One of the guests was the routinely entertaining Regis Philbin. During the segment Philbin mentioned that Larry King knew a lot of old songs, and loved to sing them.
Philbin began singing a particular song, and asked King to sing it with him. The song was “So Long For a While,” which was the closing theme of Your Hit Parade, on both radio and TV. Philbin changed some of the words, to suit the occasion of King’s last show.
King, however, did not sing along; he was obviously a bit thrown by Philbin’s invitation to do so, and explained that he didn’t know the song.
Here is a video of the exchange between Philbin and Larry King. The Hit Parade-related portion of the segment takes place during the first minute and twenty seconds of the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGaDr9oOmr8
Here, too, is an audio recording of “So Long For a While,” from a spring of 1951 television broadcast of Your Hit Parade. The first vocalist heard is Eileen Wilson; she is followed by Snooky Lanson and Dorothy Collins. The entire cast then joins in.
