Michelle, our guest conductor for this month, gave us this assignment:

Tentative as in relationship as in one that you’re unsure of; can be personal or spiritual.

Okay! Here are ten songs I’ve come up with, and I’ll try to explain what I was thinking when I chose each.

1. James Cotton, "Love Me Or Leave Me" One of those "whatcha wanna do, woman? Make up your damn mind! You’re making me crazy!" songs.
2. Young Rascals, "How Can I Be Sure" Eddie Brigati might look like his teeth are going in all different directions, but he has a great voice and this is one of my favorite songs, and the title pretty much says it all: "I know I love you, what about you?"
3. Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, "Woman, Woman" Here’s a guy who thinks his woman is stepping out on him. He’s on the verge of breaking down, wracking his brain, wondering why he isn’t enough…
4. Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, "Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town" Kind of the same as the last one, except the guy was badly injured in Vietnam, hasn’t much time left, and wants to know where his wife is going. Vic Dana and Mel Tillis wrote two potential answers to this, one by Geraldine "Dodie" Stevens, the other by Dori Helms. You be the judge.
5. Robert Cray, "Right Next Door (Because Of Me)" Here we have a guy who has broken up a marriage and he’s not sure what to do.
6. The Beatles, "I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party" You go to a party, expecting the love of your life to show up, and she doesn’t. Is she stepping out on you, is she on her way, is she washing her hair… why isn’t she there?
7. Carl Perkins, "Honey Don’t" Another example of a girl driving the man who loves her crazy…
8. Junior Wells, "Stop Breakin’ Down" Do you really love me, or do you just like the way my music sounds?
9. Little Walter, "Confessin’ The Blues" I’m pouring my heart to you, baby… do you understand?
10. Yvonne Elliman, "I Don’t Know How To Love Him" Oh boy… everyone knows the story of the Son of God and the slut. It’s the first time Mary Magdalene has met a man who treats her right, one who’s willing to die for her, and she doesn’t know what to do. Hers is a world of one-night stands, his is all about eternity. What does she do?

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for January 20, 2020.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

Well, the holidays are over, and now we’re in the midst of winter. It’s right around this time that the winter blahs set in, so I decided to create an acrostic playlist on "winter blahs."

Here’s a list of the songs in this list:

1. "What’s New, Pussycat?" – Tom Jones
2. "I Can Help" – Billy Swan
3. "Never Can Say Goodbye" – The Jackson 5
4. "Take Good Care Of My Baby" – Bobby Vee
5. "Elenore" – The Turtles
6. "Rhapsody In The Rain" – Lou Christie
7. "Baby What You Want Me To Do" – Jimmy Reed
8. "Let It Be" – The Beatles
9. "Am I The Same Girl" – Swing Out Sister
10. "Hi-De-Ho" – Blood Sweat & Tears
11. "Secret Agent Man" – Johnny Rivers

What songs would you use? That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for January 13, 2020.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

So, the Xmas Music Xtravaganza has finished for another year, but we aren’t quite into January, so that must mean it’s the day we pull our New Year’s music out of the vault and play it. For this list, I combined my lists from last year and from 2017.

1. Ella Fitzgerald, "What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?" A classic New Year’s song from a classic jazz singer.
2. Barry Manilow, "It’s Just Another New Year’s Eve" God bless Barry Manilow: he hasn’t had a hit record in years, but he’s still out there plugging away.
3. Pentatonix, "New Year’s Day" Pentatonix, for me at least, came out of nowhere and became my favorite a capella singing quintet.
4. Abba, "Happy New Year" A song that’s become a classic, mostly because there really aren’t that many good New Year’s songs.
5. Joyce Paultre, "Happy New Year Song (na, na, na, na, na)" Speaking of not many good New Year’s songs, Joyce Paultre says in the comments for this song, "I couldn’t find a silly new year’s song that made me feel like singing at the top of my lungs, so I wrote one. It’s just a fun way to welcome the new year!" I think she did pretty well, don’t you?
6. The McGuire Sisters, "Happy New Year" The McGuire Sisters were a popular singing trio until it became known that Phyllis McGuire was keeping company with Chicago mob boss Sam "Momo" Giancana. Considering how good they sound together, I wouldn’t have minded if she had been dating Al Capone.
7. George Harrison, "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" George did this for his 1974 album Dark Horse, and it was the first single from that album released in the UK and second in the US after the title track. He was inspired by something he found at his home in Friar Park, once owned by a Sir Frank Crisp, who had poetry and aphorisms engraved everywhere. Wikipedia suggests that he might also haev been inspired by a couple of glam-rock songs that were popular at the time, Slade’s "Merry Xmas Everybody" and Wizzard’s "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday."
8. Charlie Robison, "New Year’s Day" A retired country singer from Houston, Charlie comes from a family of singer-songwriters, with his brother Robert and sister Robyn also writing songs. This is from his 2004 album Good Times.
9. Charles Brown, "Bringing In A Brand New Year" Blues pianist and singer Brown gives the day a bluesy treatment. This was recorded in 1961 but not released until 1964 as the B side to "Christmas Comes But Once A Year," probably his best-known song.
10. Bing Crosby, "Let’s Start The New Year Right" From the 1942 movie Holiday Inn, this was released as part of an album called Song Hits From Holiday Inn, which came out in the days before the LP.
11. Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians, "Auld Lang Syne" Guy passed away in 1977, but his rendition of the old Robert Burns song remains the most popular of all time. Somewhere they’ll be playing this at midnight on Tuesday.

From all of us here at The Sound of Typing, Happy New Year! Wishing you the best for 2020.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

There were a lot of Perry Como Christmas specials out on YouTube, and this is the one I liked best. Joining Perry are Angie Dickinson, French chanteuse Line Renaud, The Boy’s Choir of Notre Dame, the Andre Tahon puppets, the Can-Can dancers of Montmartre, the Paradis Latin performers, French balladeer Jairo, and clothing designer Pierre Cardin. Enjoy!

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

Last week, when I found the Dean Martin Christmas Special, I found a whole bunch of others, by different singers and from different years, among them The Andy Williams Christmas Special from 1966. I don’t remember watching this, because I was only 10 and my father was in the hospital, so I think I had other things on my mind. The people he introduces in the first six and a half minutes are his older brothers, Bob, Don, and Dick, with whom he sang early in his career, his parents, Florence and Jay, his wife at the time, singer and actress Claudine Longet, and The Osmond Brothers, who were featured regularly on his weekly show. Enjoy!

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for December 16, 2019.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.