I always think that if you can take a song and completely change the style and it still works then it must mean that the song must be pretty good to start with! I’ve done this with Avicii’s 2013 summer anthem Wake Me Up and I think it works – I hope you agree!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/wake-me-up
I had to do something romantic for St Valentine’s Day, so here’s Nat King Cole’s L-O-V-E. It was composed by Bert Kaempfert with lyrics by Milt Gabler. Nat King Cole also recorded a version with lyrics in Italian, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. Hope you enjoy this piece today!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/l-o-v-e
… as you’ve never heard it before! The original theme was written and recorded by the Barenaked Ladies. It was also released as a commercial single in 2007. I decided to slow it down and use the melody with a sort of ballad accompaniment, all in one of my favourite keys of G flat!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/theme-from-the-big-bang-theory
Today I’m playing the beautiful Randy Newman song When She Loved Me from the film Toy Story 2. It was performed in the film by Sarah McLachlan and went on to win the 2000 Academy Award for Best Original Song. I hope you enjoy this piece!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/when-she-loved-me
Today’s piece of music is the theme from the 1983 film Local Hero. Composed and performed by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, the soundtrack includes references to traditional Scottish tunes. I’d not really thought about this before, but I realise that like many Scottish melodies, Going Home is almost pentatonic: rather than playing it in the original D I could have played it in G flat and almost entirely on black notes!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/going-home
Today’s song is Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones which featured on her 2002 album Come Away With Me. It was, however, first released by Jesse Harris in 1999, but it was the performance by Norah Jones which won three Grammy Awards in 2003 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Here’s Norah performing it live in Amsterdam.
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/dont-know-why
I’m following up yesterday’s Norwegian song with another Scandinavian classic: Abba’s The Day Before You Came was released in 1982 as a follow up to the Visitors album and was actually their last song to be recorded, although Under Attack was released later. According to Guardian journalist Stephen Emms at the time, the “ordinariness [and] universality [of the] first-person account” of a depressing day is what draws the audience in, and “morphs [the song] into an unusually poignant parable of what modern life means”. The song actually came in #6 in the NME Greatest Pop Songs in History countdown.
There is much discussion as to the meaning of the lyrics and whether they refer to the imminent arrival of a lover or the narrator planning an alibi following a murder! Indeed, while the lyrics refer to the mundane happenings of “the day before you came”, the accompanying video seems to suggest that there were several hours unaccounted for: it takes 1h15 minutes to get to work and yet she leaves work at 5 and arrives home at 8. We see Agnetha driving a car at one point in the video, and there’s no mention of this in the song, so what exactly were you doing between the hours of 5 and 8, Miss Fältskog, other than “picking up some Chinese food to go”?
For me, I’ve always thought of this song from a language learner / teacher’s point of view: with lots of examples of “must have” in the lyrics, the sequence of tenses requires a bit of thought if we were translating it from English into another language!
I hope you enjoy The Day Before You Came.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/the-day-before-you-came
I dag spiller jeg en liten norsk sang for mine norske venner! Du gråter så store tåra is a beautiful song by Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun. There’s an English version too but I think I prefer the Norwegian. The title means “you cry such big tears”. Hope you like this one.
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/du-gr-ter-s-store-t-ra/s-XxPVG
To be honest I don’t know a lot about this song. I found it on Spotify when I searched for more songs by Juan Zelada (whose The Blues Remain is definitely on the list to play at some point!) and I really like the relaxed 3/4 rhythm. Here’s a recording of the original if you’re interested, but I hope you enjoy this piano version too!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/satsified
I’m not sure how well known I Love You Always Forever is, to be honest. Sung by Welsh singer Donna Lewis, it was released in 1996 and apparently was kept off the number 1 spot in the US Billboard Chart by The Macarena! I hope you enjoy this and if you remember it from first time round I hope it brings back some nice memories from the 1990s!
First time here? Find out more about the 365 Songs project.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/i-love-you-always-forever
