music Archives - Page 240 of 267 - Ramblin' with Roger

Till I Waltz Again With You is not a waltz

Rather than a waltz, it is a slow AABA shuffle.

Went to the doctor’s on Wednesday to deal with this chronic head cold/sore throat thing which is now a chest cold. She sent me to a place to get a chest X-ray to determine whether I have bronchitis or pneumonia; as it turns out, I have neither. So I’ve been home for a couple of days, taking an antibiotic, using an inhaler, and consuming some cough medicine which is a “controlled substance.” Did you know a physician in New York state can electronically submit most prescriptions, but that “controlled substance” Rx has to be hand-delivered?

This means I have some time to read blogs, but absolutely no energy to write anything.

Fortunately, Arthur came up with a birth meme:

1) Find the #1 single the week you were born.
2) Find it on YouTube.
3) Post without shame.

“If you want to do the meme, my suggestion is to Google ‘number one pop songs month year’, changing the month and year to when you were born; that’s easier than searching for the specific week because pop charts may end on different dates.”

Well, the winner for my week was Teresa Brewer’s Till I Waltz Again With You, which, as Wikipedia notes, “Rather than a waltz, it is a slow AABA shuffle.” It was actually #1 for five weeks, preceded by Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes by Perry Como and succeeded by The Doggie in the Window by Patti Page.

Here is the song, and here is her 1962 rerecording.

Y is for Yankovic, “Weird Al” Yankovic

He got his parody tapes to radio personality Dr. Demento when Al was still a teenager and his career slowly took off.

I was flipping through the channels on a Saturday morning – unusual, that – when I came across a BIOGRAPHY Channel piece on “Weird Al” Yankovic, which I was oddly compelled to watch. Then I came across this Bat Segundo interview, a very interesting listen.

Most novelty acts last a year or three. So how is it that Weird Al has managed to mine the music parody gig for nearly three decades? Not only that, he is more successful than ever, up for two Grammy awards in February 2012 and having a 2011 Top 10 album. Yankovic’s success comes in part from his effective use of music video to further parody popular culture, the song’s original artist, and the original music videos themselves, scene-for-scene in some cases. There’s a whole YouTube channel of Weird Al songs out there, so it’s difficult to narrow the list.

As a kid starting on the accordion, the instrument of non-relative Frank Yankovic, Al learned to play an unusual version of rock and roll. He got his parody tapes to radio personality, Dr. Demento, when Al was still a teenager and his career slowly took off.

Al usually has three basic types of songs on his albums, of which I have a half dozen: those that parody a particular song with new lyrics, generally with the express permission of the original artist; original songs, often in the style of a given group; and the polka medley, where a bunch of songs are strung together.

For instance, compare Al’s Eat It with Beat It by Michael Jackson. Or Al’s Smells Like Nirvana with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Many of the same sets and/or actors are used in both the original videos and Al’s renditions.

Just a handful of the parodies:
Ricky, a riff on the TV show I Love Lucy, taking the tune from Toni Basil’s Hey Mickey
Amish Paradise which came, via Coolio’s Gangsta Paradise, from Stevie Wonder’s Pastime Paradise
Gump, about the movie character Forrest Gump, based on the Presidents of the United States’ Lump
Polkas on 45, the first of the polka medleys
The Saga Begins, a Star Wars riff using Don McLean’s American Pie
And something I can really relate to:
I Lost On Jeopardy, based on Jeopardy by Greg Kihn, who’s in the last shot of Al’s video.

A 2011 non-parody tune contains an important message: Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me

As Wikipedia and the BIOGRAPHY special noted, Al tends to work clean. There are videos purporting to be Weird Al’s, usually “songs that are racist, sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive,” which often misspell his last name as Yankovich. So make sure you’re getting the real Weird Al Yankovic. This Funny or Die video isn’t really Al, but Al does appear in it in a small role.

From Correlated.org, a meaningless factoid: In general, 59 percent of people like Weird Al Yankovic. But among those whose primary home computer is not a laptop, 74 percent like Weird Al.
Based on a survey of 245 people whose primary home computer is not a laptop and 544 people in general.

ABC Wednesday – Round 9

Christmas 2011

The Bells of Christmas may be my favorite recording of a Christmas song ever.

Merry Christmas! It’s a Sunday morning and I’ll be going to church, but our choir is not singing; we sang on Christmas Eve, but not Christmas Day, which is fine by me. Besides, Santa is probably tired from putting presents under the tree.

Somebody I once met was born on Christmas Day 1924, and that’s the late Rod Serling. My blogger buddy Gordon has been trying to institute his and Humphrey Bogart’s birthdays (b. 1899) as alternative holidays for “those who may be atheists, agnostics, or just plain tired of the usual thing.” Don’t know how that’s working out.

Speaking of Serling, I reviewed his bio back in October, and I was thrilled to find that the book’s author, Joel Engel, commented on my post! Check it out.

And as for that OTHER holiday today, here’s The Bells of Christmas and Joy to the World, both sung by Julie Andrews. The former may be my favorite recording of a Christmas song ever; the latter recording pops as though it’s from that original Firestone tire LP that I owned as a kid, and in fact still own.

Christmas Meme

singing seasonal music

SamauraiFrog did this last year, based on this daily meme.

Favorite Tradition: Playing music. Usually start about the solstice and run to Epiphany, when nobody’s doing it. It goes well with my contrarian nature.
Favorite Elf: Don’t have one.
Santa or Mrs. Claus: about even.
Favorite Reindeer: Rudolph. I mean those other reindeer were mean. THEN they want to suck up to Rudy when he saves Christmas. Bah, humbug!
Favorite Holiday Snack: eggnog and Amaretto
Favorite Decoration: somewhere down the several moves, I’ve lost my favorites, which were these wooden, red hearts.
Favorite Christmas Movie: almost any version of A Christmas Carol. I loved the Mr. Magoo version as a child.
Favorite Christmas Song: Coventry Carol. Especially this version by Alison Moyet.
Favorite Christmas TV Special: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Favorite Thing To Wear: warm socks
Favorite Christmas Book: it’s a book of carols from Time/Life or Readers Digest
Favorite Gift You Ever Got: the first Hess truck I got, which was a fire truck.
Favorite Gift You Ever Gave: a reversible outfit I bought for my then six-y.o. niece (she’s turning 21); her mother loved it, and she had a picture taken in it. It fit her for almost three years.
Favorite Candy: candy cane
Favorite Christmas Website: probably SamuraiFrog’s

Favorite Tradition You Used To Do: go to church at 10:30 pm, and leave church at midnight. It almost always was snowing lightly.
Favorite Part of Christmas Eve: helping Santa
Favorite Part of Christmas Day: handing out the presents.
How Early Do You Get Up on December 25th: whenever the daughter wakes up
How Late Do You Stay Up on December 24th: about 11 p.m.
Favorite Christmas Picture: It’s probably one of the Daughter at age 3 or 4, which I’m too disorganized to find.
Anticipation or the Day: The day. The anticipation always comes with stress.
Advent Calendar You’re Doing: Bible reading
Favorite Christmas Thing You’re Doing/Done In School: singing seasonal music.
What Did You Get? well, I made a list. I want about the same thing, either every year (World Almanac, Hess truck, some music from my Amazon list), or every few years (Leonard Maltin movie guide).
What Did You Give? My sisters haven’t hinted NEARLY enough, but they’re far away. My wife and daughter are close enough to hint broadly, and I like that.
What Did You Feed Santa: cookies and milk.
What Did You Feed The Reindeer: nothing, but they do get water.
Do You Believe In Santa?: Of course!
Are You Sad? Now and then. Fearing the wreath of Khan.

‘Twas the weeks before Christmas, when all through the house,
I smelled a hint of the fire Europe was trying to douse.
It seemed to get bigger with each passing day,
From my investment portfolio, please, please stay away.
[12 verses, with embedded links!]
Favorite Part of the Season? Singing and listening to music.
Lower graphic from Stephen Wildish via HERE.

November Untranslatable Rambling

gobsmacked AND flabbergasted

I lead with some heavy stuff; it gets lighter after the pic.

Read the sad tale of Bill Mantlo, former comic book writer and attorney, until a hit-and-run accident wrecked his life. Mark Evanier, linking to the article, writes: “Those who still fear government ‘death panels’ should take note of the portions of Mantlo’s story where his private insurer keeps trying to cut off all payments to him because, after all, their primary duty is to their stockholders.” Here’s the direct link to the article, and here’s Evanier’s correction to the article about the comic book process, which does not negate the insane way Mantlo has been warehoused.

But for sheer devastation, few things I’ve read actually made me weep like Jaquandor’s recollection of a particular day.

Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky’s Next Coaching Gig

The Beatles album artwork worth £70,000: Top 10 most valuable record sleeves revealed

How music changes our brains

The Beach Boys An Introduction to “SMiLE Sessions”, released this month. It’s great seeing Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and Brian Wilson on the same page.

Michelle Shocked – Quality of Mercy (version)

Evanier also found The Lambeth Walk as performed by Adolf Hitler and a batch of Nazi soldiers, which reportedly had Joseph Goebbels running, screaming from the room in anger. In fact, there are about a dozen versions of this song on his blog this month.

A song about Roman Emperor Constantine…sung to the tune of “Come On Eileen”. Of COURSE, it is.

SamuraiFrog linked to Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) by Reunion. What caught my eye, though, were the initial visuals, which I recognized INSTANTLY from a commercial for Country Corn Flakes; I knew that ad by heart, I’m afraid.

American expat linguist Lynneguist, now in the UK, lists the untranslatables, those British and American English terms that don’t travel well across the pond. I made a comment, and a word I used as a jumping-off point for even more discussion.

Saucy Shakespearean Slings

Sid Melton, R.I.P. – if you watched a lot of TV in in the 1950s and later, you might say, “Oh, THAT guy.”

Maine Man’s Car Logs One Million Miles, Equivalent to Driving Around Earth 40 Times. Imagine how far he would have gotten if he’d only taken care of the vehicle.

Dustbury’s Today’s brain-cloud generator. Say What?

Mike Sterling was gobsmacked AND flabbergasted. Which is how I felt when I saw the middle item, about a new font, on Jaquandor’s page.

The Harvey Pekar Library Statue at the Comics as Art & Literature Desk — A Comics project in Cleveland Heights, OH. And Steve Bissette’s support for the same. Plus, in support of this memorial, Joyce Brabner has “coaxed Alan Moore out of the darkness wherein he dwells to video record a special message to comics folk in which he’s offering several hours– by invitation only– video conference from his home in the UK. Viewers may ask impertinent questions. Alan tells great stories.”

Bill Cosby – The Playground

Hawkeye Pierce as a serial killer

GOOGLE ALERT

Pols’ promise to themselves by Roger Green, Scottsbluff