Mark Pentleton

Connecting Apple TV to a VGA Projector (and AirPlay from iPad)

admin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:28:05 +0000

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been involved in a number of events where I needed to use my iPad to deliver a presentation or demonstration. I wanted to use AirPlay through Apple TV to allow me to mirror my iPad wirelessly on the screen but I knew that the projectors in the conference venues were VGA only. There doesn’t seem to be one easy solution to this problem, and following various bits of advice on the web and on discussion groups I ordered four different solutions from Amazon in the hope that at least one would work. I thought it would be useful to present my findings here. Within the education world AirPlay offers an amazing opportunity for using the iPad in the classroom, but the difficulty is likely to be connecting the Apple TV to a VGA projector. I hope these findings will be useful to teachers keen to use their iPads in the classroom and “project wirelessly”.

Please note that I’ve only been able to test these on the VGA input on a TV, rather than on a projector. I’m not 100% sure if this affects the findings but I would imagine that the image displayed on the TV through the VGA connection will be similar to that displayed on a VGA projector. In each case I’ve tried setting the resolution of the Apple TV at 1024×768 60Hz which I believe is the native resolution of the iPad. With solution 3 it defaulted to 720p 60Hz.

Solution 1 [FAIL]

Product: HDMI Male to VGA+3RCA Male Gold Plated 1.5m Cable
Price: £4.99

I wasn’t at all convinced that this cable would work: I figured that the HDMI signal from the Apple TV was a digital signal and that a passive cable wouldn’t be able to convert the digital signal to an analog signal. Having tried various options on the Apple TV settings I wasn’t able to get the cable to work at all, so this will be going back to Amazon!

Solution 2 [SUCCESS]

Product: Konig HDMI to VGA Converter Price: £46.00

This active box has an HDMI input and outputs the video to VGA and the audio to twin RCA sockets. It’s a powered box so you’d need to take that on board when planning power sockets at the presentation lectern or wherever your projector is located. The fact that the cables come out both sides of the box mean that it’s a bit of a “messy” solution, but nonetheless it seems to work well. A photo of the output can be seen below:

Note that the image is off-centre. The Apple TV display takes up the full screen, but something seems to happen when the 4×3 image of the iPad comes through AirPlay. I’ve had the same problem with Solution 4 which I used live with a projector at the conferences this week, so there must be some issue which prevents any of these boxes properly aligning the image on the screen.

Solution 3 [SUCCESS]

Product: High Quality HDMI to VGA L/R YPbPr SPDIF Sink Component Optical Audio RCA Video Converter Adapter Monitor Projector HDTV (!!)
Price: £42.25

As you can see from the image, this box is a bit “tidier” than the Konig: all the connections are at the rear. In addition to VGA and 2x RCA outputs, this converter also offers optical audio (SPDIF), although you could take that straight from the Apple TV itself. It also has a component out option (YPbPr) and I’ve included a photo of that output below in addition to the VGA.

The image above is the VGA output. Again, notice a slight misalignment in that the image is not centred on the screen. It’s less pronounced than with the Konig, though.

The image above is using the Component out. It’s a bit crisper, but I suppose component options are less likely on standard projectors in schools. I have seem some schools with wall plates for VGA + audio etc., and some of these have component options, so it’s maybe worth considering.

Solution 4 [SUCCESS]

Products: HP HDMI to VGA Display Adapter and LINDY SPDIF Digital to Analogue Stereo Audio Converter
Price: £52.74 + £39.99 = £92.73

This is the only option I’ve used “in the real world” as it was the only one delivered before my conference last Friday. The HP adapter feels quite substantial – and more of a “professional” product than the converter boxes above. However, there are no screw holes for the VGA cable and it did have a tendency to disconnect, eg. when I lifted up the Apple TV to show how AirPlay was working. Note that the HP adapter does not require external power. The other issue is that the HP adapter is video only, so a secondary solution for the audio has to be found. Since the Apple TV only has digital audio out, I had to get a digital to analogue converter. I went for the Lindy box as you can see in the photo. No complaints with this: I connected an SPDIF cable (not supplied, so a further expense) to the Apple TV and the Lindy box converts this to analogue sound through twin RCAs. There’s also an option to use optical coax instead.

The output of this solution worked well, after playing around a bit with projector settings. It can be seen below – again it’s a bit off-centre.

Conclusions

So which solution seems to be the best? I think probably solution 3 is the least messy and provides the most connectivity options, but I’ve yet to try this in the real world. I’ll probably have the chance to do that this week so I’ll keep you posted on my findings! I hope that you’ve found this useful and please add any solutions you’ve found in the comments!

Getting Pages-generated ePubs with media elements onto the iBookstore

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:38:20 +0000

The problem

We have started publishing ebook versions of our Radio Lingua language courses on the iBookstore but earlier this year we encountered a problem when trying to upload our ePubs through iTunes Producer. We use Pages (part of Apple’s iWork productivity suite) to generate our ePubs. Through simple paragraph styles, Pages allows you to create rich multimedia ePubs easily. However, it seems that when Pages exports the ePub, any media files – even if they’re produced in Compressor and/or iTunes using the exact specifications dictated by Apple in the iTunes Connect iBookstore Asset Guide – are renamed with the extension .mov, rather than their original .m4v and .m4a.

Earlier versions of iTunes Producer let these files slip through, meaning that our first ePubs which made it to the store worked perfectly. The iBooks app itself on iOS doesn’t care what the extensions are – it plays the books perfectly, even with the .mov extension. The problem comes from the verification process in iTunes Producer which reports an unsupported media file format, referring to the .mov audio and video files.

With apparently no solution for this problem, we pretty much stopped production of our iBooks and focused instead on getting some of our content ready for Kindle. However, in the past few days, I’ve been able to solve the problem by piecing together various bits of information on websites and with the help of some patient people in Apple Education with whom I’ve been working on other projects. I’m posting my solution here, but I hope that Pages is updated soon to save us having to go through this fiddly process every time we want to upload a new title to the iBookstore!

The solution

First of all, it will make a real difference if you’ve used a standard naming system for your audio and video files in your document. Since we export our video files using compressor and there are multiple versions of these files, we happen to name all our video files ending in -sd.m4v, eg. video-213-sd.m4v. Our audio files are numbered and end with the extension .m4a. However, with the Pages export, all of these files end up with the .mov extension, so the fact that we know our video files end in -sd.mov and audio files in a number will help as we work through these steps.
Export the ePub in Pages using the standard settings as normal. The ePub file will work perfectly on the iPad, but as it is you will have problems uploading it to the iBookstore because of the verification process in iTunes Producer.
Download the Automator-based contextual menu commands from Tidbits.com and install these following the instructions included. Since the ePub file itself is really just a zip file, you need to edit the files inside the zip file. That bit is easy enough, but if you recompress the zip file using the OS Compress command, you will get a different error in iTunes Producer and you’ll still not be able to upload the file. The reason for this is that the individual files need to be in a particular order within the zip file.
Having installed these contextual menu commands as Folder Services, you can now control-click / right-click on the epub document and choose Expand EPUB. This will create a new folder on your desktop called work and inside that folder you will find the files which make up your ePub.
You should be aware that the Pages export has simply renamed the media files – the .mov files are still .m4v and .m4a files, but they’ve just been renamed as QuickTime video and audio files.
Open the OPS/media folder and you need to rename all the video files as .m4v instead of .mov. If you only have a couple of files you can change these manually. If you have many files to change you can create an Automator script which does this. I’ve created two mini apps which change the .mov to .m4v or .m4a and they’re available here. [Use at your own risk - if you prefer to create your own, here are the instructions] Remember only to change the video files at the moment.
Repeat the above task for the audio files, renaming as .m4a instead of .mov.
Now that you’ve changed the file names themselves, you need to change the links to these files in two places. We’ll start with the .xhtml files – your chapters of your ePub. I’ve used BareBones brilliant TextWrangler to edit my files – the Find and Replace functions work perfectly for this task. With the OPS folder, open each of the .xhtml files one by one. Again, if you’re just dealing with one or two videos or audio files you can change these manually. However, if you’re working with many audio and video files you can do a Find and Replace based on the names of your videos. In our case we find -sd.mov and replace it with -sd.m4v (as I’ve said before, we know all our original video files ended in -sd.m4v). Having done that, all the video files will be changed and it’s safe to assume that the remaining .mov files are audio, so we can do another Find and Replace, this time finding simply .mov and replacing it with .m4a.
You need to work through all of the .xhtml files doing this find and replace so that there are no more references to any .mov files in your publication. Make sure you save changes.
The other place you need to change the filenames is in the manifest file where all the associated files for your ePub are listed. Open the epb.opf file in the OPS folder, again using TextWrangler to edit the file. For each of the video files you need to change both the filename and the media-type. So this involves changing .mov to .m4v and media-type=”video/quicktime” to media-type=”video/mpeg4″. Likewise, for the audio files, change .mov to .m4a and media-type=”video/quicktime” to media-type=”audio/m4a”. Remember that iBooks for the iBookstore need to have .m4a audio – mp3 files won’t be accepted by iTunes Producer.
Almost done! You now need to rezip the ePub folder, so select the work folder on your desktop and control-click / right-click and select Services > Zip EPUB work folder. This process will zip the files together in the correct order, and run epubchecker. After a few seconds you should find a new file on your desktop, book.epub and you’ll probably get an error message. Don’t worry too much about this error message – it’s coming from epubchecker and since media files are not permitted in the epub standard checked by epubchecker, the error message will relate to the media files.
Finally, rename the file book.epub and you should be able to upload it without problem to the iBookstore.

I hope this is helpful to those of you who have had similar problems and that it helps more Pages users to get their enhanced content onto the iBookstore. Next challenge: get non-linear content to work from within Pages, so that we can create pop-ups or answer keys for our books! If anyone can help with that, please let me know!

Podcasting session at the Cornerhouse, Manchester

admin — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:10:26 +0000

This afternoon I’m running a session on creating podcasts for MFL teachers in the Cornerhouse RTC in Manchester. This presentation and walk-through should be useful for teachers who attend the session. I’ve also included seven useful podcasting tips which I’ve found useful when producing our Radio Lingua podcasts.

Seven useful tips for creating enhanced podcasts in GarageBand and Keynote

The first five of these tips are very general and apply to any teacher creating podcasts. The final two tips are a bit more techy and refer specifically to creating artwork in Keynote with a view to adding it to GarageBand to create an enhanced podcast.

Always start your podcast with the title and episode number or date. Remember that your learners may not have an mp3 player with a screen, so they’d rather hear the podcast title than a lengthy jingle before they know they’re listening to the right episode! A clear, announcement, eg. “French Verbs Revision Podcast, episode 3″ before any music or jingle will help your podcast sound more professional.
Think more “late night radio voice” than “teacher voice”. As teachers we’re used to addressing a whole class using our “teacher voices”. However, it’s likely that your learners will be listening to the podcast on headphones or earbuds, so you need to change your voice accordingly.
Teach one learner, not a whole class. The listening experience will be improved if you imagine one learner rather than teaching to a whole class. If you can’t think of one learner, think of explaining a concept to a son, daughter, niece or nephew! This will change the quality of your voice and your intonation.
Short and sweet and often is best. It’s often best thinking of a podcast as a review of one piece of learning which you have perhaps covered in class. If a podcast lasts five minutes and covers one concept or topic in an interesting way, ideally with an example or two, then it’s more likely that you’ll engage your learners and that they will listen – and perhaps even listen again!
Silence is golden. Leave thinking time for your learners. Ask them questions, give them thinking time and then work through the answers with them.
Try to use a square image for your artwork. You can create square slides in Keynote by going to the Document tab in the Inspector and choosing “custom slide size” from the drop-down menu. An appropriate slide size is 600×600 pixels. GarageBand is set to use square slides by default, so if you’ve made your artwork square this will work well.
Think carefully about font sizes. If you’re using text on screen, think carefully about the font size you use: your learners will probably be viewing the podcast on a small screen so don’t use small fonts, and keep the words on screen to a minimum. It’s better to have two or three words in 96 point text than a full sentence in 18 point text!

iPad Band at the ADE Institute do The Monkees

admin — Sun, 08 May 2011 16:57:59 +0000

I’ve just spent three days working with inspiring educators from across Europe at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute, welcoming the “class of 2011″ to the ADE programme. It has been fantastic being surrounded by so many engaging and committed teachers from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. We decided to put together an iPad band for a performance on the final day of the conference, and after a couple of quick rehearsal sessions we performed this morning to open the day’s proceedings. Filmed by UK ADE coordinator David Baugh, the above video will hopefully give a flavour of our performance!

A word of explanation on our group’s name, GC/DC: to keep things simple we chose a song with very few chords – and “I’m a believer” fitted the requirements: G, C, D and a couple of Fs thrown in. So it seemed only right to name our band GC/DC!

Become an Apple Distinguished Educator

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:15:36 +0000

Since 2005 I’ve been part of a community of educationalists from around the world who are recognised for “doing amazing things with Apple technology”. I first became an Apple Distinguished Educator while I was working on the Partners in Excellence languages and technology project where we were using film-making, animation, music production and podcasting to motivate language learners in three education authorities in the west of Scotland. Since then I’ve worked with colleagues from all over the world on various events, conferences and training sessions, and of course I continue to use Apple technology every day producing content for Radio Lingua language courses and in my educational workshops with Radio Lingua Schools.

The closing date for applications to become an ADE in the “Class of 2011″ is fast approaching. If you’re an educator who uses Apple technologies in an innovative way, consider applying to become an ADE. The application process involves completing a form and then creating a two-minute video about your story in which you need to show Apple how you’re “integrating Apple technology into your learning environment in meaningful ways”. According to the official application documents, the profile of an ADE is:

a “digital” educator actively engaged in a modern learning environment
an inspired user of core Apple technologies personally and professionally
uses and integrates a full range of mobile devices for teaching, learning and creative expression
an early adopter of promising emerging technologies, pedagogical models and digital content
actively shares best practices by authoring authentic content, delivering professional presentations, or conducting and publishing research
a full-time professional employee in a public or private school, local education authority, college, university or non-profit agency/organisation.

The deadline for applications is February 15th at 11:59pm GMT, so you still have a couple of weeks to complete your application if you’re interested. Find out more about ADEs here and start your application process by clicking the link below!

ADE Class of 2011 Application

2010: Review of the year

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:08:56 +0000

As we reach the end of 2010 I thought it only right to have a think back through an extremely busy year and make some notes for posterity!

Radio Lingua

Four years ago, in an attempt to keep my language teaching roots alive while focusing on other things working with the East Ayrshire education team, I decided to start teaching Spanish via a weekly podcast. Since then Coffee Break Spanish has become one of the most popular education podcasts in the world and this year we reached our 33rd language learning series and our 24th language. We now provide language lessons for languages from Catalan to Zulu. Hopefully early next year we’ll add Arabic, Afrikaans or maybe even Alsacien, and then we’ll really be able to offer language-learning from A to Z!

I’m delighted with how things have gone Radio Lingua-wise this year: we’ve now had over 82 million downloads – averaging around 1.7 million per month now; we have had three podcasts in the Best of 2010 iTunes Rewind list; and we’ve just found out that Coffee Break French, Coffee Break Spanish and Show Time Spanish were #3, #4 and #5 in the UK Professional Podcast category of the European Podcast Awards. We’ve also just found out that we currently have the #1 or #2 educational podcast in iTunes not only in both the UK and USA, but also in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Jamaica, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa and Sweden! I love a bit of end-of-year stats!

What constantly blows me away about the whole Radio Lingua adventure is the huge amount of support we get from our faithful listeners around the world and the comments they post on our Facebook pages (CBF | CBS | Radio Lingua), on Twitter and in iTunes reviews for our shows. This support is hugely appreciated and we hope that learners around the world continue to enjoy our shows.

We are still a very small company with only 3-4 key staff, but I have a fantastic team of teachers and native speakers around the world with whom I have collaborated over the course of this past year to produce our new shows, and this remote team is growing all the time. I’d like to say thank you, merci, gracias, tack, ngiyabonga, дякую and 谢谢 to all of my colleagues with whom I’ve worked this year, and I look forward to further collaboration in 2011!

It’s not just the end of 2010, but also of the first decade of the 21st century and what amazes me is that my business could not have existed ten years ago. Even six or seven years ago it would have been difficult to create a company based on the publication of regular language lessons reaching a world-wide audience through mobile devices which learners can carry with them wherever they go. Who knows how language learning will be happening in 2020! In recent weeks I’ve heard about the launch of Word Lens, a new iPhone app which translates signs and information instantly simply by directing the camera towards the image, as shown in the screen grab below.

Is this the future? Or will we have this function built into contact lenses? Of course, the translation is dodgy, and can only be as good as automatic translation can be, but that’s improving all the time. I don’t think it replaces the traditional skill of language learning, and to have successful multilingual business and personal relationships, holding an iPhone up between you and your interlocutors would perhaps be a bit inconvenient! Who knows what the next decade will bring, but I hope to be involved in it and I hope that our style of language-learning through whatever medium the future brings will continue to help people around the world learn languages!

Radio Lingua Schools / Consultancy work

This year has been a big year too for Radio Lingua Schools – we launched our schools site last year and it has been developing nicely over the course of the year. It’s difficult to balance the workload between the consumer side of the company and working in schools, but it’s very often the schools workshops which I particularly enjoy.

In 2010 I’ve been in Strasbourg twice running Euroscola activities along with the inimitable Gerry Toner. In 2011 it seems I’ll be taking a greater role in the organisation of the Euroscola activities, so I look forward to that. It’s always a pleasure working with enthusiastic young people and working with them in intense language immersion activities in one of my favourite towns in France.

In the past year my work as an Apple Distinguished Educator and Apple Education Mentor has increased too. It’s been a pleasure joining a team of talented and committed individuals from all over the UK, Europe and further afield. I’ve had some fantastic opportunities to travel to amazing places, but more of that below.

Travel

Taking my liking for end-of-year stats to the extreme, I’ve been calculating my travel this year. I’ve apparently travelled over 34,000 miles in Europe and Africa. Before any comments about “too much time on my hands, these distances are calculated automatically by Tripit.com which I use for organising my travel plans! My work has taken me to Copenhagen, Dublin, Dundalk, Johannesburg, Kiev, Moscow, Nantes, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Pornic, Prague, Pretoria, San Remo, Strasbourg and Svendborg as well as various trips in the UK to London, Edinburgh and Manchester. The links above are to my photos of each trip on Flickr. While I love travelling and seeing new places, I don’t like being away from home and it certainly makes keeping up with the ongoing Radio Lingua work that bit more difficult. It looks like 2011 is going to be quite busy for travelling too, so I’m looking forward to discovering new places and will hopefully get the chance to take lots of photos too. In addition to all the work travel this year, we also had a lovely family holiday this summer in France and Belgium, and we have some interesting plans for 2011 too

Music

This blog has been the home of my 365songs project and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting back into my piano playing again this year. I’ve also been playing a bit more of my accordion, and still stand by my challenge of being able to play Monti’s Czárdás by my 40th birthday! I’ve got 16 months to get that one sorted out!

Languages

I always seem to have a number of languages on the go in my personal language learning, and these are often linked to what we’re doing with Radio Lingua. This year I’ve dabbled in Zulu, tried my hand at Russian and Ukrainian before my trips in March, had an ongoing on-off relationship with Chinese, and continued my love of Scandinavian languages with various attempts at improving my Norwegian, converting it all to Danish for my trip to Svendborg in May, then trying to squeeze it into Swedish as we produced One Minute Swedish later in the year. I think 2011 will bring further interest in Scandinavian languages and Chinese, and I may have to rapidly improve my German before a trip to Switzerland in March where I may have to do a workshop in German! I’m not going to set myself any challenges this year, but I would definitely like to get more into Chinese – I just haven’t found the right course yet, so perhaps we need to make one! I’d also like to read some of my favourite Scandinavian crime novels in their original, so perhaps that’s a challenge I should try to complete this year: Mankell in Swedish? Nesbø in Norwegian? Or even Indriðason in Icelandic?!

Best wishes for 2011

I’m not sure who – if anyone – reads this kind of year’s review. I’m sure everyone is far too busy to spend time reading my thoughts, but they’re really just for me anyway – some thoughts on my plans for 2011, and perhaps I’ll look back at this next year or in ten years’ time. Anyway, if anyone is reading this, very best wishes for 2011: may it be a year of happiness, good health and success for you and all those who are dear to you.

365/365 Songs: Auld Lang Syne

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 07:46:13 +0000

There’s really only one song a Scot could play on Hogmanay: Auld Lang Syne. Our national poet Robert Burns wrote the poem in 1788 and along with the traditional tune known as Roud, it has become the traditional song of the New Year. Many versions of the song exist in many languages. Last year students from Glasgow University broke a world record for the most multilingual performance of the song on St Andrew’s day.

A year ago today, late in the evening I had what seemed like a great idea: I’d just bought a new piano and since I wanted to encourage myself to play more I thought it would be a fantastic idea to record a different piece of music every day of the year. I was fairly certain I knew 365 songs and I’d be able to choose particular songs to play for particular occasions or particular reasons. Over the past twelve months I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, although at times it has been difficult, particularly with so much travelling this year. On some occasions I had to record up to two weeks’ worth of songs in advance before a long trip, which made getting ready for the trip that bit more hectic! One of the best things about the challenge has been that I played much more this year than I have done probably in the last ten years – and indeed that was one of the main aims of the project. I’m not sure if I’ve “improved” – perhaps if I’d played the same song each day it would be easier to determine, if a little less interesting! I’m afraid I’ll not be continuing to publish daily songs in 2011, though I may add a few songs which I never quite got to round to playing this year, but the daily commitment is just a bit too much to continue.

I wonder if anybody listening to my songs has had any particular favourites over the past year? I’ve particularly enjoyed playing many songs – jazzy numbers like Bess, you is my woman now, A wink and a smile, Makin’ Whoopee, At last, All the things you are and My baby just cares for me; pop numbers like You’ve got a friend, She’s always a woman, Footprints in the sand, Make you feel my love, Both sides now and Up on the roof; show tunes and songs from films including A little fall of rain from Les Misérables, Wishing you were somehow here again from Phantom, Lift the wings from Riverdance, Gabriellas Sång, the theme from Schindler’s List and Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar; and of course the Abba classics including When all is said and done, One man, one woman and Slipping through my fingers. I’ve also really enjoyed playing some folky/traditional songs – with or without accordion! – including Ae fond kiss, She moves through the fair, and Caledonia and some Latin songs including Tico Tico, Perfidia and Sway. I think if I had to choose, my favourites would probably be The way you look tonight, Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission, Fields of gold and the beautifully simple And so it goes by Billy Joel. If you have a favourite, please let me know in the comments!

As we reach the end of this year and of this project, I’d like to thank everyone who has listened to my music. There have been over 20,000 downloads of the songs over the past 12 months, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed listening to them. Have a very happy Hogmanay and very best wishes to everyone for 2011.

364/365 Songs: Thank you for the music – Abba

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:45:21 +0000

I suppose this should really be the final song in my collection, but there’s something typically “Hogmanayish” planned for tomorrow, so I wanted to get the Abba classic Thank you for the music in today. The song was recorded in summer 1977 (I had just turned five at the time!) and was included on The Album, although it wasn’t released as a single until 1983 when it became the final single to be released by the group. Over the past year I’ve played 18 Abba songs and quite a few songs by the members of Abba in the pre- or post-Abba careers. I felt it was appropriate to finish with this song and give my thanks not only for the music which I’ve enjoyed playing this year, but to everyone who has listened each day.

363/365 Songs: My Way – Frank Sinatra

admin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:04:35 +0000

I couldn’t end my 365songs project without including this classic. Originally a French song, Comme d’habitude, by Claude François, the English lyrics were written by Paul Anka after he heard the French version while on holiday in the south of France. Anka wrote the song for Frank Sinatra and it was recorded on 30 December 1968, almost 42 years ago today. It has been used in many situations to mark the end of something – former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder requested it at his military send-off as Angelika Merkel was inaugurated, and it’s apparently the most requested song at funerals in the UK! With my friend and colleague Pierre-Benoît Hériaud (who joined me in La Corrida earlier in the year) we wrote a French and Spanish version to mark the end of the PiE project for our final Film Festival back in 2007. I’m now using it to mark the end (almost!) of my daily song project. Just two more to go – perhaps a bit predictable, but I couldn’t finish the project without including them! Today’s song is also dedicated to my nephew Ciarán whose birthday I missed in October. Apparently Ciarán likes a bit of Sinatra, just like his dad!

362/365 Songs: Let there be love – Nat King Cole

admin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 10:20:54 +0000

We’re into the final few songs in my 365 collection and today I’ve decided to play this classic song from 1940. The piano part to the song is notoriously difficult to play, so I ended up doing a few takes of this and decided to do a full backing track with strings, kit and bass. And then I decided to sing it too, although I’ve included the instrumental version here too, which is perhaps more in keeping with the rest of the tracks in my collection! My favourite version of the song is Nat King Cole’s and that’s what I’ve based my version on. We danced to this song at our wedding and it brings back many happy memories!

361/365 Songs: What are you doing New Year’s Eve? – Frank Loesser

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:51:07 +0000

Today’s song dates from 1947 and was written by Frank Loesser, the lyricist of over 700 songs from films and musicals including Baby, it’s cold outside, On a slow boat to China, Two sleepy people and the musical Guys and Dolls. The first time I heard this song it was sung by Harry Connick Jr and I’ve since heard other versions including Diana Krall’s version from her Christmas Songs album. I hope whatever you’re doing on New Year’s Eve you enjoy it and are surrounded by family and friends and everyone special to you!

360/365 Songs: Mary’s boy child

admin — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:42:40 +0000

Today’s song was chosen by my son Matthew, who insisted that it should be played after Christmas because, after all, the lyrics are “Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas day”, so it wouldn’t be right to play this song until after Christmas day! It dates from 1956 when it was released by Harry Belafonte in a lovely slow calypso version. Perhaps the most famous cover was the 1978 Boney M version. Hope you enjoy my version today which is more Harry Belafonte than Boney M!

359/365 Songs (2): Have yourself a merry little Christmas

admin — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 06:10:19 +0000

Here’s the second song for today – probably my all-time favourite Christmas song. I hope you enjoy this song and I hope you enjoy your Christmas day wherever you are!

359/365 Songs (1): Jingle Bells

admin — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 00:10:10 +0000

Happy Christmas to one and all! Here’s a wee bonus song for Christmas day: Jingle Bells was published in 1857 and, curiously, was the first song broadcast in outer space in 1965! I’d like to wish everyone who has tuned in to my daily tunes for the past 359 days a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

358/365 Songs: One more sleep till Christmas – Muppet Christmas Carol

admin — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 08:24:31 +0000

There’s only one song I can play today and it’s my favourite song from my favourite Christmas film, The Muppet Christmas Carol. We used this song last year at the church Nativity and I’ve based my version today on that one. Have a lovely Christmas Eve everyone! Here’s the song from the film on YouTube. And if you feel up to it, here’s my Kermit version…

357/365 Songs: Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

admin — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:45:01 +0000

I asked Matthew and Ewan which Christmas songs they’d like me to play and when, so today Ewan wanted me to play his favourite, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. It dates from 1949 and was first performed by Harry Brannon New York radio and then recorded by Gene Autry. Since then it has been recorded hundreds of times by artists as varied as the Wiggles, Dean Martin, Paul Anka and The Chipmunks. I still think my favourite recording is by Ella Fitzgerald in an understated jazzy scat version!

356/365 Songs: Walking in the air – Theme from the Snowman

admin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:06:34 +0000

Today’s song is the theme from the 1982 film The Snowman based on the children’s book Raymond Briggs. It was written by Howard Blake and sung by Peter Auty in the film, but popularised by Aled Jones in a single which reached number 5 in the UK charts at Christmas 1985. It has been parodied, much to the hilarity of my son Ewan, in an Irn-Bru advert which you can see here!

355/365 Songs: The Power of the dream – Céline Dion

admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:55:02 +0000

This isn’t actually a Christmas song, but I’ve always associated it with Christmas because it was one of our standard programme numbers from the Mearns Castle choir days when we used to perform at Princes Square in Glasgow at Christmas. It was written for Céline Dion by David Foster and Babyface for the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (clip from the ceremony on YouTube). I’m heading up to Glasgow this morning (assuming the trains are running in these freezing temperatures!) so I may pop into Princes Square and see if any choirs are performing there.

354/365 Songs: Little Town – Cliff Richard

admin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:10:35 +0000

For years Christmas ‘pop songs’ conjured up images of Cliff Richard in a woolly jumper and scarf swaying back and forwards singing Mistletoe and Wine. I’m not very fond of that song, but I do like Little Town which is based on the carol Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. As far as I can gather this was a new setting by Christian music composer Chris Eaton who also wrote another Cliff Richard Christmas song, Saviour’s Day. The words date from 1865 and were written by Philadelphia priest Phillips Brooks, inspired by a visit to Bethlehem. Here’s a version on YouTube of Cliff performing Little Town.

353/365 Songs: Silent Night

admin — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:54:34 +0000

Today’s 365song is the beautiful Christmas carol which dates from 1818 when Franz Gruber famously composed this piece of music with a guitar accompaniment based on the words by Father Joseph Mohr because the church organ was not working and Midnight Mass in the village of Oberndorf was fast approaching. I hope you enjoy my version!

352/365 Songs: Away in a Manger

admin — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:41:25 +0000

Today’s 365song is perhaps one of the most well-loved carols: Away in a manger. It was first published in 1885 and the text was attributed to Martin Luther. There are two well-known melodies, but I’ve chosen to play the original, known as St. Kilda. I love Hayley Westenra’s studio recording of this carol – a very simple guitar and piano accompaniment. I couldn’t find that version on YouTube, so here’s a performance with an orchestral accompaniment, complete with children’s choir!

351/365 Songs: Oh Holy Night

admin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 22:00:55 +0000

This is one of my favourite pieces of Christmas music. The original version was composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 as a musical accompaniment to Placide Cappeau’s Christmas poem, Minuit Chrétiens (”Midnight, Christians”). I remember hearing the French version on the soundtrack of the film La Neige et le Feu which I saw at Christmas in 1991 when I was doing my year abroad in France, so it’s always conjured up images associated with the film for me. More recent versions have included Mariah Carey’s soulful recording and Lea Michele’s recording on the new Glee Christmas album. One interesting fact about this piece of music is that it was the second piece of music ever to be broadcast on radio. On 24 December 1906, Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden broadcast the first AM radio programme and after playing a phonograph recording of Handel’s Ombra Mai Fu, he played Minuit Chrétiens on the violin and sang the third verse.

350/365 Songs: The Prayer – Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli

admin — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:18:04 +0000

Today’s song was originally recorded in 1999 by Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli and featured on both Dion’s Christmas album These are special times and Bocelli’s album Sogno. I like the combination of English and Italian lyrics in this song. I included the song on my compilation in aid of the Haiti Earthquake earlier this year which raised over £500 for the appeal – many thanks again to everyone who bought the collection! I hope you enjoy today’s song. I can’t quite believe this is the 350th song in my project – not long to go!

349/365 Songs: I believe in Father Christmas – Greg Lake

admin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:56:02 +0000

I’ve never been quite sure about this song which dates from 1975. I love the music, especially the combination of the verses with Prokofiev’s Troika theme from the Lieutenant Kijé suite. However the lyrics have always seemed to me to be quite negative. However, as I’ve done my research for today’s song I’ve read that in fact the composer and performer Greg Lake (of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame) actually meant the song as a protest against the commercialisation of Christmas. Either way, I hope you enjoy this classic bit of Christmas pop!

348/365 Songs: In the bleak midwinter

admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:41:50 +0000

I recorded this piece last week as the accompaniment to a video I made on a cold afternoon in Ayr and Alloway. I’ll post the video below. The song was based on a poem by Christina Rossetti written around 1872. It only became a Christmas carol when it was given a musical setting by none other than Gustav Holst in 1906.

Here’s the video I made:

In the bleak midwinter from Mark Pentleton on Vimeo.

347/365 Songs: Nu tändas tusen juleljus / Natten går tunga fjät

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:05:21 +0000

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Today is St Lucia’s day and is a special day in Sweden, and indeed in other parts of Scandinavia and Northern Europe. St Lucia or St Lucy was sentenced to be burned, but the flames did not consume her. In Sweden a girl in each town is chosen to be Lucia and leads a procession. wearing candles in her hair which symbolise the fire that refused to burn her. The traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia is sung in Swedish, and the Swedish lyrics talk of the light which Lucia overcomes in the darkness. After this other Christmas carols are sung, so I’ve chosen to combine one of the most traditional Swedish carols, Nu tändas tusen juleljus (”Now let a thousand lights be lit”) with Natten går tunga fjät, or Santa Lucia.

346/365 Songs: The Holly and the Ivy / Oh Tannenbaum

admin — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:31:00 +0000

Today’s song came from a bit of an improvisation and I decided that the traditional 16th century English carol went well with the German carol from around the same time. Hope you like it!

345/365 Songs: Swingin’ Shepherd Blues

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:51:18 +0000

Today’s song is a bit of a rarity: I’ve not been able to find a lot of information about the song online, but I know that it was something of a “one-hit wonder” for the Moe Koffman quartet in February 1957, and was included on the 1959 Ella Fitzgerald album Get Happy. I originally heard it on Natalie Cole’s Take a Look album, and it’s not particularly festive. However it featured in our set each year when I took the Mearns Castle Senior Choir to Princes Square in Glasgow to perform for charity at Christmas time, so for me this song always conjures up festive images! And anyway, when else do you sing about shepherds?

344/365 Songs: The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:45:13 +0000

This is one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs, and it has to be the original Nat King Cole version from 1946! It was written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells in the heat of the 1944 summer: the idea was that Tormé and Wells would “stay cool by thinking cool” about Jack Frost biting at your nose and folks dressed up like Eskimos. Forty minutes later and the pair had written the most-performed Christmas song (according to the BMI) in history!

343/365 Songs: Let it snow! – Dean Martin

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 07:40:19 +0000

Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in 1945, Let it snow! (or to give it its proper title, Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!) was first recorded by Vaughn Monroe and has subsequently been covered by many artists. The version I’m most familiar with is Dean Martin’s, but among the trivia tidbits about today’s song is the fact that it was the 25,000,000th song downloaded on iTunes! Although it’s associated with Christmas, there’s not a mention of the festive season in the song at all.

342/365 Songs: Happy Xmas (War is Over) – John Lennon

admin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:40:12 +0000

Today’s song is a bit poignant: it was 30 years ago today that John Lennon was killed as he and Yoko Ono returned to their New York apartment. Happy Xmas (War is Over) had originally been released in 1971 as a protest song about the Vietnam war. It was released on 20 December 1980 following his murder and peaked at #2 in the UK charts.

341/365 Songs: O Come All Ye Faithful

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:01:08 +0000

Today’s Christmas 365song is Adeste Fideles, or O Come All Ye Faithful. It apparently dates from the 13th century and has been translated into many languages from the original Latin. One of my favourite performances of this carol is by Lisa Fischer on the soundtrack of Home Alone 2.

340/365 Songs: When a child is born – Johnny Mathis

admin — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:03:41 +0000

This song started life as an instrumental called Soleado by Ciro Dammicco and was recorded in 1974 by his group Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble. The lyrics were added later by Fred Jay. When a child is born has been recorded by many artists, but the most well-known is by Johnny Mathis from 1975. It was used in the 1975 Argentinean film Nazareño Cruz y el Lobo.

339/365 Songs: The Christmas Waltz – Frank Sinatra

admin — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:30:46 +0000

I’ve always loved the Frank Sinatra version of this song – it sort of represents an ideal image of Christmas for me: “frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside…”. It was written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne and the Sinatra recording dates from 1954.

338/365 Songs: The First Noel

admin — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 11:37:32 +0000

This Christmas carol was first published in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern in 1823. It is unusual in that all three phrases of the melody end on the third note of the scale. I hope you like my version.

337/365 Songs: White Christmas – Bing Crosby

admin — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:13:13 +0000

Given that most of the UK (with the exception of the southwest corner of Scotland where we live!) is still covered in snow, I thought I’d play White Christmas. There are probably many people at the moment who are far from dreaming of a White Christmas, but the scenes on the news each day look as if they could be on the front of Christmas cards!

Bing Crosby’s version of this 1940 Irving Berlin song has sold over 50 million copies. Berlin is said to have composed it sitting by the pool of the Biltmore Hilton in Phoenix, Arizona. He told his secretary, “grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written – heck, I just wrote the best song anyone’s ever written!” It featured in the musical Holiday Inn, and won an Academy Award for the Best Original Song.

336/365 Songs: Sombras de otros tiempos – Home Alone

admin — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:10:05 +0000

This song is from the soundtrack of the 1990 movie Home Alone and was featured in the movie as Somewhere in my memory. The version I know best is the Spanish version recorded by Ana Belén and used in the end credits of the movie in Spain.

335/365 Songs: Winter Wonderland

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:07:07 +0000

And so, December has begun and across the UK we’re surrounded by snow. I’m currently in Edinburgh working on the Apple K20 tour and the city is looking fantastic with snow everywhere. The event is taking place at Edinburgh Castle and I took a few photos this morning before things got started properly.

Winter Wonderland is one of the most well-known Christmas songs. It was written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith, and has been recorded by hundreds of artists from around the world. I hope you enjoy my rendition!

334/365 Songs: Flower of Scotland – The Corries

admin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 07:47:57 +0000

Today is St Andrew’s day, a day of celebration here in Scotland, although the weather is somewhat curtailing the celebrations with snow covering most of the country! Flower of Scotland has become something of an unofficial national anthem since it was written in 1967 by Roy Williamson of the Corries. When the Scottish National Orchestra conducted an online poll in an attempt to identify a preferred national anthem, 41% of the vote went to Flower of Scotland, with Scotland the Brave in second place with 29% and the beautiful Highland Cathedral 16%. I’d like to wish all Scottish listeners to 365songs a happy St Andrew’s day!

333/365 Songs: Mull of Kintyre – Paul McCartney

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:46:36 +0000

I’ve always really liked this song. This may explain the extended version I’ve recorded in which I lost count of the number of modulations! It was recorded by Paul McCartney/Wings in 1977 and was the Christmas no.1 that year. McCartney had a recording studio situation on the Mull of Kintyre in Argyll & Bute and this beautiful part of the country inspired him to write the song. When I worked in Argyll & Bute I regularly had to drive down from Lochgilphead to Campbeltown and it really is a beautiful part of the country. I thought I’d play something Scottish today and tomorrow for St Andrew’s day, although given the weather Let it snow would be more appropriate! I felt though that I better keep the Christmas songs for December! You have been warned…

332/365 Songs: Adagio Cantabile from Sonata No.8 – Beethoven

admin — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:43:34 +0000

I’m running a bit late with this today. I got back from Strasbourg yesterday (just 2 hours late because of the snow) and my pre-recorded run of tunes ran out with Michael Bublé yesterday! I decided to play something classical today. This second movement of Beethoven’s piano sonata no.8 in C minor is probably one of the most famous pieces of classical piano music. The sonata is more commonly known as the Pathétique, and was written in 1798 and was dedicated to the composer’s friend, Prince Karl von Lichnowsky.

331/365 Songs: Home – Michael Bublé

admin — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:24:58 +0000

I recorded this song just over two weeks ago, shortly before I left for a 14-day trip to France. I think I knew how I’d be feeling by now. I’ve spent a week in the south of France working in Nice with Apple at the ECIS Conference, and then I flew up to Strasbourg where I’ve been working with a group of Scottish students taking part in the Euroscola debate in the Parliament which I mentioned yesterday.

I’m currently sitting in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport waiting for my flight home. I can’t wait to get home! Here’s hoping the snow won’t cause any problems…

If you’re not familiar with Michael Bublé’s song, here it is on YouTube.

330/365 Songs: 1492 – Conquest of Paradise – Vangelis

admin — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 07:40:36 +0000

This morning I am in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, accompanying a group of Scottish students who have spent the past few days au carrefour de l’Europe, at the crossroads of Europe. There has been ceilidhing in the streets, active learning in the Strasbourg challenge, and a fair bit of accordion playing (including a few of the songs I’d pre-recorded before I left!)

A tradition on these Euroscola days is that when the young people join their compatriots from around the EU (some 700 16-18 year-olds will be sitting in the MEPs’ seats today) in the hémicycle of the Parliament, the music which signals the start of the day is the theme from the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise. This is normally followed by Toto Cotugno’s Insieme (which I played back in February, for my previous visit to the Parliament). I’m looking forward to today and I’m sure that our Scottish group will do us proud!

329/365 Songs: Tico Tico

admin — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:25:44 +0000

This is the final song in my accordion collection for this week! Tico Tico, or to give it its original title, Tico Tico no Fubá is a piece of Brazilian choro music dating from 1917. The word choro means “lament”, or “cry” and the song was performed by Carmen Miranda and later by Ray Conniff. The tico tico is a bird and curiously the musical patterns of the song pay homage to Beethoven’s Für Elise. I’m afraid I got a bit carried away when recording the song towards the end! I’d also like to apologise for my introduction which sounds as if it’s going to turn into Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive!

328/365 Songs: Födelsedagsvals till Mona – Benny Andersson

admin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:17:51 +0000

This is a lovely little waltz written by Benny Andersson for his wife, Swedish TV presenter Mona Nörklit on her birthday. I’ve seen the Benny Anderssons Orkester play this live, and it’s one of those songs which the performers obviously enjoy performing.

327/365 Songs: Vieni sul mar – Enrico Caruso

admin — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:14:01 +0000

If I didn’t know much about yesterday’s song, I know even less about today’s! I believe it’s a Neapolitan song and at one point it was recorded by Enrico Caruso. I think this is a song my mum likes, so I hope you enjoy this, mum!

326/365 Songs: Summertime in Venice

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:09:59 +0000

Today would have been my gran’s birthday and so I thought it would only be right to play an Italian tune. I don’t really know much about this song, but I think she liked it! This recording is a piano / accordion “duo” so I hope it works, and there are a few more accordion recordings coming in the next few days. You’ve been warned!

I’ve also just remembered that 22nd November was the date of the first time I ever played the piano in public. I can’t quite remember the year – possibly 1980 or 1981, but it was at a church concert in the Volunteer Rooms in Irvine!

325/365 Songs: Cry me a river – Julie London

admin — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:00:19 +0000

A big song today! Cry me a river was written for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the 1955 film Pete Kelly’s Blues. However, it was dropped from the film and Ella Fitzgerald didn’t record it until 1961. The most famous early recording of the song was by Julie London in 1955, and it has since been covered by many artists, including a recent popular recording by Michael Bublé.

324/365 Songs: All the things you are – Jerome Kern

admin — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 08:18:44 +0000

This song was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II in 1939 for the musical Very warm for May. Musically this song is very interesting, and there’s an in-depth analysis of the chord patterns on Wikipedia. Apparently the chord patterns and modulations “present challenges for the improviser”. I’d agree! The song has been recorded by many artists, from Frank Sinatra to Will Young!

323/365 Songs: I write the songs – Barry Manilow

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:13:59 +0000

Today’s song was written by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys in 1975 and was made famous by Barry Manilow, winning a Grammy Award in 1976. It is often thought that the “I” of the song refers to the songwriter, but according to Johnston the “I” is music itself. I write the songs has been covered by various artists including David Cassidy, Tom Jones and Johnny Mathis.

322/365 Songs: I cover the waterfront

admin — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:11:23 +0000

Today’s song is a 1933 jazz standard from the film of the same name. It was written by Johnny Green and Eward Heyman.

321/365 Songs: For once in my life – Stevie Wonder / Tony Bennett

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:55:06 +0000

The Stevie Wonder version of this song is one of my all-time favourite songs, although the Tony Bennett/Frank Sinatra/Ella Fitzgerald slow version suits my 365songs project a bit better!

320/365 Songs: Another town, another train

admin — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:54:16 +0000

Today’s song is actually linked to one of my earliest musical memories. I think I would have been about 4 or 5 and I remember listening to this song on my dad’s reel-to-reel tape deck, along with He is your brother on Abba’s Greatest Hits album. It was written in 1973 and was released in Japan as a single and was also recorded in German as Wer im Wartesaal der Liebe steht. I was supposed to be taking an interesting train journey today, hence the song choice, but it looks like it won’t be happening because of the weather!

319/365 Songs: New York, New York – Liza Minelli/Frank Sinatra

admin — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:24:52 +0000

After yesterday’s Come fly with me and the talk of Frank Sinatra’s 1957 album of exotic songs, I thought I’d play another travel-related theme today, and it’s one of the most-requested songs from when I used to play in hotels. New York, New York was written in 1977 by John Kander and Frank Ebb and was performed by Liza Minelli in the film of the same name. Sinatra recorded it for his 1980 album Trilogy: Past, Present and Future and since then it has come to be associated primarily with him.

318/365 Songs: Come fly with me – Frank Sinatra

admin — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 06:32:08 +0000

This song dates from 1957 and was the title song of Frank Sinatra’s album, setting the tone for an album which featured various songs describing exotic locations, including April in Paris, The Isle of Capri, Blue Hawaii and Autumn in New York. Come fly with me must be one of the only songs ever to feature the word “rarified”!

317/365 Songs: 1er Arabesque – Debussy

admin — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:31:11 +0000

I tend not to play classical pieces on here – mostly because I’m so out of practice! Here’s some Debussy today. I think it should probably be played much faster, but I like it a bit ‘watery’ and fluid. Hope you like it too!

316/365 Songs: Manhattan – Rodgers & Hart

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:30:23 +0000

Today’s song dates from 1925 and has been performed by a variety of performers including Oscar Peterson, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald.

315/365 Songs: Nimrod – Elgar

admin — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:26:02 +0000

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That marks our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae

There was only one piece of music I could play today: Elgar’s 9th variation from the Enigma Variations, known as Nimrod, and used at the Cenotaph in London as the wreath is placed in honour of those who lost their lives in war.

314/365 Songs: Smooth – Santana

admin — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:55:21 +0000

This song was a collaboration between Santana and Rob Thomas from the rock group Matchbox Twenty and it reached #1 in the US and Canadian charts in 1999 and #3 in the UK. It’s probably #1 on my karaoke list, but the less said about that the better!

313/365 Songs: Move on – Abba

admin — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:27:22 +0000

This song was recorded in 1977 and the various working titles for the song included Yippee Yay, Joanne, Love for me is love forever and the rather cryptic Big John. I’m glad it ended up as Move on, not Big John!

312/365 Songs: You and I – Chess

admin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 23:41:47 +0000

This is a beautiful song from the finale of the musical Chess. I’ve already played other songs from this show, but I think this one is my favourite. The chord progressions of the verse are complex and challenging, and the chorus is beautifully lyrical, especially when sung in sixths by Florence and Anatoly. There are various recordings of Tommy Körberg and Elaine Paige singing the song on YouTube, but this even better one with Tommy Körberg and Helen Sjöholm comes from the 2002 Swedish version of Chess.

311/365 Songs: When you say nothing at all – Ronan Keating

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 22:39:23 +0000

The accordion is back! When I was listening to the Ronan Keating version of today’s song I heard an accordion in the arrangement and thought perhaps it was time to resurrect my own accordion! I’ll need to get practising before my forthcoming trip to Strasbourg when I’ll have to play the accordion for various Swedish Masquerades in the streets! So I decided to record a piano track and then accompany myself on the accordion. The song has actually been a hit for various performers: country singer Keith Whitley had a #1 Billboard Country Hit in 1988; Alison Krauss recorded it in 1995 and the Ronan Keating, formerly of Boyzone, recorded it in 1999, and this recording was featured in the soundtrack for the film Notting Hill.

310/365 Songs: Unchained Melody – Righteous Brothers

admin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:52:32 +0000

This is another of those songs which I was sure I’d already played, but it turned out to be You’ve lost that loving feeling. The song was written in 1955 and was originally used in the soundtrack of the film Unchained in that year. However it was in 1965 when the Righteous Brothers recorded it and it became one of the most popular songs of the second half of the 20th century, helped along by its appearance in the blockbuster Ghost.

309/365 Songs: The Connemara Coast – Chris de Burgh

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:56:43 +0000

I’m not sure how well this song is known. It is from the 1992 Chris de Burgh album The Power of Ten and I’ve always liked it – probably something to do with listening to it while I was living in France in 1992. The Connemara connection was strengthened by Sardou’s Les Lacs du Connemara which I got to know then too, but I’ve yet to visit Connemara!

308/365 Leaving on a jet plane – John Denver

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:33:24 +0000

Today’s song dates from 1966. It was written by John Denver and recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. Leaving on a jet plane has been covered by various artists including Chantal Kreviazuk in the 1998 Armageddon soundtrack and more recently by Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester in the pilot episode of Glee.

307/365 Songs: Misty – Ella Fitzgerald

admin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:23:44 +0000

It’s November and since most of December’s 365songs will probably have a festive feel, I’ve been having a look at some of the songs that I really enjoy playing that I want to fit in before the end of the month. I couldn’t believe that I’d not played Misty! This song dates from 1954 and was written by Erroll Garner but has been covered by many artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Frank Sinatra. I recorded this this evening and it was only after I’d played it that I realised that my recorder was still set to mono. Of course when I then rerecorded it in stereo it didn’t quite seem as good. The third and fourth version weren’t much better! I’ve posted my fifth (stereo) version but also the original mono – I’ll be interested to hear what you think! For info, the top player below is the stereo version and the bottom one is the mono.

306/365 Songs: Dream a little dream of me – Mama Cass

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:40:36 +0000

Today’s song was written in 1931 by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt with lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was first recorded by Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra, but has been covered many times since by artists including Doris Day, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Dean Martin. In 1968 the song was recorded by the Mamas and the Papas. However it was widely suspected at the time that the group was set to split up, so the single was released by Mama Cass as a solo release. It was also covered by the Beautiful South in 1995, included in the album Carry On up the charts. The Beautiful South recorded a French version for the movie French Kiss.

305/365 Songs: SOS – Abba

admin — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 06:21:33 +0000

Today’s song – the first song of my penultimate month on 365songs – is Abba’s SOS from the 1975 Abba album. It is one of the group’s best-known songs and reached #6 in the UK charts on its release in September 1975. It was #1 in Australia, Belgium, West Germany, New Zealand and South Africa! SOS was also recorded in Swedish by Agnetha Fältskog and featured on her album Elva Kvinnor i ett Hus along with last month’s Tack för en underbar vanlig dag.

Image courtesy of the Abbaworld blog

The reason I chose to play this song today is that today marks the 40th anniversary of the first live performance by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvæus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson at the Festfolk på Trägård’n in Gothenburg. It was 2 or 3 years before they started calling themselves ABBA, and apparently the performance didn’t go too well, but it was also when the group apparently learned what not to do at a live event. There’s more info here.

304/365 Songs: Theme from Ghostbusters

admin — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:14:46 +0000

I’ve been wondering what to play all day today for a Hallowe’en-themed song, and it wasn’t until I saw Anton Du Beke in Strictly Come Dancing tonight dancing to the Ghostbusters theme that I realised this was the piece of music to play! It was written in 1984 by Ray Parker Jr for the soundtrack of the film. For some reason this didn’t record quite correctly – it seems to be in mono. Apologies for this – I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

303/365 Songs: Non dimenticar – Nat King Cole

admin — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:18:13 +0000

Today’s song dates from 1951 and was originally written in Italian by P.G. Redi and Michele Galdieri for the movie Anna, released in 1953. Shelley Dobbins wrote an English version of the lyrics and the song was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1958.

302/365 Songs: Back for Good – Take That

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:57:27 +0000

This song is for everyone who spent half of today trying to get through to the ticket lines or developing repetitive strain injuries by refreshing the Ticketmaster website trying to get hold of a Take That ticket for their tour next summer. We tried, but we didn’t get through, and now it seems that almost 1 million tickets were sold today. I’d love to know how…

301/365 Songs: Wonderwall – Oasis

admin — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:11:45 +0000

I’m not sure if what I’ve done with this song quite works, but I hope you enjoy it! Wonderwall was released by Oasis in 1995 and has been covered by various folk, including the tongue-in-cheek Mike Flowers Pops, and in a swing version by Paul Anka (which is actually very good!) I’ve tried to make it a bit bluesy / swingy or something. Not quite sure!

300/365 Songs: The Way Old Friends Do – Abba

admin — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 23:03:31 +0000

Having spent much of today in Glasgow at a meeting, returning home to watch The Apprentice and updating the latest episode of News Time Spanish, I had switched off my computer, only to realise that I’d forgotten to upload today’s song. And on this, the 300th day of the year, too! I recorded this song a couple of days ago. It’s taken from the 1980 Abba album Super Trouper and was recorded live in Wembley Arena in November 1979 – that’s 31 years ago! The Way Old Friends Do traditionally was performed with the four group members singing accompanied by Benny on accordion. I hope you like my version.

299/365 Songs: Mad World – Tears for Fears/Gary Jules

admin — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:24:01 +0000

This song started life in 1982 when it was released as the third single by Tears for Fears. A reworked version in 2001 by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews gave a different style to the song and it was used in the soundtrack for the movie Donnie Darko. In the first of the studio finals of this year’s X-Factor it was performed by contestant Aiden Grimshaw.

298/365 Songs: Noche de ronda – Agustín Lara

admin — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:22:59 +0000

Yesterday’s song seemed to go down well so I was in the mood for another Agustín Lara bolero today. This is Noche de ronda, which has been performed by many artists. I first heard it on a Trío Los Panchos album, and like yesterday’s song it was recently performed by Luís Miguel on his album of boleros.

297/365 Songs: Solamente una vez – Agustín Lara

admin — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:17:58 +0000

Today’s song is a lovely bolero written by Mexican Agustín Lara. It’s been covered by many artists, including most recently by Luís Miguel – YouTube version here. There is also a popular English version translated as You belong to my heart which was recorded by Bing Crosby accompanied by the Xavier Cugat orchestra.

296/365 Songs: 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton

admin — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 09:29:34 +0000

I don’t quite believe I’m playing this! Ah well… Following many repeated requests from my other sister-in-law and regular listener Fiona, I’ve finally succumbed to “a bit of Dolly”! I’ve blues-ified it a bit, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact I’m playing Dolly Parton… Hope you enjoy it Fiona!

295/365 Songs: Bess, you is my woman now – Porgy and Bess

admin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:31:48 +0000

A real treat today! The perfect Gershwin harmonies in Bess, you is my woman now are just beautiful and I’ve always loved playing this song. I wanted something just perfect to play today to welcome my new little niece into the world. She doesn’t have a name yet, but many congratulations to mum Morag, dad Jeremy and big brother Archie!

294/365 Songs: Guantanamera

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:20:53 +0000

This song dates from the 1920s and is probably one of the most well-known Cuban songs. It has been covered by many artists, from Nana Mouskouri to Tito Puente and Joan Baez. The song was traditionally used as a vehicle for social commentary, with performers improvising verses according to events or situations, but always returning to the traditional chorus. Joseíto Fernández, a Cuban radio presenter, wrote the song and regularly used it with different verses in his radio show, commenting on the days events through improvised lyrics. Today’s random fact is that one of the strangest items in my iTunes library is the questionable German football-disco classic Ein Rudi Völler (”There’s only one Rudi Völler”) which uses the melody of Guantanamera! Having seen this version on YouTube it just feels wrong!

293/365 Songs: Make believe – Showboat

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:43:40 +0000

This song comes from the 1927 Jerome Kern musical Showboat, and it’s dedicated to my grandfather Terry McGibbons who would have been 99 years old today. He used to love singing this song and I’m including a recording of him below.

292/365 Songs: Where do broken hearts go – Whitney Houston

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:32:23 +0000

This Whitney Houston song dates from 1988 and was included on her first album. It went to #1 on the Billboard charts in the US, but only reached #14 in the UK.

291/365 Songs: Angels – Robbie Williams

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:02:45 +0000

After yesterday’s relatively unknown song, today I’m playing what is probably one of the best-known songs of the 90s. At least according to the Performing Rights Society, it’s officially the most popular karaoke song! Hope you enjoy today’s song.

290/365 Songs: Tack för en underbar vanlig dag – Agnetha Fältskog

admin — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 06:44:22 +0000

This is probably not the best-known song of my 365 collection, but I’ve always liked its simplicity. It was recorded by Abba’s Agnetha Fältskog in 1975 and featured on her album Elva kvinnor i ett hus (Eleven women in one house). The title of the song means “thanks for a wonderful, ordinary day” and in a sense it’s a simple prayer giving thanks for the små under (small miracles) which happen every day, men det är så lätt at ta dom för givna, but it’s so difficult to take them for granted. There’s a version on YouTube which has the full song in Swedish with English subtitles – have a look!

289/365 Songs: A Foggy day – Gershwin

admin — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 07:53:41 +0000

Today’s song by George and Ira Gershwin dates from the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress when it was performed by Fred Astaire. Since then the song has been covered by many artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and Michael Bublé.

288/365 Songs: High Flying Adored – Evita

admin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:46:53 +0000

Today’s song is from the 1976 musical Evita and is sung by the character Che as Eva dances at the ball with Juan Perón, now Argentina’s president-elect.

287/365 Songs: I still believe – Miss Saigon

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 06:03:49 +0000

This song is for my friend and colleague Lisa Steven who celebrated her birthday yesterday and who requested something from Miss Saigon for her special day. I hope she didn’t mind waiting a day given the events in Chile! I Still Believe is from the 1989 musical Miss Saigon written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. Per molts anys, Lisa!

286/365 Songs: Something inside so strong – Labi Siffre

admin — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:54:51 +0000

I’m cutting it a bit neat again tonight, but I’ve been up to my eyes all day today with work. Despite that I’ve been watching the events unfold at the San José mine in Chile as the trapped miners are rescued one by one. As I write this 30 of the 33 miners have been rescued and I felt it was only appropriate to play something in honour of these brave men who have spent 69 days underground, and indeed of their brave families awaiting their return. Something inside so strong was released in 1987 and was written by Labi Siffre after watching a documentary on the apartheid regime in South Africa. I felt it would be an appropriate song to play today, and I hope you enjoy it.

285/365 Songs: Amapola

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:04:57 +0000

This will have to be quick – it’s about 2 minutes to midnight! I’ve had a really busy day so this is the first chance I’ve had to post today’s song. Amapola – meaning “poppy” in Spanish – dates from 1924 and was written by Spanish composer Joseph LaCalle. It was recorded by the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in 1941, and later by the Three Tenors in 1990 and Andrea Bocelli in 2006.

284/365 Songs: The Way you look tonight – Jerome Kern

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:16:15 +0000

This is such a lovely song and I hope I’ve done it justice! It was written by Jerome Kern in 1936 with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Apparently when Kern played the melody to Dorothy Fields for the first time, she “went out and started to cry. I couldn’t stop, it was so beautiful!” The song was sung by Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers in the film Swing Time and won an Academy Award as best original song.

283/365 Songs: Man in the mirror – Michael Jackson

admin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:37:28 +0000

This Michael Jackson dates from 1988 and was nominated for record of the year in the Grammy Awards of that year. It maybe lacks something without his vocals, the gospel choir and Quincy Jones’ keyboard arrangements, but I hope you enjoy today’s performance anyway!

282/365 Songs: Think of me – Phantom of the Opera

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:53:45 +0000

I’m sticking with more Andrew Lloyd Webber today after yesterday’s Take that look off your face. Think of me is from Phantom of the Opera. After the appearance of the phantom, the diva Carlotta refuses to sing and chorus girl Christine Daaé steps up to perform this song to the surprise of the opera producers.

281/365 Songs: Take that look off your face – Tell me on a Sunday

admin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:46:04 +0000

Today’s song comes from the one-woman show Tell me on a Sunday written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black. I’ve played two other songs from this show: Unexpected Song and Tell me on a Sunday itself, and I thought that this well-known song from the show would suit my 365songs project. It was released as a single by Marti Webb in 1980.

280/365 Songs: Love me tender – Elvis Presley

admin — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:36:58 +0000

On September 9th 1956 Elvis Presley performed a new song on the Ed Sullivan Show, just before it was due to be released and a month before the launch of the film. Love me tender was based on the melody of the 1861 Civil War ballad Aura Lee, and the following day over 1 million advance orders were received by RCA! I hope you enjoy my performance!

279/365 Songs: Goodnight Saigon – Billy Joel

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:48:47 +0000

This song takes me back – my brother Derek and I used to sing along to this song, probably long before we understood the lyrics. It was released on Billy Joel’s 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, and is one of the most well-known songs about the Vietnam War. Not sure about the dodgy helicopter sound effects…

278/365 Songs: Never on a Sunday – Melina Mercouri

admin — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:53:15 +0000

Bit of a random one today! I was doing some improvisation on my piano this morning and it suddenly turned a bit Greek and before I knew it I was into Zorba’s Theme and then Never on a Sunday, so I ended up playing this for you today! It’s from the 1960 film of the same name, Ποτέ Την Κυριακή, and was sung in the film by Melina Mercouri. My favourite version, however, has to be Miss Piggy’s, complete with smashing plates!

277/365 Songs: My baby just cares for me – Nina Simone

admin — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:36:50 +0000

This song is 80 years old this year. It was written for the 1930 film version of the musical Whoopee! The most famous version of the song, however, is Nina Simone’s performance from 1958. I was experimenting with layering sounds on my Roland RD700GX at the weekend and I decided to record a version of this song with a bass and jazz kit. I’m sticking to my live performance rule though – so some of the piano solo in the middle is a bit dodgy! Hope you like it anyway…

276/365 Songs: Make you feel my love – Bob Dylan/Adele

admin — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 08:22:23 +0000

Originally recorded by Bob Dylan in 1997, this song has since had successful covers by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks and most recent Adele. It’s also featured heavily in the current series of X Factor. I hope you enjoy my performance!

275/365 Songs: Don’t it make my brown eyes blue – Crystal Gayle

admin — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:42:02 +0000

Last night I attended my friend and former colleague Joan Herald’s retirement party. It was a great night and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with lots of old friends and former colleagues. No party for Joan would be complete without a bit of karaoke, and since Joan performed this song I thought it would be the perfect song to play today. It dates from 1977 and has topped the charts in Canada and the US, reaching #4 in the UK charts. I’m sure Joan’s performance would have gone straight to #1! I’d like to wish Joan all the very best for her new life – Mearns Castle will undoubtedly not be the same without you!

274/365 Songs: Lycka – Anni-Frid Lyngstad

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:20:14 +0000

This gorgeous, simple song was first recorded by Benny and Björn in 1970, and then released by Anni-Frid on her solo album in 1971. The title of the song, Lycka, means “happiness” in Swedish and the lyrics tell the story of a couple who spend some time with each other after a busy day. There was a demo recorded in English called To Live With You, but the English lyrics aren’t great. Frida’s version is lovely – have a listen here.

273/365 Songs: Ben – Michael Jackson

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:38:50 +0000

This is definitely the first song I’ve played on my 365songs project which is about a rodent! Ben dates from 1972 and was originally written for Donny Osmond. However, he was on tour at the time so it was given to Michael Jackson who recorded it for the film Ben which deals with the friendship between a boy – Danny – and his pet rat Ben… Nice tune, but strange provenance!

272/365 Songs: Can you feel the love tonight – The Lion King

admin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:38:15 +0000

Time for a bit more Disney. Can you feel the love tonight was written by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice and featured in the 1994 Disney movie The Lion King. It was performed in the movie by various characters, and the Elton John recording was played over the end credits.

271/365 Songs: September in the rain – Frank Sinatra

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:23:03 +0000

Before September ends I thought I’d better squeeze this song in! It’s actually been quite a nice day here in Dundalk, Ireland, where I’m working for Apple on the K20 Roadshow, but I’m not sure if the weather at home was quite as nice. I hope therefore that September in the rain was an appropriate choice for today’s song! It dates from 1937 and has been covered by many artists from the Beatles to Norah Jones and, of course, Frank Sinatra in 1960.

270/365 Songs: Let it be – The Beatles

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:37:34 +0000

A big song today: this was voted the number 1 song in the Fans’ Top Ten Beatles Songs. It was written in 1970 by Paul McCartney. I hope you enjoy my performance!

269/365 Songs: Without you – Nilsson / Mariah Carey

admin — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:51:18 +0000

Originally performed by British rock group Badfinger, this song has apparently been officially covered by over 180 artists. The two most famous versions were probably by Nilsson in 1971 and then by Mariah Carey in 1994. However, more recently another cover has been popular especially on YouTube… It’s the version by Valentina Hasan on the Bulgarian talent show Music Idol in 2008. Valentina isn’t too confident in English and was singing according to what she thought she heard. I’m no-one to talk, obviously – my Bulgarian isn’t too hot – but this is quite amusing!

268/365 Songs: Shame – Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow

admin — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:06:15 +0000

I think this is the first time I’ve played a song which hasn’t yet been released! Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow’s first collaboration since Robbie left Take That in 1995 is released on 4th October, but today’s performance is especially for my niece Caitlin who celebrates her birthday today. I hope you still like it, Caitlin!

267/365 Songs: Theme from Chariots of Fire – Vangelis

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:55:36 +0000

Today’s 365song has to be one of the most well-known instrumental themes from a 20th Century film. Written by Vangelis for the 1981 film Chariots of Fire which tells the story of two athletes set to take part in the 1924 Olympics, this piece of music was a step away from the accepted standard for cinematic themes at the time which used symphonic arrangements. Vangelis’ used a very 80s electronic sound, and I’ve tried to recreate that in my performance. Hope you like it!

266/365 Songs: Gonna sing you my love song – Abba

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:55:25 +0000

After the ‘guest performance’ I posted earlier today, here is today’s 365song. It’s Abba’s Gonna sing you my love song, an album track from the 1974 album Waterloo. Hope you enjoy it!

Not quite 266/365 Songs: The Music of the Night featuring Derek Robertson

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:47:08 +0000

Yesterday and today I’ve been at the Scottish Learning Festival and it’s become a bit of a tradition that the end of the first evening ends in something of a singsong around the piano in the Crowne Plaza with Derek Robertson and other esteemed members of the Scottish education community! Last year this ended with Derek singing Don’t get around much anymore, and this year among many other classic songs he sang Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. The video evidence is below – enjoy!

Music of the night – SLF 2010 from Mark Pentleton on Vimeo.

265/365 Songs: Autumn leaves

admin — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 06:24:17 +0000

As I’m at the Scottish Learning Festival today and tomorrow I was planning ahead a bit yesterday and recorded Autumn Leaves in advance of today. Looking out the window this morning I think September in the Rain may have made more sense… Autumn Leaves, or rather the French original Les Feuilles Mortes dates from 1945. The song was actually written by Joseph Kosma with lyrics by French poet Jacques Prévert. Johnny Mercer wrote an English version in 1947.

264/365 Songs: Hero – Mariah Carey

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:14:00 +0000

If you thought yesterday was cheesy, today is worse! I mentioned that I’d played Hero to someone yesterday and they immediately thought of the Mariah Carey version, so I thought I’d add this to my collection. It probably lacks something without Mariah’s warbling, but I hope you like it nonetheless.

263/365 Songs: Hero – Enrique Iglesias

admin — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:18:11 +0000

This song was released in early September 2001, just before the attacks on the World Trade Center. Soon after it became one of the songs which radio DJs in the US played, remixed with audio recorded from police and fire department broadcasts, and interviews with survivors. My own story with this song is a bit more light-hearted: I won a karaoke competition singing this as Enrique a few years back, complete with tea cosy hat and vest! I didn’t think that performance should make it onto this blog!

262/365 Songs: In my life – Les Misérables

admin — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 21:05:50 +0000

I recently played the beautiful song A little fall of rain from Les Misérables when Amy mentioned she’d performed it as an audition song. Another song which I’ve not yet played from Les Mis is In My Life, so that’s today’s song. It marks the moment in the show where Valjean realises his daughter has grown up, but he resolutely refuses to tell her anything about his past life or about her mother.

261/365 Songs: Young at heart – Frank Sinatra

admin — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 13:02:07 +0000

This song was popularised by Frank Sinatra in 1953 and sold over a million copies, so much so that it was decided that the film that Sinatra was working on at the time should also be called Young at Heart.

260/365 Songs: Main theme from Star Wars – John Williams

admin — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:29:23 +0000

Today is our younger son’s 6th birthday and his special request was for the theme from Star Wars. It was written by John Williams for the first Star Wars movie in 1977 and has featured in the entire series of films since then. Happy birthday to Ewan and I hope you like today’s tune!

259/365 Songs: Highland Cathedral

admin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 08:25:15 +0000

This morning Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Scotland to begin a historic visit to the UK. I was trying to think of something appropriately Scottish to play and I’ve just seen Siân Williams from the BBC reporting from Edinburgh’s Princes Street where the Papal procession will take place later. In the background the pipe bands were rehearsing and Catriona suggested I play Highland Cathedral. It’s doubly suitable because it was written by two Germans!

Highland Cathedral is undoubtedly my favourite pipe tune and it always sends a tingle down my spine – I defy you to watch this version on YouTube and not feel the same! It’s probably better suited to the pipes than the piano, but I hope you enjoy my version!

258/365 Songs: Dance (while the music still goes on) – Abba

admin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:00:59 +0000

Today’s song is an album track from Abba’s 1974 Waterloo album. I’ve always really liked this song. Benny and Björn were heavily influenced by Ronnie Spector and this track is an example of this. Without the 12-string guitars my version is a bit different, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. It’s also (I think) the only Abba track with two modulations, though I’d be happy to be corrected on that one!

257/365 Songs: Brown eyed girl – Van Morrison

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 21:01:05 +0000

Today’s song is Van Morrison’s Brown eyed girl dating from 1967 and it was requested by my sister Clare who celebrates her birthday today. I hope you’ve had a great day and that you enjoy this song!

256/365 Songs: The Bare Necessities – Jungle Book

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:03:14 +0000

It makes a change to be posting this in the middle of the day rather than at a few minutes to midnight! We’ve been doing some work in the house and I’ve set up my piano again in a slightly different way, so the sound may be a bit different in today’s recording. Anyway, today’s song dates from the 1967 animated Disney film The Jungle Book and it was written by Terry Gilkyson. It was part of an earlier draft version of the film, and it was the only song kept for the final version with the other songs written by the Sherman brothers.

255/365 Songs: More than words – Extreme

admin — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:59:29 +0000

Today’s song is dedicated to my brother Derek who celebrates his birthday today. His request at 3am this morning for Flight of the Bumblebee is a bit out of my league, so I hope that my song choice is ok. More than words was written in 1990 and performed by Gary Cherone on vocals and Nuno Bettencourt on guitar. No doubt the very thought of playing this song on anything other than the guitar will probably fill Derek with dread, but I hope this works! Happy birthday, Derek!

254/365 Songs (Replacement): Make Someone Happy – Jimmy Durante

admin — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 09:45:52 +0000

It turns out that I’d already recorded In the wee small hours on 9th April, so here’s a replacement song. It’s Jimmy Durante’s song Make someone happy and, like In the wee small hours, it also featured on the soundtrack of Sleepless in Seattle. Apologies for the mistake, and I hope that this will make up for it!

254/365 Songs: In the wee small hours of the morning – Frank Sinatra

admin — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 23:58:22 +0000

Given the time I thought that this would probably be a good song to play tonight! It was first recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1955 and since then has been covered by many artists including Nanci Griffith, Barbara Streisand, Carly Simon and Jamie Cullum. And now me, just before the stroke of midnight!

253/365 Songs: One of us – Abba

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:51:39 +0000

“One of us is crying…” – it’ll be the one who has been to Ikea three times this week! Need I say more?

One of us was one of the last songs recorded for the Visitors album in 1981 and became the first single from this album. Despite its rather melancholy air (I guess Benny and Björn had also been to Ikea when they wrote it!) it was a hit, and was the last number 1 for the group.

252/365 Songs: I can see clearly now – Johnny Nash

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:21:06 +0000

I was at the beach the other day and overheard someone singing this song so I thought I’d play it today. It dates from 1972 and the original version was performed by Johnny Nash. Subsequent covers have included a version by the Hothouse Flowers in 1990, and Jimmy Cliff’s version in 1993 which featured in the film Cool Runnings.

251/365 Songs: A little fall of rain – Les Misérables

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:21:33 +0000

I’m cutting things a bit neat today, due to a late-night visit to Ikea! I was reminded about this beautiful song from Les Misérables by Amy who sang it this week as an audition piece for the Centre Stage production of the show. The song is sung as Éponine dies in the arms of Marius and is one of the most tender moments of Les Misérables.

250/365 Songs: The Sound of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:59:35 +0000

This song was written by Paul Simon in 1964 in the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and it was the song which propelled the duo to fame. I hope you enjoy my version which marks the 250th song in my collection!

249/365 Songs: Islands in the stream – Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:26:52 +0000

A bit of classic cheese from 1983 today – Islands in the stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It was originally written by the Bee Gees and was included in their 2001 live album. The song has been covered by many artists including Ingela Forsman – in Swedish as Öar i ett hav – and Tomeu Penya in the Mallorquín dialect of Catalan as Illes dins un riu!

248/365 Songs: The Skye boat song

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 09:52:17 +0000

Today’s song is the traditional Scottish song The Skye Boat Song dating from the 1870s. It recalls the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie from Uist to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. I’ve done something a bit different with the song, building on the pentatonic verse, and the glissandos are supposed to symbolise the waves… Too much? I don’t know, but I hope you like it nonetheless!

247/365 Songs: Tonight – West Side Story

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:27:35 +0000

This song, from the Bernstein/Sondheim musical West Side Story was first published in 1956. In the musical it follows Tony’s solo, Maria (which I played in June) and in the song both Tony and Maria profess their love for each other. You may also be interested in my version of Somewhere from back in February.

246/365 Songs: Both sides now – Joni Mitchell

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:50:28 +0000

This beautiful song is especially for Frank and Johanna in Canada who apparently tune in every day at breakfast to my songs. I missed Frank and Johanna’s wedding anniversary in August, so I asked them what they’d like me to play for them and this is what they came up with. Both sides now was written by Joni Mitchell in 1968 and featured on her 1969 Clouds album, although it was first recorded by Judy Collins a year earlier. It has been covered by many of the world’s greatest performers and was included in the soundtrack to the film Love Actually. The thing I like best about the song – other than the lyrics – is that the pedal bass stays on the tonic G flat pretty much throughout the entire song. And G flat is my favourite key!

So, Frank and Johanna, I have fond memories of perfect breakfasts in warm summer sunshine watching the squirrels in your back garden, so I hope that you enjoy tomorrow’s musical accompaniment.

245/365 Songs: Let’s do it – Cole Porter

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:01:49 +0000

A wonderfully romantic (if a tad politically incorrect) song today – Let’s do it, let’s fall in love by Cole Porter dating from 1928. Unfortunately the reasons for thinking of this song today have more today with geekdom than romance: last night Apple announced the new range of iPods and while Steve Jobs was demoing the iPods, the song he chose to find on his iPod nano was Ella Fitzgerald singing this very song! I thought it would make a fine addition to my collection, so enjoy!

244/365 Songs: September Song – Kurt Weil

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:52:47 +0000

Oh it’s a long, long time from May to December. At least from May 1st until December 1st it’s 214 songs! Around half way through comes 1st September and I thought Kurt Weil’s 1938 song was the perfect song to play today. I hope you enjoy it!

243/365 Songs: Perfect Day – Lou Reed

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:53:33 +0000

The words “perfect day” came to mind last night as we walked along Ayr beach in beautiful late-summer sunshine (even if it was a bit cold!) so I decided to play Perfect Day as the last song of August’s 365songs. Dating from 1972, Lou Reed included this on his Transformer album. It also featured in the 1996 film Trainspotting, and then in 1997 the BBC released a version of it performed by various artists which became the 1997 Children in Need charity CD.

242/365 Songs: The very thought of you

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:32:10 +0000

Another jazz standard today: first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1934, this song has been covered by many artists including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday and the famous Ella Fitzgerald version with the Nelson Riddle orchestra. Hope you enjoy today’s song!

241/365 Songs: Super Mario Bros Theme

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:35:56 +0000

Today’s song is a very special request for our son who turns 9 today! Happy birthday, Matthew! The Super Mario Bros theme was written by Koji Kondo who has written all the music for the Mario games and also the Legend of Zelda.

240/365 Songs: Fly me to the moon

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:00:50 +0000

Today’s song was requested by my mum who celebrates her birthday today. I’ve been warned not to say too much or mention her age, so I’ll simply say “happy birthday, Mum!” Fly me to the moon was written in 1954 by Bart Howard and has been recorded by many artists from Nat King Cole to Doris Day and Tony Bennett. More recently it was performed by Diana Krall at the 40th anniversary concert of the Apollo 11 mission at the Smithsonian.

239/365 Songs: The Fields of Athenry

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:26:29 +0000

Although I got back from Ireland last night I’m still in a bit of an Irish mood so I thought I’d play this song today. It’s a beautiful song in the 1970s by Pete St. John, set during the famine of the 1840s, and tells the tale of Michael, a fictional man from Athenry in County Galway, who has been sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay in Australia because he stole food to feed his starving family. The song has become an anthem for Irish sports fans since the 90s when it was adopted by the supporters of the Republic of Ireland football team in the World Cup.

238/365 Songs: The town I loved so well – Phil Coulter

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:58:05 +0000

I’ve been thinking about all things Irish the past few days because I’ve been working in Dublin since Sunday on the “Digital Boot Camp” where I’ve been training 75 teachers from all over Ireland in podcasting, film-making, photo editing, etc. I recorded today’s song at the weekend and I think at the time I read somewhere that this song was about Dublin. In fact it turns out that Phil Coulter wrote the song about his childhood in Derry. It has since been covered by the Dubliners – that’s probably where I was getting mixed up! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it…

237/365 Songs: No matter what – Whistle down the wind

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:27:41 +0000

This song comes from the 1996 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Whistle down the wind. A pop version was released by Boyzone in the same year and reached #1 in the UK and Ireland.

236/365 Songs: A Whole new world – Aladdin

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:26:37 +0000

Today’s song is from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin and was written by Tim Rice (lyrics) and Alan Menken (music). The less said about Peter André and Jordan’s version the better…!

235/365 Songs: Det Gåtfulla Folket

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:04:09 +0000

I’ve really liked this song ever since I first heard it a few years ago in Norway. It’s a Swedish song, written by Beppe Wolgers and Olle Adolphson and it seems to be pretty well-known in Sweden. I first heard it performed by Carola, and Alexander Rybak singing it at the summer singalong concert Allsång på Skansen in Stockholm. The song is about the wonderful imagination of children and the “främmande land” (strange land) in which they live and play. The Swedish lyrics are below, along with a translation courtesy of lottaworld.com:

Barn är ett folk och dom bor i ett främmande land, detta land är ett regn och en pöl.
Över den pölen går pojkarnas båtar ibland, och dom glider så fint utan köl.
Där går en flicka, som samlar på stenar, hon har en miljon.
Kungen av Träd sitter stilla bland grenar i Trädkungens tron.
Där går en pojke som skrattar åt snö.
Där går en flicka som gjorde en ö av femton kuddar.
Där går en pojke, och allting blir glass som han snuddar.
Alla är barn, och dom tillhör det gåtfulla folket.

Barn är ett folk och dom bor i ett främmande land, detta land är en äng och en vind.
Där finner kanske en pojke ett nytt Samarkand, och far bort på en svängande grind.
Där går en flicka, som sjunger om kottar. Själv äger hon två.
Där vid ett plank står en pojke som klottrar att jorden är blå.
Där går en pojke som blev indian.
Där, där går Kungen av Skugga runt stan och skuggar bovar.
Där fann en flicka en festlig grimas som hon provar.
Alla är barn, och dom tillhör det gåtfulla folket.

Barn är ett folk och dom bor i ett främmande land, detta land är en gård och ett skjul.
Där sker det farliga tågöverfallet ibland, vackra kvällar när månen är gul.
Där går en pojke som gissar på bilar, själv vinner han jämt.
Fåglarnas sånger i olika stilar är magiska skämt.
Där blir en värdelös sak till en skatt.
Där, där blir sängar till fartyg en natt och går till månen.
Där finns det riken som ingen av oss tar ifrån dem.
Alla är barn, och dom tillhör det gåtfulla folket.

Rough English translation:

Children are a people, and they live in a strange land. That land is a rain and a puddle.
Over that puddle the boys’ boats go sometimes, and they glide so nicely even without a keel.
There walks a girl who collects rocks. She has a million for herself.
The King of Trees sits quietly among the branches of the Tree King’s throne.
There walks a boy who laughs at snow.
There walks a girl who made an island out of fifteen pillows.
There walks a boy, and everything he touches turns to ice cream.

All of them are children, and they belong to the mysterious people.

Children are a people, and they live in a strange land. That land is a meadow and an attic.
There a boy may find a new Samarkand, and rides away on a swinging gate.
There walks a girl who sings about fir cones. She owns two herself.
There by a wooden fence stands a boy who scribbles that the world is blue.
There walks a boy who turned into an Indian.
There, there walks the King of Shades around town, he is shadowing thieves.
There, a girl found a funny grimace that she is trying out.
All of them are children, and they belong to the mysterious people.

Children are a people and they live in a strange land. That land is a back yard and a shed.
There, the dangerous train ambush happens sometimes, on beautiful evenings when the moon is yellow.
There walks a boy who is guessing on cars; he himself always wins.
The songs of birds in their many variations are magical jokes.
There, a worthless thing turns into a treasure.
There, beds turn into boats one night and go off to the moon.
There are kingdoms that nobody among us takes away from them.
All of them are children, and they belong to the mysterious people.

234/365 Songs: Embraceable You – Gershwin

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:33:51 +0000

Today’s song dates from 1928 when it was first written for a never-published operetta by George and Ira Gershwin called East is West. It was introduced in 1930 in the musical Girl Crazy by Ginger Rogers.

233/365 Songs: Could we start again, please? – Jesus Christ Superstar

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:49:46 +0000

This song is sung by Mary Magdalene and the Apostles just after Jesus is condemned by Herod in the musical and the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I particularly like the chorus of this song: the line “I think you’ve made your point now”, and the following line which is sung in sixths by Mary and Judas.

232/365 Songs: We are the world – USA for Africa

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:49:35 +0000

Back in 1985, following BandAid’s Do they know it’s Christmas project in the UK, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote this song to be performed by a ’supergroup’ featuring many of the biggest recording artists in the US at the time including Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen. Since its release it has raised $63 million for humanitarian causes. A new version was produced this year in response to the Haiti earthquake.