Categories for Songs

Let’s Wait Awhile

Let’s Wait Awhile, a song from the 1986 album Control from Janet Jackson.

A few weeks ago i thought about this song and decided it is a candidate for me to sing. I did need to sing it a few times with the song playing. I decided to have the final words as a single voice, missing out the double lyrics in that part. I do like to keep things very simple.

In her book True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself, Janet commented that she was inspired to write the track after talking to a friend about how he was unsure if he really wanted to have sex with his girlfriend, since she was sexually assertive and he was in doubt about his sexuality. She advise him to wait awhile and after that discussion she was inspired to write the track. “I connected that song to Todd and millions of young people who might need encouragement to think rather than act, to pause rather than move,” she stated.

I will always think before i act. To my own detriment.

Let’s Wait Awhile
There’s something I want to tell you
There’s something I think that you should know
It’s not that I shouldn’t really love you
Let’s take it slow
When we get to know each other
And we’re both feeling much stronger
Then let’s try to talk it over
Let’s wait awhile longer

Let’s wait awhile
Before it’s too late
Let’s wait awhile
Before we go too far

Remember that special night
When all of the stars were shining bright
We made our first endeavor to stay together
We made our very first promise
To love, to share, and be real honest
But on that very first night
It wasn’t quite right

Let’s wait awhile
Before it’s too late
Let’s wait awhile
Our love will be great
Let’s wait awhile
Before we go too far

I didn’t really know not to let all my feelings show
To save some for later so our love can be greater
You said you would always love me
Remember I said the same thing to you
You don’t have to be frightened with my love
Because, I’ll never give up on you
Let’s wait awhile
Ah well before it’s too late
You know you can’t rush love, love

Let’s wait awhile
(Ooh hoo hoo)
Before it’s too late
(Let’s wait awhile)
Wait awhile
(Our love will be great)
Let’s wait awhile
Before we go too far, oh, oh, ooh

Let’s wait awhile
(Let’s just take our time)
Before it’s too late
(Let’s wait awhile)
Your love’s so good
We shouldn’t rush in
(Let’s wait awhile)
Slow it down
(Before we go too far)
Ooh

La da lee de da da de de de, da da da da la da
La da lee de da da de de de, da da da da la da da
La da lee de da da de de de

I promise, I’ll be worth the wait

Clip

Top of the Pops performance

Live

Cover by Alexandra Burke

Published on March 4, 2016 at 6:00 by

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

I always loved this song, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. But it was never clear to me where this song came from. I didn’t do any research, of course. Until today. Somehow this song is connected to Singing in the Rain, but it is completely unrelated to this film. It is used in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a 1969 film. Written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Yes. A famous song. Got an Oscar for Best Original Song.

It is that good.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Raindrops are falling on my head
And just like the guy whose feet
Are too big for his bed
Nothing seems to fit
Those raindrops
Are falling on my head
They keep falling.

So I just did me some
Talking to the sun
And I said I didn’t like the way
He got things done
Sleeping on the job
Those raindrops
Are falling on my head
They keep fallin’

But there’s one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me
Won’t defeat me, it won’t be long
Till happiness
Steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep falling on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes
Will soon be turning red
Crying’s not for me ’cause,
I’m never gonna stop the rain
By complaining,
Because I’m free
Nothing’s worrying me

It won’t be long
Till happiness
Steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep falling on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes
Will soon be turning red
Crying’s not for me cause,
I’m never gonna stop the rain
By complaining,
Because I’m free, ’cause nothing’s worrying me

Top of the Pops

Another performance

Dionne Warwick

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Spider-Man 2

Published on February 22, 2016 at 6:00 by

Hello Goodbye

I’ve known the Beatles the whole of my life, i guess. My sister had a double 7″ single, with a booklet in the middle. I remember going through it. She also had a single from the Beach Boys, Good Vibrations. Yes!

Last December the songs of the Beatles were released to all streaming services. In the weeks since then i listened to them lots. I decided to sing a Beatles song, but it was hard to pick the right one. I do enjoy the earlier songs, like She loves you and Can’t Buy Me Love. But i ended up picking up Hello Goodbye. I love the lyrics. Extremely simple, a conversation between two opposites, a yes and a no, a high and a low, a goodbye and a hello.

Let’s just keep it to the fact i’m essentially a simple person, very much. Enjoy!

Hello Goodbye – The Beatles
You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello

Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello

I say high, you say low
You say why and I say I don’t know
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello

(Hello goodbye, hello goodbye)
Hello, hello
(Hello goodbye)
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello

(Hello goodbye, hello goodbye)
Hello, hello
(Hello goodbye)
I don’t know why you say goodbye
(Hello goodbye)
I say hello

Why, why, why, why, why, why
Do you say goodbye?
Goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello

You say yes
(I say yes)
I say no
(But I may mean no)
You say stop
(I can stay)
And I say go, go, go
(Til it’s time to go)

Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye I say hello
Hello

Hela, goodbye hello
Hela, goodbye hello
Hela, heba helloa

Published on February 1, 2016 at 6:00 by

Willin’

Little Feat is a band i got to know through my eldest sister, Marja. A memory i have is that she came home with a new album from Little Feat – could have been The Last Record Album or Time Loves a Hero – and telling me i would really like it. I did. For a few years anyway.

Only very much later, only a few years back, i learned Lowell George was a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. A bit surprised by this at first, it did make me realize that the music world is a tightly knit world.

Willin’ i always liked. I went through my four Little Feat albums and i was actually surprised i don’t have that song. It is on the album Sailing Shoes. It must have been one of the albums i sold when i was around seventeen years old. Something i started to regret twenty years later: i sold Stevie Wonder, Al Jareau, Supertramp, and so much more. I could have kicked myself for that.

Anyway, today i was lying on my couch and listening to some music on my headphones. Get up! first caught my ear. But then Willin’ came up. This is the one! Yes!

Enjoy 🙂

Willin’ – Little Feat
I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I’m drunk and dirty, don’t ya know?
And I’m still, willin’

And I was out on the road, late at night
I seen my pretty Alice in every headlight
Alice, Dallas Alice

And I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed

And if you give me, weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’ to be movin’

well, I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in but I’m still on my feet
And I’m still, willin’

I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico
And I’m still

An’ I’ve been from Tuscon to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed

And if you give me, weed, whites and wine
An’ you show me a sign
An’ I’ll be willin’, to be movin’

Live version

Another live version

Published on January 20, 2016 at 6:00 by

My Favourite Things

Around Christmas and Old Years Eve television takes out all the known favourites. No, sorry US people, that is not The Wizard of Oz, i’m sad to say. In Europe there are many movies in the end of year season. Last Sunday it was Singing in the Rain, on the afternoon. I didn’t see the whole movie, but i did love it. Well, apart from the large musical pieces in there. I prefer the more intimate scenes. Other movies where the Indiana Jones movies on the BBC, which i love. The Harry Potter movies too. I do hope next year they will broadcast the entire series, and not miss out on the Half Blood Prince. Grrrr.

But the best movie this year, one i have seen many many many times before, was The Sound of Music. I love the singing, i love Maria, i love the children, i love the love story, the failed love story of the two youngsters, and i love it they continue after the marriage with the escaping run over the Austrian and Swiss mountains.

I had several numbers in my list. Do Re Mi i do like. Sound of music as well. But in the end i decided for this one, My Favourite Things. I do enjoy the rhythm, the rhymes, the playing with the colors and all the different sort of things you may like. From the exotic, raindrops on roses, to the plain, brown paper packages tied up with strings. Silver white winters that melt into springs. Love love love!

My favourite things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

The original scene from the Sound of Music

Published on January 6, 2016 at 6:00 by

The Word Girl

The best band in the world! Scritti Politti. It’s been thirty years this year since i got to know the album Cupid & Psyche 85. I was hooked from the start. Eight months later i bought Songs to Remember. Loved this one too.

Cupid % Psyche 85 did stay my favourite over the years. I enjoyed the other albums too, many a song on there which i can sing along with. But so far Cupid & Psyche still is the best.

Once, either in the old yahoo group or in the fanzines made by James Lawrence in the late 90s the question was asked which Scritti song would be your favourite. I didn’t know. I knew it would be from Cupid & Psyche, but i was torn between Absolute, Woodbeez, Perfect Way, A Little Knowledge and The Word Girl. I do love the entire album. But over the years my thoughts settled more and more on The Word Girl.

So here it is. It’s actually a hard one to sing for me, i think i go off key several times. The a cappella thing. The singing goes a lot better when i sing with the music. I love this song. I love the lyrics. I love the music. Yep, the whole lot.

Enjoy!

The Word Girl – Scritti Politti
To do what I should do
To long for you to hear
I open up my heart
And watch her name appear
A word for you to use
A girl without a cause
A name for what you lose
When it was never yours

The first time baby that I came to you
I’d do things that you want me to
The second time baby that I came to you
Oh you found my love for you
The third time baby that I came to you
Oh, oh, oh, I knew
The last time baby that I came to you
Oh how your flesh and blood became the word

A name the girl outgrew
The girl was never real
She stands for your abuse
The girl is no ideal
It’s a word for what you do
In a world of broken rules
She found a place for you
Along her chain of fools

The first time baby that I came to you
Swore I’d do things that you want me to
The second time baby that I came to you
For oh you found my love for you
The third time baby that I came to you
Oh, oh, oh, I knew
The last time baby that I came to you
Oh how your flesh and blood became the word

Oh how
Your flesh and blood
Oh how
Your flesh and blood
Oh how
Your flesh and blood
Oh how
Your flesh and blood
Oh how
Your flesh and blood
Oh how
Your flesh and blood
Oh how
Your flesh and blood

The original

A live version

And another live version!

Published on November 27, 2015 at 6:00 by

Close to You

Officially called (They Long to Be) Close to You. Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was recorded earlier by other artists, Dionne Warwick, Dinah Washington, Burt Bacharach himself. But the best known version is by the Carpenters.

I got a the Best of album somewhere in the late 80s. I don’t think i bought it. It might have been an album from my parents. From that time on i got to love some of the Carpenters songs. I especially liked Karen Carpenter’s voice. I am no professional singer, so i wouldn’t know how to describe her voice. But to me it always sounded as someone really close singing softly to me. Not very high or low, no prolonged notes. Very warm. Nothing like the gymnastics a Whitney Houston can bring you.

I love this song. Enjoy!

Close To You – The Carpenters
Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair
Of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue

That is why all the girls in town
(Girls in town)
Follow you
(Follow you)
All around
(All around)
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair
Of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue

That is why all the girls in town
(Girls in town)
Follow you
(Follow you)
All around
(All around)
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

(Why? Close to you)
(Why? Close to you)
(Haa, close to you)
(Why? Close to you)

The original

Live version

Dinah Washington

Dionne Warwick

Trijntje Oosterhuis

Published on November 26, 2015 at 6:00 by

Glory Box

Glory Box by Portishead. In the 90s this was one of the few bands whose music did enchant me. Still does.

This song Glory Box sings to something deep inside me. Yeah, i wanna be a woman. Sometimes. Other times, i’m Ellen, not entirely a woman, not entirely a man.

Enjoy this whispering song.

Glory Box – Portishead
I’m so tired, of playing
Playing with this bow and arrow
Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play
For I’ve been a temptress too long
Just

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be, a woman
I just want to be a woman

From this time, unchained
We’re all looking at a different picture
Through this new frame of mind
A thousand flowers could bloom
Move over, and give us some room, yeah

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be, a woman
I just want to be a woman

So don’t you stop, being a man
Just take a little look from our side when you can
Sow a little tenderness
No matter if you cry

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be, a woman
It’s all I want to be is all woman
For this is the beginning of forever and ever
It’s time to move over

I’m so tired, of playing
Playing with this bow and arrow
Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play
For I’ve been a temptress too long

Just
Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be

The orginal

A live version at Roseland NY

A live version on Jools Holland 1994

Published on November 25, 2015 at 6:00 by

Three girl rhumba

It was most likely around 1981 when i got to know Wire. I do have their first album Pink Flag on vinyl. And a live album Document and Eyewitness (1981). Over the years Wire kept popping up. I bought the cd’s of Chairs Missing and 154 in the 90s. I do have these albums on cassette, but since my cassette player is in the attic, i don’t play my old cassettes anymore.

I had another song in my playlist, Mannequin. Also a song from Pink Flag, as is Three Girl Rhumba. I still might do Mannequin, one day. I could have picked other songs, but i do love the lyrics of Three Girl Rhumba. I don’t know what this song is about. No idea. But i do enjoy numbers! So.. i divide it by two. I open a box. Tear of the lid. Don’t think of an answer. Don’t get swept under. A number is a number. I want to avoid the inevitable. So i do the impossible. I just wanna rhumba. There is no way i’m gonna go under. Go under. Go under.

Hmm… this actually does make sense to little old crazy me.

Enjoy!

Three Girl Rhumba – Wire
Think of a number, divide it by two
Something is nothing, nothing is nothing

Open a box, tear off the lid
Then think of a number, don’t think of an answer

Open your eyes, think of a number
Don’t get swept under, a number’s a number

A chance encounter you want to avoid the inevitable
So you do, oh yes you do the impossible

Now you ain’t got a number, you just want to rhumba
And there ain’t no way you’re gonna go under

Go under, go under, go under, go under
You tell me asunder
Go under, go under, go under, yeah

The original

Published on November 24, 2015 at 6:00 by

Rapture

Rapture. I always liked this song. Not a big Blondie fan, but their music was around when i grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. Over the years this song was in most of my birthday party playlists. I do try other songs too, but hmm.. not really a big fan. But still, this song is in my MIX playlists. I do like it.

I have to say, singing these songs, looking up the lyrics is really opening up my understanding of them. In many songs there are parts i simply don’t hear too well. I can sing along with the sound and sometimes make up my own bits. Singing along with the lyrics in front of me is so much better! As i usually sing a bit before i record the song of the day, i am training all the other songs in the meantime. Singing them all from my head a cappella is a different story. That is hard, with no music to fall back on. A bit sad i don’t play any instrument to be honest. Piano or guitar, but no, i don’t feel any desire to learn these instruments. Well, piano maybe, but only to play classical music. Not any use there either.

Anyways, enjoy Rapture!

Rapture – Blondie
Toe to toe
Dancing very close
Barely breathing
Almost comatose
Wall to wall
People hypnotized
And they’re stepping lightly
Hang each night in Rapture

Back to back
Sacroiliac
Spineless movement
And a wild attack

Face to face
Sadly solitude
And it’s finger popping
Twenty-four hour shopping in Rapture

Fab Five Freddie told me everybody’s high
DJ’s spinnin’ are savin’ my mind
Flash is fast, Flash is cool
Francois sez fas, Flashe’ no do
And you don’t stop, sure shot
Go out to the parking lot
And you get in your car and you drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and lands on the ground
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he’s got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you’re in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin’ cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercury’s and Subaru’s
And you don’t stop, you keep on eatin’ cars

Then, when there’s no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars where the people meet
Face to face, dance cheek to cheek
One to one, man to man
Dance toe too toe
Don’t move to slow, ’cause the man from Mars
Is through with cars, he’s eatin’ bars
Yeah, wall to wall, door to door, hall to hall
He’s gonna eat ’em all
Rapture, be pure
Take a tour, through the sewer
Don’t strain your brain, paint a train
You’ll be singin’ in the rain
I said don’t stop, to punk rock

Well now you see what you wanna be
Just have your party on TV
‘Cause the man from Mars won’t eat up bars when the TV’s on
And now he’s gone back up to space
Where he won’t have a hassle with the human race
And you hip-hop, and you don’t stop
Just blast off, sure shot
‘Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin’ cars and eatin’ bars
And now he only eats guitars, get up!

The original

Published on November 23, 2015 at 6:00 by