Mum Day!!
When I posted cake songs the other day, Hedley, with tongue in cheek, wondered about MacArthur Park. I told him it was one of my mother’s favorite songs. He said I should play it and then suggested a mum day, and I love the idea. Tell me what song you remember most associated with your mothers and maybe a little anecdote. I’ll play the song and post the story. I’ve talked about my mother so many times I figure it’s your turn. You can send it to me at katry@comcast.net or comment here.
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July 19, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Barry Manilow “Can’t Smile without You”
My Mother was Gillian and she made sure that we grew up in a house of music, none of which was popularist, she left that to us. She loved melodic classical, soundtracks like the Sound of Music, and oddities like Paddy Roberts. In general if she liked what I was playing I knew that it was a mistake
And then came Manilow, and when that song came on she and Maurice would dance. It was lovely. Mum was very prone to malapropisms so she knew Barry as Barry Mantilow, which we morphed in to Gary Antelope, which was mentioned on that dreadful day when I had to stand in front of the congregation and remember
My two sisters and I will not miss a Barry Manilow concert. Debbie and I saw him at the Fox last time around and my sister Sarah biked with her husband to Birmingham England for a night out with the great man. When he sings it, we all cry
July 19, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Either ‘Blue Moon’, which was apparently her and my Dad’s couting song or this one which, bizarrely, is to this day the only song she will ever agree to sing:
https://www.box.com/s/c9c124580f7fa64aba02
July 19, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Chris,
Blue Moon is a great courting song.
This is a song totally new to me so I did some hunting to find out more. It was written in 1901 for the London play Bluebell in Fairyland. There are some great youtubes of different singers of this. I wonder how you remoter knew it.
July 19, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Oh dear. This will take a lot of thought. I have classical records from my mom, but don’t recall a special song. Maybe something from the watergate time. I know special TV shows she liked, the Mary Tyler Moore show, and we did, as a family go to see Fiddler on The Roof. She was a sensitive woman, who believed in civil rights, loved to swim, her favorite saying was from Rabbi Hillel– Oh I’ve got to think about this a little bit more. I wish I could consult a family member, who might recall what she loved in her younger days, but I can’t.
July 19, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Lori,
Did she ever sing anything around the house? My mother always did, and she had favorite singers she’d play while she was working in the kitchen.
Give it some more thought and let me know.
July 20, 2012 at 3:45 pm
I think a version of this song. It reminds me of my mom and even if she didn’t hum it, it’s so true for our family, especially her, as she died far too early… It’s a lovely song, just like my mother.
July 20, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Lori,
You’ve got it-that’s a beautiful song.
July 19, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Great idea, but I don’t have a special mum song 🙁
It should be a song by Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong
and I think Ellas “Mack the Knife” would be appropriate,
but the story isn’t funny either. Your choice to post or not.
My late mother only had a good time in her early twenties
in an otherwise unhappy and crappy life
(due to WW II, family, chronical illness and other shit).
In her few happy years an outstanding event was the
Jazzfestival in Essen/Germany 1959 with Ella Fitzgerald.
I still have her admission ticket and look at it right now.
Unfortunately I was only part of her later life.
July 19, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Birgit,
I’ll go with the Ella and try to find her singing Mack the Knife.
I’m sorry for your mother that her life was so crappy and that you didn’t know the twenty year old who enjoyed life. I think waking up every day knowing the world hasn’t gotten any better is a breaker of spirit and drains the happiness.
I’m glad, at a least, that you have one a moment of a time she was happy.
July 20, 2012 at 8:45 am
My moms Ella vinyl (Best of / Mack live Berlin 1960) is in a
bad condition, but that’s the recording Cuidado mentioned.
I have a 1961 live in Amsterdam track (radio broadcast)
and Youtube has some great live versions too,
but Berlin 1960 is perfect, even or because Ella is human 😉
July 20, 2012 at 7:33 am
Hi Kat,
I’m another one that can’t think of a single song that my mother liked over any others or even one that she would sing aloud.
My mother always said she wanted to play the piano but was too stupid to learn which exasperated me no end. There was no arguing her out of that idea. Sometimes she would sit at my piano and play Chopsticks or the universally well-known piano accompaniment to Heart and Soul. You know…bumpa dumpa, bumpa dumpa, bumpa dumpa, bumpa dumpa….Heart and soul etc. 😀
My mother loved to dance so I guess she loved any song that she could dance to. She could do many of the ball room dances. When she was in her 70’s she learned line dancing and clogging. When I was learning Salsa several years ago, I had a problem with shoes that were too slippery on the floor. I asked my 80+ year old mom how she kept her tap shoes from sliding. Simple. Duct tape on the sole. Thanks, Mom!
Great idea, Kat. I’m looking forward to reading the comments.
July 20, 2012 at 10:33 am
Hi Caryn,
The comments are all here so you’ve probably read them. I’ll just copy and paste them under each song. I’ll hunt the songs down tonight and post Sunday which seems like a Mum day to me for some reason (family dinner?).
I love that your mother learned line dancing and clogging when she was in her 70’s. That is so cool.
Duct tape is the solution for just about every problem! I learned that a long time ago.
Caryn, what song should I play for your mother?
July 20, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Sing, Sing, Sing. She loved Gene Krupa because he didn’t mind if you danced at his concerts. She didn’t like Buddy Rich because he would stop playing if someone got up to dance. You were there to listen, not have fun. That’s what she said, anyway. 😀
July 20, 2012 at 8:11 am
My mother loved Patsy Cline, Elvis, and Jim Reeves. She died at 60 of early onset Alzheimers. One year before her death, I went to visit and brought a Best of Patsy Cline CD. She listened but kept telling me that it was NOT Patsy Cline and a little upset that I would try to fool her. I have a copy of Ella with her famous rendition of Mack the Knife in Germany where she forgot the words, if you would like me to send it.
July 20, 2012 at 10:35 am
Cuidado,
I’m sorry you didn’t have your mother longer, but I think it was brilliant to bring Patsy for her even though she didn’t think it was. Music soothes and connects. Which song would you like form to play for her?
Please do sent that Ella in case I can’t find it.
July 20, 2012 at 6:11 pm
My Mother’s favorite song was “It Had to be You”. I forget who sang it but she sang it doing laundry and other jobs.
July 20, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Z&me,
I’ll try and find one from earlier on rather than a more recent singer.