This song was used around 2005 for a Claritin commercial, but it was actually from 1972. For those people who cringe at commercials using songs out of context, or that artists “sold out” by letting the songs be used in commercials, this is a reverse benefit. I’d probably would not have known about this song, or at least not for many years later, if I had not seen that Claritin commercial. I still haven’t heard it anywhere but in that commercial and that has gone off the air for many years now.
Beautiful Sunday was written and performed by Daniel Boone and is a great example of a happy pick-up sort of song. You could even substitute “Sunday” for most other days of the week you like to make it for your pick-up song for that particular day. It works for all days except Saturday. I guess you’ll have to remained depressed that day or look for another song. 🙂
You can even change the line about taking a “walk” in the park to taking a “run” in the park as I do, being a runner. I love playing this song on Sunday morning runs if I go through the local park and take music with me.
I liked the song a lot from the moment I heard it and I got chords and notes for guitar. I have since added a ukulele version. The PDFs for them are below.
These tabs all fit on one page to avoid the inconvenience of page turns. However, the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) may be too small for your eyes. If so, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
These tabs should be fairly easy to use. They are on single letter sized pages that fit nicely unlike tabs on web pages that are all over the place. Chord fingerings are included and the chords are right over where they should be for changes. I also have the notes for the tune written out so you can play them to sing the tune right. However, in this multi-media age, tabs should not be without an audio version to further help the user perform them correctly so below, I have the a video of the song as tabbed. I tabbed it pretty much the way it was originally recorded. I just chose a fan video with sites of the city of Sai Gon in Viet Nam because that’s where I was born. The images were from before the end of the Viet Nam War, after which time it got renamed to something crappy.
I hope what’s here is sufficient for you to learn the song and enjoy it.
By the way, how sad for Daniel Boone he has a more famous namesake in North America… but good to know he stuck to his name and did not change it.
There are tons of guitar tabs online, so why am I posting guitar tabs on my blog? Two words: more information.
More information which will help you figure out what was on my mind in creating every part of the tab and decipher it better if you use it. And for me, I eventually will have my guitar tabs set online so I can access it from anywhere that has an Internet connection!
The main problem with guitar tabs is that there is so little information compared to sheet music that you can’t hope to know what was going through the tabber’s mind when certain chords were written out. They might have been listening to a version of the song you weren’t. They might have arranged it a little differently because they sang it a little differently than the version they referenced. Sometimes they do this because with just one guitar instead of a band, certain things just don’t sound good so void of other musical support (a sign of a bad song). But overall, let’s face it, the general guitar tabs out there isn’t professional quality stuff. That’s why there are so many versions for each song.
With some advances to blogging and web technology, as well as efforts of others to post things, the guitar tabs I present will have more feature containing information you can reference to learn them and/or modify them for your own versions. First, I will have videos with recordings of the pieces I referenced so you can hear them for yourself. Second, there are notes written out, even if just letters rather than sheet music style. Notes an octave apart will be identified by capital letters for the higher notes. That way, if I modified anything, you can figure it out and understand what I did, then decide for yourself if you want to leave it or change it yourself. Finally, the chords appear exactly where they should be as I change them so there is no doubt.
In my first guitar tab on this blog, I present an exotic version of Blueberry Hill, the Fats Domino classic many people know, some of whom via the favourite song of Richie Cunningham from the Happy Days sitcom from 1974-1984. Fats’ version is the bottom of two videos below, included for comparative purposes. The version I present is by Louis Armstrong, from 1949 and recorded in Canada, no less! I like it because has a whole bunch of extra lyrics, with some scatting, that will either challenge you or allow you to duet with someone. Its video is below, meant to accompany the guitar tab above, although you’ll probably want to do it at a much slower, nostalgic sort of tempo to squeeze everything in.
One day soon, I hope to record a version so I can really demonstrate how I envisioned it to be played with solo guitar or ukulele, and not just ask you to figure it out from the video below.
These tabs all fit on one page to avoid the inconvenience of page turns. However, the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) may be too small for your eyes. If so, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
Artist: Louis Armsrtong with Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra
Title: “Blueberry Hill” (Lewis-Stock-Rose)
Label: Decca Personality
Cat No: 24752-B
Release Year: 1949
Country: Canada
Format: 10″ Shellac Record Thanks to VinyltoVideo YouTube user for the post!
Fats Domino’s well-known version of Blueberry Hill
If you’re like most people, you’ve never heard of this 1975 song called Ah’m a Niggerman sung by Scatman Crothers.
I can’t even put a link to tell you more about it because I couldn’t find a write up specifically on it!
That’s rare in the world these days!
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I found this song while looking for Scatman’s version of a Disney song called Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat, from the animation called The Aristocatsfrom 1970.
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I found Ah’m a Nigger Man because YouTube displayed Scatman Crothers videos besides Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat. The title Ah’m a Nigger Man was too irresistible to avoid clicking to see what it was about.But yes, this guy did Disney stuff just years before he did this song that’s probably controversial in most people’s books. It has all the controversial elements, not the least of which is using the word “nigger” over and over again. Stuff like that in songs today would get some warning on it, if not for controversy then for political incorrectness, that’s for sure!
Scatman Crothers
But is it really politically incorrect? That’s my question.
To give you some context, consider these things.
It came from a 1975 stop animation film with an even more controversial title, calledCoonskin. It was directed by Ralph Bakshi, who I have to mention is Caucasian and Israeli since race is obviously an issue of controversy with the song. Ralph had also directed a version of the Lord of the Rings in 1978, way before the recent film trilogy came along.
Scatman Crothers wrote the music, and Ralph wrote the lyrics (though not the scatting, that’s for sure), according to Wikipedia. Hey, best source I could find online… and nobody has put up lyrics for this song!
Seriously! I hardly ever come across any songs I can’t find lyrics for these days! I can’t remember one, in fact!
He seemed to have accepted it as having some value more than money, like maybe a social commentary. This was not some big production or record that was going to sell a lot of copies. I doubt he would have thought this song would have gotten a lot of mainstream air play given its lyrics contained the word “nigger” more times than most racy song these days with that word in it.
I don’t think the song is controversial or politically incorrect. I see the value in the social commentary. I see it as partly reflecting the times and a small part of the history of African-American culture, as it were, without all the spin and sugar coating. For some people, any use of the word “nigger” is just bad, definitely politically incorrect, and that it should be removed from the English language. However, I think that in the “right context”, the word “nigger” has its place. We could not accurately write African-American history without it, for example. It’s all about how you use the word, and unlike a lot of the songs today with the word “nigger” in it, I think it belongs just fine in every single instance you find it in Ah’m a Nigger Man.
Put it another way, if I thought this song were politically incorrect, I wouldn’t dare put it on my blog that some people will inevitably use to form some or all of their opinion of me as a person. If I thought the song controversial, it would never fit in the “slightly controversial” category. It’d be way too much for me to dare to put here!
I also think Ah’m a Nigger Man is a better example of African-American music than most of the songs I had heard which were written and performed solely by African-Americans in the past 20 years. Sure, Scatman didn’t write the lyrics, but the music and scat singing was his. I think if he felt the lyrics were “off”, he’d probably have objected. Put yourself in his shoes and think about whether you’d have done anything if the lyrics had not “felt right” to some extent. I also wonder if he might have had a hand in refining the lyrics if they had not “felt right” to start with. Ralph Bakshi might have “gotten it right” from the start. In my opinion, and I’m not going to try to qualify that opinion, that music and scat singing contribution by Scatman Crothers alone were sufficient to make Ah’m a Nigger Man a more worthy example of African-American music than most of the songs I had heard which were written and performed solely by African-Americans in the past 20 years. Add on a well-matched set of lyrics to the music and you’ve got an even better example!
President Barack Obama has finally revealed his 2010 NCAA Brackets today in a much anticipated event. I know how anticipated it was. My posts on his similar actions last year has been getting lots of hits since Sunday from people searching for Obama’s picks this year.
Printable version of President Barack Obama’s 2010 NCAA Barackets
2009 Barackets for reference
My Picks for ESPN’s Tournament Challenge (no value for upsets)
My Picks for the Score Challenge (potential bonuses for upsets)
Obama’s picks deserves to be highly anticipated, though! The Prez has had a great track record when it comes to picking winners of big American sporting events. He picked the Steelers to win the 2009 Super Bowl, North Carolina Tar Heels to win 2009 March Madness, and New Orleans Saints to win the 2010 Super Bowl. Obama did reasonably well in last year’s tournament, despite picking poorly in the first rounds and picking mostly favourites otherwise, since March Madness is traditionally a tournament of upsets. His track record suggests that you don’t bet against da Prez when all the money is on the line, though!
Looking at the Barackets this year, Obama has generally played it safe again. Where he has upsets, I can see reasons why like Sienna over Purdue with the Boilermakers not playing well right now. Obama has picked all the #1 seeds to go to the final four except Duke, despite the general opinion out there that Duke has the easiest road to the Final Four. I suspect that Duke elimination pick has something to do with Obama’s fondness for North Carolina, who he had rightly picked to win it all last year, and had played some hoops with them. Of course, Duke will be seeing Villanova for a third time if it comes to that, when the Prez has the Wildcats beating the Blue Devils this time around, so it’s not just some pick out of the blue. Still, not a lot of experts are picking Duke to lose to ‘Nova. Obama has also picked #1 overall Kansas Jayhawks to win, despite having played hoops with Kentucky on Jan 27 2010. Keep one thing in mind, though, playing it safe with the rankings in March Madness is a risky move because it’s not called March Sanity for a reason!
So, looking at Obama’s Barackets, I want to know if you think your brackets are better than his, or if you’ll be taking some advice from him? I’m going to assume that if you’ll take some advice from him, you’ll be intending to make your brackets better than his so don’t claim it as being better if you used some advice from his picks… unless you’ve already submitted and are now having second thoughts, hehehe.
Now, last year, I kept track of Obama’s performance through several popular point systems, each of which would cause you to pick very differently. I’m going to do the same after each round again so please do come back and see how you fared against da Prez, pending which scoring system you will be playing (if you play one of the systems below)!
We’ll see what you’ll be saying then!
Oh, btw, I’ll be making my picks soon and coming back to share. I’ll compare them to Obama’s Barackets to see if I’ll change anything.
(32 points per round like CBS Bracket Challenge, or 320 points per round like ESPN)
If you are in a betting pool with your NCAA brackets, chances are you are using this scoring system. This system rewards 1 point for a win in the first round, 2 in the second, 4 in the third, 8 in the fourth, 16 in the fifth and 32 to the ultimate winner. Upsets gives nothing extra. ESPN uses 10 points instead of 1 per game. I don’t know why. Maybe they think their audience is better at math or something???
The maximum points is 192 for CBS, and obviously 1920 for ESPN.
Scoring System 1 + 1
(scoring system 1 + 1 point for each upset)
Some pools reward upsets in a minimal sort of way with one point for each upset. It’s not much but it could make the difference between similar results of correct games picked.
Scoring System 1 or D
(scoring system 1 or ranking difference for upsets)
This system is used by the Canadian channel The Score in its pool. It allows you to get some separation in the first few rounds by picking the upsets because it’s not worth it to risk the upsets in the latter rounds, where the high seed teams tend to go through so their ranking difference is minimal, meaning you’d get the same points if you pick the higher or lower team.
Scoring System 2
(1 point per game)
This European style scoring system values the overall judgment and minimize fluke results of someone selecting the correct ultimate winner despite performing not so great otherwise.
The maximum points for the first four rounds is 63.
Jan 2011 update: Margaret Whiting passed away on Jan 10, 2011. It is sad, of course, but what a legacy she left us with, including the song in the video below written by Francesca Blumenthal in 1986. Rest in peace, Margaret.
At this time in 2009, I started building this blog as part of my year to learn about social media. In 2010, I am learning about multi-media and this is my first video. I should point out that like my study of social media, it’s about knowing its capabilities and potential more than the technical stuff, though a lot can be learned by doing hands-on technical stuff. It’s too bad all too many “boss” types in the world never really learn the details of things they “manage” from doing to appreciate the challenges and power of those things.
I used Windows Movie Maker to make this video, with its rather limited capabilities and features. I know it’s not a great video editing program, but I’ll get around to one soon enough. I created the images from Photoshop actions I made to save a lot of time and repetitive effort.
The idea for this video first came to me in the middle of 2009 when I wanted to social media share the 1986 song The Lies of Handsome Men, written by Francesca Blumenthal, sung by 1940s crooner Margaret Whiting in 1990 when she was 66! Thank you to Francesca for correcting my mistake in a comment below. What a beautiful song this is and I hope you’ve got more such songs in your repertoire, past and future!
In my opinion, Margaret’s version is the definitive version of the song. I haven’t heard anybody else sing it like it, and I love it when I find definitive versions of songs that just blow the rest of the versions away. What made the difference for me, as I later found out through research, was that Margaret had been involved in acting and she used those acting skills to put just a little more intonation and feeling into the song. I listened and I really believed she meant everything she said. Mind you, the way she ended up with a former gay porn star 20 years her junior while in her 50s for 33 years of her life (see notes near the end of the notes before the video), she’s a mighty fine actress to have convinced me she believed those lies when she obviously brushed them aside!
Usually, I can find what I want in music online on YouTube. However, there was no version of this song I could find anywhere to share so I penned it down as an idea for a video in 2010 when I would be focusing on learning multi-media. I thought of it as a simple project, to create a slide show video where the images would be male movie stars and musicians of an era past, in black and white.
Images were mostly from an amazing site of black and white movie portraits called Dr Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans. Portraits were so beautiful and noble back in those days! Order of the portrait tied the images to something in the lyrics as much as possible, albeit sometimes rather vague and sometimes without connection because it isn’t easy to have a limited collection to suit any old set of lyrics, you know! Names of subjects are at the bottom of this post.
I wanted to use past celebrities’ B&W portraits because they were more true to the song’s age and feel, as well as avoid all the people today created out of hype with faults yet to be found. The stars in the past have had their good and bad days and have their legacies pretty much written so they are more “timeless” since public opinion won’t likely change much on them any more.
Had I thought of this video in December, I might have gone after the images of the women of Tiger Woods. Hahaha!
But I can still dedicate it to them, can I not?
Alas, they ain’t got nothing on Margaret! On her fourth marriage, Margaret married a gay porn star 20 years her junior in the late Jack Wrangler (neé John Stillman), who eventually also came to do straight porn.
Ooops. Bad pun intended! 😉
According to Jack, this was how they met.
In 1976, Jack Wrangler met celebrated 1940s pop singer and film actress Margaret Whiting when she attended one of his one-man erotic shows in New York. As he later recalled, “I was with my manager when I looked over at Margaret, who was surrounded by five guys at a booth. ‘There she was with the hair, the furs and the big gestures. I thought, ‘Boy, now that’s New York! That’s glamour!’ I had to meet her.” A relationship developed. He was 33; she was 55. When Wrangler confided to Whiting that he was gay, her response was “only around the edges, dear.” The couple has never married. As Whiting told People magazine in 1987, “There’s no point in us getting married. We’re not having kids.”
Remember, Margaret Whiting made her debut as a crooner in the 1940s! Those women of Tiger Woods ain’t got nothin’ on her!
Margaret is still alive so far as I know. Jack passed away in April 2009 from emphysema after 40 years of smoking. Their picture together is the slide in the video.
Seems Margaret didn’t believe in the lies of handsome men if she convinced Jack to be her mate despite his openly gay declaration. 😉
Here is the video below. Please give constructive criticisms if you can afford the time. Thank you.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 7.1
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LYRICS
I believe in star signs
And I believe in film romances
I believe in in fantasy
And I believe with just one glance he’s
Crazy for my eyes
‘Cause I believe the lies
Of handsome men
I believe in witchcraft
And I believe in Cinderella
I believe in gypsies
And I believe I cast a spell that
Sends him to the skies
‘Cause I believe the lies
Of handsome men
Somewhere in a corner of my mind
I’m not a fool, completely blind
But even though he’s hooked me on his line
I find the pleasure has been mine
I believe in love songs,
They seem to know just what I’m feeling
I believe in Prince Charming
I never guess he’s double dealing
How my spirits rise
Believing in the lies
Of handsome men
Sometimes in a dark and quiet place
The truth and I meet face to face
And even if his Highness disappears
I keep some lovely souvenirs
So I believe in heroes
And I expect that happy ending
Wishing on some rainbow
I pretend he’s not pretending
Someday I’ll get wise
But right now I need the lies
Of handsome men
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STARRING
(in order of appearance, group by song verses)
Margaret Whiting
Bing Crosby, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Duke Ellington, Paul Newman, Basil Rathbone, Tony Curtis
Lex Barker, Gene Kelly, Rudolph Valentino, Cary Grant, Louis Armstrong, Robert Young, Elvis Presley
Rock Hudson, Humphrey Bogart, Ray Charles, Henry Fonda, Warner Baxter, John Wayne
Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper, Rudolph Valentino, Rudolph and wife Natacha Rambova, Clark Gable, John Garrick, Ronald Reagan
Ralph Bellamy, Robert Montgomery, Buster Crabbe
Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Vincent Price, Sidney Poitier, Laurence Olivier, Johnny Mack Brown, Errol Flynn, Claude Rains
Muhammad Ali, Gene Autry, Fred Astaire, Joel McCrea, Vic Damone, Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood
Digital Citizen 