It was a crowded room. We had four new people, including Deb, just learning to play the ukulele, and three kin to Ken: Bill, Margaret and Siobhan, brother, sister-in-law and niece, respectively. Also present were Scott, Sam, Arlene, Dave, Frank, Jen, Ken, Arlene, Nathan, Vin, Christine, Larry, Jack (his second visit) and Bill, all to play songs with the theme of TIME.

1. Time in a Bottle, Jim Croce, 1973 (Christine)

This was a so-so start. A "B" instead of a "Bb" was printed on the chord sheet. That's one thing that threw us off. Now, I'm not one to go in for many conspiracy theories (I didn't think the moon landing was faked, for example), but the buzz in the room was that sometimes chords are deliberately put in the wrong spots or are outright wrong so as not to run afoul of copyright laws. Not sure I buy that. My guess is that the people who post these chord sheets are lazy and do not proofread. Will someone please look into this and report back?

2. Time Is On My Side, Rolling Stones, 1964 (Christine)

Christine picked this one for Sam, who knows a lot about the Stones for a young guy. This was their first Top Ten hit in the States. It went along fine up to the part when Jagger starts his rant, taunting the girlfriend who just dumped him. We weren't able to do that bit and thus the song fell apart.

3. Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper, 1984 (Christine)

Lauper had just broken through with her smash "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" earlier that year, and followed it with this classy and thoughtful number. We were strong on the chorus.

4. The M.T.A. Song, Kingston Trio, 1959 (Christine)

We were supposed to play the chorus after each verse, but did not. That's a problem with lots of chord sheets on the computer. Instead of printing the chorus and chords each time, it'll just say CHORUS, or REPEAT CHORUS, and poor Ken, in mid-strum, is expected to scroll back to that spot without losing his rhythm. On this version it did not even do that, did not indicate that a chorus was to follow each verse. No one knew the verse that well. Usually in a singalong on this song, it's the chorus that's sung with the most enthusiasm because it's done after all five verses and the singers get comfortable and confidant with it.

5. The Circle Game, Joni Mitchell, 1970 (Christine)

From her third album, Ladies of the Canyon, the last three songs on side two were Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock and The Circle Game. That's a strong ending, don't you think? Here's another one where none of us knew the verses well enough.

6. Con te Partirò (Time to Say Goodbye), Andrea Bocelli, 1995 (Jen)

As a group, we seem to be lacking in Italian language skills. Therefore, most of us strummed along as Jen belted it out. Accompanying her was Larry on mandolin, Vin on tuba, Arlene on glockenspiel, and you should have seen what a struggle it was for Frank and Dave to get the giant kettle drums in through the door. We drew quite a crowd of library patrons, many of whom threw roses at Jen as she concluded. (Nah. Just kidding. It was April Fools Day.)

7. Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley and His Comets, 1955 (WendySue/absent)

Pretty lively.

8. Let the Good Times Roll, Shirley and Lee, 1956, and Harry Nilsson, 1971 (Bill Hoffman)

This was from a big album of his titled Nilsson Schmilsson. My sister Patricia had it. Side 2 opened with his big Number One hit Without You (written by one of the guys from Badfinger), followed by the novelty song Coconut, and I think we played those two over and over to the neglect of the rest of the album.

9. Crocodile Rock, Elton John, 1972 (Nathan)

This was our most coordinated effort to that point. We even ended together.

10. Nine to Five, Dolly Parton, 1980 (Arlene)

It's the lucky person who has a job he likes. For the rest of us working slobs, the disgruntled masses, here's an anthem articulating our woes.

11. In the Midnight Hour, Wilson Pickett, 1965 (Arlene)

It was his first Top 40 song. Some of the chords were misplaced and it didn't go well.

12. Sweet Caroline, Neil Diamond, 1969 (Arlene)

Oh, much better. We were just about perfect. All the chords lined up and I suppose the stars and planets were in alignment as well, as we turned in an excellent performance.

13. The Times They Are A-Changin', Bob Dylan, 1964 (Arlene)

This was ranked #59 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, but the chords they were a-changin' a little too fast for us and we couldn't get it right.

14. No Time, Guess Who, 1970 (Dan)

What a cool rock song. I got a little kazoo-playing in, but it proved to be ill-suited to ukuleles playing in a group. We were just OK and the chords were imperfect. Maybe if we were Canadians like the great Guess Who it would have been different, eh?

15. ...Baby One More Time, Britney Spears, 1998 (Jen)

Apparently, this was one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over ten million copies sold. I never heard of it. I have to get out more.

16. Hard Times Come Again No More (paper handout), Stephen Foster, 1854 (Bill Hong)

You won't hear this on an oldies station (it's too old.) Bill and Margaret sang it. Though no one else knew it, the melody was simple enough and we played along fine with Bill. Afterwards, he did part of the song on a tin whistle.

17. Twilight Time, Platters, 1958 (Vin)

I love these guys. They had about a half dozen Top Tens with the gorgeous lead vocals of Tony Williams. This was one of them. We did a really good job on it. Vin had provided a California uke club video performance where they played a few fancy embellishments. Click here for the chord sheet to this version.

18. The Longest Time, Billy Joel, 1984 (Ken)

Beautiful song. Dave sang some falsetto and Bill sang bass. We were a little unsure of ourselves on the bridge, but were otherwise fine.

19. Those Were the Days, Mary Hopkin (Don't say Hopkins. Leave off the "s."), 1968 (Dan)

I love the two hits she has. The other, far-less known, Goodbye, was written by McCartney. He produced that and Those Were the Days. Both were on the newly-formed Apple Records label. I was hesitant to suggest this, thinking it might have too many verses and drone on too long. I thought it might be a dud. Wrong! It was the surprise hit of the evening. We played the verses slowly and with a tremolo (that wavering, trembling effect), then came crashing into the chorus with full-throated vigor (and a tambourine!). We sounded so Russian it would not have been out of place to slurp cold borscht and slug from a bottle of Stolichnaya between chorus and verse. Oh, what fun.

20. Time Warp, from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975 (Christine)

We've done this at least twice before and always do well on the chorus and when singing the instructions to the dance. The spoken parts are a little tough.

21. As Time Goes By, Dooley Wilson, 1942 (Dave)

Most people know this as the song Humphrey Bogart forbids piano-player Sam to play in Casablanca. It reminds him of his lost love, Ingrid Bergman, and is too painful to hear. Dr. Uke has a version. Half of it was easy and half was not. What was not was C#m7, C dim, F# dim, Dm6, F#7, E7b5 and C# aug, and that fell onto Ken's shoulders. It went surprisingly smoothly and sounded very nice.

22. Those Were the Days (again)

With minutes to go before closing time and with no other suggestions, we once more plunged into this nostalgic number with all the gusto of drunken, weepy officers and enlisted men at a Soviet army reunion. And that is how we ended the evening.

On April 15th, we shall be meeting for a ukulele-skills workshop. Not satisfied with your strumming technique? Need to practice difficult chords? Having trouble getting to Gm fast enough? Say no more. This workshop is for you.

-- Dan.