Season of the Ukulele 276: What Have They Done To My Song?

and a homemade song

"you sang the love song that i wrote for my baby"

This song didn't even chart for Buddy Holly, which shocks me, but it sure did for Linda Ronstadt. His "That'll be the day" was bigger than her version of it though.

Johnny Horton's version of this was worlds bigger than Jimmy Driftwood's, but Driftwood also benefited greatly from Horton making the song so huge. This was a "win win".

This song was actually recorded by Mark Chesnutt several months prior to Garth Brooks' version.

This a great theme Rick, my head is absolutely swimming with ideas. Just hope I get the chance to get some more done.

Clever theme! I already have a couple in mind, but I am away until Friday with no uke!

Season 276. Submission 1. "Railroad"

Rick, I love your theme and I hope I'm not going afield with my submission here. In a nod to your support of trad. music, I've chosen an American trad. song, first published in 1894. Many of us first heard this song when Pete Seeger brought it in 1963.
Just a few days ago I heard Abigail Washburn's brilliant interpretation of it; not kidding - I felt as if I were hearing the song for the first time.

So, Rick, I think I need a bit of the Thornton Rule and if you choose not to include this one on the Playlist, I understand. It just seemed so serendipitous to me that you were supporting a group that promotes trad. music and here was this song landing in my lap. So I'm considering it a "Pete Seeger" song that now is starring on Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck's recent duet album. I hope you enjoy this one, no matter what.

Harry Nilsson wrote and recorded this in 1968. Shortly thereafter, Three Dog Night had their first #1 hit with this.

In the vid I said this could go into either season 246 or 245. The heat is getting to me. Of course I meant 276 or 275. Anyway, Land Of 1,000 Dances

RAB11 said:

This a great theme Rick, my head is absolutely swimming with ideas. Just hope I get the chance to get some more done.

Click to expand...

Please do. The three-song limit rule is likely to be scrapped. Just sayin'.

This song is sort of a semi-regular for me at the nursing home.

Day One is over for those of us in EDT who turn into pumpkins. A terrific start with many fine, heartfelt performances. Fifteen videos so far. Keep on truckin', folks. We have a great week ahead!

Thank you all very much for your entries and your comments!

Rick...forgive me. I cannot control what the voices make me do.
<Truehistoryoftheregion><TCK>This song was written by Donny Dumphy...an aspiring Hip Hop artist in the up-and-coming Hip Hop scene in St. Johns, Newfoundland. It is decidedly the worst Hip Hop song ever written (it is in reality a comedy bit- cracking wise on a certain kind of resident in Newfoundland). Be that as it may, it was heard and transformed by Jesse Stewart, and here is where we talk about what a hit song is. Jesse is one of those folks who lives at the fringes of society, so when he played his song is in his buddies backyard I would guess he figured he would get a few views. He got MILLIONS.
So of course he monetized. Of course he logged onto his account in a stupor at someone else's house, and of course his password and proceeds were all stolen. So he posted it again...a month and a half ago, note the 3.4 million views. I reckon that means we have a hit on our hands ('course, to me a hit is 25 views and 2 comments). If you search youtube for covers of it, they are in the thousands, and by some pretty unlikely folks...lots of Ukulele covers for sure.
So- OF COURSE I had to do it. My version is slowed down because I cannot play that fast, and I wanted to capture the sentimentality of it, for Melissa because she cannot get enough of this song (sarcasm...which is hard to type) </TCK></Truehistoryoftheregion>
Cold Beer (Cry Tunes)- Based loosely on Jesse Stewart's version.

276-1

Originally recorded by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes,1972.
Rerecorded by Simply Red, 1989

ok, i'm thinking whether you know the original song or the famous cover best, is maybe an age thing or a what radio station you listen to thing or some other thing! for this song i think maybe the original was a bigger hit? but i only discovered the original today! "step on" was a huge hit for the happy mondays in 1990, but as i've learned tonight, the song was originally "he's gonna step on you again" by john kongos in 1971. i'm normally up on seventies stuff, but not this time! this may not count for the week, as the original was a high charting hit - my only excuse is, i never heard of it! lol!

And this one. Twice I have done 1 hour radio shows playing only one song. This is one of those songs (The other is Satta Massa Gana for the interested).
Written in 1965 by a very young Cat Stevens, but first released by PP. Arnold. In my mind, there is not a sane person on the planet who would not say that Arnold owned this song. In fact, in spite of other covers of it doing better in the charts, I reckon hers is the best version ever recorded...and I have them all.
Anyway- The song, and my version, which will likely make most want to cut themselves.
I did a little picking- learning that watching turtledrum...super hard

276-3

Per wikipedia:
"The Tide Is High" is a 1966 song written by John Holt, originally produced by Duke Reid and performed by the Jamaican group The Paragons, with John Holt as lead singer. The song gained international attention in 1980, when a version by the American band Blondie became a US/UK number one hit,

276-3

Neil Diamond (composed and performed) in 1967
UB40 In 1983,

The only thing I can't resist is temptation. Diana Krall did this Tom Waits song.
My Klimt version with angelic bells

Hi Rick! Thanks for this week's Season; not an easy one ... required an awful lot of Googling! Hope this song, originally by Lori Lieberman, fits the bill.