Seasons of the Ukulele

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

SOTU 737 - Another Circle Round The Sun

CanadaJim

**Next Monday, March 30, is my 82nd birthday and I'm celebrating by hosting Season 737.- Songs with the word "March", "Birthday" or "Monday" in the title and/or lyrics, ("marching" is quite acceptable)

I'd like to hear some songs in these categories:

- Songs whose composers or performers were born in March,
- Songs written in or on the charts in 1944,

- A song that you wrote in March.
- A song sung or written by a performer who shares a birthday with me (not the year, but the day) Some of those are Eric Clapton, Tracy Chapmon, Nora Jones, Randy VanWarmer and Celine Dione.

Here's a list of #1 songs from 1944:

Glen Gray & His Casa Loma Orchestra, vocal Eugenie Baird – My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?) (January, 5 wks)
Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra, vocal Kitty Kallen – Besame Mucho (March, 8 wks)
The Merry Macs – Mairzy Doats (March, 3 wks)
Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians, vocal Skip Nelson & The Lombardo Trio – It’s Love-Love-Love (April, 2 wks)
Bing Crosby – San Fernando Valley (May, 2 wks)
Bing Crosby – I Love You (May, 4 wks)
Harry James & His Orchestra, vocal Dick Haymes – I’ll Get by (As Long as I Have You) (June, 6 wks)
Bing Crosby – I’ll Be Seeing You (July, 3 wks)
Bing Crosby – Swinging on a Star (August, 10 wks)
Mills Brothers – You Always Hurt the One You Love (October, 2 wks)

*I think I'm safe in setting an 8 song limit.
If you are a first time poster, play the song that you are most comfortable with on a topic of your choice.
All songs should feature the ukulele, guitalele or banjolele. . . anything in the _lele family, but may have other instruments as well.
All other usual rules apply: midnight Hawaiian time Saturday, March 29, till midnight Hawaiian time Sunday, April 5.

REVISED PLAYLIST

CanadaJim

My birthday gift from my darling, lovely wife, Maggie - A Kala tenor archtop.

Barbablanca

I will be away on the 30th till the 3rd April - So "Per Molts Anys!" from Catalonia. (PRONOUCED Pear Molz Anns - with the N in the last word sounding like the first N in Onion) That's how we say many happy returns here!

I almost share your birthday. Mine is the 31st of March (ten years later than you). You're looking good for 82!!!

CanadaJim

Barbablanca - I recall that your birthday was on the 31st. Our mutual friend, Steafan's is today.

UkeCan1

One verse and chorus of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" qualifies it for a twofer … and that was enough for me.

Written for the Union as a Civil War anthem by activist, abolitionist, suffragist, prolific writer, and proposer of Mother's Day Julia Ward Howe, it ties the wrath of God to the the violent vengeance of the war. The remaining verses only get "more so" as it goes along, so I quit while I was ahead.

"Trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored" = winemaking (736)

"Truth is marching on" = March (737)

The Wikipedia entry for "grapes of wreath" explains the ghastly wine metaphor as Christ pressing himself in the winepress, and his blood mixing with the wine. I've long wondered about that … and … well … now I know….

johnpoole

Hi Jim. Happy Birthday mate. I'm a March baby too. I was a 70 year old baby on March 2. Always learning something on the seasons. Today I found out that Thunderclap Newman was a band not a person. But the writer and singer of their big hit was John "Speedy" Keen. Born 29 March. I did this on Guitalele as I needed an extra bass string for the descending riff.

Guitalele in open tuning as was the original song. On guitalele it's an open G tuning DGDGBD. Plugged in. 'Something in the Air".

joo

Happy Birthday to you. Jim! Happy 82!

I just recorded a whispery cover of Antônio Carlos Jobim's Waters of March, which not only has March in the title but the song is about the cyclical nature of life which i think fits your theme.

It has been a bit of a pain recording this song because I kept stumbling over the words….dunno why. Perhaps the way the song flows is like a river and my swimming skills are non-existent. But I wanted to get it done before I went to bed, so I whisper-sang it 'cause Jon was in bed and it was so quiet in the house i had to keep my volume down even though i was a few walls away.

OH! and I wanted to show off our latest cheap uke which I painted on! It is a tiny plastic uke we bought from a market today. I stuck a piece of cardboard on it and decided to leave it there. Also, the uke has a little green heart-shaped pick attached to the bridge. I tied an orange colour pencil to it because whoever plays the uke might want to use the pencil as a pick or a percussion tool. LOL. Thanks so much to Jon for being so open to my random, silly ideas.

Hope you have a nice, relaxing, laughter-filled birthday tomorrow and a fun week hosting this Season!

UkeFoote

"Don't Know Why", by Norah Jones, for concert ukulele with singing; overdubs of Ashbory Ubass and whistling. Norah Jones was born on your 35th birthday, Jim… thanks for hosting!

bobjking

Hey, Jim!

A very happy birthday to you!

Here's (I believe) my first twofer!

Obviously, no explanation necessary as to how this fits 736 but it turns out that Angus Young was born on March 31st 1955!

So here you go. Have a birthday drink on me!

All the best! X

AlanDP

A hit song in 1944.

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

Happy Birthday Jim, I'll be catching up to you a little next month.

Here is a song I've been meaning to record for a while, and as it mentions "marching" I thought this would be a good time to do it. It also seems appropriate for this weekend in another way 😉 .

This is an old Woody Guthrie song that I think he only performed on the radio, I don't think he did an actual recording of it. In recent times, people have been "updating" the lyrics, including a Bette Midler version that came out this week, but I think the original word as still very strong and appropriate for today's situation.

You know I like adding over-dubs and harmonies to the stuff I record, but this one felt more personal, so it is just me and a low G tenor, that's it. All You Fascists (Bound to Lose)

AlanDP

A piece by a composer born in March (actually today the 29th). An instrumental that I got kinda tired of hearing. Short version.

UkeCan1

The only twofer I could find in the NJAMP Dropbox chord-lyric chart library has Monday in the title and mentions booze and a hangover. Only trouble, is it's by a not-well-known artist, outside that local (central New Jersey) area, who is no longer living, and I'd never heard it.

I couldn't find it or him via YouTube search. We are (were?) Facebook friends, so I went to his timeline, and - bingo! - many of Gary O'Neill's 1000+ songs that he wrote he recorded on video, and posted each one on YouTube and then FB. I followed one to his YouTube channel, and then scrolled way down until - second bingo! - I found "Cruel Monday Morning" … from February 2015!

I hope you'll watch Gary's first.

Here's my quickie cover, on a dark and gray Monday morning. My own hangover is not from booze but lack of sleep - I'm just off a long weekend of Zoom on Eastern Time (10:30pm to 10am Sat/Sun and Sun/Mon).

joo

I asked Jon what March songs I could do and he started singing this nursery rhyme.

joo

hi again Jim,

I just realised I forgot to do some marching in the grand old Duke of York song, so I got Jon to do a marching version with me.

hope you and the rest of the gang here find this amusing and not annoying haha!

potmo

"Waiting Around to Die" – Townes Van Zandt

Happy birthday ol' timer! Townes shares your birth month and year. Sadly he only made it to 1997. A twofer with a reference to wine.

potmo

"Rum and Coca-Cola" – Andrews Sisters

I had this planned anyway and was delighted to discover your 1944 qualifier. This is twofer 2/3

potmo

"When I'm Sixty-four" – The Beatles

One magic line seals the twofer...

...birthday greetings, bottle of wine...

potmo

Just curious, has anyone done three twofers on a Sunday? Not counting Wendy of course who has probably done like a dozen or something.

MsBean

This one is not for the playlist this week. It's the first time I'm playing Happy Birthday on my lute for someone.

I thought I'd manage C, F and G chords and a Bb at the end. You might recognise the related guitar chord shapes.