Caledonia
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Caledonia

Song 31:365, the final song of January, is the beautiful song Caledonia written by Dougie MacLean in 1977. He apparently wrote the song in less than 10 minutes on a beach in Brittany, France. He’d been busking with some Irish friends and was feeling homesick. He wrote the song and took it back to the youth hostel where they were staying. Having shared the song with his friends and realised the feeling of being homesick was mutual: by the next day they were heading home.

I think this is one of the best Scottish songs of modern times and whenever I’m away from home it’s one song which always makes me homesick. I may even have been known to line up versions of the song performed by different artists on Spotify…

My original 2010 version included my accordion, but I thought I’d rerecord this today, mainly because I wanted to play the song again. I’ll include both versions below – let me know which one you prefer!

Here’s Caledonia 2017 version:

And here’s the original 2010 recording with accordion:

Stranger on the Shore
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Stranger on the Shore

Song 30:365 is my version of clarinettist Acker Bilk’s Stranger on the Shore, dating from 1961. It was originally named Jenny after Bilk’s daughter, but was used as the theme for a 1961 BBC TV series called Stranger on the Shore. This song has literally been to the moon and back: the crew of Apollo 10 took this song on their lunar mission in 1969 and it was played on a cassette tape in the command module of the spacecraft.

Sadly there’s no clarinet involved, but I hope you enjoy my version nonetheless!

She’s Always a Woman
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She’s Always a Woman

For song 29:365 I’m posting my performance of one of my favourite songs of all time, Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman. First released in 1977 as a double A-side with Just the Way You Are. Fyfe Dangerfield, lead singer of the band The Guillemots, recorded a version of the song in 2010 for a John Lewis advertising campaign, and his version reached #7 in the UK charts. Billy’s recording was rereleased around the same time and reached #29. A travesty, if you ask me!

I’ve seen Billy Joel perform this song live many times and it’s always one of the highlights of the concert with cigarette lighters (or, more recently, phones…) held high as the crowd sings every word in unison.

I hope you enjoy my version. As ever, there’s more Billy Joel on the site, and if it’s your first time here you can find out why I’m posting a song every day here.

I Dreamed a Dream
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I Dreamed a Dream

Song 27:365 is I Dreamed a Dream from the musical Les Misérables. Based on the original J’avais rêvé d’une autre vie in the original 1980 Paris production, this is one of Fantine’s biggest songs in the show. I hope you enjoy my version.

There are few more Les Misérables songs in my collection which you can find here, and if you’d like to know more about my 365 challenges, click here.

I Wonder
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I Wonder

For song 26:365 I’m going back to ABBA and playing the song I Wonder (Departure) from the 1977 album ABBA: The Album. It was actually originally part of a ‘mini-musical’, known as The Girl with the Golden Hair (a line from Thank You For The Music) which the band performed at the end of their 1977 concerts. The song is about the decision to leave everything you know in pursuit of something greater, and is said to reflect Frida’s life story as she left her young family to pursue her musical career.

I hope you enjoy my version. If it’s your first time on the site, find out more about the 365 Songs project. If you’re looking for more ABBA songs, have a listen to my Tribute to ABBA album or check out my 2015 collection of ABBA songs from my archives.

Ae Fond Kiss
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Ae Fond Kiss

Song 25:365 concludes my trilogy of Scottish songs in honour of our national poet Robert Burns, and it’s only right to finish with a Burns song. Ae Fond Kiss was written in 1791 for Agnes Maclehose with whom he had developed a platonic relationship. Correspondence was exchanged between the two using the pseudonyms Clarinda and Sylvander. Burns wrote the poem after their final meeting and sent it to his “Clarinda” on 27 December 1791, before she left for Jamaica to be reunited with her estranged husband.

I came up with this arrangement when I played the song for Scottish singer Moira Kerr at a Coila concert about 20 years ago, and since then I’ve always played it in this style and in the unusual (for me!) key of B major. I hope you enjoy it!

There’s lots more Scottish music in my collection and to find out why I’m playing a song a day, click here.

The Dark Island
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The Dark Island

Song 24:365 is The Dark Island, the second song of my Scottish trilogy this week in honour of our national poet, Robert Burns. I’ve had quite a revelation tonight as I’ve been looking into the history of this song as I had expected it to be a traditional Scottish song. It seems, however, that the song was written for a 1963 BBC film of the same name which was shot in South Uist and tells the tale of a mysterious torpedo found on the shores of Benbecula. The tune was originally called Doctor Mackay’s Farewell to Creagorry, and the most well-known words were written by lyricist David Silver.

I should also mention that this recording features my accordion – for which I should probably apologise!

There’s lots more Scottish music in my collection and to find out why I’m playing a song a day, click here.

Wild Mountain Thyme
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Wild Mountain Thyme

Song 23:365 is the start of a trilogy of Scottish songs as we head towards Burns Night. Today’s song is Wild Mountain Thyme, also known as Purple Heather and Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go? The melody and lyrics are a variant of the song The Braes of Balquhither by the Scottish poet Robert Tannahill who was a contemporary of Burns. The song has been recorded by hundreds of artists, both from the folk and pop world. I hope you enjoy my piano version.

There’s lots more Scottish music in my collection and to find out why I’m playing a song a day, click here.

Imagine
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Imagine

Song 22:365 is my version of John Lennon’s Imagine, one of the 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century according to the BMI. Lennon wrote the song on a Steinway piano in a bedroom at his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot.

When asked about the inspiration behind the lyrics of the song, Lennon explained in a 1980 interview that he and Yoko Ono had been given a Christian prayer book:

The concept of positive prayer … If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing—then it can be true … the World Church called me once and asked, “Can we use the lyrics to ‘Imagine’ and just change it to ‘Imagine one religion’?” That showed [me] they didn’t understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea.

There was further controversy in 2011 when CeeLo Green performed Imagine just before the New Year’s Eve ball drop in New York’s Times Square, changing the line “and no religion too” to “and all religions true”. This resulted in a huge backlash from Lennon fans who believed this change in the lyrics went against the original meaning of the song.

Imagine has been covered and performed in many situations, including at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics by the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the Liverpool Signing Choir. The BBC used a cover by Emeli Sandé in their closing montage for the Olympics, prompting the song to reenter the UK Top 40. It was also performed by Lady Gaga at the 2015 European Games opening ceremony.

I hope you like my version, and if you’d like to hear more John Lennon / Beatles songs in my collection, click here. If it’s your first time on the site, find out more about why I’m posting a song a day here.

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