Harmony at the Barbershop

Barbershop Quartet Day (April 11)

Barbershop Quartet Day is a day to appreciate music that sound like it started in the Barbershop... In those days before technology in entertainment, when possibly family running the shop would entertain their customers and just have a good time with music. Keeping the genre alive in America is the Barbershop Harmony Society which organises events and also an Annual competition. I've put together my selection of barbershop favorites for you to listen to and enjoy. 

Let's start with the the winners of the International Barbership Championship in 2016. Their in the Forefront - I've Got Rhythm.

Have you seen that barbershop on the Main Street... That's the name of the next quartet. Had featured them in my barbershop post last year... Time For A Haircut? ... These guys are really good and do some fantastic parodies with a lot of Spice (aka Spice Girls).. For them Life's A Happy Song.

The barber is where the men go for their haircuts... The girls usually go to a beauty parlour... And do they sing there too? 

Barbershop is not a man thing... the girls do it too... And their quartet is called a Sweet Adelines Quartet. Here's one of the sweetest Adeline groups I came across - ClassRing - singing a medley I Can't Give You Anything but Love/L-O-V-E.

Last Night Was The End Of The World. Not really... but I wonder what I night it was when our next quartet was born... Quaduplets - 3 girls and a boy make up Vintage Mix and their showcase here is You've Got A Friend In Me from Toy Story.

Go ahead... think of your favorite song that will fit this format... Anyone thinking about the Queen... Not the Queen, but the band... This song is my alltime favorite with heavenly harmony... Bohemian Rhapsody performed by Storm Front.

Time for a local surprise... not a quartet, bur a sextet... that's what I think it is called... Raaga Trippin' have been engaging local crowds at events and even online with some of their a-capella compositions including Hindi favorites... Here's a classic from Julie - Dil Kya Kare.

If you enjoyed the music here... do Follow for regular updates... Also check out the Barbershop Quartet on the post... Oh When The Saints

Jump Jive and Wail

Was walking down the street yesterday with my boys... and noticed a cat perched on the wall in a corner that would later in the day be occupied by the fish mongers. We've all been warned about the black cats crossing the road... I remember some friends turning around on their bicycles and riding a short distance if a stray cat crossed their paths... and then turning back to their destinations... Also had lots of good friends who were die hard cat lovers and we would desperately try to avoid the cats when we visited them...

But today, our topic here is not really the cats... but a band called the Stray Cats whose front man went on to create an orchestra in 1990. 

Check out the Brian Setzer Orchestra with the Stray Cat Strut.

Remember The Mask with Jim Carey and Cameron Diaz. The movie was a fantastic comedy... and had some rocking music... with a really upbeat rhythm... And the soundtrack of the film has this rocker from the BSO - Straight Up.

Talking of movies, Brian Setzer played Rock n Roll legend Eddie Cochran in the 1987 musical La Bamba based on the life of Richie Valens... And with summer on the anvil, here are the Summertime Blues.

Its going to be Summertime Blues in full swing for 58 year-old Brian Setzer... He's going to be taking his Rockability Riot across the US and Europe as well... Rock This Town.

And if you get that rhythm and got music in your veins, you'd probably be tapping your feet... and you were at a party, you could Jump Jive and Wail.

Growing up in the 80s, we just loved that beat at parties and weddings... In fact in my band days in the 90s, we had a 30-40 minute Jive set and there'd be A Whole Lotta Shakin'. This is a collaboration with Jerry Lee Lewis - another Rock n Roll legend of the 60s.

If you enjoy Rock n Roll, you should check out Brian Setzer's Christmas and Holiday Music as well... Will have to wait a few months for that though...

Sing Me Back Home

Last year on this day... a Country Legend went back to his home on the sky... on the same day that he was first born... 79 years apart... That's Country Legend Merle Haggard. 

Do you know his songs... Try a little quiz...

 

How did you score... share your points in the comments...

Paying double tribute to Merle on what would have been his 80th birthday but is also his 1st Death Anniversary... the music industry gets together today at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena to celebrate his life playing tribute to him - Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard. The all-star concert performances by Willie Nelson, Keith Richards, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, John Mellencamp, Dierks Bentley, Sheryl Crow, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams Jr., Toby Keith, the Avett Brothers, Alison Krauss, Ronnie Dunn, Alabama, Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lucinda Williams, Ben Haggard, John Anderson, Connie Smith and Bobby Bare.

Meanwhile at the other end of the world diagonally - down in New Zealand, a couple of young Country musicians have paid their own tribute to Merle Haggard - presenting Keith Pereira and Jeremy Hantler.

If you liked that, do subscribe to the The Country Coffee Club where Keith promises a lot more of his music productions in the days to come. 

Wipe Those Tears Away... Just Be Happy

She's got the most sung about eyes in the world...

She's the 'First Lady of the American Screen'...
And she was born today in 1908...
She's BETTE DAVIS... and her eyes were made famous by Kim Carnes.

When that song became a hit in 1981, Bette Davis wrote the singer letters saying she was a fan and thanked her for making her “a part of history."

How many songs do you know about Eyes? Was just checking the archives on this blog and came across two posts with collections of songs on eyes... Eyes Wide Open (on World Sight Day) and Eyes Wide Shut (on World Braille Day).

While this next song did not feature on either of the posts, it features here since the Platters took it to a #1 position in the US and UK in 1958... and their lead singer at the time was born exactly 20 years after Bette Davis... on this day in 1928... Tony Williams of the Platters

What happens when Smoke Gets In Your Eyes... maybe there'd be tears... Tears of A Clown.

 

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles including Ronnie White born today in 1939... Among the many hits that he wrote with Smokey, the one that probably stand out most is My Girl. And that reminds me of the 'girl with golden hair' Agnetha Fältskog from ABBA who's 67 today... I'd love to call her the Dancing Queen.

The latest update on the band was around six months ago when it was reported that ABBA were getting back together for a ‘groundbreaking venture that will utilise the very latest in digital and virtual reality technology’. 

 I'm sure that would have made them and all the ABBA fans of yesteryear Happy. 

Have you been clapping along.... Pharrell Williams is 44 today. Just last week, there was news that his childhood is set to inspire a big-screen musical called Atlantis.

We've spanned 65 years of time across the five songs above to mark birthdays of #ThisDayInMusic.

But the biggest event #ThisDayInMusic was in 1985 

At 3:50pm GMT, over 5,000 radio stations worldwide aired the charity single by USA for Africa - We Are The World. The single went on to be a No.1 in the US & UK, and most Western territories.

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We Are The World featured in my earlier post Tolerance. The song has special memories for me as a teenager when I used to sing it with my siblings. We've also done a really good version of that with all my paternal cousins at my grandmother's 75th birthday. But more recently, the song was sung by my seven-year old son at the school Annual Day. More about that at Annual Days and Fun Fairs... Keeping The Music Alive. 

What comes after 92.... Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps

Last year Doris Day celebrated her 92nd birthday... What's her age today?....

You'd say 93... I say Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps.

Actually you're wrong... She just found out she's 95...or so it seems... Are you ready to take a journey down the years?... A Sentimental Journey.

Doris Day's first big hit came in 1945 with the Les Brown orchestra in what she calls the 'happiest times of her life'. In the years following, she was persuaded to audition for Romance on the High Seas that sparked of a movie career of 20 years... I think I need to take a break now... and grab a cup of tea... just for me, not Tea For Two.

What's the secret to her longevity? Just pause a second... and think.... have you got something.... now smile... Cause When You're Smiling...

What's her goal in life... To live till a hundred and three? or maybe she just going to wait and see... cause Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be).

HAPPY 95TH BIRTHDAY DORIS DAY

 We'd like to see you for another five years, to wish you a hundred.