Too much music, too little time! :D

Hi everyone, I have a cheesy blast from my past to share with you today. :D  Browsing through a thrift store, I found a movie I thought would never come out on DVD, but I suppose it was probably unavoidable because it’s the sequel to a phenomenon of its time. Watching it again yesterday and trying not to nitpick, I think the factor that was most blatant was that I’d forgotten how seriously cheesy it was. However, if you can suspend disbelief for the duration and accept it as a depiction of an era, it’s not so bad... :D Anyway,, here’s the set-up to the excerpt I want to share. Stephanie, played by Michelle Pfeiffer,  is taking part in a talent show with her Pink Lady friends, but suddenly, in the middle of her song, it hits her that a few minutes earlier, after a chase with the T-Birds, a mysterious biker stranger she'd fallen for is presumed to be dead. In the song, she remembers him and she duets with a ghostly figure of said mysterious biker. The song is from the movie “Grease II” and the song is called: “Love will turn back the hands of time”, by Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3rxpLvPCvI

I suppose it’s in the same vein as “Teen angel “ and “Leader of the pack” tear-jerker type of song and you just have to take it at face value. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, today I will share with you a wonderful project I’ve heard of, completely by accident. I was doddling on YouTube sometime last week, searching for new Michael videos and fell upon one I’d never heard by Michael’s brother Orrin, which you might know I have a bit of a soft spot for. First, here is the video, Orrin Bolton “She don’t let nobody” live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s21q-aaP8kA

Orrin was the guest performer at the “Inspired Songs of New Haven” July 29 2015, completely unadvertized as usual. I think I’ll never understand why Orrin doesn’t promote himself more, or at least wonderful projects he’s associated with. I did a basic research on Musical Intervention and the “Inspired Songs of New Haven” project and this is what I came up with:

 http://musicalintervention.com/about/

Their tagline is “finding the heart, restoring the soul”, how cool is that? :D In any case, I hope you enjoy  the video and enjoy at least reading about the organisation and/or project. Thanks as always for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, today I’ll share a long lost song from the 80’s section of my musical attic. Now I know I’ve mentioned once or twice that I’m not a country music fan, which I have a tendency to disprove every so often and this song fits perfectly into that grey area. The reason it stuck in my mind is because this was the first pop attempt and/or crossover hit by Rosanne Cash, heiress to the country music throne of Johnny and June Carter-Cash. Someone simply mentioned her name on the radio and the song came bubbling up to the surface. Here it is, “Seven year ache” by Rosanne Cash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrUs_FWqj9s

The song has a certain pop appeal, the delivery is effortless, a decent story in the lyrics and I love that guitar... :D I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, I’m going to post something a little different today, as a tribute to director, writer  and actor Gary Marshal, who passed away yesterday at the age of 81. Well first, checking YouTube, I’ve only found a handful of sub standard tributes to this great man’s talent, so I picked one at random, because it has a nice background piece: Sati’s “Gymnopedie #3” if I’m not mistaken.

Gary Marshall tribute/bio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6v1AdMA7N8

Actually, I found a half decent one from “Entertainment tonight” here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNqEAwcXXxk

All right, let’s throw a little music in this mix.  I was checking his long list of credentials on Wikipedia, picking up a few musical links. Let’s start with a few from movies he directed and the first one that lept out at me was Bette Midler’s “Wind beneath my wings” from “Beaches”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiS8YokFzeY

I did see that one, but not the next, I only borrowed the soundtrack to "The runaway bride". I was frankly not particularly impressed with Shawn Colvin’s first hit “Sonny came home”, but really loved the sound and the theme of this one called  “Never saw blue like that”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cmdUGn9FRE

Now on to my personal attachment to Mr Marshall’s work with TV theme songs! First, this one was happy homework my English teacher gave us, to get us used to the flow of speech and I was quite thrilled to oblige. My favorite show from the 70’s “Happy Days”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6zl5x8r9Bs

From there, of course, I had to later on follow it up with “Laverne & Shirley”. The funny thing is, before I got interested in the show, I always loved singing the theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJzF8_df1R8

And just to show I wasn’t the only one, from “Wayne’s world”, the “Laverne & Shirley” theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdulIKhCC3Y

lol Of course, I couldn’t pass on the other “Happy Days” spinoff “Mork & Mindy”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3qxkRap-QY

BTW, going back to shows with beloved theme songs I didn’t watch, here’s one that didn’t last very long, but the theme song was so cheery and positive, I remember it to this day, David Naughton “Makin’ it”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F47AfASOnA8

I know, cheesy and dated, but a guilty pleasure I guess... Well anyway, I’m sorry I can’t find one of my favorite roles Mr Marshall did on YouTube which was Stan Lansing, Murphy Brown’s boss for several episodes: he really was a riot. Instead, I’ll leave you with a cute interview he did with his sister Penny, which shows the family’s sense of humor: they both seem like characters... :D

 Penny Marshall talk, Gary Marshall hosts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M2_GWIJ-RY

I hope you’ve enjoyed a bit of fun nostalgia. Rest in peace Mr Marshall and thankyou very much  for the laughs. Thanks everyone for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, today I bring a litteral basket of lollipops, so diabetics beware! XD This is a bunch of candy pop songs I enjoy in small doses. They weren’t necessarily love at first listen (the first 2 anyway), but that I still enjoy when I hear them on the radio, no more than twice a day. This first one is  catchy and sitting on the edge of how much pop I can take in a Kool-Aid song, but I do enjoy it when I hear it. It’s DNCE’s “Cake by the ocean”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaRiD5ym74

The next one is another extremely catchy and so poppy sweet, (more like Sunny D) I had to wonder about the “sunshine in my pocket”, before I found out it was from the animated Dreamworks movie “Trolls”

Justin Timberlake “Can’t stop the feeling”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

I’d actually buy that one though because it flows better in the ear... Now the next one I found channel-surfing my radio some months back and actually stopped to listen. I later heard it in a montage for a dance routine for “Secondaire en Spectacle”, so it’s now attached to a fond memory. I haven’t been following either his career or his new sound, so I didn’t even know this was Justin Beeber, but I quite enjoy his more cooler naturally sweet orange juicy single  “Love yourself”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMSIR210mRg

Lastly, I’ll throw in a newly released  remix to a song included on a CD released last year, with a completely different version. The song is in French, on Claude Bégin’s album I mentioned a while back called “Les magiciens” that  I recently bought. Trying to describe the album, I have to continue with my citrus analogy, because it’s like an orange: fresh, cool and clean, made up of equally cool slices of life songs and very pleasant to listen to. It’s simply nice clean French pop and quite refreshing. Speaking of which, the remix is “candier” than the album, like a Five Alive, lol and quite an earworm. It’s called “Des coeurs par la tête”, released last April on Itunes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQOH_Of5-M

The title translates to “Hearts at my head” and is about the ups and downs of relationships. I like this guy’s voice, melodic  songs  and production props. I understand he’s done some producing  for another guy I’ve mentioned earlier on this blog called Karim Ouelette. Well anyway, maybe I’ll go clean my ears with something that has a bit more substance now, but hope you’ve enjoyed some of these. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3   

 Hi everyone, today I’ll be sharing a new find through an Amazon suggestion, which I hadn’t had in a good while now. I haven’t bought much lately, but certainly have checked out a lot of music and based on my visits, Amazon recommended this fairly new supergroup, The Last Shadow Puppets. They were formed from members of other British groups in 2007 and have released 2 albums: The age of the understatement” in 2008 and “Everything you’ve come to expect” in April of this year. Wikipedia describes them as “baroque pop”, extending the meaning of “baroque” to mean in this case that it has a string section, or would have in other cases, harp, harpsichord or French horn as part of their sound. The lead singer of this group is Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys, which drew me in right away. I love Alex’s tone and his Bowie-inspired flair, so if you add melody, string arrangements and cool lyrics to a melt-in-your-ear pop flow, it sounds like a winner to me! Here’s the first song I listened to, “Miracle aligner”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPsyynjHpbY

It was to me, another of those musical breaths of fresh air. Here’s another one from their latest album, The Last Shadow Puppets “The element of surprise”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MqJ3zTIETA

I’ve also listened to samples from their first album and suspect you’ll be hearing more from these guys on this blog. I do hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, I have a new video fresh out of the oven today: it's my son and his friend singing their self-penned song "Chagrin", which is a song they wrote for a play about bullying that was performed at school earlier this year. The video is of their performance at the invitational "Rendez-vous Pan Québécois" on May 29 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaaZRCu-JDs

The song's narrator speaks of her lack of self-esteem made worse by put-downs when bullied, needing help to find her way again, then before sinking in total despair, clenching her fists and with help, finding her way again. They're working on getting it copyrighted. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, in honor of graduation season, I thought I’d bring you a couple of fun links. I’m no expert in graduation songs, but I was telling someone about the Vitamin C “Graduation (friends forever)” song, which reminded me of a comedian’s skit about it. First, here’s Vitamin C’s contribution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foyAOoVagWw

This was popular around the time my first baby graduated. Coincidentally, it was my first baby who introduced me to this funny skit. It’s all about how there are only so many notes and so many chords available to songwriters and how they have a tendency to come back in many forms.  This is known as the “Pachelbel rant” by comedian/musician Rob Paravonian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

lol I never get tired of it, just trying to discover the few songs I’m not sure what they are... I remember when I got it, I shared it with the CBC Radio 2 at the time and  they loved it and even played it on the radio! XD I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, today I bring you a very special link. This is sadly, only a short clip of a song that’s part of the new West End musical called “The go-between”, based on the novel by L.P. Hartley. The song is called “Butterfly” by none other than Mr Michael Crawford:

https://www.facebook.com/TheGoBetweenUK/videos/1626089444317520/#!/...

Here is the YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61gUsn4CqMM

...or here a bit clearer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIV-NEhDdos

Oh my God, I’m sorry but that man’s artistry is a gift! You  can tell he’s aged, like a fine wine, but the sheer beauty of his voice and that tenacious  yet seemingly effortless control just knocks me off my feet... The show runs until October and man I wish I could go... He’s apparently on-stage throughout the entire show, 8 shows a week, so may God be with him. I hope there’ll be a  CD made of it, like they did for  Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Wizard of Oz” and I’ll definitely jump on it! Guess I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3