Saturday, May 03, 2008

Name that Tune

Another meme has caught my attention, and is a fine way to procrastinate from reading all of those student papers. I am to list the first line of 25 random songs from my iTunes collection, and let you dear readers guess the names of the songs and the artists. I'm sticking with vocal numbers, and only those in English. In many cases the title will be easy, but the artist may not (though I'm not listing any obscure personal recordings). I do include classical music if it is in English.

1. Born to lose, I've lived my life in vain.
2. He was a friend of mine.
3. One Two Three One
4. If the night turned cold, and the stars looked down,
5. I'm a gonna tell you how its gonna be.
6. C'mon baby, let's do the Twist.
7. Friday night I crashed your party, Saturday I said I'm sorry.
8. I wonder as I wander up under the stars.
9. Good day to your Honesty.
10. Patching the roof, and pitching the hay, is not my idea of a perfect day.
11. Ali dances and the audience applauds.
12. There, out in the darkness, a fugitive running, fallen from grace.
13. I thought I'd write to Juliet, for she would understand.
14. High row de boatmen row float in down the river Ohio.
15. Oh when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you.
16. Gospel train is comin', you'd better get your business right.
17. Black black black is the color of my true love's hair.
18. There she goes, there goes my baby.
19. Care of St. Ignatius House, Willoughby Drive.
20. The Lord gave the word.
21. Unchain my heart, baby let me be.
22. He was a hard headed man, he was brutally handsome, and she was terminally pretty.
23. I'm nobody's baby, I wonder why?
24. You better come on in my kitchen, babe it going to be rainin' outdoors.
25. I have a lover, a lover like no other.

As you guess the right answers, I'll strike them out, just like Phil has been doing. And feel free to mock my listening choices, or lack there of.

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

# 1, Ray Charles, Born to lose



Dad

Scott said...

That was quick. Yep, from the collection put together for the movie.

PMG said...

#24 is Robert Johnson, no? and #16 is a gospel tune, but I'd be loathe to guess which recording you have...

Anonymous said...

#7 is Billy Joel. I don't know the exact title, but the chorus is "It just may be a lunatic you're looking for." Feel free to not count that since I don't actually know the title though.

#12 is Stars from Les Miserables.

Can I get half credit for knowing that #22 is Life in the Fast Lane, even though I don't know the artist? :)

Rebecca M said...

#10 is "Extraordinary" from Pippin! If it the Original Cast Recording, I'm gathering it is John Rubinstein.

#17 is the title, but I can't begin to guess the performer...is it a choral version?

I'll got with the traditional choice for #6, Chubby Checkers?

And I'd really like #2 to be a retrospective arrangement of "Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine" but I'm guessing that's not it...

Anonymous said...

#5 is "Not Fade Away," originally Buddy Holly, but covered by a billion people.

#22 is "Life in the Fast Lane," by the Eagles.

The Billy Joel song (#7) is "You May Be Right"

Rebecca M said...

You are a bad influence, Scott.

Anonymous said...

#11 is another Billy Joel song, "Zanzibar" on the album 52nd Street

Jamie said...

People have already noted the ones I can get off the top of my head, but I have a question for you Scott...do you have an RSS feed of your blog into LJ land?

I miss usenet...so hard to keep up with everyone out here in blog land separated by the web.

Jamie

Scott said...

Good job, people. Jamie, I don't have an LJ account. Can you use a reader like Google Reader or Bloglines? I use Bloglines to even keep track of specific comment threads.

Scott said...

Phil, #16 is the original version of the gospel song (as far as I know). Rebecca, #17 is an arrangement by a famous composer for solo voice with chamber ensemble.

Scott said...

Oh, and #5 is the Buddy Holly version.

Kyle L said...

My guess for #17 is my favorite (and the only one I know by that description)- Luciano Berio's arrangement from "Folk Songs?"

#20 "The Lord gave the word" from The Messiah... it's still fresh in my head since Easter

And I've sung #14 in recital. It's "The Boatmen's Dance" from Old American Songs (set 1) by Copland

Scott said...

Kyle, right composer for #17, can you guess the performer? And yes for #20 (the performer is the Toronto Symphony with the Mendelssohn Choir). #14 I'll give you, though it is more traditional, not arranged by Copland.

Kyle L said...

That's interesting with the Boatmen's Dance. I'm now interested to hear the trad. version.

For the Berio I have two guesses, which are the ones I have (I'm sure there are more out there, though). There is Jaard von Ness with Chailly conducting members of the Royal Concertgebouw. But my money is on this one: Dawn Upshaw, accompanied by The Andalucian Dogs.

Also, is your #8 part of that set too? It's definitely "I wonder as I wander," but it could be any arrangement, including Berio's or John Jacob Niles.

#15 - "When you're smiling" - Louis Prima?

That's all I got. Others look familiar, but I can't match them.

Scott said...

Kyle, yes on Dawn Upshaw et al, and also yes on #8.

#15 is not Louis Prima, though he is one of my dad's favorite musicians. Think of another famous jazz singer, with at least two things in common with Louis Prima.

Kozguy said...

#4 Sting, It's Probably Me

Kozguy said...

#21 Ray Charles, Unchain My Heart

Scott said...

Bingo to the nephew on #4 and #21.

Peter (the other) said...

#15 Louis Armstrong (words and music by Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin and Larry Shay)?

Dan Johnson said...

Ooh, late to the party. I'm gonna guess:

#2, "He Was a Friend of Mine," Willy Nelson
#16, "Gospel Train," Norman/Battle/Levine
#25, "The First Time," U2.

Scott said...

#2 right song, wrong artist.
#16, nope. As a hint, this is a vocal quartet.
#25, yep.

Matthew said...

#9: Ah, the "Eight Songs for a Mad King." The landlord of the Three Tuns makes the best purl in Windsor! I'll guess the Julius Eastman version with Maxwell Davies conducting.

Both #13 and #19 are Elvis Costello—from that album he did with the Brodsky Quartet. (I cheated—I remembered the album but had to look up the song titles: "I Thought I'd Write to Juliet" and "The Letter Home.")

Matthew said...

Hey, is #16 the Golden Gate Quartet? "Gospel Train" used to apparently be the highlight of their live show.

Scott said...

The Dog gets four of them! The album is called The Juliet Letters. And what is "purl" anyway? I'm guessing one of those silly English foods, like bangers and mash.

Matthew said...

It's a drink, actually—hot ale spiked with gin and bitters. I made some once; it's better than it sounds.

Chris Foley said...

#3 Monica's Waltz from The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Scott said...

#3, nope. It is a spoken count-off before the title of the song (and the album) is sung.

Kozguy said...

#23 Judy Garland, I'm no ones baby.

Kozguy said...

Who else does a version of He was a Friend of Mine?

Scott said...

#23, right song, wrong artist. Old jazz singer. For #2, I have the version that is one of the oldest, from 1962.

Unknown said...

#2 Bob Dylan

Scott said...

Sarah identifies the Bard from Duluth.

Anonymous said...

#18

There goes my baby

Earliest, Ben King

later

Donna Summer, Cats w/o Claws album


Dad

Scott said...

Technically, The Drifters, but since Ben E. King was the lead singer I'll give it to you.

Peter (the other) said...

#23 Ruth Etting? (words and music by Benny Davis-Milton Ager-Harvey O. Brooks)

Peter (the other) said...

Oh, Okay then, #23 Mildrid Bailey (with the wonderful Roy Eldridge on trumpet (although I think Ettings version preceeded).

Scott said...

Sorry I didn't reply to the earlier answer, but yes, it is Mildrid Bailey. It is from a Roy Eldridge album called Little Jazz. You are likely right that Ettings has chronological precedence.

Anonymous said...

Nice :)

Anonymous said...

ABC Auto-Industry by OMD for #3?

i mean, it does start out that way. but you know.