On Music Mondays, GBH’s All Things Considered spins a new edition of our Turntable series, where we catch up with a GBH music fan to hear what’s on their playlist.
This week, Undar the Radar host, Callie Crossley, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to listen to a few of her faves. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: Let’s dive right in. What is the first song we’ll be listening to?
Callie Crossley: I leaned hard into ballads, specifically jazz ballads, for these playlist picks. So first up, we’ve got Dinah Washington’s “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes.”
This was a song I heard a lot growing up because my parents played a lot of Dinah Washington, among other jazz vocalists. Whenever I go to a jazz club and they ask for requests, this is what I request. It’s like a song interpretation question for me to see how various jazz vocalists sing it. It’s usually in their repertoire because it’s kind of a classic. And Ledisi recently just did a cover of it.
[“What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” — Dinah Washington]
Rath: Oh, that’s good stuff. I love this pick, Callie, because, for a ballad, it’s an interesting song. I can’t sing along with it because it’s a hard song to sing well.
Crossley: Oh, I can sing it. I sing it in the hallways at GBH all the time.
Rath: You’re better than me.
Crossley: No, I’m not better than you, but I don’t mind not being better and singing it out loud and proud.
Rath: Callie, what do we have for song number two?
Crossley: Next, we’ve got “You Won’t Forget Me” by Shirley Horn, who has passed. I was, and still am, a Shirley Horn fanatic. I spent a lot of time at the Regattabar and elsewhere listening to her. You know, this is snuggle-up music, you know, with your favorite person.
[“You Won’t Forget Me” — Shirley Horn]
Rath: Callie, I can’t stand talking over this because I love it so much. Isn’t it wonderful? Shirley Horn was the first celebrity that I met when I was an intern at NPR back in 19...
Crossley: Oh my God.
Rath: Yeah, I got her to sign a record. I could barely talk to her.
Crossley: How fabulous. I mean, she’s just extremely fabulous, and this is wonderful. Imagine the Regattabar, low lights, nobody’s talking, no clinking of glasses. We’re just focused on her and her wonderful voice.
Rath: I never got to see her there, but I can call that up very easily in my mind. So this, you’re just doing great here, Callie.
What do you have for us for number three?
Crossley: Last one on the list is “Get Here” by Oleta Adams. Now this song harkens back to some romantic times in my past when the beau and I were doing a lot of long-distance connecting. It’s great.
[“Get Here” — Oleta Adams]
Rath: That’s so nice, I’ve not heard that in a long time. We’re talking 1990s?
Crossley: It’s a Wayback Machine song. It’s wonderful, though.
Rath: Speaking to my Gen X soul, that’s so nice. And I could very much see how that would be a long-distance kind of love song.
Crossley: Oh, absolutely. And I got to see her sing this in person. So I just love it even more because of that experience.
