-appropriate Styne songs such as "Time After Time," "Three Coins in the Fountain," and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (we'll also talk about how the last song came to be written).  Other songs include some lesser-known and interesting tunes such as Bing Crosby's "Let's Start the New Year Right" (written by Irving Berlin for the film HOLIDAY INN, it was the B-side to "White Christmas!") and Nat King Cole's melancholic performance of Gordon Jenkins' "Happy New Year."  The program concludes with a rousing, vintage big-band-era recording of Vaughn Monroe doing "Auld Lang Syne."