Just Because Music: “If I were a rich man.”

I’m working a law suit that involves (I kid you not) millionaires and billionaires.  It’s a boring case, except for the dollar signs, and it’s keeping me away from blogging.  In this lawsuit’s honor, I give you “If I were a rich man.”

Just Because Music — “Night of my Nights” from Kismet

I prefer Vic Damone’s version from the otherwise mediocre movie version of Kismet, since it’s smoother than this version from the original Broadway production.  Even sung this way, though, you can tell what an unusually romantic song it is — Borodin via Broadway:

Just Because Music — Elvis’ “Burning Love”

Just Because Music — Michael Jackson’s “Ben”

My daughter and I were talking about incongruous songs.  My favorite is Ben, a sentimental, romantic homage to a killer rat:

Just Because Music — Ella and Chick Webb with “Sing me a swing song”

Doesn’t get better than this, from 1936:

Just Because Music — The Ames Brothers’ “The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane”

Another in the category of “they don’t write ’em like the used to”:

Just Because Music — Michael Buble’s Sway

I’d never heard this song before today, but my daughter introduced me and she’s right — it’s good!

Just Because Music — The Kingston Trio’s Merry Minuet

This song is as timely now as it was then, only more so:

They’re rioting in Africa.
They’re starving in Spain.
There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don’t like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud,
for man’s been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day,
someone will set the spark off… and we will all be blown away.

They’re rioting in Africa.
There’s strife in Iran.
What nature doesn’t do to us… will be done by our fellow man.

Can you imagine Hollywood making something like this now?

Nelson Eddy, as a Canadian Mountie, enthusiastically sings about capturing criminals dead or alive:

Just Because Music — Who’s Sorry Now?

This song is dedicated to Barack Hussein Obama, who has now announced that, contrary to all previously known facts, he warned Mubarak from the beginning that the latter had to enact democratic reforms or else:

Just Because Music: Things you never thought you’d hear

The Bee Gees performing Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band:

I can’t decide if I like this version or not, but it’s certainly interesting.

Just Because Music — “My canary has circles under his eyes”

A Jazz Era classic:

Just Because Music — Artie Shaw’s Frenesi

Just Because Music: John Waite’s “I ain’t missing you”

I can never tell if I like this song on its own merits or because it reminds me of a very happy time in my life.  Either way, here it is:

Just Because Music — Burl Ives

Just Because Music — Roger Miller’s King of the Road

This song, which I heard on the radio the other day, made me realize that there was a time when single homeless men were treated differently at a cultural level.  I make no comment on that different treatment, I just note it:

Just Because Music — Strauss’ Fledermaus Overture

Just Because Music — Andrews Sisters’ “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”

Perfect for a Saturday night:  Harry James, the Andrews Sister and Shemp:

Just Because Music — Rick Astley’s Together Forever

I’m always amazed at the big voice that comes out of this sweet, wispy-looking little guy.  And it’s great dance music:

Just Because Music — The Bangles’ Manic Monday

Day two of the sick child saga.  It’s a manic Monday:

Please feel free to use this as an open thread.  As my child gets better (yay!), I’ll have more time to focus on the news on this, the second to last day before the Democrat lame duck session in the House begins.

Just Because — Laurel & Hardy

From 1937’s Way Out West, one of the most charming movie moments I’ve ever seen:

Just Because Music — Village People’s In the Navy

I’m simultaneously trying to get an appellate brief ready for file (a good one, that Don Quixote wrote) and help my husband with a speech he has to give to a large group at work.  Blogging will have to wait a little.

While I was doing all this work, however, I heard the Village People sing In the Navy, and was struck by what a pro-Navy song it is.  Back in the 1970s, when it came out, I never actually listened to the lyrics.  Instead, I simply assumed that, because the group had a gay theme (although not all of them were gay), the song was a nudge-nudge, wink-wink, about floating gay nookie.  In fact, the lyrics are remarkably nice about the Navy itself.  Check it out:

Just Because Music — Beach Boys’ I Get Around

This must be the most awkward looking performance I’ve ever seen, but the music is . . . well, it’s pure Beach Boys magic:

Just Because Music — Eagles’ New Kid in Town

Doesn’t get better than this:

Just because music — Billy Squier

I’ve always enjoyed “Rock Me Tonite,” which is a great, hard-driving rock song.  It’s incredibly funny, therefore, to watch Billy Squier do a low grade, and quite feminine, Jennifer Beals imitation in the accompanying video:

Rumor has it that this pastel-toned ballet killed his career.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised….

Having another Bee Gees attack

Honestly, I don’t know whether I’m chasing my lost youth, or if I just have some part of my brain that’s perpetually reserved for the Bee Gees.  Whatever the reason, I periodically have this overwhelming urge to listen to their music and then to pass the listening on to you.  I love ABBA (lost youth stuff there too), but the intermittent urges to revisit them don’t strike as randomly or as strongly.

Here’s a huge hit:

And here’s a later one, which is delightfully good, sung by a group mellowed with age:

Just Because Music — Electric Light Orchestra

You can take the girl out of the 70s, but you will never take the 70s out of the girl — at least not when it comes to music:

Just Because Music — Rick Springfield

I know it’s supposed to be a love song (or ex-love song), but honest-to-God, I sometimes think it’s what all parents think when they look at their teens and tweens, the ones who want the money but don’t think there’s a housekeeping quid pro quo:

Different generations; different anthems

When I was in high school, the song that was played at every pep rally and every sports events was We Are The Champions, an affirmative statement of superiority and the will to fight:

My kids’ have a very different anthem, which is Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling:

I really like I Gotta Feeling.  It’s a fun song (but what a sleazy video!).  But I also think it’s amusing that my generation rallied around winning, while this generation rallies around navel gazing.

Just Because Music — Johnny Mercer and the “G.I. Jive”

My daughter, who is not in camp this week, is listening to her bubblegum pop music in the background as she organizes her closet.  I am reminded of one of my pet peeves with modern music:  the lyrics are utterly lacking.  They lack imagination, they lack charm, they lack wit, they lack wisdom, they lack romance.  They just drone on and on and on about teenage suffering.  BOOOORING.

As the antidote to that kind of brain-cell sucking music, I present you with Johnny Mercer’s G.I.Jive:

Just Because Music — Those Were The Days

I think I’ve posted this once before as a “just because” video, but today I’m feeling nostalgic for the optimism of my youth, so I’m posting it again.  I’m getting older, and the world does not seem to be getting better:

Just Because Music — Official Air Force Song

In the days leading up to Fleet Week, it’s very usual to see military jets swoop across the sky.  If I’m lucky, standing at the bus stop can be a perfect location to view some nice formation flying.  It’s June, however, and we’re a long way from Fleet Week — which is why it was a bit peculiar to see a jet roar above my house. Do any of you have any guesses as to why I saw that jet go by?

Of course, having seen this unexpected jet, the Air Force Song — “off we go, into the wild blue yonder….” — got lodged in my head.  I’m going to try to exorcise it by passing it on to all of you:

Also, “just because,” my favorite Irving Berlin Air Force (or, as it was then, Army Air Corps) song:

Just Because Music — Fred Astaire singing Irving Berlin’s “We saw the sea”

Follow the Fleet (1936) is one of my favorite Fred and Ginger movies.  Since I belong to the Navy League, and often post about the wonders of the U.S. Navy, I thought that this wonderfully clever Irving Berlin song might be a fun homage to the sailors: