One thing I’ll be better at blogging this year is music I hear for the first time, likely old songs, which I really like and want to share. I love it when I find new music I really enjoy, so it’s only natural to share. While the songs will often be old since I don’t care for a lot of music these days, it’s new to me.
This first entry for 2014 features Fleetwood Mac‘s Over and Over, written by Christine McVie. I just love its mellow nature that is also present in some of her other songs like As Long as You Follow (also embedded below). If what they say is true about being able to see people’s soul through their eyes, or hear it through their singing and songs, then I KNOW I love Christine McVie’s soul!
And if I were the Devil, let’s just say I’d be paying a good premium for it! LOLMuahahahaha….
What were your favourite pieces of music that you heard for the first time last year?
I don’t necessarily mean music that came out last year, just that you heard it for the first time last year because it was new to you. If you care to share, you can put it in the comments following the post. I’d love to know to expand my musical horizons.
Below are a list of favourite songs I heard for the first time in 2009, enough that would fit on CD were I to have made one. Most were from musicals as I really got into them in 2009 after my classic jazz year in 2008. A few were one-off takes on television events, though, so I’ll start with one that was both. It was available on YouTube like most of my selections so I have included the videos to have the music right here for you. I also linked the songs to blog posts I did inspired by them, where I did one.
Someone Like You
from Jekyll & Hyde Linda Eder & Frank Wildhorn on 2000 PBS Special
Linda Eder delivers a loving performance of this gorgeous song with touching lyrics, accompanied by husband Frank Wildhorn, who had composed the song. (blog post)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Upload of this video sometimes seems a bit slow so please be patient.
If You Were Gay
from Avenue Q
Rick Lyon and John Tartaglia Love and humour, not just in song but also video spoof. (blog post)
The Internet is for Porn
from Avenue Q Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Rick Lyon & the Guys
Possibly the funniest song I have ever heard! (blog post)
Mix Tape
from Avenue Q
Stephanie D’Abruzzo and John Tartaglia
A song that dragged my emotions up and down, enhanced by Stephanie’s nuances of acting while singing this song. (blog post)
As Long as You’re Mine
from Wicked Idina Menzel and Norbert Leo Butz
An often overlooked song from Wicked that I only heard once I saw the musical, rather than hearing the more popular songs from it. However, I loved it immediately, especially the soft-spoken ending.
Academy Awards 2009 Introduction
Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway
This number was both brilliant and unexpected in being clever, funny and spectacularly performed. My intro to the full talents of Hugh Jackman. (blog post)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Monologue Song
from Saturday Night Live November 7, 2009 Taylor Swift
How to trash everybody you want to with class and humour while being really cute about it. (blog post)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Dark Eyes
by Bob Dylan Judy Collins
Judy Collins gives this sad Dylan song a haunting rendition. (blog post)
Better Angels
Lesley Gore
The original It’s My Party girl seriously grows up with this beautiful tune I first heard on CSI Miami (compilation video of episode shown below).
I Got a Feeling
Black Eyed Peas
Just an awesome dance song, ’nuff said cause I’m getting dancing! Best 2009 song in my opinion. (I chose the flash mob version shown on Oprah for the video cause it’s also so awesome!)
Wake-up
The Arcade Fire
I heard this song via the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are and thought they had made a pretty good choice for a theme song.
The Closest Thing to Crazy
by Mike Batt Katie Melua
Pretty much describes what feeling in love feels like to me. (blog post)
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Gayla Peevey
I heard it on a Telus commercial and loved it immediately, a bit surprised I had never heard this 1950s seasonal classic until now. (blog post)
You’ve Gotta Have a Gimmick
from There’s No Business Like Show Business Bernadette Peters, Julia McKenzie, Ruthie Henshall
This is probably the ultimate example of my claim that girls have all the fun songs in musicals, and the video only emphasizes the point.
Married
from Cabaret Ron Rifkin, Michelle Pawk A charming little song about marriage. A compact version is shown below.
Mystery
performed on the show Inside the Actor’s Studio Hugh Laurie
A hilarious and charming example of how lyric writing sometimes feels like to me, trying to find desperate rhymes and more desperate words that conform with desperate rhymes. (blog post)
Love, Look in my Window
from Hello Dolly!
Ethel Merman
There isn’t a video for this one but the piece was written for Ethel Merman when she joined Hello Dolly! If you hear her perform it with the emotions she does, you’ll know why it was written for her. I can hardly keep from crying at points in it. Probably good I don’t have the music for that reason!
I saw these tagging meme graphics on Facebook, but they weren’t in the best formats for Facebook so I improved them in various ways to share. I did not contribute to the text, though, so if you were offended, please don’t blame me. The first set is a bunch of South Park characters, with appropriately offensive labels in some instances.
The second is Doodle Friends characters, from where I do not know other than that they are part of a Facebook application.
The final one are just some personalities attached to a drawing style I do not know.
Here’s how you can get any of these memes to use:
Click on the poster you want below to get it at full size.
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
I did not create the idea for this Facebook picture tagging meme game, nor did I create the pictures for them below. However, I did look for them, touched them up and adopted them for this game because the ones I saw were bad or inadequate (i.e. missing letters in the alphabet).
The idea is to tag one of your friends who have first names starting with each letter of the alphabet, for as many letters as you can. You can tag people who don’t have Facebook accounts as well because you can just type in a name when you tag a picture instead of choosing from someone on your list.
Aside from just a quick survey for yourself, for those of you who are social butterfly types, challenge your friends to see who has more. If that’s too easy, see who find friends with first names starting with every letter of the alphabet. I do notrecommend this because true friends should be based on something more than just for filling out a Facebook tagging meme, and I do not recommend getting Facebook or other social media network friends who you don’t know just for the sake of this. There are real life dangers and risks with these activities. However, if you are among a lot of people in big institutions there there’s a realistic chance there might be a Zack or Xavier walking around, it might be fun to try!
Can you name all the logos?
Just as an aside, even if you don’t want to use this for tagging games, can you help me name all the logos in the top two pictures?
Corporate Brands: B, C, E, H, L (I should know this), M, P, R, U, W, Z.
Sport Teams: F (Florida something?), J, Q, T (Texas something?), U, X (Xavier?), Y (did someone cheat on the Yankees logo to remove the N?).
To get these pictures for your use:
Click on the picture to get it at full size.
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Digital Citizen 