The theme for this gathering was royalty. Kings, queens, pharaohs, sultans, etc. in the title, lyrics or however we could apply it. Joining us in this effort was Ken, Jen, Dan, John, Larry, Jack, Charles, Wendy Sue, Tim, Bonnie, Bill, Suzan from NJ, and welcome to Cindy. She walked in with proficiency in 2 chords and hopefully she left know a few more. At the very least she has mastered Am7.

A few of us were disappointed that Dan did not bring his Vorson electric ukulele back. Bring it back Dan. Some of us didn't get to really try it out. We want to pretend to be rock stars just like you. Oh and by the way, you say no one cheers for climbing ladders in the rain to hang road signs. Well, I will. Otherwise we'd be driving crazy like they do in Italy. So, you have my thanks, at least.

Let's roll out the fun.

1. DUKE OF EARL. Suggested by Suzan was just OK, no one raved about it.

2. Next came LOVE IS ALL AROUND written and performed by Sonny Curtis for the Mary Tyler Moore Show. How is this related to royalty you ask? Well Mary was born and raised in Brooklyn, once referred to as King's County. This goes back to the early Dutch settlers in that part of NY. It had some influence on differentiating certain parts of the area. But I digress. Mary passed on after our previous meeting and I so enjoy TV theme songs and this turned out to be a very easy one. So, as we often do, I suggested we play this song in memory of Mary. We played 2 versions. One a paper copy I passed out and this prepared by Ken. Both sounded quite nice. It should definitely be considered for our concert list. MEOW

3. Next Jack ask about the suspended chords we had just played so we had a brief discussion about them. They're an unresolved sound and leave you feeling something else is coming. At least that's what I understood. This is what I got from Wikipedia:

"A suspended chord (sus chord) is a musical chord in which the (major or minor) third is omitted, replaced usually with either a perfect fourth or a major second although the fourth is far more common. The lack of a minor or a major third in the chord creates an open sound, while the dissonance between the fourth and fifth or second and root creates tension."

I feel tense just reading this. Ken is so knowledgeable about this kind of stuff for those new to the group and quite accomplished. Don't you dare edit this out Ken.

4. Next we played Arthur Miller's KING OF THE ROAD suggested by Bill. It was missing tacit notations but remarkably, we 'played' them anyway. And we also played another version with a key change.

5. Next up was I'M HENRY THE EIGHTH, I AM (Wendy Sue), a Herman's Hermits favorite that we have done in the past. A fun song that we do well. We employed the talents of The Parentheses (a randomly selected side of the room) to sing certain portions of the song. We had fun with this.

6. More from Wendy Sue: QUEEN OF THE HOP. Only a handful were familiar with it and it was OK.

7. Bill brought us (LET ME BE YOUR) TEDDY BEAR written by Woody Harris and Bobby Darin. Several artists recorded this number but the relation to royalty here is Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll. Now, as much as Ken says he dislikes Elvis, he sure has mastered a very good imitation of his voice.

8. Dan brought us I'M INTO SOMETHING GOOD by Carol King and recorded by Herman's Hermits.

We sounded OK until we got to the end which was a bit messy. Nice song. We can fix this if we want to use it for a playlist. Once again The Parentheses were called to action.

9. Ken enthralled us with L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole. A wonderful solo Ken.

10. TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY (paper handout) suggested by me. Carol King again. Dan loves this song so much. He was not happy with the chord errors of the version I posted so he handed out revised paper copies. Thanks Dan. And great harmony at the end by Ken. BTW: if it sounds familiar, we played it 2 weeks ago in memory of Bobby Vee.

11. Next up was FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS (Queen) presented by me. It was OK.

12. Moving on to pharaohs now I brought HEY THERE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD by Sam The Sam and the Pharaohs. Lots of howls and lots of fun.

13. Continuing with The Pharaohs, I also brought a LI Uke Club favorite, WOOLY BULLY. We closed the door for this so we did not disturb the library with our exuberance. In the future, best save for after 9. Dan, I would LOVE to hear this on your Vorson!

14. John suggested VICTORIA by the Kinks. I think he was the only one who knew it. Did we play it? I cannot remember.

15. We next played PROUD MARY posted by Vin but he was not in attendance.

16. Next up, Jen suggested Lady Madonna by The Beatles. It sounded like every one in the room picked a different song and we all sang and played at the same time. This is a somewhat hard song to play on a uke.

17. Larry handed out a family favorite SHANTY IN AN OLD SHANTY TOWN. There's reference to a king. His father made a recording of this for his mom when he was in the service and Larry was a baby. We played it well.

18. Bill handed out THE SHEIK of ARABY (paper handout)

19. I wrote down KING TUT by Steve Martin & The Toot Uncommons. We DID actually play it but some of us would probably prefer not to remember it.

20. Wendy Sue gave us ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT, another Elvis tune which Dan amazed is with as he did a solo of the opening spoke words that for some reason he knows by heart. Bravo Dan.

21. We ended with ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK which Wendy Sue thought was Elvis. It's not. Bill Haley and the Comets sang this. But we had some extra time and we sang it out very well. Put another successful and fun jam to bed.

The next theme will be playing anything you can find on a house. Doors, floors, windows bathtubs, etc.

Respectfully submitted,

Arlene