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!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 5:55 — 8.2MB)
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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.
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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!
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A good song for a Sunday morning! This 1977 classic was written by Lionel Richie and was also covered by Faith No More in 1992. Hope you enjoy today’s song. I’ll need to think of something appropriate for tomorrow – it’s song number 200!
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This is a complete change from the type of music I’ve been playing recently, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. The Franck setting of the prayer Panis Angelicus (Bread of Angels) dates from 1872 and has been recorded by many artists including Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli.
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This song is dedicated to my former pupil Katie who marries Callum this weekend. I was speaking to Katie’s friend Esther recently – both Katie and Esther sang in the choir I ran at Mearns Castle – and Esther is going to be singing this Leona Lewis song at Katie and Callum’s wedding, so I [...]
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Sticking with the Norwegian theme following yesterday’s National Day celebrations, I wanted to add in one other Norwegian song. This is one of my all-time favourite songs sung by Norwegian singer Sigvart Dagsland. The song is called Den Ensomme Veien, which translates roughly as “the lonely road”. I’ve done a rough translation of the lyrics [...]
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Yes, I was watching Glee last night! The song was first released back in 1983 and must have one of the strangest videos ever (which was expertly recreated in a literal version a few years back). I hope you enjoy my version of this classic “rock ballad”!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 4:47 — 6.6MB)
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I haven’t included many big ‘power ballads’ in my collection so far, so I thought I’d play this song from 1984 by Jennifer Rush. It was covered by Laura Branigan in 1987 and then by Céline Dion in 1993. Hope you enjoy today’s song!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 5:35 — 7.7MB)
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I’ve spent the last five days in Cheltenham at the Apple Teacher Institute and last night, after the Showcase of the work produced by teachers in the workshops, we kept the tradition going with a night of karaoke and general silliness. Eddie, one of our teacher-performers, sang Three times a lady (and an unforgettable Purple [...]
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Today’s song is a bit of a rarity. I don’t think it’s particularly well-known in the UK or the US – although I may be wrong! It was written by Lorenzo Barcelata in 1932 and was dedicated to the wife of the Mexican President Emilio Portes Gil. It has been used in a few films, [...]
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Recorded by such famous names as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, this song came to mind last night as I was getting petrol on my way home from a meeting at the school. I got completely soaked in torrential rain and howling wind and I since I was returning home to [...]
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In 2010 I challenged myself to record a well-known song every day of the year. To see the full list of songs, click on the image below.
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