At the last session, Arlene suggested the theme of BROADWAY SHOW TUNES. There were a lot of good ones, but most of them were difficult to play. Deb, Jen, Ken, June, Charles (a new guy), Arlene, WendySue, Bill and Vin gave it their best shot.

1. I Want to Be Happy, from No No Nanette (Arlene)

I saw a production of this about 25 years ago at Freeport High School. The one song I remembered was Tea for Two. I had forgotten that this song was in there, too. It was one of the few that was not difficult.

2. Ain't Misbehavin' (Arlene)

What a nice melody. I really have to practice it.

3. I Do, I Do, I Do, from Mama Mia (Arlene)

Though this is from the seventies, it has an old-fashioned feel to it. It was one of our best efforts. It would be worth revisiting, perhaps on a night where the theme was songs from bands other than North America and the U.K. Sweden has Abba. Australia has Olivia Newton-John. Who are the top acts in Finland? Probably 98% of the songs we know were done by Americans, Canadians and Englishmen.

4. Any Dream Will Do, from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Arlene)

I thought I was the only person who ever heard this song. I had the album and played it hundreds of times. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote Jesus Christ Superstar, one of my top ten favorite albums, and they did this one, also, both rock operas taken from Biblical stories. This appeared to be easy to do, but all the chords were over the wrong lyrics. Man, I hate that. It was unplayable.

5. Let's Go Fly A Kite, from Mary Poppins (Arlene)

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember this one. I must re-watch the movie.

6. Oh What A Beautiful Morning, from Oklahoma (Arlene)

In third grade, we did this play, though I don't recall anyone actually acting parts. Mrs. Klett, the music/gym teacher combo, taught us The Surrey with the Fringe on Top, Oklahoma and this one.

7. The Lonely Goatherd, from The Sound of Music (Arlene)

Here's the scene where Maria and the children are putting on a puppet show. Julie Andrews really shines on this one, yodeling her head off. We played along with the YouTube video and it didn't go that well. It was a little disappointing. It's become my favorite song from that show.

8. Getting to Know You, from The King and I (Arlene)

We were pretty good on the parts we knew, but we didn't know all of it. (I wonder what Thailand is like. I bet it's hot.)

9. Hernando's Hideaway, from The Pajama Game (Arlene)

I didn't recognize this from the title, but as soon as we started to play it, most of us knew it. Tough to play.

10. The Music of the Night, from Phantom of the Opera (Ken)

Ken sang this. Maybe I should plunk down $125 for some cheap seats and go see it.

11. Till There Was You, from The Music Man (Ken)

We weren't bad and the song is fabulous. Most of us know it from McCartney singing it. I'd love to try this again. It's worth practicing. There's one part that's tricky but sounds so cool: it's a fast change from Em to Ebm to Dm, when he sings, "...never heard it at all..." I couldn't quite do it fast enough but I'm going to keep trying. Along with the Abba song, this was my favorite of the night.

12. Tomorrow, from Annie (Nathan/absent)

Nice song. The chords weren't too tough.

13. Singin' in the Rain (WendySue)

I love Gene Kelly. This is one of my favorite dance routines. When I was little, my mother taught me three ukulele chords (I can't remember what they were), and with two of them, I played this song. I'm surprised at how complicated the song is when played properly.

14. All Shook Up (WendySue)

Apparently, there was a Broadway show about Elvis. Because you hear the same half dozen or so Elvis songs repeated time and again, they have become "ausgespielt" (played out). This is one of them. He had a ton of songs in the charts but you'd never know it if you listen to oldies radios programs.

15. Cabaret (WendySue)

Liza Minelli sounds just like her mother. The message of this song is: Don't do anything productive. Come to the bar and spend money.

16. Calendar Girl, from Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (WendySue)

I didn't know there was such a play. Neil Sedaka had a bunch of good ones. We had this 45 in the house when I was a kid.

17. Summertime, from Porgy and Bess (WendySue)

18. The Sound of Music (WendySue)

19. My Favorite Things, from The Sound of Music (Jen)

Another excellent number from this show.

20. Consider Yourself, from Oliver (Vin)

This was the hit from the musical. I thought I knew it better. It was very hard to play.

21. Wouldn't It Be Loverly, from My Fair Lady (Dan)

This poor flower girl has awful diction, and the modest desires of "warm 'ands, warm face, warm feet." It doesn't seem like too much to ask.

For the next time, the theme seems a little vague. I'll call it LAUGHTER. Does this mean songs such as Neil Sedaka's Laughter in the Rain, or others with forms of the word in the title or the lyrics? Does it mean songs that make you laugh? If the latter, that's pretty broad and we've done a night of that in the past. This leaves open the possibility that the dreaded Ghost Chickens in the Sky might be suggested and we'll have to suffer all that silly clucking business yet again. Heaven forbid.

Since I started writing these jam summaries in the summer of 2014, here are some of the themes we've tackled. We did Colors and Christmas Songs twice each, TV themes, Songs from the Year of Your Birth, States, Food, Al Jolson, The Summer, Women who have been Mistreated by Men, Dreams, The Heart, Protest Songs, Animals, Astronomy, Winter, Magic, World Music, Woodstock, the Movies, Scary Songs, Patriotism, Body Parts, Geometric Shapes, Girls names, Boys names, Faces, The Beatles, Time, Flowers and Duets. I also recall evenings before that when we did Four-Chord Songs, songs by Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt, The Traveling Wilburys, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel. Click here for the complete list.

I try and pay attention to the Bronx radio station from Fordham, WFUV, 90.7, which has a Question of the Day each morning at about a quarter after nine. They usually do four or five songs suggested by listeners based on a theme the disc jockey picks.

What topics and what singers have we yet to cover?

-- Dan.