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

Year: 1933; Genre: Popular Music Here is a very interesting piece of music, which most would know by alternate lyrics and a different title: Gloomy Sunday (also known as " The Hungarian Suicide Song "), only sharing the music. However, the original version: The World is Ending, has an even sadder subject matter when you realize that the composer wrote the song seeing Europe sinking deeper and darker into what would climax as World War 2, especially in his native Hungary. Reading only the lyrics is enough to bring chills and scare you, especially knowing how prophetic and detailed it turned out to be. With all that is going on in the world today it is ironic how people will ignore history and just keep mindlessly repeating it.   Hear the song with the latter lyrics YouTube.       My song pick 1 year ago today: The Soul Shakers - You Ain't My Brother   My song pick 2 years ago today: The Contours - Do You Love Me   My song pick 3 years ago today: The Who ...

From: Master of the Hawaiian Guitar, Volume Two ; Year: 1987 (1938); Genre: Swing Jazz/Hit Parade/Hawaiian Every time I hear this master of music, I am in awe; his music just for some reason doesn't sound dated to me personally, even though much of his music is over 75 years old. Anyway, this is his very unique take on the George Gershwin classic, (even though it wasn't that old of a song at the time he recorded it), and as I said, it has aged incredibly well. Also, back in 2012 Sol Ho'opi'i's recording was made part of the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry list.   Hear Fascinating Rhythm on YouTube.       My song pick 1 year ago today: Kenny Rogers & the First Edition - Something's Burning   My song pick 2 years ago today: Queen - I Can't Live With You   My song pick 3 years ago today: Deep Purple - Throw My Bones   My song pick 4 years ago today: Foghat - Night Shift My song pick 5 years ago today: Rammstein - Los My song pick...

From: Decca (3258 A) ; Year: 1940; Genre: Doo-Wop/Hit Parade I guess it's another February 29th, which only happens every four years, so here's a very pretty track for this Leap Year. Timeless beauty, just timeless this song is... Bill Kenny's distinct and gorgeous voice just puts this one not only over the top, but beyond the stratosphere; it's one of those pieces that you have to repeat at least three or four times when you hear it due to it being that good.    Hear Whispering Grass (Don't Tell the Trees) on YouTube.       Picks for previous February 29ths (Leap Years): My leap year pick on 2.29.20: Steely Dan - Time Out of Mind My leap year pick on 2.29.16: Van Halen - Jump My leap year pick on 2.29.12: Cheech & Chong - Cheborneck My leap year pick on 2.29.08: ABBA - The Visitors    

From: Okeh – 40989 ; Year: 1928; Genre: Classical/Jazz I noticed that recently I have chosen artists in the " E " category three times over the last four days either by accident of subconsciously, so I thought that I would just go ahead and pick one more "E."  Anyway, I saw I have to date only chosen two from the late-great guitar virtuoso Eddie Lang, so here's another one. This rendition of the standard by Sergei Rachmaninoff is quite amazing to hear; only he and his guitar are present on this recording, which was a real novelty at the time as the guitar was not really treated as a lead instrument to be spotlighted. Lang and a few others were the real pioneers of making guitar music a highlight of mainstream; basically everyone from Django Reinhardt all the way down to Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani along with the other great guitar virtuosos that dazzle and shred to this day can be traced back to Eddie Lang. He is definitel...