One of David’s favourite Manga/Anime series was that of Fairy Tail. The soundtrack from the anime is superb and we often used to listen to it separately from the episodes. It was written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine from August 2006 to July 2017, with the individual […]
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York and active until 1991. The band was composed of David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Waymouth (bass), and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Described as “one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the ’80s,” the group helped to pioneer […]
Who’s On First
“Who’s on First?” is a comedy routine made famous by American dou Abbott and Costello. The premise of the sketch is that Abbott is identifying the players on a Baseball team for Costello, but their names and nicknames can be interpreted as non-responsive answers to Costello’s questions. For example, the first baseman is named “Who”; […]
Cindi Lauper
Lauper was born in Brooklyn to a Catholic family. Her father, Fred, was of German and Swiss descent. Her mother, Catrine, is of Italian descent. Lauper’s siblings are younger brother Fred and older sister, Ellen. Lauper’s parents divorced when she was five. Her mother remarried and divorced again. Lauper grew up in the Ozone Park […]
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a great part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy”, in 1907, receiving […]
Summertime
As promised, I am following yesterday’s post on George Gershwin with one of my occasional ‘Which version do you like best?’ entries. Summertime from Porgy and Bess has become a jazz standard and has been covered by many artists since it’s composition in 1934. The song is sung several times throughout Porgy and Bess. Its […]
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres. George lived a boyhood not unusual in New York tenements, which included running around with his friends, roller-skating and misbehaving in the streets. Until 1908, he cared nothing about music. Then as a ten-year-old, he was intrigued upon hearing […]
Hugh Laurie
During my recent post on ‘Puttin’ On The Ritz’ I used a clip of Hugh Laurie playing the piano in the role of Bertie Wooster. This reminded me that he has developed a following as a musician in recent years and perhaps it was time to feature hi on this blog. So let’s begin again […]
Mack The Knife
I thought we might visit with the macabre this morning in the guise of an apparently jolly jazz standard, “Mack the Knife“. It is more properly called “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” (German: “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer“) and is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 […]
Puttin’ On The Ritz
“Puttin’ On the Ritz” is a song written by Irving Berlin. He wrote it in May 1927 and first published it on December 2, 1929. It was introduced by Harry Richman and chorus in the musical film Puttin’ On The Ritz (1930). According to The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, this was the first song […]