Leonello Casucci

If you missed today's Serenade Radio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, here's a chance to hear it at SteynOnline. This weekend I trace the history of a very distinctive song from the twilight of the Habsburg Empire to the twilight of disco via an especially pitiful act of rock karaoke and the loss of the word "gigolette". To listen to the show, simply click above.

Welcome to the sixth presentation from our Serenade Radio series of Steyn's Song of the Week. This weekend I trace the history of a very distinctive song from the twilight of the Habsburg Empire to the twilight of disco via an especially pitiful act of rock karaoke and the loss of the word "gigolette". To listen to the show, simply click above.

This week's Song of the Week was the Number One song in America exactly ninety years ago, and was still generating bestselling records over half-a-century later. A lot of people recorded it nine decades back - Bing Crosby, Leo Reisman, Ben Bernie - and ever more in the years since. But this was where it began - February 1931, and a blockbuster hit for Ted Lewis and his band: If you're used to its late-twentieth-century iterations, dear old Ted's tempo will strike you as a touch lugubrious.