蜜芽传媒

With the centenary of American female athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias in the offing, Russell looks into the word "babe" in popular song - rather than the more common "baby" - through artists and entertainers associated with it.

He recalls it was Oliver Hardy's nickname; the nickname of songwriter Babe Wallace and a side-excursion via his A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird, sung by Louis Jordan, leads obliquely to Cliff Edwards' Six Women [Me and Henry Vlll] and also to Louis Jourdan with It's a Bore.

"Babe" songs follow in profusion, before Russell moves on to the association with Truman Capote and A Sleepin' Bee of Barbara "Babe" Paley. Saxophonist Babe Russin is heard with Frankie Laine, there's one final "Babe" song from Kay Starr; Ella sings Irving Berlin's plaintive How About Me, which returns us to "Baby" and Nat King Cole winds things up with a double dose through Bobby Troup's Baby, Baby All the Time.