Two new people were here: Suzan, all the way from New Jersey (how exotic!) and Erin, who lived for a time in Hawaii, where everyone calls their uke an "ook" instead of a "yook." Vin, Ken, Bill, Jen, Arlene, Larry and WendySue were also present for a musical tribute to famous musicians who passed away in 2016.

1. Faith, George Michael, 1987 (Ken)

These chords were easy, but to do a proper job, we would have to learn the "Bo Diddley strum," and that would take lots of practice.

2. Manic Monday, Bangles, 1986 (Ken)

All these girls are still living. Prince wrote the song.

3. Iko Iko, Dixie Cups, 1965 (Ken)

Their big hit was in the previous year with Chapel of Love. (Great harmonies.) Here's a good one for beginners to try because it has just two chords, F and C7, alternating throughout. Joan Marie Johnson, co-founder of the group, died in October at 72.

4. Tammy, Debbie Reynolds, 1957 (Arlene)

5. My Guy, Mary Wells, 1964 (Arlene)

This went to Number One and is the song most closely associated with her.

6. Modern Love, David Bowie, 1983 (Vin)

The time I got to see him was at the Garden on his "Serious Moonlight" tour. He played this. It was the big hit on the radio at the time.

7. That's All Right, Elvis, 1959 (Vin)

A tribute to the late guitar legend Scotty Moore.

8. Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly, 1959 (Dan)

I knew this from the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, my introduction to Beethoven's 9th and some other classical pieces. Gene Kelly does this in the movie of the same name, in which Debbie Reynolds is the starlet.

9. Happy Days, 1974 (Arlene)

This went very well. Easy chords. Old rock and roll sound. Familiar melody. We've done it once before.

10. Take Good Care of My Baby, Bobby Vee, 1961 (Arlene) (paper handout)

I was so excited when I saw Arlene picked this. We had this 45 as children, and perhaps played and sang it 241 times (by my last count). The opening chords sounded right on the dime, but the 6th chord came up as a clinker. The creator of that chord sheet fell in love with an Em and put it everywhere. He was lazy.

I wrote out all the lyrics and put chords over everything I knew. There was one line I got stuck on. "Just tell her that you love her. Make sure you're thinking of her." It went G G7 C and something else. At the piano I tried to get the chord that goes above "thinking," playing the chords and notes over and over, taking guesses. Then I tried C D E etc. in order, each time playing that line. It was a little tedious. I tried Ab Bb Db etc. and was starting to despair. Maybe one of the chords I'd already tried was correct and I wasn't hearing it. After about 20 times of playing that line, a Cm, of all things, leapt out at me. Hallelujah! Time for rejoicing. What a thrill. What a relief. The Moody Blues have an album titled "In Search of the Lost Chord." I always think of it when I do this.

It's one of my great joys to figure out how songs go. It is so satisfying. Ken mentioned that G G7 C and Cm is a common chord progression. I wish I had known that. It would have saved me 20 minutes. I had to use the trial and error method, like an uneducated peasant. Yet it got results. Thanks, Arlene, for picking one of my favorite childhood songs. I had great fun singing it as well. Good job, everybody.

Bobby Vee had a half dozen Top Tens, mostly in the early 60s. Then in 1967 he had his last one, a very nice song seldom played on the radio: Come Back When You Grow Up. Find it on YouTube and have a listen.

11. I Believe in Father Christmas, Greg Lake, 1975 (Jen)

Beautiful song. How young Greg Lake looked. If you see pictures of him from the last 30 years, he became enormously heavy. He also lost his sweet voice. I saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer at Radio City in 1993. It was enjoyable to hear all the old songs, but his voice was rougher, as if from too many cigarettes. Maybe it's just a fact of aging. What you can do with your voice at 25 will be different when you're older.

With the loss of both Keith Emerson and Greg lake in 2016, I'm glad Jen got them represented for this theme. One fun fact about this song is that Greg Lake stole a part of the melody from the Soviet composer, Prokofiev. Prokofiev wrote Lt. Kije's Suite in the 30s. It's a wintry sound, with sleigh bells and images of snow on a vast Eurasian steppe. I bet you'll recognize the part I'm talking about. If so, you'll never be able to hear I Believe in Father Christmas again without associating it with this classical piece.

12. Desperado, Eagles, 1973 (Arlene)

This began a string of songs picked by the Eagles-mad Arlene. Don Henley does it for them, but doesn't Ronstadt do it too? Yep, sure as shootin'. It's on her greatest hits record. I just checked. Some time in the 80s, she did an album of standards with the Nelson Riddle orchestra. I saw her on that tour, also at Radio City. It was all stuff from the 30s and 40s. Then, as an encore, she started in on Desperado and brought the house down. She can belt 'em out.

13. Peaceful Easy Feeling, Eagles, 1973 (Arlene)

14. Take It Easy, Eagles, 1972 (Arlene)

Guess who wrote this? It's always a good guess to answer Carole King on a music trivia question (she wrote Take Good Care of My Baby, for example), but in this case it was Jackson Browne.

15. Heartache Tonight, Eagles, 1979 (Arlene)

16. I Can't Tell You Why, Eagles, 1980 (Ken)

I overlooked this song in the past, but it's a really nice one.

17. Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, 1984 (Charles/absent))

We always do a great job on this. Let's introduce the seniors and senioritas to this one at our next nursing home show. It's dramatic. It's melodic. There are Biblical references. What could go wrong?

18. The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie, 1970 (Charles)

We always do a great job on this, too. Can you believe our sacred St. Bowie is gone an entire year already? What a fabulous body of work he amassed.

I'd like to make an honorable mention of a few of the performers who didn't make it into tonight's jam. There's the bearded, growling Oklahoman Leon Russell, big behind the scenes in music for decades, but with the quirky hit Tightrope (1972) and This Masquerade, a hit for George Benson (1976). He also played with George Harrison at the Concert for Bangladesh.

Did you ever hear of a band called Status Quo? They were big in the UK, but had just one hit here: the psychedelic rock song Pictures of Matchstick Men. Great stuff. Their rhythm guitarist, Rick Parfitt, died on Christmas Eve.

And speaking of acid rock, I'm distressed that we weren't able to honor Paul Kantner, one of the founders (along with Marty Balin and Grace Slick) of the Jefferson Airplane. I know we tried White Rabbit in the past and were defeated by some nasty flats. I tried Somebody to Love but there is a real B and a real E in it. B7 and E7 don't cut it. That's a shame. The 1975 hit, Miracles, by the Jefferson Starship, was playable, but it was very very long, and I feared some of us might not be familiar with it since it's almost never played on the radio anymore. That was a big hit from a hit album (Red Octopus), an album played on, for instance, 95.5 WPLJ, in an era when FM stations played "AOR" (album-oriented rock.) You wouldn't only hear the singles, the hits, but other songs from the album. That format is a thing of the past. Rest in peace, Paul Kantner, and the noble FM stations of the 70s that played your albums.

Now for my penultimate (look this word up) theme: solid-body electric ukuleles. Friends, if you're like me, you dreamed of being on the stage of Madison Square Garden, in front of 20,000 intoxicated teenagers, guitar in hand, driving 'em crazy with your musical wizardry and ridiculous outfits. The only thing holding me back was my inability to play the guitar. (This is the reason I now climb ladders in the rain to bolt stop signs to metal poles. No one cheers me on. No one buys tickets to watch me install parking sings. Alas!)

But things are looking up. I just bought a Vorson electric ukulele for about $140. It looks like a miniature version of an electric rock guitar. I was playing Pictures of Matchstick Men down the cellar, singing into a microphone, getting a noisy, imperfect guitar-sound out of it, but close enough for rock and roll. I know it's a ukulele, but I really want it to sound like a guitar.

Vin assures me that with the right foot pedals or a new amplifier I could get that sound. One amp I have is an old Peavey, given to me by a guy who played his bass guitar out of it. It has a big hum. The other is one I bought over 25 years ago, a Holmes, for an electric piano. It, too, hums. But when you're playing loudly, the music/noise does drown it out. I think I'm on the right track with this instrument. Just a bit of tweaking and an infusion of money should set things right.

I was inspired by a video Bill sent me of a Hawaiian guy playing a Santana song on an acoustic/electric uke. He hit a switch or stepped on a pedal and his meek and mild ukulele transformed into Carlos Santana's guitar. I want to be like that guy. (Do you think I'll need to practice?)

For our next theme, we will be focusing on the NOBILITY. You know what that means: kings and queens, princes, barons and viscounts. There are a ton of songs which could be appropriate. See Ken's comments on the Next Club Jam Session page of the website for ideas.

-- Dan.