Cheesy songs that somehow sound great on uke

The ukulele group to which I belong tried to play "McArthur Park" this past weekend. It's a song that can only be cheesy, especially the Richard Harris version and especially if you listen to the words ("someone left the cake out in the rain....") and I think its cheesiness is probably also its charm. It lost its oomph on ukulele, maybe because we were aiming for the Richard Harris version. It might actually play well as an acoustic guitar folk song. Next time we may try to play the Donna Summers disco version.

Here's a link to a video of some ukulele professionals playing McArthur Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlo1VYSmv7Q
 
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Because of the song's title, it may be a bigger irony that Barry Manilow didn't write "I Write the Songs." it was written by Bruce Johnston, who gained fame performing with (and eventually writing songs, including "Disney Girls," with) the Beach Boys (he replaced Glen Campbell as the band's bassist because Brian Wilson had stopped touring).

The ukulele group to which I belong tried to play "McArthur Park" this past weekend. It's a song that can only be cheesy, especially the Richard Harris version and especially if you listen to the words ("someone left the cake out in the rain....") and I think its cheesiness is probably also its charm. It lost its oomph on ukulele, maybe because we were aiming for the Richard Harris version. It might actually play well as an acoustic guitar folk song.

Perhaps cheesy is caused by the delivery/the singer, and not the song itself. Both of these are great examples of this - Bruce Johnston and Jimmy Webb (MacArthur Park) are both fantastic songwriters, but it seems as if almost nobody even knows of them. What's known is the singer who made their song(s) a Top 40 hit. Johnston's recording of "I Write the Songs" is a lot more... real, in a way.
 
thoughtful thread jim. 'going to the chapel of love' came out when i was a young teenager, and all the guys hated its triteness. the shirelles did a good job with it, and in the fullness of time it's a compelling and well put together composition. not that you don't goof on it when you play it.

edit. dixie cups. half a century can run heck with your memory. some nice looking ladies were on stage at that time. martha reeves could win a vocal cord fistfight with anyone out there and motown was a divine revelation. them days may be gone but we have these here mini guitars and can play any tune we wish. nothing can die if you keep it in your heart.
 
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Nothing by Peter Frampton is Cheesy. Cheesy is in the ear of the beholder. Remeber, a lot of very talented artist performed songs for the market. Some of their talent was never really appreciated.
 
I never knew that - interesting. Always think of him as a singer-songwriter, playing and recording his own stuff.

I like this thread, as a celebration of all things cheesy it has inspired me to look through my music collection and pick out some other less-than-hip tunes to track down chord sheets for. These include...

Noel Harrison - The Windmills Of Your Mind
Astrud Gilberto - The Girl From Ipanema
Don McClean - Vincent
Jackie Lee - White Horses (classic TV theme)



Love the song Vincent by Don McClean. I don't think of that one as cheesy but a classic. I'll have to give that a try.
 
I guess I'm going to have to check out some Neil Diamond tabs. I know it's not cool to like his stuff, but he's a great songwriter. I think Sweet Caroline might be pretty nice on the uke!

Snargle, Sweet Caroline is awesome on the uke! And there ain't nothing cheesy about Neil Diamond. There's currently a tribute band called Super Diamond that tours and is a huge hit among college age kids, so sing it proud, and tell anyone who complains that they need to get with it, lol...
 
I just started playing Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday" and love it on uke. I think a lot of songs from the 70s and 80s translate really well, partly because pop music back then was so lushly produced (a key part of the cheese platter). When they get stripped down on a uke, they somehow sound fresh again. And it's so different, I like to think I spare myself comparisons to the original artist, since they're stars, and I most certainly am not. :)
 
I just learned to play "The Buckin' Song" by Robert Earl Keen. That's a fun, cheesy song to play!
 
I'm not sure this qualifies as cheese but it sure sounds different than the original and great on uke
 
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The song that gets the most groans in our uke club, even by the beginners, is "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies. I keep it in our Song Book because it is only three chords... and because of the groans. It's one of those songs that people love to hate.
 
Life has been getting in the way of doing videos lately, but I do try and work on some songs that fit the seasons, even if I can't get them recorded.

And so, too, the cheese.

One song that I grew rather, shall we say, "less than thrilled to hear" was Olivia Newton John's "Please, Mr. Please". Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed her singing, and the eye candy aspect was rather enjoyable for a healthy heterosexual male in his early 20s, but the song just started grating after a few hundred times of hearing it.

I popped it up again after this thread came up, and it isn't bad - just as long as I don't have to hear it a couple of times an hour, for weeks on end...

Then I tried playing it -got the chords from Chordie - and I was impressed. This is no I-IV-V song, y'all!

I'm going to see if I can get it recorded some time this week.

(I'd also like to hear both Myrna, and TheSillyDave do this on e- I think they'd both do great versions of it.)

-Kurt​
 
Love the song Vincent by Don McClean. I don't think of that one as cheesy but a classic. I'll have to give that a try.

I found a couple of online chord sheets for it and have been doodling around - it's pretty straightforward and rather nice to play arpeggio style.


The song that gets the most groans in our uke club, even by the beginners, is "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies.

I really like that song :) It made me think also of Yummy, Yummy, Yummy by Ohio Express. I'm quite partial to a bit of 60s bubblegum pop - as well as lots of other much cooler stuff of course...
 
I guess I'm going to have to check out some Neil Diamond tabs. I know it's not cool to like his stuff, but he's a great songwriter. I think Sweet Caroline might be pretty nice on the uke!

It's always cool to recognise and treasure quality. Neil Diamond is one of the greats. Of course it will sound good on the uke. It's an awesome song. ND is definitely not cheesy. He wrote, and probably writes, quality music, producing hit after hit. They are crafted masterpieces.
 
Look at the underlying music in these so called cheesy tunes and you are going to find genius. They were big hits, they sold lots of records. Competitors who were not up to the same standard called them "cheesy" because they had nothing else to compete commercially. The tunes are going to sound graet if you play them on a tin can because they have underlying good music.


You don't think its because of the lyrics that they are called cheesy.
 
Noel Harrison - The Windmills Of Your Mind

I love that. I don't think its cheesy and I would like to do that one.



Incidentally has anyone defined Cheesy yet?
 
Life has been getting in the way of doing videos lately, but I do try and work on some songs that fit the seasons, even if I can't get them recorded.

And so, too, the cheese.

One song that I grew rather, shall we say, "less than thrilled to hear" was Olivia Newton John's "Please, Mr. Please". Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed her singing, and the eye candy aspect was rather enjoyable for a healthy heterosexual male in his early 20s, but the song just started grating after a few hundred times of hearing it.

I popped it up again after this thread came up, and it isn't bad - just as long as I don't have to hear it a couple of times an hour, for weeks on end...

Then I tried playing it -got the chords from Chordie - and I was impressed. This is no I-IV-V song, y'all!

I'm going to see if I can get it recorded some time this week.

(I'd also like to hear both Myrna, and TheSillyDave do this on e- I think they'd both do great versions of it.)

-Kurt​

I'd love to hear Please Mr Please on Uke! Speaking of Cheese- always wanted to come up with a uke arrangement of Olivia's "If Love is Real"- that's a deep sea dive in the gouda cheese but I love it.
 
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