Seasons of the Ukulele

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

Season 677 - Bring Me A Letter

OneManAndHisPGUke

Final one from me. This song mentions “Your poisoned letter, your telegram”. To be honest I’ve wanted to do this one since hearing @YorkSteve do it years ago. I tried to find Steve’s version on YT to help me with the chord changes etc, but though I didn’t find it, I did find Ukulele Extra Cheese’s slamming cover from 6 years ago though so that helped a lot. So this is a pretty well known song, written by Kelly Clarkson in 1976, all I can say is Russ Ballard took some outrageous liberties with the lyrics…it’s hardly the same song! Artistic licence I guess. Saw Russ sing this brilliantly at a festival a few years ago, along with another Kelly Clarkson song, God Gave Rock N Roll To You. Good times. Anyway, enough talk…..LET US ROCK!!!!! \m/

YorkSteve

OneManAndHisPGUke Hard to believe that Kelly Clarkson wrote that six years before she was born, but that's talent for you.

YorkSteve

I am well on the way to setting a new British record for most colds caught in a winter. So, a little later in the week than usual, here's my letter song, courtesy of John Hiatt. Not sure if it was just a UK thing, but I still remember getting the tempting offers from Readers Digest, every January, where you had to send your entry tickets back in the "No" envelope to win fabulous prizes but not subscribe to the magazine. My father sent them back in the "Yes" envelope once, and regretted it for a year.

CanadaJim

YorkSteve
Yes, Wikipedia tells me it was written by Max Martin & Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald in 1976, but Kelly Clarkson did cover it 28 years later.

redpaul1

I've been hellish busy for the past two weeks, and likely to be as busy in the weeks to come - I've got a new job! I'm giving history lectures in an adult learning centre on 'Famous figures in 16th Century European history' - but I've inherited the syllabus, and the previous lecturer left me with an eccentric cast of characters: Amerigo Vespucci, Martin Luther, Hernan Cortes, Catherine de Medici, Nostradamus(!), Jeanne D'Albret, Dianne de Poitiers, Samuel de Champlain, Louise Labee, Andre Palladio and Sofonisba Anguissola. Two of them are the wife and 1st mistress of Henri II of France, one's the mother of Henri IV of France, one's a poet, one's a painter, and 3 are explorers in the Americas. I've just finished Cortes, and now onto Catherine de Medici (apparently, its Mehdici, not Medici, btw).
Anyway, letters…

MikeM

Just in case the US tariffs come in, I'm sticking with Canadian music. Hey Hey Loretta by our national treasure, Stompin' Tom Connors.

YorkSteve

CanadaJim Two songs, same title. The one John sang was written by Russ Ballard. And he was pulling our leg about God Gave Rock n Roll To You as well - that was by Rod Argent.

OneManAndHisPGUke

YorkSteve I think Jim was getting in on the joke too Steve. Martin and Gottwald wrote that for Kelly Clarkson shortly before she had the hit with it with Kelly Clarkson and the Sunshine band, ( later abbreviated to KC of course) At least I think that’s the case. It’s hard to keep up some times. I made sure of course to credit the real songwriter in my YT description. God Gave was indeed also written by Russ Ballard when he was in Argent.

AlanDP

An REO Speedwagon song from one of my favorite albums of the 80s.

UkeCan1

Love Letters

Every Season deserves a good musical. This one's from "1776", one of three songs where lovebirds John and Abigail Adams duet through letters.

I wanted to do "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve", in which they fight over saltpetre and pins - that one has lived rent-free in my head for five decades - especially when I drive past Framingham on the way to Boston. But it's a bit complicated and I didn't see a chart for it.

In this one, "Yours, Yours, Yours", they are missing each other in rather racy 18th-century terms, as John fights his fellow Continental Congressmen to approve a Resolution on Independency in hot-as-hell Philadelphia, while Abby attempts to save their Boston farm and keep her family alive.

kolibri

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (1963) is a song by Amilcare Ponchielli, Allan Sherman and Lou Busch. Tommy Coughlin played it in the Seasons 7 years ago, and I found out that a Finnish version also exists. Here is "Kirje leiriltä" (A Letter from Camp):

kolibri

Hello Seasonistas! The playlist is updated, thank you again for your brilliant songs. It's Saturday and soon the new Season's theme will be revealed. But we have still a couple of days left to play and sing epistolary songs mentioning letters, telegrams etc. So, be it twofers or "one-fers", bring them to Season 677!

AlanDP

"I just got a letter from that Hoosier girl of mine." A love song for a rotund woman from 1921.

uke4ia

"Letter from an Occupant", an early single by The New Pornographers. Neko Case sang lead on the original version. (I was hoping to play "Tear Stained Letter" by Richard Thompson for this Season, but I'm going to need a LOT more practice before I can play that riff fast enough.)

Joko

Originally by Doctor SParkles, this little ditty might help you some day if you find yourself in an unfortunate situation in need of reciting the alphabet backwards. Live from the Seasonista Open Mic

DelGriff

So, here’s a thing - this could be my first ever twofer! I’m not aware of ever previously submitting the same qualifying song to two Seasons on overlap day; which doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened - just that I have a very bad memory! 😆

This one qualifies for Ylle’s letter Season 677 as it mentions a folded letter in the very final verse, and it qualifies for Doc’s Season 678 from the title and the mention of ‘blue’ in every chorus.

Here’s another thing - it’s the second Yazoo cover I’ve done in a row. And here’s yet another thing - I’d decided to do this one yesterday when Paul announced his theme, only for somebody (not connected with the Seasons) who commented today on YouTube on my previous Yazoo cover, to request this very song. Spooky!

Baritone uke with some synth bass and pads, and some harmony vocals.

Mr Blue - cover of a Yazoo / Yaz song (SOTU 677 & SOTU 678)

OnlyUkeThatMatters

My search for ideas this week brought me a lovely rhythm and blues song, Barbara Lynn's "Letter to Mommy and Daddy."

If you haven't ever checked her and her music out, Barbara Lynn is absolutely amazing!

UkeCan1

Here's a last-minute twofer. Elvis, "A Mess of Blues".

"I just got your letter, baby"

"Every day is just blue Monday"

MsBean

I bring you a telegram for the full moon, a 1966 song. The lyrics are by the Dutch-Swedish Cornelis Vreeswijk, and music by Czech-Swedish Georg Riedel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_Vreeswijk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Riedel_(jazz_musician)

https://genius.com/Cornelis-vreeswijk-telegram-for-fullmanen-lyrics

kolibri

…and the Season 677 is over. Thank you for the music, letters, notes and telegrams! I'll add the latest submissions to the playlist later today and get back with a wrap in a few days. 🙂

Now back to the wonderful "Blue" season 678!

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