Hey all, I don’t know about you, but amid all the scary news coverage, sometimes one needs to hear something that will put a smile on one’s face. Maybe we can discover something new (or new to us) here.
To me, the first thing that comes to mind is one of the many MANY excellent Rags by Scott Joplin. Everyone has heard “The Entertainer” and “The Maple Leaf Rag” at some point but there are so many more. How one black American born in Arkansas shortly after the American Civil War managed to compose so many amazing pieces of music (not just Rags, though they’re the happiest) before his death in 1917 simply astounds me.
Neither are mine, heh. I really liked the Andy Grammer one above. Was listening to the Trolls one but it stopped playing when you added more links to your post, so I went off to look for another track, and pulled out these dusty ones. ;-) (BTW, what happened to videos continuing to play at the bottom of the screen in their own window when multitasking in Android? Are music ones an exception?)
Oh, and this too! John Richards plays this every week on KEXP so it’s come to be known as the Friday Song… this has created a Pavlov’s Dog effect in my brain (and lots of other people, I’m sure) so it’s not just a great song but it makes me start salivating for the weekend.
Here’s another fun (albeit crusty) one from around the time I was born (from the amazing Getz/Gilberto 1963 album which had the definitive version of “Girl from Ipanema” on it). This one’s a bit more uptempo, if lesser-known.
Loved that ELO track, @charmtrap! Also the Kinks one from @divedivedive. And of course the ABBA one, which takes me back to high school.
Oh how could I forget “Happy” by Pharrell Williams?? First saw/heard it performed by him on TV (maybe on SNL?) with a bunch of child/teen dancers, but this video is pretty great too:
Thanks @Nightgaunt and @triggercut. I didn’t know any of those songs. Enjoyed “Walking to Do” and “Bros” especially, though the latter was a bit bittersweet. :-)
