Lisa Robbin Young

This week, I spent a lot of time rehearsing songs from the 1980's. This one is STILL a popular tune at my local karaoke hangouts. I secretly think we're all still trying to re-live the 80's.

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BlackVelvet

This week marks the last video of the month, and since this is the month of love songs, I figured I'd end on a psychotic note - hee hee.

"Every Breath You Take" was penned by Sting in less than an hour, and the rest of The Police then added their own unique touches to make this one of the most popular songs when it was released in 1983. The original music video even won awards (unlike this one).

Oh, and yes, I really did ask my son to pelt me with snowballs for this video. Enjoy!

This week's song is a cover of a classic by The Beatles. "All You Need Is Love" was written to be a mantra-style piece - sort of like musical brainwashing. You hear the refrain over and over, with a march-style feel that gives it an almost militaristic, "drilling it into your head" sensation. I've yet to meet anyone that sings the refrain that stops after singing it once time through. It's THAT effective.

The curious thing about this piece is that it was written in mixed meter - 7/8 and 4/4 time. It makes the verses feel very conversational, but it's a bee-otch to count, because it always feels like you're on an off beat (or slightly off kilter). That off-kilter feeling seems to represent how discombobulated the world is - until you get to the "march" section where the mantra begins (and everything's in an easy to count, straightforward 4/4 rhythm). I think that's part of why it was written that way (from a music theorist's standpoint), but I couldn't find any research to confirm my theory.

So I took the original and modified it slightly - I took out the entire 7/8 feel and made it all a plain 4/4, and gave it a contemporary groove that gives you a little bit of an off-kilter feeling, but in a much more satisfying/sexy way. The march style instrumentation was replaced with a vocal harmonizing that keeps the traditional "bum-bada-da-daaah" feel after each chant of the mantra, but without the march-style feeling.

Yep, I know. That's a lot of musical theory-speak in what seems like a simple cover tune, but since this is the FIRST video this year where I actually wrote the arrangement, I wanted to 'splain myself a little - especially since purists will probably hate the fact that I "desecrated" a Beatles tune in the first place. Overall, it's a much "sexier" tune this way - even if the lyrics seem a little redundant in places. 🙂

 

It won a Grammy for Best Disco song - and then the category was promptly removed. I guess you could say when they made this award-winning song they broke the mold!

Put on your platforms, and don't be afraid to get a little goofy - I certainly did!

Have a good laugh and enjoy this week's song of the week.

IWillSurvive

One of my favorite songs of all time, I think it is one of Billy Joel's most underrated pieces. It's a powerful, melancholy, yet hopeful tune. You kind of yearn to know how it's all going to turn out. I sang this for an audition once with an Irish accent and it got me the part in a musical. It was also the song I auditioned with for "Duets" - but Lionel Richie backed out of the show, so I never heard back on my audition. *sigh* Such is life, I suppose.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbxXjT-KwbQ&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

This week in rehearsal, the most enjoyable song, by far was this one. No, this is not the Selena Gomez version with the new lyrics. Ahem.

The original song was written by Mel Levin around 1961 for the animated Disney film 101 Dalmatians. This is a bluesy big band arrangement written by Dr. John in the 1990's when Glenn Close played the title character in the live-action version of the movie. Enjoy!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY7fvm9Q8aI&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

How could I not sing this song as the end of the year approaches?

Reminder: These are my "audition" videos -meaning they're meant to give you a tastes of what I'm working on. They are NOT the final recordings.

This is the last video I'll post before the 300 songs in 2013 begins. Wish me luck! Happy New Year!

 

Merry Christmas!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVgEE_el0V0&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0]

[Editor's note: This is part five in a series of year-end posts I write to focus my efforts for the new year. Here are links to parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.]

Brave.

That was the theme for 2012, and as I look back, I can say I'm pretty happy with where things ended up.

Even though they are far from the mark I set for myself.

And that's okay. In fact, it's actually a good thing. Because it took a LOT of bravery to adjust my sails as the winds picked up and the seas started churning in my life and business.

You may or may not know that I essentially dissolved my business in 2011. That means starting from very close to scratch in 2012. God bless my avid readers, because they are the ones that kept my ship afloat this year.

Ironically, that's probably the truth in every year, but my eyes weren't open to it. (more…)