Seasons of the Ukulele

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

SOTU 735 - The Twentieth Century

Joko

From the one and only Hank Williams! His first hit from the 1940's!

AlanDP

From the 1950s. "Scotch and Soda" from 1959. Copyrighted to Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio, but the actual songwriter remains a mystery.

Xamar25

From 1900. Lift Every Voice and Sing. By James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson.

This song was known as the “Negro National Anthem”. There is a move to make it our “National Hymn” alongside our National Anthem, Star Spangled Banner.

I have been meaning to learn it for a while so I am glad this season gave me a good excuse.

potmo

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay Ha ha I did pontificate, butr I wouldntr say I did much tracking short of looking at the playlist. I also failed to count to 4 for Wendy. OTH Canda Jim had everything nailed how many reefers cigars and cigarettes etc. That's traclomg/

potmo

Shine on Harvest Moon 1905

Unclear who the writers were as people bought songs and then got credited with them quite often. Well of course I ambitously was going to do all the decades but here it is Wednesday and I only have one. I wound up really liking this song but it took me soooo long and of course it is still meh. Thanks Nearsighted or should I say Lemon or?

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

Humpday update.

We've achieved a group BINGO with every decade covered at least once and an original.

Alan has crept past the halfway point towards the end of the century, OneManAndHisPGUke jumped in with one of my favorite McCartney songs, johnpoole brought us a 60's cowboy ballad, Joko gave us early Hank Williams, Xamar25 rang in with a turn of the century hymn, and potmo stopped by with an early classic. 15 songs across the century so far, Keep it going!

Threebird

Thanks for hosting NLM! I will go with 1960 and The Little Dippers version of a Buddy Killem song called 'Forever'. The song has been covered several times, and I believe The Little Dippers were created specifically for this song. Here is where things get complicated…

An artist named Cindy Lee released a song in 2020 called 'Just For Loving You I Pay The Price' (JFLYIPTP), I love this song and highly recommend Cindy Lee (especially Diamond Jubilee)! (https://cindylee.bandcamp.com/track/just-for-loving-you-i-pay-the-price). Up to this point I had never heard the song Forever, but when I looked for live versions of JFLYIPTP every single result was a performance of Cindy Lee simply singing the words & tune of JFLYIPTP over top of Forever by The Little Dippers.

So to learn JFLYIPTP, I had to learn parts of Forever. How I play it is still a WIP, but I have put bits of Forever at the beginning and end and sprinkled through the song, and the main parts are music from Forever with vocals of JFLYIPTP. I am bringing you a defacing of both songs that will alienate fans of both songs equally, but I think it kinda works.

I'll say the decade is 1960, but if you average the release date of both songs it is 1990, and there may be more of Forever in there to bring the average down. Anyways, my twist on a mash-up of 'Forever' written by Buddy Killen and 'Just For Loving You I Pay The Price' by Cindy Lee.

dr_mitch

This week I have ambitious plans for a song per decade - lets see how far I get. Anyway, for the 1900s, here's Freight Train , a song written by Elizabeth Cotten as a teenager, c.1906. In the 1950s, credit was stolen by a British skiffle group, but the Seeger family helped Elizabeth Cotten get it back.

Mezcalero

Thanks for hosting sir! Here's one from the 1960's. Cheers ~

Barbablanca

I hope to be able to submit three of my songs that I have not yet posted to the Seasons from each decade on the 20th C in which I wrote songs. Here is the first from 1971. The background to the song is in the YouTube description.

The thumbnail is an example of the kitsch paintings that we were trying to sell to the public back then.

AlanDP

From the 1960s.

dr_mitch

Now for the 1910s (I'm going to have to up the pace). Actually, versions of this song go back further, but it's in the 1910s that versions were first written down, and (independently) recorded. Verses vary - indeed, this version has a verse of my own (improvised once when I forgot the actual lyrics, but I liked it so I kept it). You can probably guess which one.

Anyway, here's Hesitation Blues. Eight decades to go.

AlanDP

Well…I always thought I would have to try and cover this one someday. From the 1970s. Including a false start while I was trying figure out what to do.

DelGriff

Thanks for hosting, Lemon! 🙂

So - who was expecting me to choose something from the ‘80s? Me too! But I didn’t! However, this one was just a few months earlier in 1979. One of my happiest teenage memories was when my older brother, John, decided his Blondie albums just weren’t punk rock enough for his new image, and gave them to me. I can’t even begin to describe the joy!

Baritone uke with some synth and drum additions, along with some vocal harmonies in the choruses and the bridge.

Dreaming - Blondie cover (SOTU 735)

I also covered this one a few years back with the glorious and much-missed Liz Brinker - we slowed it down quite a bit and Liz added some small percussion, beautiful dreamy backing vocals and wonderful uke playing. Have a listen here if you’d like to hear it.

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

I think I'm keeping up here, but if anyone notices anything missing from the playlist, please let me know.

dr_mitch

At the tail end of the 1920s is Fats Waller's most famous song today…Ain't Misbehavin'. And another decade passes. How far will I get?

potmo

potmo Haha no worries.

potmo

Danny Boy 1915

This should have been in time for St Patty's but it took me a while to get into gear. The lyrics were by Frederic Weatherly and it was performed initially by Elsie Griffin. The melody is a traditional Irish "Air" (fancy word for folk song) by the name of "Londonderry Air" I chose to use Harry Belafonte's lyrics, so instead of someone telling a person going off to war that when they come back and visit her when she's dead she will get all warm and fuzzy. Belafonte made it more anti-war where Danny is the one who is going to be visited at his grave.

I am pleased report (probably much to the chagrin of our host) that I had a very productive day! I too am going for every decade and after yesterday I didnt feel too confident but I knocked off 1910s-1970s today! I will spare you being bombarded with all my songs at once.

potmo

Cheek to Cheek 1935

Originally performed by Fred Astaire so he could hit on Ginger while dancing around with her. I chose to cover the Louie and Ella 1956 version.

I see that I actually missed the 20s. I had mentally already recorded it but I guess you need an actual video so I will have to circle back...

potmo

I am assuming that it is easier for all involved not to bomb the discussion with 6 videos all at once. If you would rather they show up earlier, then let me know.

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