No one could come up with a proper theme for the songs this evening, so it was open-ended. Mark, Larry, Bill, Vin, Joe, Tom, John C., John D., Arlene, Nathan, WendySue, Jen and Ken played whatever struck their fancy.

1. A Big Hunk O' Love, Elvis, 1959 (Nathan)

Although this was a #1 for Elvis, only one of us knew it. (I thought it was going to be "A Hunk a Hunk O' Burning Love and that Nathan got the title wrong. I was wrong.) We played along to the YouTube video. Not bad. It's a straight-ahead rocker.

2. I Saw Her Standing There, Beatles, 1964 (Nathan)

We were familiar with this, having played it at the nursing home concert.

3. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, B.J. Thomas, 1969 (Joe)

This was done at our last session, but Joe missed it. I was happy to play it again. We did so well we played it a second time. There were kazoos done for the trumpet solo with mixed success.

4. Crocodile Rock, Elton John, 1973 (Vin)

We ended the song together! A first?

5. Squeeze Box, The Who, 1976 (Vin)

This was simple. It was fun to sing "in and out and in and out....." and we did the song twice.

6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), Harpers Bizarre, 1967 (Arlene)

I'm pretty sure Paul Simon wrote this. It sounds just like a Simon and Garfunkel song. (Ah yes, I just read they did it on their album Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme.) There were lots of chord changes. We stunk. (Please pardon my inelegant language.) We may have been together on one line but were otherwise all over the map. Still, it's a pretty song about doing nothing in particular while in a good mood.

7. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), John Lennon, 1980 (Ken)

Not many of us sang this lovely song from Lennon's last album. Although there were a few odd chords which gave the song more interesting complexity, you could simplify it to a D and Em repeating.

8. Stand By Me, Ben E. King, 1961 (Mark)

It was a C Am F and G7, and we were perfect.

9. You're Sixteen, Ringo Starr, 1973 (Mark)

This is one of our signature songs and it always goes over well. Ringo's band really does use a kazoo for the instrumental and so do we.

10. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Beatles, 1965 (Mark)

There were no mistakes, but I'd use different chords next time. We did a version of this at the first nursing home concert, and that sounded a little nicer.

11. Bye Bye Love, Everly Brothers, 1957 (Mark)

What a good song to do at a singalong. It's a bouncy number with a terrific melody about a crushing heartbreak. That's a recipe for a Top 40 hit.

12. Take It Easy, Eagles, 1972 (Mark)

Jackson Browne wrote this. Pretty easy. Sounded fine.

13. We've Got Tonight, Bob Seger, 1978 and Kenny Rogers/Sheena Easton, 1983 (Mark)

Seger wrote this. It's a tearjerker no matter what version you listen to.

14. Still the Same, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, 1978 (Mark)

These guys were on fire in the late 70s and early 80s with about ten popular songs on the radio.

15. Eight Days A Week, Beatles, 1965 (John C.)

Very enthusiastic and well done. How does one clap one's hands and simultaneously play the uke? "Hold me (clap clap). Love me (clap clap)." We impressed ourselves once again by ending at the same time.

16. Back in the USSR, McCartney and the Beatles, 1968 (Dan) [paper hand-out]

I've been playing this song to death on the ukulele for the past month. It's so exciting and has these chords I've recently fallen in love with: A7, D7 and E7.

17. Strange Brew, Cream, 1967 (Dan) [paper hand-out]

Here's more of that A7, D7 and E7 stuff.

18. Iko Iko, Dixie Cups, 1965 (Bill) [paper hand-out]

These are the same Dixie Cups who gave us Chapel of Love. Things were going fine until we modulated upwards. It starts as C to G7, then goes to F to C7, and finally G to D7. It doesn't appear to be complicated, but it tripped us up at the end. If we try it again, we'll have to phonetically memorize "Jockamo feeno ay na nay. Jockamo fee na nay." (That's a French Creole expression meaning, "We're about to run out of rum.")

19. I Just Called to Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder, 1984 (Ken)

This was the final song of the night at about 9:40. We did it in our previous session. It had an F augmented chord, which sounded interesting, but which we'd have to practice for a smooth change.

Next time we're going to do HALLOWEEN SONGS. Click on NEXT CLUB JAM SESSION to see Ken's explanation of the kind of songs which have the proper eerie tone.

-- Dan.