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.
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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 [...]
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Given that this is the 200th song in my 365songs project (just 165 to go…!) I wanted to play something big today and I’ve opted for the Billy Joel classic Piano Man. I’ve always loved this song – I used to play the harmonica along to it, but I couldn’t find a harmonica when I [...]
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This song was written by James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for the 1986 animated film An American Tail. The song deals with the bond between two siblings and their desire to see each other again after being separated. The Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram version of the song went to #2 in the [...]
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This song first appeared on Elton John’s 1974 album Caribou, but it perhaps wasn’t until 1991 that this song really found worldwide success. Elton John had performed it as a duet with George Michael at Live Aid in 1985, but the live recording from a concert at Wembley in March 1991 became a massive hit [...]
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And we’re over the hill! Today is the start of the second half of the year and my 365 songs project, so I’m on the way down! I chose today’s song from the 1940 musical Pal Joey by Rogers and Hart where it was performed by Gene Kelly and Leila Ernst. I first heard this [...]
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Today’s song has to be something Canadian and I didn’t think O Canada (or indeed Dans mon pays il y a beaucoup de gens – a wee historical reference for Frank and Johanna there!) quite fits the bill, so I went for a Michael Bublé song for Canada Day. The last time I played this [...]
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All this week my friend and former colleague Joan Herald has been starring as Mother Abbess in Mearns Castle’s production of The Sound of Music. I would love to have seen the production but my trip to Denmark this week has made that impossible. I’m sure that Joan did an amazing job, and indeed that [...]
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I’ve spent the last five days in Denmark working at the annual Apple Teacher Institute in Svendborg in the south of the island of Fyn. I thought therefore that I should really play something with a Danish theme, although this song isn’t really the most authentic option! It comes from the 1952 musical film about [...]
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In my opinion this song is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It dates from 1983, although it wasn’t released until six years later on Billy Joel’s Stormfront album. It’s said to tell the tale of the relationship between Billy Joel and the model Elle Macpherson, a relationship which the musician knew would [...]
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This song from the Bernstein/Sondheim musical West Side Story, was first published in 1956. It marks the moment when the character Tony discovers the name of the girl with whom he has just fallen in love. Just to make sure he doesn’t forget it, he repeats the name 29 times in the song!
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Today’s song is one of the many underrated Abba songs, Cassandra. It was the b-side to the 1982 single The Day Before You Came, and I think the story related in this song was a precursor of the Björn and Benny’s future musical theatre work (Chess and Kristina från Duvemåla). While the lyrics seem to [...]
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I’ve played this song hundreds, if not thousands of times, but it wasn’t until this morning when I was doing my ‘research’ to write today’s blurb that I found out that the song was actually originally written as the theme tune for the 1956 film Around the World in Eighty Days! The vocal version wasn’t [...]
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Today I’m playing the love duet from the film Moulin Rouge. It’s dedicated to my cousin Anita and her new husband Jimmy who got married yesterday in the beautiful surroundings of Ardkinglas in Argyll. We had a lovely day at the wedding and wish every happiness to Anita and Jimmy – and I hope you [...]
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Tomorrow evening in the Telnor arena in Oslo, this song will be performed by the Belorussian group 3+2, accompanied by Swedish composer and performer Robert Wells of Rhapsody in Rock fame on the piano. I’m not sure how it will go down – it’s a nice ballad, with the added cheese factor of butterfly wings [...]
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So far on 365songs I’ve steered clear of classical pieces, mostly because I tend to improvise when I play and there is not as much opportunity to do that when playing a classical piece. It’s too long since I’ve played most of the classical pieces I used to play and I don’t think I’d do [...]
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We’re returning to Billy Joel for today’s song. I’ve loved these days was written in 1976 and first appeared on the Turnstiles album. In 1976 Billy Joel returned to New York after living in California. It is said that the lyrics of I’ve loved these days refer to the decadence of his time spent living [...]
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After several days of extremely cold weather it seems that this morning is much milder and the sun was shining as I walked down the street in my home town on the way to meeting my parents for a coffee. I thought I’d play this classic jazz standard from 1930 as today’s piece. I hope [...]
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Yesterday’s mention of the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack reminded me of this brilliant song from the movie, performed by Harry Connick Jr. I’m afraid I don’t do HCJ’s piano-playing justice! The song missed out on an Academy Award in 1994 when Streets of Philadelphia picked up the award for Best Original Song.
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… and it almost is the wee small hours of the morning by the time I’ve got round to publishing this today! This song dates from 1955 and was first recorded by Frank Sinatra, but has since been covered by various artists including Jamie Cullum, Nanci Griffith and Barbara Streisand. I think the version I [...]
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