The Music Appreciation Group

Leader:  Mike Stow - musicapp@ashbyu3a.co.uk - 01530 469152

6th August

This month five of us met at Neil’s house. It had been a sad month for music with three important but very different musical artists dying in July. Cleo Laine, Ozzy Osbourne and Tom Lehrer. Most of you will have heard of the first two but Lehrer is less well known, but he was very well known in the 50s and 60s, particularly in the US, for his satirical songs that mocked the government, church, social mores etc.

We didn’t play anything from Ozzy and Black Sabbath! but we did play a song by Cleo Laine and one of Lehrer’s least controversial songs, the very funny ‘The Elements’ in which he sings the names of all the elements in the periodic table to the tune of ‘A modern Major General’.

The remainder of our play list this month was just as varied and interesting as usual, comprising:

Cleo Laine ‘Somebody loves me’
Dusty Springfield ‘In the land of make believe’ from her ‘Dusty in Memphis’ album
Tom Jones ‘You can keep your hat on’ made famous in the film ‘Full Monty’ when sung by Joe Cocker
Tom and Leanne Rymes ‘Momma told me not to come’
Connie Francis ‘Who’s sorry now’ and ‘Goldfinger’
Allison Young ‘I’ll be here in the morning’
Carol Kidd ‘Nice work if you can get it’. Carol is a fine Scottish jazz singer.
Oscar Peterson ‘Wheatland’ from his Canadiana suite
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates ‘Shaking all over’. Classic early British Rock and Roll
Gordon McKrae ‘Oh what a lovely morning’ from the film ‘Oklahoma’
Randy Newman ‘I think it’s going to rain today’ followed by -
UB40 also singing ‘I think it’s going to rain today’. This is a very different version with a reggae beat.
The French Foreign Legion ‘Connaissez-vous ces hommes’ This is one of their marching songs
Barbra Streisand ‘As time goes by’ from the film ‘What’s up Doc’
Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney ‘My Valentine’ from her latest CD showing she still has an amazing voice at age 83.

As you can see, a pretty varied selection.

It seems that almost all of us have some other commitment next month, so we shall skip September and meet on October 1st at Mike’s