When I was twenty years old, I made up a couple of outgoing greetings for my answering machine based on an old TV show theme song and a showtune from Bye Bye Birdie. The TV show theme song was from I Love Lucy and the song from Bye Bye Birdie was “Talk to Me” which is originally sung from a telephone booth. Anyway, I created these outgoing greetings and I left them on my answering machine for a little while, and then I felt sort of silly about them and afraid of what people might think, so I took them off. But now here we are in the Age of YouTube, and it’s—gosh—almost twenty-five years later, and I figured, “Why not? Just for fun, share them with the world.” So, here are my silly outgoing greeting songs that I created in 1988. Hope you enjoy! Continue reading →
(Anyone who wants to skip to the singing can jump to 2:30.)
You may have heard the jazz standard “My Satin Doll” written by Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. Well, I learned that song when I was in high school and I attended the Fullerton Jazz Festival music contest— singing contest. It was adjudicated, and we got to go up there are do our stuff and get some feedback from the adjudicators. Well, I remember when I learned that song it just struck me as a little odd, like why would you call her your satin doll, and why would she speak Latin?
This song, which I remember from a record my mom gave me when I was a little kid, is called Music! Music! Music! It was written in 1949 by Stephen Brewer and Bernie Baum, and it was popularized in the same year by singer Teresa Brewer.
Sums up how I feel about meeting my life partner, Andy, almost five years before the day I recorded this. From the Broadway musical On The Town, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green.
This is me singing Cole Porter’s song “I Concentrate on You.” I used YouTube’s “Captions and Subtitles” feature to upload a subtitle file. I hand-coded the subtitle file in BBEdit using the subtitle (.sub) format. To view the video with captions, click the up-arrow button on the bottom-right corner of the screen and choose CC, English: English captions.
I sing this Christmas song and simultaneously express it in signs from ASL (American Sign Language). I purposely adapted some of the hand-shapes to create sign-rhymes. While no song that is simultaneously sung and signed is truly ASL, I do hope that I have created something here that can be enjoyed by both hearing and deaf people. I also believe that people of all faiths can appreciate the hope that each newborn child brings: that he or she may help to heal this world.
I called my mom on Mother’s Day and sang her this song from Peter Pan that she used to sing to me when tucking me in at night. I tried to subtitle, but I couldn’t figure it out. The lyrics are:
The angel voice that bids you goodnight
Kisses your cheek, whispers ‘sleep tight’
Your mother and mine
Your mother and mine
The helping hand that guides you along
Whether you’re right, whether you’re wrong
Your mother and mine
Your mother and mine
What makes mothers all that they are?
Might as well ask what makes a star
Ask your heart to tell you her worth
Your heart must say heaven and earth
Another word for divine
Your mother and mine
Your mother and mine
Here are the lyrics to this 1946 popular song by Mack Gordon:
You make me feel so young.
You make me feel so “Spring has sprung”,
And every time I see you grin
I’m such a happy individual.
The moment that you speak
I want to go and play hide-and-seek.
I want to go and bounce the moon
Just like a toy balloon.
You and I are just like a couple of tots
Runnin’ across the meadow
Pickin’ up lots of forget-me-nots.
You make me feel so young.
You make me feel there are songs to be sung,
Bells to be rung, wonderful fling to be flung.
And even when I’m old and gray
I’m gonna feel the way I do today
‘Cause you – you make me feel so young.
You make me feel so young.
You make me feel so young.
Ooo – you make me feel so young.
On our Alaskan cruise in June, the ship held a talent show/contest. I hemmed and hawed about joining it, but finally decided to go for it at the last minute. I chose to sing “Our Love Is Here to Stay” by George Gershwin because the band had the music, and because I had sung it on my first cruise in 1993 on Norwegian Cruise Lines (which we were traveling with again). I could pick apart my own performance, but I’m sharing it anyway for what it’s worth. Several passengers came up to me after the contest and said they thought I should have won, although the woman who won was not a singer but a fabulous flamenco dancer. Anyway, enjoy!
Here are the lyrics:
It’s very clear / Our love is here to stay / Not for a year / But ever and a day.
The radio and the telephone / And the movies that we know / May just be passing fancies / And in time may go!
But, oh my dear / Our love is here to stay / Together we’re / Going a long, long way
In time the Rockies may crumble / Gibraltar may tumble / They’re only made of clay / But our love is here to stay.
Here I am singing and signing the song “Pure Imagination” from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, one of my favorite songs since I was a little kid.
And here are the lyrics:
Come with me / and you’ll be / in a world of pure imagination / Take a look / and you’ll see / into your imagination
We’ll begin / with a spin / traveling in a world of my creation / What we’ll see / will defy / explanation
If you want to view paradise / simply look around and view it / anything you want to, do it / want to change the world? / there’s nothing to it
There is no / life I know / to compare with pure imagination / living there / you’ll be free / if you truly wish to be
