This month’s guest conductor, Alana, wants songs that are either played at sporting events or are about sports. Naturally, the ones I think of are primarily baseball, and nearly all of them are from Chicago. So if you’re quite ready…

Continue reading “Monday’s Music Moves Me: PLAY BALL!” →

YouTube can be very helpful if you’re looking for a new band to listen to. Recently, they recommended Avalon Jazz Band, and within a minute of hearing them, I was in love. They’re a band out of New York that does gypsy jazz, reminiscent of Djang Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the Quintette du Hot Club de Paris. Their lead performer and the “face” of the band, if you can call her that, is the lovely Tatiana Eva-Marie, a magnificent chanteuse who is equally comfortable singing in French or English. As I say in situations like this, her voice is almost as beautiful as she is. The rest of the band is a fluid combination of musicians, though two of them are usually Vinny Raniolo on guitar and Adrien Chevalier on violin.

Tatiana and the band embody the spirit of the Zazous, the young people of France in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Rather than attempt to explain what that was all about, I’ve started this playlist with an interview with Tatiana and Adrien they did for Bric TV.

1. Interview with Tatiana and Adrien, ending with a performance of “J’Attendrai.” They refer to this video, which has been featured here many times.
2. “Ménilmontant,” a song by Charles Trenet
3. “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?,” also by Trenet
4. “Si tu vois ma mère,” by Sidney Bechet
5. “Zou Bisou Bisou,” which was featured in Mad Men.
6. “Cuddle Up A Little Closer, Lovey Mine,” a standard by Karl Hoschna and Otto Harbach from 1908. One of the more recent videos, made during quarantine.
7. “J’ai Ta Main,” another by Trenet, also done during quarantine
8. “Bonjour Souirire,” a song by Henri Salvador
9. “Fit As A Fiddle,” from Singin’ In The Rain, by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed
10. “I Love Paris,” the Cole Porter standard

There’s much more information on their website, including links to where you can buy their albums (they have three plus a Christmas album, all available on Spotify and Apple Music). You can connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, on YouTube. Tatiana has her own YouTube Channel.

That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 29, 2020.

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

Our assignment this week is to share songs from around the world. So, here come ten of them.

1. Gipsy Kings, “Bamboleo” From their eponymous first album, Gipsy Kings are gitanos from France and Spain.
2. Hiroshima, “One Wish” LA-based Hiroshima combines traditional Japanese music with smooth jazz, and the effect is enchanting. The instrument the young woman (June Kuramoto) is playing is the koto.
3. “Liechtensteiner Polka” The polka is a dance that originated in Bohemia in the mid-19th century and is popular with people in central Europe, most notably (at least in Chicago) the Polish. Fair warning: if you get on a dance floor and you don’t know what you’re doing, you could get trampled by the folks who do.
4. A. Remos, “Vradiázei (Evening)” Music for the traditional dance zeibekiko, which is here demonstrated by a young Ukranian gentleman named Ivan Svitailo. The white stuff you see on the floor are broken dishes.
5. Anastasia Tyurina, “Valenki” If you can watch the young Miss Tyurina and not be overwhelmed by her adorableness, there’s something wrong. She was 7 when she played this song on her balalaika. Now 9, she’s a prodigy, not to mention cute as a bug’s ear. She’s accompanied by the Osipov Russian Folk Orchestra uner the direction of Vladimir Andropov.
6. Angelina Weidl, Melanie Oesch, and Herlinde Lindner, “Erzherzog Johann Jodler“/”Zillertaler Bravourjodler“ Frauleins Weidl, Oesch, and Lindner are yodelers from Switzerland. Quite obviously, they enjoy it.
7. Isle of Cumbrae Pipe Band, “Scotland The Brave”/”Blue Bells Of Scotland” From Scotland, although the song they sing as they march off isn’t exactly traditional Scottish pipe music. Country music is popular in Scotland and Ireland.
8. NOVA, “Corcovado” This is a group from Los Angeles (their singer, Laura Vall, was born in Brazil) that does bossa nova. “Corcovado” is a classic piece written by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
9. Sunidhi Chauhan, “Aaja Nachle (full title song)” The lovely lady dancing here is Madhuri Dixit, but her voice is dubbed by the equally lovely Ms. Chauhan. This is from the 2007 movie Aaja Nachle, and that’s all I can tell you. Bollywood has this effect on me: I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t want it to stop.
10. Yemi Alade, “Oh My Gosh” Yemi Alade (Ah-la-day) is a Nigerian pop singer, and a very enjoyable one at that.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 22, 2020.

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

It’s a freebie day here on M⁴, and while looking through my stack of ideas in Evernote I came across this post from Craig over at PopRockBopTilUDrop that talks about child actors who found their way onto vinyl. I chose a few of them and put them into the playlist below…

1. Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick, “I Won’t Last A Day Without You”: Barry (Greg) and Maureen (Marcia) from The Brady Bunch do a duet while on The Mike Douglas Show. If it seems that there’s more than brotherly or sisterly love in the way they look at each other, it’s not your imagination: they did have a romance off-camera.
2. Eve Plumb, “The Fortune Cookie Song”: Not to be outdone by her TV older sister, Eve recorded this while she played Jan on The Brady Bunch. Her father Neely is the producer.
3. Johnny Whittaker, “Every Boy Can Be President”: Johnny sang this as Jody on an episode of Family Affair, and there was apparently enough interest in it to issue it as a single.
4. Tuesday Weld, “Are You The Boy?”: Tuesday was already an established actress when tapped to play Thalia Menninger in The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis. Her TV boyfriend, of course, was Warren Beatty.
5. Kurt Russell, “Hey Baby I Love You”: Kurt was a Disney discovery way back when, before Goldie Hawn and Snake.
6. Rodney Allan Rippy, “Take Life A Little Easier”: Rodney acted in a very famous series of commercials for Jack in the Box restaurants. I say acted: he was basically put on camera with a hamburger and they asked him questions as he tried to eat it. “Take Life A Little Easier” was written as a jingle for Jack in the Box; the original lyrics to the chorus were “Take life a little easier (x2)/Come as you like, come as you are to Jack in the Box.” Or something like that.
7. Paul Petersen, “She Can’t Find Her Keys”: Paul’s acting career pretty much started and ended with The Donna Reed Show, although he has had occasional roles in TV series. He’s an advocate for protecting child actors through his organization “A Minor Consideration.”
8. Melody Patterson, “You’re The One”: Melody auditioned for the part of Wrangler Jane on F Troop when she was 15 years old, and didn’t happen to mention that to the producers until after she got the part. They had to tone down the love scenes (such as they were in the ’60’s) between her and Ken Berry after that.
9. Butch Patrick, “I.O.I.O.”: Butch played Eddie Munster on the CBS comedy-horror classic The Munsters throughout that series’s run, and when it finished turned his attention to cting in non-starring roles and music. “I.O.I.O.” was written by Barry and Maurice Gibb, who sang together in some band…
10. Jay North, “Little Boy Blues”: TV’s Dennis The Menace cut an album in 1960 called Look Who’s Singing Now!, and this was one of the tracks on it. I saw him do this on an episode of The Best of The Ed Sullian Show, so if you’re so inclined, keep an eye out for it.
11. Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills, “Let’s Get Together”: This is a scene from the 1961 movie The Parent Trap, where Hayley played a set of twins trying to get their parents (Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara) back together.
12. Jerry Mathers, “Wind-Up Toy”: Yep, The Beaver made a record during the heart of Leave It To Beaver‘s run.
13. Stanley Livingston, “Hairspray”: You might know him as Chip Douglas, Steve’s (Fred MacMurray) son, Bub’s (William Frawley) grandson, and Charlie’s (William Demarest) great-nephew on My Three Sons. Later on, Stanley’s brother Barry joined the cast as Ernie, Steve’s adopted son and Chip’s adopted brother.
14. Patty Duke, “Don’t Just Stand There”: Another actress who played a double role as twins (in this case cousins), Patty recorded this while she was on The Patty Duke Show and took it to #8.
15. Johnny Crawford, “Daydreams”: Johnny played Mark McCain, son of Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) in The Rifleman from 1958 to 1963, and still found time to record several songs. This was his first single, from 1961; it reached #70 on the Hot 100.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 15, 2020.

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

Michelle gave us an easy assignment today: Songs that start with the letter “J.” Once I got started, I couldn’t stop until I reached 15. Here they are…

Here’s the playlist, without comments:

1. Fats Domino, “Jambalaya”
2. Doris Troy, “Just One Look”
3. The Beatles, “Julia”
4. The Doobie Brothers, “Jesus Is Just All Right”
5. The Steve Miller Band, “The Joker”
6. Rick Springfield, “Jesse’s Girl”
7. Al Donohue & His Orchestra (Paula Kelly, vocal), “Jeepers Creepers”
8. Dean Martin, “Just A Little Bit South Of North Carolina”
9. Shelley Fabares, “Johnny Angel”
10. Bobby Sherman, “Julie, Do Ya Love Me”
11. The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck, “Jeff’s Boogie”
12. Apollo 100, “Joy”
13. Al Hirt, “Java”
14. Carl Perkins, “Just Coastin'”
15. Tennessee Ernie Ford, “John Henry”

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 8, 2020.

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