Happy(High String/Strung Diva)Birthday (Songs Abroad/Australia)
Australian coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland(1926-2010) was widely considered to be the world's greatest singer for 30 years (1960-1990). With the canny guidance of her husband/conductor Richard Bonynge, she became the most recorded operatic artist in history. The plain looks and sincerely down-to-earth manner of this "Voice Of The Century" only further endeared Dame Joan to her millions of admirers.
Waltzing Matilda (Songs Abroad/Australia)
Australia's National Anthem in all but name. Originally a dramatic narrative by poet A.B. "Banjo" Paterson set to a derived tune in 1895 by Christina Macpherson. Her family owned the Dawson Homestead, purportedly the site of a suicidal incident loosely akin to Paterson's story. Marie Cowan revised the words in 1903 as a jingle for Billy Tea, making the song nationally famous. A "waltzing matilda" is a knapsack, a "billabong" a waterhole.
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