Season 398 - Ooh La La

Some tom tom toms and tra la las: "Tom Tom Tom", the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 by Rauno Lehtinen and Bob Barratt.
 
I didn't manage an entry for Val's week which disappointed me as it was right up my street. Unfortunately my wife was taken ill and spent 3 days in Hospital. She's home now and recovering, but it's a slow process. However, I have managed to get something done today. Lie la lie rather than Ooh la la but there you go.

So sorry to hear about your wife, Geoff, and pleased to hear that she's recovering. You were missed last week!
 
I have been goofing around with this song for no other reason than the fantastic Sara Bareilles cover. She knocks it out of the park! I think, for me, her version is so powerful because she can sing the whole damn song in her rich full voice, unlike Elton and most others, who must use falsetto for the extremely high "Ohh La La" parts. I was, as I said, goofing with it, to see if I could push it up there with a kind of a heavy metal vocal style for the high bits. It was then I realized that the song fits Ryan's theme as well, so I said, "game on!" and gave it a shot.

 
Hey guys! Sorry I've been a bit lax in posting. Been a bit of a full on week but I'm fully caught up now and I'm loving what you're all bringing! Good to see some old faces return as well.

Should have samples of three songs ready for the wrap video if the winners are interested in the finished product,
 
My first reaction to this theme was to do some traditional Irish song where there were lots of "too rah loo rah loos" or "diddly eyes". But the muse had other ideas. She whispered to me this morning: "One person's language is another person's nonsense"... and indeed, there is one theory that the toorah-loos etc, in Irish, actually preserve something of a phrase from the original Irish Gaelic. "Whack fol da daddy oh!" etc. Sadly, my primitive knowledge of my ancestors' native tongue does not give me the confidence to confirm or dismiss that assumption.

But anyway, I hope our host will accept my tangential take on the theme as the narrator sings the only lines in Malay he can remember.... (He obviously hasn't learned about Google translate - as the last verse will confirm. 😈 )

Hope you like this little tale of cultural difference that is:

 
I had a very odd and challenging journey with this song, and it may not be over yet. When I asked earlier this week about whether or not were allowed to consider hrrrrrrmm's as oooh's, I was thinking about doing a Pearl Jam song. And I came up with this one. Again I tried to make it too complicated and I never did get anything that I was happy with. At least nothing I was happy with the next morning. Ironically, I didn't even record on the computer what you're about to see. It's from my phone. just checking my rehearsal stuff. Maybe that's why it worked out okay... I wasn't under the terrible glare of the red recording light.

 
A more sinister song with some "La la" in the chorus:

 
Way back in the 80s, I wrote this song from the point of view of a character who some bad things happen to him, but he always just sang this little nonsense melody to make himself feel better. That's one of my lost songs. It may be in a notebook or stashed away in a box somewhere, but I can't find it and I can't remember it. This is sort of a resurrection of that old song. It's not the same song I wrote 30+ years ago, but it's in the same spirit. The chorus part is mostly still the same.



He told me turn your frown around and hum a happy song
Don't try to be too clever or the words might come out wrong
Start with just one note and add another two or three
You'll be surprised what you can do with a simple melody
Then he sang...

Doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo wah
Doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo wah

He had never lied to me, never led me far astray
I took him for his word, thought I would try to do his way
I hummed a few quick notes, knew it would never be a hit
But he smiled and said, yeah there you go, now you're getting it
So I sang...

Doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo wah
Doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo, doot n doo wah

She said what are you smiling at
You look just like that crazy Cheshire cat
I said I was just thinking of a song
It's got no words but you can sing along
And I sang...
 
Sorry to be posting this one a little late, but it did fit the requirements, and it has the added bonus of being my favorite New Orleans song of all time. It's definitely nonsense syllables, at least if you aren't from New Orleans - I think the initial single release called it Hey Pocky Away, which doesn't make any more sense to me.

Hope you like it.

 
Sorry to be posting this one a little late, but it did fit the requirements, and it has the added bonus of being my favorite New Orleans song of all time. It's definitely nonsense syllables, at least if you aren't from New Orleans - I think the initial single release called it Hey Pocky Away, which doesn't make any more sense to me.

Hope you like it.

Yes I did.
And it is not late at all.
Ralf hasn't brought a song yet and he ALWAYS brings something.
 
A 3rd and final entry (4th if you count the one I did twice), this time coming to you from a hotel room in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital city about 160 km north of Yangon.

 
Wow, really glad to get so many entries late on in the week. You guys are smashing it!
 
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