Popular
Al Jolson
Medley
Under the title
Just Jolson, this is a set of five songs associated with Al Jolson.
The songs are:
April Showers
- Carolina in the morning - You made me love you - Rock-a-bye your baby with
a Dixie melody - California here I come.
They are
arranged throughout for 2-part male choir with some unison passages.
The audience could be invited to join in.
piano -
Roberton Publications 53180 - price code Z - duration
c.5'45"
Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind was Bob
Dylan's first important composition. He recorded it in 1962 and it
made his name. Dylan addresses what he thought was man's greatest
inhumanity to man - indifference. The result was one of the greatest
protest songs ever written.
piano - Roberton Publications
53172 - price code X - duration c.3'45"
Blue Skies
Irving Berlin wrote Blue Skies
in 1926. It became one of the first songs to be featured in a
'talkie' when Al Jolson
sang it in The Jazz Singer
(1927). Since then it has been used in ten other films.
piano - Roberton Publications
53178 - price code X - duration c.1'30"
Chattanooga Choo Choo
Chattanooga choo choo was
written by Harry Warren in 1941 for the film Sun Valley Serenade. The
movie featured the Glenn Miller orchestra,
and his subsequent recording
of the number was the first record to achieve 'gold disc' status as it sold
over a million copies.
piano - Roberton Publications
53173 - price code X - duration c.1'55"
Ghost Riders in the Sky
Subtitled A Cowboy Legend,
Stan Jones' song describes an old cowhand's vision of red-eyed,
fire-breathing cattle thundering across the sky. They are being chased
by the ghosts of long-dead cowboys. More than 50 different artists
have
recorded versions of this classic
Country and Western epic.
piano - Roberton Publications
53181 - price code Y - duration c.3'15"
Great Day
Vincent Youmans (1898-1946) is best
known for Tea for Two and I want to be happy - songs from his
hit Musical No, No, Nanette.
Four years later (1929)
Great Day was the title song of another of his (eleven)
Broadway Musicals. The show was a failure,
but this optimistic number - "When
you're down and out, lift up your head and shout, 'There's gonna be a great
day!' " has endured.
piano - Roberton Publications
53176 - price code X - duration c.1'30"
I Dreamed a Dream
Les Misérables is the
longest-running Musical in the West End. There have been professional
performances in 38 countries
and in 21 languages. Written
in 1980, the Musical is based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same name.
piano - Roberton Publications
53171 - price code X - duration c.2'45"
The Last Farewell
A 70’s hit for Roger
Whittaker, both as writer and performer, and still fondly remembered, especially the chorus,
“For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly, more dearly than the
spoken word can tell”.
piano - Tonosplus
30013
- price code F - duration c.2'50"
Little Brown Jug
Another tribute to the Glenn Miller
orchestra. The song was written in 1869, showing that an excessive
interest in alcohol was the reason why "My wife and I lived all alone in a
little log hut". However, since Miller's instrumental adaptation of
this Victorian ditty the number has been associated with the 'big band' era
of the 30s. This arrangement reflects the instrumental version more
than the original song!
piano - Roberton Publications
53175 - price code X - duration c.3'00"
The Little Drummer Boy
Ostensibly transcribed from a Czech
carol, this Christmas song first appeared in 1941 under the title Carol
of the Drum. The lyrics tell
the story of the poor young boy who
could not afford a gift for the infant Jesus, so he played his drum instead.
The most successful recorded
version was that of Boney M. It reached the top of the charts in 1981.
piano - Roberton Publications
53174 - price code X - duration c.2'40"
My Way
Inevitably associated with Frank
Sinatra, My Way became his signature song in the later stages of
his career. He even sang it as a duet with Luciano
Pavorotti. The original French pop song was heard by Paul Anka in
Paris in 1967. He bought the publishing rights, modified the
melody and wrote an English lyric that he thought would appeal to
Sinatra. The rest is history.
piano - Roberton Publications
53179 - price code X - duration c.2'50"
The Rose
This poignant song about
the nature of love was written by Amanda McBroom in 1977 and first became popular when
Bette
Midler sang it in the film of the same name (based on the life of the rock star
Janis Joplin).
This arrangement continues to be very popular
among male voice
choirs.
piano -
Tonosplus
30007
- price code F - duration c.3'25"
The Sound of Silence
The Sound of Silence was the
song that launched the careers of the folk music duo Simon and Garfunkel.
Paul Simon wrote it in 1963
in the aftermath of the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He conceived the song as a
way of articulating
the emotional trauma felt by many
Americans.
piano - Roberton Publications
53170 - price code Y - duration c.3'20"
Those Magnificent Men in their
Flying Machines
Ron Goodwin wrote over 60 film
scores, including Where Eagles Dare and Battle of Britain -
and also this one (in 1965).
The cast contained Robert
Morley, Benny Hill, Terry Thomas, Sarah Miles, etc. and the plot was
summarised in the subtitle
"How I flew from London to Paris in
25 hours and 11 minutes". The film was set in 1910.
piano - Banks Music Publications
- price £1.50 per copy - duration c.3'20"
Unchained Melody
There have been two
songs that have reached the number one spot in the British hit parade three
times. One is You’ll never walk alone and the other Alex North's Unchained Melody,
which was originally a hit for Jimmy Young
back in 1955. Audiences often want to join in!
piano - Tonosplus
30011
- price code F - duration c.3'40"
What a Wonderful World
Initially not a hit in the USA,
What a wonderful world reached No.1 in the UK charts and was the
biggest-selling single in 1968.
The song was written
specifically for Louis Armstrong and it details the singer's delight in the
simple pleasures of everyday life.
piano - Roberton Publications
53182 - price code X - duration c.2'55"
Young and Sentimental
The songs in this medley are You
make me feel so young and Sentimental Journey. Between 1939
and 1993 Frank Sinatra recorded over 1200 songs, many of them becoming
massive hits. Many consider him the greatest singer of popular songs
in the 20th century.
The very successful LP Songs
for Swinging Lovers (1956) included You make me feel so young.
Sentimental Journey was one
of the titles on another big-seller
called Come Swing with me (1961). Commercial recording in
stereo had arrived
comparatively recently (in 1956) and
was exploited to the full on this LP.
piano - Roberton Publications
53177 - price code Y - duration c.2'40"
