Seasons of the Ukulele

A weekly song challenge for ukulele players - all welcome. Find out more here

SOTU 724 – What's New?

Joko

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Yes, it's well into 2026 here in Southeast Asia as I write this and things don't look too bad so far. I'm going to take advantage of the Mulligan special for today and I don't have to look very far to find it - Last Week 783! In the lyrics of this song we find: "Berkumis tipis si hitam manis" translated: with his sweet little black moustache. So "Mas Joko" was going to be my second hair-themed entry sung in a foreign language.
But I overproduced it. Tried to add too many layers to a song that was complicated to start with.. and I tried singing it in the original key (sung by a female). It was a disaster. Here is a cleaned up version without any multitracking, 3 half-steps down. Some Indonesian Pop, a song with my name in the title…

Joko

I don't want this to sound self-promotional, but I'm nearing a milestone I've been on the verge of for a while. I've got 992 subscribers on my YouTube channel which I started 19 years ago. I want to get to 1000 before 20.

joo

Thanks for hosting, David!

It's been great having you on the Seasons!

I made a little clip yesterday to welcome 2026. I wanted to share it here anyway to wish everyone a happy new year and thought I should add some uke so it can qualify as an entry!

Happy New Year, everyone! Stay young at heart!

DelGriff

Excuse the interruption - just to say that I’ve now posted the wrap-up for Season 723 - click here.

Thanks! :-)

potmo

Thank you Joo, Joko, uke4ia and johnpoole for enhancing an already stellar SOTU playlist.Apologies for the time lag.

It does look like my bonus contests were not particularly popular. Am I disappointeed? A little. Do I understand? Heck yes. I kind of copped out with my "best of", realizing how taxing/ painful going through all my songs and actually deciding which one was my best. One thing I have been, since joining was prolific.

Keep in mind:

Unless I missed something, as of 13:30 Hawaiian time we have one mulligan entry. That one should actually be a bit easier. All you need is a song that fits any past theme, that you didn't do. Joko did it the hard way.
Don't forget that it is no longer not too late to post your "best" recording of the year and that there is a separate thread for this now that will extend beyond this season for a separate playlist.

Again as of 13:30, I believe that I have finally caught up. Please let me know if I have missed something.

potmo

Wild Wild Life – Talking Heads

My mulligan, because I didn't do it in the "That's Wild" season. I am happy to have finally tried a couple of Talking Heads tunes this week. They don't seem to have made any appearances on here since I joined.

UkeCan1

potmo UkeCan1 What's New Pussycat and Aquarius are possibilities for the musical lover...

In my book that sounds like a request.

The astrological sign Aquarius doesn't start for a few more weeks yet, so I assume you're thinking the dawning of a new age is what makes this a fit.

"Aquarius" is from "Hair", which I guess might have made it a sort of twofer had I done it earlier in the week.

I was hoping to do the song "Hair" last week, from the same musical, but it's extremely fast and wordy, and I don't know it nearly as well as this one, which was also a huge hit for The Fifth Dimension, and was on the first LP I ever bought with my own money. (I think they were $3 in those days.)

Great suggestion, David! Here's "Aquarius":

joo

here's a Vic Chesnutt song called New Town.

redpaul1

Hello everybody!

Happy New Year!

potmo

UkeCan1 That was a 100% correct interpretation. It was a passive agressive request ! Aquarius was definitely the hit from that musical and yes a new era makes it topical and "Age of Aquarius" presumably means a long time span which we enter due to planets aligning in a certain way (as opposed to just what period we are in for the year). I looked at hair for about a minute during hair week too and was quickly discouraged. This was also in my family's album collection. Rock on @UkeCan1!

potmo

Happy ordinary-working-day-at-the-end-of-the-holiday-season for those who celebrate. So... we have a nice playlist going so far, some very high quality performances and a short but very sweet playlist of seasonista favorites. I will be watching the "best of 2025" to add on the procrastinators. You know who you are.

In addition to the general high quality (present company excluded) of our ongoing list, I am especially pleased that we had so many nice originals (shout out to @Edwin and @Barbablanca for including their lyrics and chords!).

Still three days to go. More! More! More!

ps I once again think I am caught up so please correct me if I missed you.

pps Happy New Year, to those who celebrate and don't mind being pressured into feeling happy!

pps I miss the old 'ps' days a little.

Joko

This song was written by John Goodman, covered by Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson - and a few others as well… Willie's version got John Goodman a posthumous Grammy for songwriting…. so some of you probably know it, but it was entirely new to me today…. The City of New Orleans (which is about a train - not the city)

potmo

Joko Well I have known this song forever, but I only recently discovered who Steve (not John) Goodman was when I did "vegamatic" in Joo's recent "list" season, and that he gave this song to Arlo. As lore has it, Steve wanted Arlo to hear his new song. Arlo said he would listen if Steve bought him a beer and that when the beer was finished he would stop listening (or maybe only continue to listen after another beer, the details are murky). The song was City of New Orleans and needless to say, Arlo liked it a lot. A sneaky use of "New" in the title. You followed the letter of the law if not the spirit.

Xamar25

The Times They Are A’Changin’

A Bob Dylan classic

UkeCan1

Any why not? Here's your other request:

"What's New Pussycat?" by Tom Jones

My cat likes this song, so I let him perform it for me.

LimousinLil

Hello, David … and thanks for hosting! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY … PLEASE let it be an improvement of 2025; or heaven help us all!!! Sorry to be so late to the week, Christmas is still going on here in that Tom's (younger son's) new-to-him Ford Ranger decided not to co-operate when he tried to start it earlier in the week, and is now residing in a Garage in a local town, waiting for the arrival of parts. The family should have left on New Year's Day, but only Laura (Tom's wife) and Oscar (his son) have departed - by plane yesterday - as Laura, a teacher, had to return to School and Oscar has his mock GCSE'S. Tom, Amélie and the dogs are still here and will remain so till the truck is fixed. I wasn't quite sure what to do for the week, but I remembered this song by Roger Whittaker, which sort of fits. The background photo of the sun was taken through the bedroom curtains when I woke up this morning.

dr_mitch

Happy New Year everyone! And now a song I couldn't resist, and feel like I should apologise for!

potmo

LimousinLil As my successor says, the end of the week is just as good as the beginning Lil. No need to apologize! Nice job

potmo

dr_mitch Never apologize. Never explain.

UkeCan1

I've been working on this for a few days for 724 - it's got NEW in the title and band name, and it's great, so I had to.

As it got later into the week, I started hoping it would work as a twofer, and it kinda does. I mean, drugs, right?

It's not 100% clear this song includes any actual sinning, though it's equally unclear that it doesn't. So I added the word into the lyrics in a way that made sense to me.

(And yeah, "Ghostbusters". And yeah, "Pop Muzik". Yada yada. Some of these songs may have ripped off others. They're all awesome, and I'm happy they all exist.)

"I Want a New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News

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