Suzan, Louise, Bill, Larry, Jack, Artie, Jen, Ken, Arlene and WendySue were here to do songs mentioning lips or kisses.

1. The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss), Betty Everett, 1964 (Bill)

Surprisingly tough for a C F G7. We did it twice, employing The Parentheses (the famous backing-vocal group, much in demand for session work) to good effect the second time. Arlene did a shoop shoop dance. Bill did a kazoo instrumental, and afterwards hit his Staples "Easy" button, which said, "That was easy." ( I never saw that contraption before, though apparently it's been around for some time.) Our strength was on the bridge. Good things usually come after an E7. "Oh oh oh hug him and squeeze him tight" was very exciting.

2. All My Loving, Beatles, 1963 (Arlene)

We also did this twice, the second time faster (but not happy-ukey fast) and that sounded better.

3. I Got You Babe, Sonny and Cher, 1965 (Arlene)

Pretty easy, mostly C to F, but sounded only so-so.

4. A Kiss to Build A Dream On, Louis Armstrong, 1951 (Arlene)

Ken did a creditable impersonation of Satchmo. The C and G letters looked the same to me on the screen and that threw me off. There were some hard chords to begin with, difficult to change to them fast enough. If you did it by yourself and took your time you could get most of it. Ken carried us along and we sang. Beautiful stuff. This was in contention to be our wedding song, but I pushed for a Lennon song and won out.

5. Last Kiss, J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, 1964 (Vin/absent)

You know this as, "Oh where oh where can my baby be?" Pearl Jam remade it in 2000. It was mostly C Am F G7. Nice one.

6. Then He Kissed Me, Crystals, 1963 (Ken)

Best song of the evening.

7. Passionate Kisses, Lucinda Williams, 1988 (Ken)

I don't know much about her, but I think she's not your average country singer. I thought she was saying Passion and Kisses. This is a really nice song, easy to play, with some funny lyrics. I've heard this on WFUV a few times. Jen has her album "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road", which I've also heard talked about by the DJs. There's one song they play from it titled "Joy", a crude, hard-edged number that made an impression on me.

8. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Mel Carter, 1965 (Arlene)

How dramatic! Go out into the garage with your uke, close the door and belt it out. You won't bother anyone and it will be cathartic.

9. Old Brown Shoe, Harrison and the Beatles, 1969 (Dan)

I had guessed this might be tough and I wasn't wrong. It wasn't a hit. It's a little quirky. I was hoping for support from Beatle-fans Sam and Scott, but they absquatulated to parts unknown and were not here this night to back me up. The great line of the song is, "For you sweet top lip I'm in the queue." To translate that from English to American: I'm in line to kiss you.

10. Kiss the Girl, Sebastian the Crab, 1989 (Jen)

It seemed easy but we didn't do it well. I think only Jen, Louise and Larry really knew it.

11. Be My Baby, Ronettes, 1963 (WendySue)

Much fun. The Parentheses were back again. They played this over the opening credits of the great Martin Scorcese movie Mean Streets, featuring a very young Robert DeNiro. This is such an exciting song.

12. As Time Goes By, Dooley Wilson, 1942 (Jack)

There were very tough chords on this very pretty song. Ken led us.

13. And I Love Her, Beatles, 1964 (Ken)

Pretty decent. Nothing difficult.

14. Kiss On My List, Hall and Oates, 1981 (Louise)

These guys dominated the charts in the early 80s with hit after hit. This one had a good sound and good lyrics, but the phrasing was tough for us and we could barely do it.

15. Oh, Boy!, The Crickets, 1957 (Ken)

A D and E7. I love these chords. We've done this Buddy Holly song many times. It's always a good one to pull out for a very fast, old-time rock and roll number. You could probably do this without looking at a chord sheet just by listening for when the chords change and for the E7 turnaround.

16. Gimme A Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?, Whispering Jack Smith, 1926 (WendySue)

This was very hard, too hard to pursue, and after a minute or two we abandoned ship. Fun lyrics.

For the next time we'll do a suggestion from Arlene. Go back to the PREVIOUS CLUB JAMS and look at the summaries. Pick out songs we did well and didn't make too many mistakes with, or the songs you particularly fancied and would like another crack at.

-- Dan.