The Best Music From the 1920s to 1950s! From Swing to Oldies! With Real Retro-Vintage Commercials!
Megaton Cafe Radio is playing original vinyl recordings from Pre to Post Atomic Age. The very best 1920s to 1950s original artists, songs, PSAs and Old Time Commercials unedited, as the way they were originally recorded back then to re-create this amazing Retro-Vintage style!
11/28/2023
MEGATON WEBSITE & HOLIDAYS EVENT!
Greetings everyone!
We worked very hard and Megaton Cafe Radio now has a brand new website! Our new website is now perfect for all browsers, tablets and phones and we still have the same web-address as before: https://www.megatoncaferadio.com
We hope you'll enjoy it!
It is also this time of the year when we all want to
remember the very old classics from the Holidays!
Megaton Cafe Radio is now playing the very best Holidays songs from the 1920s to the 1960s featuring all your favorite original artists recorded on 78rpm shellacs to vinyl records!
The event will last until December 26th midnight EST.
Please keep in mind, as usual, we are not a 100% Holidays station so the songs will play from time to time only in between all the classics you already love!
Thank you all being such faithful listeners!
MEGATON CAFE RADIO
07/21/2023
R.I.P. Mr. Tony Bennett. Age 96. (1926-2023)
Megaton Cafe Radio will post Mr. Bennett's biography and will have a major music update this upcoming weekend.
04/27/2023
MEGATON SPOTLIGHT
Harry Belafonte (1927-2023)
Harry Belafonte not only popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s but also became one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award!
Born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927 in Harlem, New York City as the son of Jamaican-born parents Harold George Bellanfanti Sr. and Melvine Love.
Belafonte joined the U.S. Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a janitor's assistant. At the end of the 1940s, Belafonte took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop.
Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York around 1948. he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others. He launched his recording career as a pop singer on the Roost label in 1949.
He signed a contract with RCA Victor in 1953. Belafonte's first widely released single, which went on to become his "signature" song was "Matilda", recorded April 27, 1953. Belafonte's breakthrough album Calypso (1956) became the first LP in the world to sell more than 1 million copies.
It was the first million-selling album ever in England. The album is still number four on Billboard's "Top 100 Album" list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1 and 99 weeks in the USA. The album introduced America, and England audiences to calypso music.
One of the songs included in the album is the now famous "Banana Boat Song" and featured its signature lyric "Day-O" At the end of the 1950s and early 60s RCA Victor released another calypso album, Jump Up Calypso, which went on to become another million seller including the Jump In The Line song composed by Lord Kitchener.
Belafonte's fifth and final calypso album, Calypso Carnival, was issued by RCA in 1971. Belafonte's recording activity slowed considerably after releasing his final album for RCA in 1974. From the mid-1970s to early 1980s, Belafonte spent the greater part of his time on tour.
In 1985, Belafonte helped organize the Grammy Award-winning song "We Are the World", a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa. He performed in the Live Aid concert that same year. In 1987
Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He performed sold-out concerts globally through the 1950s to the 2000s. He also supported the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s confidants.
After 47 years of marriage Belafonte and Julie Robinson divorced in 2004. In April 2008, he married photographer Pamela Frank.
Harry Belafonte died from congestive heart failure at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City on April 25, 2023 at the age of 96.
Greetings everyone!
It is now this time of the year when we all want to remember the very old classics from the Holidays!
Megaton Cafe Radio is now playing the very best Holidays songs from the 1920s to the 1960s featuring all your favorite original artists recorded on 78rpm shellacs to vinyl records!
The event will last until December 26th midnight EST.
Please keep in mind, as usual, we are not a 100% Holidays station so the songs will play from time to time only in between all the classics you already love!
Thank you all being such faithful listeners!
MEGATON CAFE RADIO
11/29/2022
Greetings everyone!
We almost made it this month, a big thank you again for our donators and the ones with monthly subs.
We are still a bit short of making the server cost for the bandwidth you are all using monthly, but by not that much, so with more, good generous souls, we will have a fully functional radio station 24-7, and that it will not stop before the end of each month.
The radio station will be back online in 48h.
On December 1st!
We will also bring back the near 10 years old tradition which are all the Holiday Classics from the 1920s to the 1950s you all love so much!
Thank you again being such faithful listeners!
-Robert
Megaton Cafe Radio Station! Playing 20s to 50s Jazz, R&B, Rock, Swing, Big-Bands, Crooners & Sirens with Special Requests! A Blast...From the Past!
10/28/2022
MEGATON UPDATES
Upcoming update (From Oct 28th to Nov 1st)
Greetings everyone!
After a very hard time, the last few years have been harsh for us at Megaton Cafe Radio both emotionally and financially, and probably for most of you as well. We hope the hard times are in the past now and will remain in the past.
Our beloved and unique radio station came very close to an end, not long ago as donations were at an all time low and we were struggling to keep it afloat by ourselves paying for the servers, the website domain, 78rpms acquisitions and everything else from our own pockets.
Megaton Cafe Radio is a unique radio station growing everyday with more songs and more faithful listeners from all around the world. Our page is also an archive with tons of biographies from all the artists you all love from the early 1920s to the late 1950s.
If you can support the radio station with donations, please do so on our official web page at https://www.megatoncaferadio.com and use our Paypal link. Like some already did, thank you so much by the way, you can also set monthly donations with Paypal. 5$, $10, $20, $50, $100, even a small $2 per month will help us greatly.
That said we will try our best to come back as the way we were prior to 2020, and to bring you monthly music updates, authentic old times commercials from the radio, PSAa and artists biographies.
The station will be down from Oct 29th to November 1st to bring you our latest update in memoriam of Jerry Lee Lewis who passed today Oct 28th at the age of 87. It will include a lot of old Juke Box Classics, Rock & Roll, and amazing Jazz.
Thank you again, so much, being faithful listeners of Megaton Cafe Radio for almost 9 years now! Without you, this station wouldn't exist.
Kindly
- Robert
Megaton Cafe Radio Station! Playing 20s to 50s Jazz, R&B, Rock, Swing, Big-Bands, Crooners & Sirens with Special Requests! A Blast...From the Past!
10/28/2022
MEGATON SPOTLIGHT!
Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-2022)
Early rock 'n roll pioneer famous for his controversial life, Lewis was a real atom bomb with his high energy stage presence. He died at the age of 87, Friday October 28th 2022
With his innovative and flamboyant piano playing and catchy uptempo songs, Jerry Lee Lewis emerged as one of rock music's early showman in the 1950s. He was born in the small community of Ferriday, Louisiana, where his musical talents became apparent early on. He taught himself to play piano and sang in church growing up.
When he was 10 years old, Lewis got a piano of his very own. His father mortgaged the family farm to buy the instrument. He gave his first public performance at the age of 14. Lewis wowed the crowd gathered for the opening of a local car dealership with his piano prowess.
Lewis eventually ended up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he found work as a studio musician for Sun Studios. In 1956, he recorded his first single, a cover of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms,"
In 1957, Lewis became a star with his unique piano-driven sound. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" became a hit on the pop, country and R&B charts. By this time, Lewis had also developed some of his famous stage antics, such as playing standing up and even lighting the occasional piano on fire. He had such energy and enthusiasm in his performances that he earned the nickname "The Killer" for the way he knocked out his audiences.
Lewis appeared to be on a roll. His next single, "Great Balls of Fire," proved to be another big hit in December 1957. The following March, Lewis struck again with "Breathless," when he decided to marry his cousin Myra Gale Brown. On their marriage license, Brown stated she was 20 years old, but she was really only 13 at the time. News of his underage bride broke as Lewis started a tour of the United Kingdom in 1958, creating such an outcry that the tour was quickly cancelled. Even when Lewis returned to the States, he found that he got a less-than-warm welcome home. Radio stations refused to play his songs, and Lewis had a hard time lining up any live performances.
Still Lewis managed to score one more hit with "High School Confidential" in 1958 before his career took a nosedive.
Lewis never left the rock world completely. He revisited some of his older songs as well as the works of Chuck Berry and John Fogerty on this popular recording. A bleeding ulcer almost cost him his life in 1981.
Luckily, the rest of the 1980s turned out much better for the music legend. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, becoming one of the first performers to receive this honor. A new generation music listeners got introduced to Lewis through the 1989 biopic Great Balls of Fire. Lewis was played by actor Dennis Quaid.
The nearly lifelong musician and singer continued to record new music and perform in the 2000s. He has released two well-received albums in recent years. For 2006's Last Man Standing and 2010's Mean Old Man. His daughter, Phoebe Lewis, has worked as his manager and served as a producer on some of his albums. Phoebe is from his third marriage to Myra Gale Brown.
In 2012 Mr. Lewis married his seventh wife, Judith Brown, with whom he spent his final days on their Nesbit, Mississippi, ranch. He died at the age of 87 on Friday October 28th 2022. Mr. Lewis is survived by his wife, sons Ronnie and Jerry Lee Lewis III, and daughters Phoebe and Lori Lee.
11/23/2021
MEGATON CAFE RADIO:
"Swing, Jazz & Holyday Mega Update!
Greetings everyone! It's been a while!
This update is a massive one to our beloved radio station!
This is it finally!
We've worked very hard this time to find a lot of new original 78rpms shellac records and 45rpms as well. The music has been added to the radio station and ready to go!
This is also the time of the year when we all want to remember the very old classics from the Holidays!
Starting today until December 25th Megaton Café Radio will play the very best Holidays songs from the 1920s to the early 1960s featuring all your favorite original artists recorded on 78rpm shellacs and 45rpm vinyl records!
The event will last until December 25th midnight EST.
Please keep in mind, as usual, this is a seasonal event, we are not a Holidays station so the songs will only play from time to time in between all the classics you already love!
This huge update is effective immediately! "On Air"
-Music and Artists
-New PSAs and Civil Defense Messages
-New Old Time Ads from the 1940s to 1950s
-Holyday ol' time Classics
PSAs: (taken from the original radio station broadcasts)
-Protect Yourself!
-Survival under Atomic Attack!
Music & Artists: (Swing & Jazz era)
-Fletcher Anderson
-Fats Navarro
-Benny Goodman
-Artie Shaw
-Glenn Miller
-Bix Beiderbeckle
-Bob Crosby
-Charlie Barnett
-Count Basie
-Gene Krupa
-Harry James
-Stan Kenton
-Line Renaud
-Helen Kane
-Helen Forest
-Martha Tilton
Holyday Special: (1930s to 1959)
Bing Crosby
Doris Day
Branda Lee
Burl Yves
Gene Autry
Bobby Helms
Tennessee Ernie
Darlene Love
Peggy Lee
Django Reinhnardt
Billie Holiday
Jimmy Soul
Dean Martin
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald
Louis Prima
Chuck Berry
The Penguins
Judy Garland
Hal Kemp
Nat King Cole
Elvis Presley
Thank you all being so patient with us!
And most of all, thank you being such faithful listeners!
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Megaton Cafe Radio posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
It all started with a collection of World War II “V-discs” owned by my grandfather. Back then, the label was a morale-boosting initiative involving the production of recordings by arrangement between the U.S. government and record companies. Many popular singers, big bands, and orchestras recorded V-discs. The name referred to both the label and the discs, which were 12-inch vinyl 78rpms produced from October 1943 to May 1949.
My dad played those V-disc records a lot when i was younger, all the big bands, the blues, crooners and sirens and R&Bs always playing in the background as far as i can recall. I grew up with the music from that era, without truly knowing what it was, but enjoying it a lot.
One day on TV, was playing an old movie from the 1980s called: The Day After. The film was about a war that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. The action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several farmers family living near nuclear missile silos. It was the 1st time ever we could see the devastating power of a nuclear war on TV. I was terrified by the movie but also became fascinated by what my dad called: The Atomic Age.
I then started to study everything about that era in books my dad had at home, the public service announcements from the radio (PSAs), the nuclear shelters, the effects of fallout and radiations and of course the music playing at that time and the songs related to the era as well. My love for all the music playing during WWII up to the end of the 1950s was so great that i asked my dad for a record player who could play 78s, 45s and 33rpm vinyls.
Over the years, we started a big collection of vinyl records of all kinds, but mostly searching for the rarest of them all, the very old original 78s shellac recordings from RCA Victor, Brunswick, Decca, Columbia label and such. Later, i also became a big fan of the series of games called Fallout which was also mixing a great deal of old music into a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by a nuclear war. It became my favorite game series of all time to this day.
The idea behind creating Megaton Cafe Radio was to re-create the era surrounding the Atomic Age as you could hear it back then on the radio. With new technology, servers and turntables being able to play all the old records we had, it was made possible on August 2015. We’ve decided to include the amazing music from the 1920s to the end of the 1950s, with a transfer of the old records we had into a playable format for the radio station without remastering the songs or altering them in any ways, simply playing them the way they were recorded. We also added all the old time radio commercials you could hear back in the days, the real PSAs, Conelrad radio tests and such, still adding more as time goes by.
I personally hope that you truly enjoy the station as we do and all the great music from that fascinating era. To all our listeners: Thank you being faithful fans of Megaton Cafe Radio!
