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Sing Something Simple

Bryan Burnett | 11:00 UK time, Thursday, 19 January 2012

Miss Babs here - hurrah the blog has sprung back into action this morning! Apologies for the difficulties we had yesterday.

Tonight we want you to confess to the first song you could sing all the way through - now we're not meaning nursery rhymes - so Row Row Row the Boat, Twinkle Twinkle don't count. I think it's going to be a challenging theme for Bryan.
There's nothing more he likes than to belt out a lyric as the songs are on in the studio each night, but I've seldom heard him manage to get the words right for the first line far less a whole verse or song.
He did however, manage to perform at Hogmanay with That Swing Sensation and was word perfect for Ain't That a Kick in the Head - but hopefully he can reveal later what the other song is that he knows all the way through!

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Where's Bryan heading with all these challenges first it was, Street Dancin', then Singin' in a Swing stylee... a New Year, a new career?

  • Comment number 2.

    Thursday:

    Showaddywaddy - Under The Moon Of Love

  • Comment number 3.

    Cellardyke outdoor swimming pool, known locally as "The Pond", was run by a lady who was a great Jim Reeves fan. As youngsters, we spent almost every minute of daylight at the pond so we got to know the words to every song on Jim Reeves' Greatest Hits, which was played over the tannoy at every opportunity. I still think that Jim has one of the greatest voices of all time.

    He'll have to go - Jim Reeves

  • Comment number 4.

    Oh for goodness...I'm a 49 year old woman who can hardly remember her own name never mind the first song lyric she ever memorised!

    I'm usually very bad at remembering song lyrics, although I heard an old song I used to like at the weekend and was dead chuffed that I knew all the words...just can't remember now what the song was!

    Having said that, I suppose I did used to read Disco 45 magazine and my sister's book of Beatles Song Lyrics and, if I think very hard (and try to get thoughts like "what do I need to buy for tea tonight" or "what's my address again" out of my head) a couple of songs I did manage to learn the words to come to mind...

    'The Ballad Of John And Yoko' - The Beatles
    'Life On Mars' - David Boeiw (oops! I'll leave that in just to cheer-up Norrie)

    Also, at school, the music class was taught to sing this song in harmony and I must say it was lovely to sing...

    'If I Fell' - The Beatles

  • Comment number 5.

    (Let's Have A) Party - Elvis Presley - Lyrics were printed in the D.C. Thomson girls' romantic weekly 'Romeo' (I bought it for the crossword). As a big Elvis fan I was hoping for Jailhouse Rock but I learned this and used to sing it in front of my primary school class to storms of apathy.

  • Comment number 6.

    what a nice surprise to be reminded of just how good a singer richard hawley is....for it was he that was on the sound system as i dallied round the local supermarket....and you know sumthin'......that music stuff, it works because i immediately gravitated over to the cutlery section and bought a few sharp blades.
    dontcha just love 'im.
    i know the words to this beauty..........can anybody play the slide geetar.

    'ashes on the fire'....................richard hawley

    cheers frae the dale

  • Comment number 7.

    Distant Drums for DC.

    Jim Reeves/Jock Simpson - I Love you because

  • Comment number 8.

    ... I live in Erskine?

  • Comment number 9.

    I really can't remember - but it was probably something like Doin What Comes Naturally - Ethel Mermon from Annie Get Your Gun because the house was full of Rogers & Hammerstein.Ethel's voice is so distinctive and the lyric so cute it kind of inculcates your memory - I could still recall quite a bit of it before checking Spotify a few minutes ago

    Other contenders which everyone in the family used to know backwards were Secret Love - Kathy Kirby and I, Who Have Nothing - Shirley Bassey. Emile Ford & The Checkmates - What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes t Me For? was another I could sing right through.

    One I could definately repeat in full was Twist and Shout - The Beatles - I've already recalled on this blog how Miss Johnstone belted me for entertaining my classmates with a rendition in primary school.

    But I like Julie's Ballad of John and Yoko shout,and Twist & Shout's been done a lot on GIO. BTW, did you know that The Ballad Of John And Yoko is not really a Beatles record. John and Paul knocked it out in an afternoon - Paul on drums and bass and John on guitar and vocal.

    To round off on The Beatles I used to endlessly sing Norwegian Wood and I've Just Seen A Face and You Can't Do That. Can still do them now. Later I would drive my parents nuts with endless renditions of Rocky Raccoon

    Another band I was nuts about as a child were The Searchers .I can still do most of theirs now, but quite fancy hearing When You Walk In The Room. 2:21 of pop music heaven.

    Interestingly, Spotify has listed 'Love Potion No 9' as 'Love Position No 9'.

    At Chateau Hannah, we've just finished watching the 2nd series of The Wire and have started on series 3.What a programme! As good as anything Dickens did, imho. Mind you, Love Position No 9 is more prevalent in The Wire than in Dickens.

    Lastly, the other song I can remember singing endlessly as a kid was "I'm Alive - The Hollies" I loved the opening drum break, still do.I remember being fascinated by the idea of a man with no heart, being too young to understand there are heartless people everywhere. It would be good the hear the Hollies, a bit under represented no GIO.

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 10.

    I might as well bore everyone again. I know I learned Thunder Road within a week of hearing it because I played it over and over again. I also especially remeber trying to learn the River as I thought the story telling thing was so good....

    Springsteen - Thunder Road / The River

    PLEASE dont play that awful live version......

    ps His new album out on 6 March

  • Comment number 11.

    Rise in evil ink

  • Comment number 12.

    Good news Adam. You can go to the game...

    /news/world-latin-america-16624823

  • Comment number 13.

    Aged: 7 years
    Situation: A Christmas concert
    Songs: Lord Of The Dance followed by that months antipodean smash.
    State of Mind: Mush
    Reflective sentimentality: None!


    Two Little Boys ~ Rolf Harris

  • Comment number 14.

    Unsure about the *first* song, but here's a few that I do belt out all the way through:

    * The Saw Doctors - Will It Ever Stop Raining? Or, with today's weather, snowing
    * Monty Python - Knights of the Round Table (Camelot Song)
    * Runrig - The Cutter
    * The Soggy Bottom Boys - In the Jailhouse Now via my parents' Readers Digest Great Stars compilation, this was a very early one, along with
    * Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters - Don't Fence Me In
    * Pink Floyd - Bike
    * Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - a classic '' track
    * The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
    * The Pogues - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
    * Madness - One Step Beyond Not exactly a challenge
    * Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane and Mary Black - Sonny

    Prizes, though, (even if virtual) should go to anyone who can sing all 1:45 of
    * Barenaked Ladies -

  • Comment number 15.

    #12
    We'll see.....

  • Comment number 16.

    #11 missed one 8-(

    I Iris Vine kneel

  • Comment number 17.

    Theme not setting the Blog on fire I see.
    Norrie, Henri and the Captain even being forced to move the goalposts just to get something in.
    Well, Norrie, no - he's just plain fibbing in the hope he gets Thunder Road on again.

    At least metrosex is being honest. Just wondering if I should mention Ernie or not....

  • Comment number 18.

    Do it Adam!

  • Comment number 19.

    #17 "the blog has sprung back into action" ☺

  • Comment number 20.

    I remember learning all the words to Telstar.

    I also remember my pal and I pretending that singing Je t'aime was helping us with our French homework.

  • Comment number 21.

    #17

    Mine are all genuine - i just don't know which I sang first the whole way through.

    This theme is called Sing Something Simple - I can remember beig incredibly depressed when that would come on the light programme - that and the Black & White Minstrels which my old man was addicted to. I don't understand why.

    i hated the Swingle Singers too, though some of the remixes of theirstuff ( They - Jem) are fantastic.

    regardez youse

    henri
    Incredible to think about that now - I genuinely hated it, the black'd up faces looked scary to me.

  • Comment number 22.

    #20 Maybe Biology?

  • Comment number 23.

    #21

    I have similar memories Henri.

    Wiki the B&W Minstrels Show. You'll be surprised how many years it was on prime time on the Beeb.

    #18
    Knowing all the words to Ernie has served me well over the years. It is still my preferred party piece today. An ex-pat gathering here is not complete without my rendering of the tale of Ernie, Trigger and the baker from Teddington. I have even translated it into Portuguese (the bit about the milk coming up to her chest was a bit tricky but always gets a laugh).

  • Comment number 24.

    The first sing i learned all the way through was
    These are my mountains / Alexander Brothers
    Thank you for ignoring it.


    Re the number of requests for meatloaf, during an exceedingly boring lecture on labour law at strathclyde yooni circa 1982 my pal and i decided to see if we could write down the lyrics for the whole bat out of hell album before the lecture was over.

    Never did pass that exam

  • Comment number 25.

    #22 peut être

  • Comment number 26.

    #17 actually it's a no' bad show tonight Adam!

  • Comment number 27.

    #23

    Do any Brazilians swoon at your macaroon?

  • Comment number 28.

    #26
    I didnt say it wouldnt be.

    Has Moby been requested?

  • Comment number 29.

    #27

    Faint praise?

  • Comment number 30.

    Absolutely not, pasteurised is best!

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