WriteThinking
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Messages
- 6,653
Music was actually a really regular past-time in our house, and a lot of things were well-liked and actively listened to, played and sung, by all of us, not just the artists.
Top of the list was probably anything Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. We often had family record nights and sing-alongs, with one of my brothers on guitar, my grandmother on piano, and, when I got older, me on the piano at times, too. My parents both had good voices -- not professional-singer great, but pleasant, and they could definitely carry a tune. I don't remember specific albums just because we had so many, tucked away behind an opened-as-needed stereo set/system built, by my dad, into the bottom level of our living room's full-wall bookcase. But Elvis (my mom's love) and The Beatles (popular with both generations) were staples of our seemingly weekly events.
Glen Campbell and Neil Diamond, Elton John and even John Denver were all a part of things, and much appreciated, as well.
The individual-song tracks of our family, all through the years, though, have been "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the movie "The Wizard of Oz," and "New York, New York," from the Martin Scorsese film of the same name that was sung by Liza Minnelli in the film and recorded by Frank Sinatra later on. All of us kids have memories of our mom singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," to us when we were little, and then, any other time it popped up later on in our lives, too. "New York, New York," has become a regular, fun, intentionally included part of any large family celebration or gathering. We're from there, and we and our east-coast family members and friends all get into what, every time, turns into a rollicking, rousing rendition of the song, complete with chorus-line kicks and exuberant crescendos that would make Old Blue Eyes proud.
Top of the list was probably anything Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. We often had family record nights and sing-alongs, with one of my brothers on guitar, my grandmother on piano, and, when I got older, me on the piano at times, too. My parents both had good voices -- not professional-singer great, but pleasant, and they could definitely carry a tune. I don't remember specific albums just because we had so many, tucked away behind an opened-as-needed stereo set/system built, by my dad, into the bottom level of our living room's full-wall bookcase. But Elvis (my mom's love) and The Beatles (popular with both generations) were staples of our seemingly weekly events.
Glen Campbell and Neil Diamond, Elton John and even John Denver were all a part of things, and much appreciated, as well.
The individual-song tracks of our family, all through the years, though, have been "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the movie "The Wizard of Oz," and "New York, New York," from the Martin Scorsese film of the same name that was sung by Liza Minnelli in the film and recorded by Frank Sinatra later on. All of us kids have memories of our mom singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," to us when we were little, and then, any other time it popped up later on in our lives, too. "New York, New York," has become a regular, fun, intentionally included part of any large family celebration or gathering. We're from there, and we and our east-coast family members and friends all get into what, every time, turns into a rollicking, rousing rendition of the song, complete with chorus-line kicks and exuberant crescendos that would make Old Blue Eyes proud.
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