This being the 5th of November, it seemed opportune to share with you, dear readers, music inspired by fireworks and bonfires. So lets begin with the earliest piece that was written specifically with fireworks in mind. The Music for the Royal Fireworks is a suite in D major for wind instruments composed by Handel in […]
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 […]
Mac Rebennack (Dr. John the Night Tripper)
Our visit to New Orleans yesterday, put me in mind of another great musician who hailed from that city. Malcolm John Rebennack Jr., better known by his stage name Dr. John. was one of great exponents of the New Oreleans style. Growing up he found early musical inspiration in the minstrel tunes sung by his […]
When The Saints Go Marching In
To celebrate All Saints Day, I thought I would share with you some variations on the song “When the Saints Go Marching In,” often referred to as simply “The Saints“. The origins of this song are unclear. It apparently evolved in the early 1900s from a number of similarly titled gospel songs, including “When the […]
Broken Peach
Whilst not wanting to glamourise the feast of All Hallow’s Eve in the wrong way, I came across the amazing Broken Peach through their version of Halloween from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas’. Not only is it a very catchy song but they put their whole selves into creating the music video. On their […]
Instrumentals 2
Yesterday, I posted some instrumentals from the early 1960’s. After a plethora of hits during 1960-1963, the instrumental seems to has fallen into decline until 1968-69 when it makes a triumphant comeback. It begins when an instrumental version Love Is Blue recorded by French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat, whose version (recorded in late 1967) became […]
Instrumentals 1
Today we begin a series of posts on that ‘unsung’ mode of popular music – the instrumental. Since inception of the UK Top 20, there have been more than 1,350 number ones; of these, instumental tracks have topped the chart on only 27 occasions for a total of 89 weeks. Probably my first experience of […]
Talisk
Talisk are a Scottish folk band composed of Mohsen Amini, Hayley Keenan and Graeme Armstrong. The band rose to prominence after winning the 2015 ‘BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards’ Young Folk Award and the ‘MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards’ Folk Band Of The Year award in 2017. Amini then followed to be named the […]
Kent
Kent were a Swedish band, formed in 1990. With members Joakin Berg, Martin Skold, Sami Sirvio and Magnus Mustonen, the band has had numerous radio hits throughout Sweden and Scandinavia and consecutive number-one studio albums on the Sweden top list beginning with the release of Verkligen (1996) and led by the single “Kram”. With origins […]
Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern (1885 – 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works. A native of New York, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies in […]