As you know, I've been playing a lot the ukulele lately. What I haven't done this year, is to post entries for my Happy Old Songs series. So, I'm mixing these two facts and now I give you Happy Old Songs (maybe this time they are not all veery happy) played with the ukulele, an instrument that was really popular in the twenties and thirties (remember that Warren Beatty's sister in Splendor in the Grass appears half the movie playing the uke?...and then she dies)
1929 - Ukulele Ike plays Singing In the Rain
1934 - Gene Raymond plays two seconds and then sings All I do is dream of you
1925 - Vaughn De Leath sings Ukulele Lady
1930 - "Ukulele Ike" plays I'll See You In My Dreams
One of the most popular songs to play on the ukulele is Tonight you belong to me (1926), an old song that Steve Martin used in the movie The Jerk (I saw it, it's not really funny). So here are two versions, the new one "played" by Steve and then an ukulele-less one sung by The Lennon Sisters in 1956, which I love:
The Beatles also made popular a song from the twenties, Ain't she sweet (1927), you can hear Paul & George singing it here:
Here Bette Midler plays the uke version Glory of Love, from Guess Who's Coming To Dinner:
And of course I couldn't leave out the popular cover of the songs Somewhere over the rainbow (1939)/ What a wonderful world (1967) by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole:
More Happy Old Songs including Drum Boogie, Puttin' on the Ritz & It's a good day : click here!
This is a fun and happy post of ukulele songs. My favorite versions are “Ukulele Ike” (Cliff Edwards), who is probably best remembered as Jiminy Cricket. Thanks for posting the medley by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo’ole; I have heard his versions of these songs several times and I wondered about the singer. I think Steve Martin’s relationship with Bernadette Peters influenced his decision to include the song in his film. She was a big fan of and often performed songs from the early 20th century. I hope you will include more “happy song” posts in the future.
ReplyDeleteOh - I LOVE Ukulele!! (I am "trying to play" it myself!!)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this awesome post!!
A delightful and imaginative post! I enjoyed it so much! Thank you adding some happy music to my day.
ReplyDeleteA fun and imaginative post. It totally made me smile!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed this post, girls :)
ReplyDeletewhistlingypsy: Thanks for stopping by! I didn't know that fact about Bernadette Peters. Oh, and of course I'll post more Happy old Songs in the future, meanwhile you can check the previous songs I've picked:
http://via-51.blogspot.com/search/label/Happy%20Old%20Songs
Frl. Irene Palfy, that's great!! The uke is really a nice instrument and it sounds awesome :) I really enjoy playing it, even when I'm not very good at it.
Flickchick: Thank you, I'm very glad you liked these songs :) Thanks for stopping by :)
A delightful and imaginative post! I enjoyed it so much! Thank you adding some happy music to my day.
ReplyDeleteOh - I LOVE Ukulele!! (I am "trying to play" it myself!!)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this awesome post!!