I lasted about 30 seconds on that one.    

And here I thought Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" was supposed to be the most annoying song (look up "Rickroll" if you don't get that joke )

Here's a fun version of "That Old Black Magic" featuring Billy Barty doing impersonations of several celebrities including James Cagney and Jimmy Durante

I know - I already posted this song, but I like it, so I here it is again.  Harry James and Helen Forrest, from the 1942 movie, "Springtime in the Rockies"

Here's the famous Jimmy Dorsey recording, of "Those cool and limpid" Green Eyes,  featuring Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell.  Popular during the WWII War years.   

A classic Irish song performed by a great old Irish tenor. Josef Locke was a well-known Irish tenor, particularly popular in the UK and Ireland in the 1940s and 50s. He was best known for "The Goodbye Song" from the musical White Horse Inn, but recorded numerous songs over the years. He died in 1999 at the age of 82.

What a beautiful voice he has!  I've always loved  "Danny Boy"  . . . such a sad and plaintive song . . . brings tears to my eyes every time. 

No voice - just flute

The great Mario Lanza performing "Vesta la giubba" in the 1958 film For the Last Time.

Another great song from Josef Locke

Mario Lanza my fathers favourite tenor singer..and O'h Danny Boy was a favourite with my fathers mother, my gran..I think my gran had called my father Danny, although he was Alf ( Alfie, ) but of course i am going back 60 or so years now..

A fun song from the 1950 film My Dream Is Yours, featuring Doris Day and Jack Carson, with special appearances by Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird. I think this segment is probably more well-known today than the rest of the film.

I've been stuck with this for two days. So now I'll pass it on ---

Jackie - When you mentioned that your father's name was Alfie, I immediately thought of the song that was very popular here about 50+ years ago or so.   Written by Burt Bacharach, for the movie Alfie, here is Johnny Mathis, singing the title song.   
https://youtu.be/CB5ISOpytmg[youtube]

Cilla Black is another who also sang " what's it all about, Alfie "

Cilla Black was great. This was probably her biggest hit, at least here in the US. It peaked at #1 in the UK (her second consecutive #1, following her rendition of Dionne Warwick's "Anyone Who Had A Heart") and #26 in the US. I'm surprised she wasn't more well known over here with a voice like this, but she was competing with Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and several others around that time.

A catchy Hawaiian-themed instrumental from the 1960s. The Waikikis were a studio group out of Belgium of all places. Despite that, this tune became a staple of anyone recording a Hawaiian-themed album at the time and has been recorded by over a dozen other artists. Vocal versions also exist in Norwegian ("Slå dej lös!", which translates to "Get loose!") and German ("Kleine Südseerose", which translates to "Little South Sea Rose").

I didn't know Frankie Vaughn was British.

One of the more famous Irish songs. This one has been recorded by a large number of artists from various genres and countries, including Burl Ives, Thin Lizzy (the Irish group that hit it big in the US with "The Boys Are Back In Town" in 1976), Roger Whittaker, Metallica and Bryan Adams among many others.

Another famous Irish tune. This recording was made in 1912 and is one of the oldest known recordings of this song.

One of the many great songs that Roger Miller wrote for the 1985 Broadway musical Big River. Although the musical isn't that well-known today, Miller earned a Tony award for his music for the production. Hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote "Chug-a-Lug" and "Dang Me" among other novelty songs.

We might be more familiar with Wink Martindale so, here is another version of it sung by Don Williams..
Deck Of Cards..

Also performed by the great Red Sovine, who isn't as well known as he should have been. He was better known for his trucker-themed songs - particularly the tearjerker "Teddy Bear".

A fun take on the classic Bill Carlisle song "Too Old to Cut the Mustard". Jerry Glenn was a guitarist, producer and songwriter (also known as Jerry Kennedy - Glenn was his middle name apparently)

The only one of that last batch I knew of was Roger Miller, but I never heard that song before.

The earliest exposure I had to popular music and Rock n' Roll was what I saw on the Ed Sullivan Show, Perry Como Show, Dinah Shore Show, and Lawrence Welk. And then -- along came American Bandstand which first aired in 1952. Even Les Elgart played on American Bandstand.

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I do not remember when I started listening to music on the radio.

MarsGal -  I used to set my baby daughter in front of the TV every afternoon (in her infantseat) to watch American Bandstand.  She liked to watch the dancers and seemed to really enjoy the music.  This was from Spring of 1958 to 1959 when we lived it San Pedro, CA.  My husband was stationed at Fort MacArthur there, and played in the 72nd Army Band.

Also you mentioned Les Elgart. While we were living in San Pedro, we went to the Hollywood Palladium a number of times with Army friends, to go dancing.  The last band I remember seeing there, was Les Elgart.  I still remember a song he played that I really liked at the time . . . It Could Happen To You.  I'm going to see if it's on YouTube, and if so, I'll post it here.