William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: H.M.S. Pinafore ; Year: 1878; Genre: Opera/Romance Period/classical Yesterday afternoon whilst passing time on the "Saturday Sloth" if you will I was enjoying listening and watching some of Gilbert and Sullivan's fun and comedic operas. Of course H.M.S. Pinafore was one of the chief ones, so I decided that I'd choose a song from it. When I Was a Lad is one of those songs that you most likely have heard, or at least a part of at some point in your life; it's still that pervasive across most cultures even 145 years after it premiered. As with most of G&S's work, it is very, very catchy and will undoubtedly get lodged in your mind just by hearing it once.   Hear When I Was a Lad on YouTube.       My song pick 1 year ago today: Honey Cone - Want Ads   My song pick 2 years ago today: Max Roach - Little Folks   My song pick 3 years ago today: War - Groovin'   My song pick 4 years ago today: Cab Calloway - The Ghost of Smokey Joe   My song...

From: The Pirates of Penzance ; Year; 1879; Genre: Opera/Pop While The Pirates of Penzance first premiered in 1879 it made its London premier in 1880, (the number of today's song pick). I figured I would go ahead and pick this extremely popular and catchy song from the comedic opera written by the duo Gilbert and Sullivan. Like with many of the songs written by Gilbert and Sullivan, it's still quite famous in pop culture. This song in particular has been referenced countless times over the years, and not just in music; there are quite few parodies of it in existence as well. Watch a performance of the song on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Rush - Presto My song pick two years ago today: Nirvana - Drain You My song pick three years ago today: Amon Amarth - The Pursuit of Vikings My song pick four years ago today: Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) - Effigy My song pick five years ago today: The Steve Miller Band - Threshold/Jet Airliner

Year: 1877; Genre: Popular Music I'm making another selection where my pick number coincides with the publishing date of a song. Actually, there was another very large event that happened that year that completely changed music forever: Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph. It can be argued that the phonograph was the single most important invention in music; for the first time in history live music wasn't the only way to experience it. I decided to take the opportunity to essentially kill two birds with one stone by picking one of the first songs ever to be recorded, which was also publish in 1877. Interestingly enough after hearing the recording of his song Sir Sullivan said: "I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the result of this evening's experiments: astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever. But all the same I...