Tonight sees the Eurovision Song Contest. Be prepared for plenty of cheesy numbers; sarcastic commentary & the usual regional block voting! Here is Jeff Meechai’s cover of the UK’s 1967 winning entry from Sandie Shaw, Puppet On A String:
As it’s my brother’s birthday today, here’s a swift post giving the Number One when he was born – Frank & Nancy Sinatra singing Something Stupid. For your delectation, here’s a strumalong with Stu Kulele:
Today would have been the 74th birthday of Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien (better known as Dusty Springfield). So here is Richard G performing his arrangement of the Bacharach & David number The Look of Love on his 1920s Gibson:
Two different people asked me about musical keys this week.
A key is a collection of notes in a particular pattern. If you start singing a song on one note & then sing the same song but begin it on a different note, it’s still the same song but is in a different key.You’ll also have to play different chords to make it sound right.
Here are two different versions of The Kinks’ Lola – one on Ukulele Boogaloo & one from Richard G’s Songbook. You’ll notice the difference when you play them – you might find the chords easier to play in one version or that you can sing along better on one. Read the rest of this entry »
The film Made In Dagenham is on BBC2 later tonight, with a cracking Sixties soundtrack accompanying the action. We’ve already featured a uke cover of Sandie Shaw’s (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me, so here’s paxukulele’s smiley version of The Mindbenders’ hit A Groovy Kind of Love:
Raiding various songbooks & YouTubes for the chords to other tracks from the soundtrack:
Happy World Ukulele Day! Here’s one of many versions of the uke standard Tonight You Belong To Me, from the New Zealand ukulele group, The Apron Strings:
Number One in the UK Singles Chart on 15 Dec 1979 was Pink Floyd‘s Another Brick In The Wall (Part II). This Ukulollo version has two ukes, a cajon & an egg-shaker. Play along with Richard G’s chords.
As they are my favourite group, one of the first things I wanted to do when starting the ukulele was to play Beatle numbers on it. Fortunately, there are plenty of sites on-line with arrangements (some better than others!) & a variety of books for uke or guitar containing the chords.
I was delighted when I came across The Beatles Complete on Ukulele project around this time last year, when one of the mailing lists to which I subscribed posted a link to Gerald Ross’ rendition of Penny Lane:
