Mark Pentleton

Today’s song is the Gershwin classic But not for me, written for the musical Girl Crazy in 1930. It’s since featured in the movies Manhattan, When Harry Met Sally and Four Weddings and a Funeral. By the sounds of things I need to practise my jazz scales a bit more – the middle section is [...]

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This song was written by Rolf Løvland and Brendan Graham and was originally included on the 2002 Secret Garden album Once in a Red Moon. Since then it has been covered by many famous artists including Josh Groban and Westlife who recently sang it at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize concert celebrating Barack Obama’s win. [...]

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Today’s song is dedicated to my friend and former colleague Joan Herald who teaches at Mearns Castle. This was always Joan’s song and she has sung it countless times at many wonderful parties, concerts, and even once or twice in class I think! I’ve been told that Joan and her colleague Jim McKenna have been [...]

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It’s day 50 on 365songs and  today’s performance is the classic 1942 song As time goes by from the film Casablanca. It was actually first written in 1931 and featured in the musical Everybody’s Welcome, but was made famous when it was performed by Sam  in Casablanca. This song was actually named as #2 in [...]

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A bit of Shania Twain today with the song You’re still the one, and I’m back playing today after the thumb incident! This song was nominated for four Grammy awards in 1999, and won two: Best Country Song and Best Female Vocal Country Performance, and it’s no.66 on the Billboard All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs!

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

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

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After yesterday’s late posting, I thought I’d get today’s posted nice and early! It’s one of my favourite songs by Billy Joel and it’s also one of Catriona’s favourites, so this one is for her.
She’s always a woman was released in 1977 on the album The Stranger. It was also released as a single in [...]

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Today’s song is another favourite from Les Misérables, I dreamed a dream. It has been recorded in 21 languages and covered by many artists including Aretha Franklin, Hayley Westenra and most recently Susan Boyle who performed it on last year’s Britain’s Got Talent.

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This one’s for my mum! I wonder if she’ll post a comment now…
Mona Lisa was first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1950 and since then has been covered by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and … Shakin’ Stevens!

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