Mark Pentleton

Back to Abba today and the song One man, one woman from The Album. This song was recorded between July and November 1977 and is said to tell of Björn’s feelings about his marriage at the time. The lyrics appear quite negative in the opening verse: “No smiles, not a single word at the breakfast [...]

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How do you measure a year? In daylights, in midnights, in sunsets or in cups of coffee? This is probably the best known song from the musical Rent, and was one of the many songs we used to do with the choir when I taught at Mearns Castle. It probably needs a bit more than [...]

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After a bit of a winter-sports accident yesterday I’ve ended up with damaged ligaments in my thumb. I’d like to say that it was while I was off-piste skiing in the Alps, but in actual fact we took the boys sledging – indoors at Xscape! It was pretty sore and I had it x-rayed at [...]

Today’s song is Fragile by Sting from the 1987 album …Nothing like the sun. It was also recorded in Spanish and Portuguese and was dedicated to Ben Linder, an American civil engineer who was killed by the Contras while he was working on a hydroelectric project in Nicaragua in 1987.

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Bit late today – sorry! Today’s song is the classic When I fall in love. I’ve always associated this song with Nat King Cole, but it turns out that his was not the original. Doris Day recorded it in 1952 and Nat King Cole’s recording dates from 1956. I hope you enjoy it, even if [...]

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This beautiful song written by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim is my favourite song from West Side Story, and indeed one of my favourite songs of all time! In addition to featuring on the cast recordings of many productions of the show, Somewhere has been recorded by artists ranging from Johnny Mathis to Josh [...]

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Today’s song comes from the musical Evita. In the stage version of the show, it’s sung by Juan Perón’s mistress as she is pushed out by his future wife Eva Perón. In the film version it was sung by Eva herself and focused on the end of her relationship with Agustín Magaldi. I guess Madonna [...]

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I’ve just finished working on a series of podcasts for Gavinburn Primary in West Dunbartonshire. They’re doing some fantastic work with Games Based Learning and the p3 and p4 pupils are currently doing a major project on the Winter Olympics. The project is a brilliant example of interdisciplinary learning with the pupils looking at the [...]

So, our second song of February is from the Schönberg/Boublil musical Miss Saigon. The song is a duet by the characters Chris and Kim as they pledge their love for each other. I’m not sure if it works, but I’ve tried to give the song a bit of a far eastern flavour by using lots [...]

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Good morning and happy February to one and all! It’s a new month on 365 songs and I have lots of good songs planned for February. Have you voted for your favourite January song yet? Make sure you do so that I know which songs are most popular!
Today’s song is for Jenny (and Jim!) out [...]

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