Tonight I was joined by Bill, Dan, PJ (who slipped and introduced herself as Pat), Anne Betty, Frank, Jack, Dawn, Ken, Jen, Mike (welcome back), Sally, and Wendy Sue. And Kate’s first time. She belongs to the Long Beach Ukulele Orchestra.

Tonight we embraced the music of the 60’s which I grew up with. Lots of great stuff during a decade that was breaking away from doo-wop and the male dominance type songs. Goodbye to well-groomed bands and singers in matching suits. It was a decade of mind-altering drugs, flower power, rebellion, protests, long hair, blue jeans and tee shirts. During an era of escalating civil unrest, the Vietnam War, the assassination of President Kennedy and the British invasion, music of the 60’s was representative of the times. The comparatively gentle rock music of the 50’s gave way to a more intense rock and roll, hard rock, psychedelic overtones, surfing and fun in the sun, and Motown. By the late 60’s heavy metal gained a foothold and in 1969, Woodstock happened. We purposely omitted The Beatles and Elvis from this jam. We’ve done The Beatles numerous times and well, Ken is not fond of Elvis although he does a great imitation of him.

Sally requested a list of sites that are good for chord sheets so here are a few in no particular order:

• • • • https://www.doctoruke.com/songs.html

      • http://sanjoseukeclub.org/song_book.html

      • https://inbedbyten.weebly.com/song-sheets.html

      • https://ozbcoz.com/Songs/index.php

      • http://bettyloumusic.com/otheroldies.htm

      • https://www.ultimate-guitar.com – set your setting to ukulele searches

      • https://scorpexuke.com/songs/

      • http://www.guitarparty.com/en/

      • http://www.ukesterbrown.com/song-sheets.html

And of course if you do a search of our own site you will find lots of good chord sheets.

https://sites.google.com/site/islandukeclub

As usual, we started off playing our warm up song, Side by Side, and while the debate on the best ending continues, I think we were all pretty close this time.

1. Betty brought 3 good oldies for us. I’M TELLING YOU NOW (1965) by Freddy and the Dreamers was a hammy novelty back in the day. I loved it then and I enjoyed (we all did) playing it tonight. Next we gave Lesley Gore’s IT’S MY PARTY (1963) a spin. It started out OK but alas, the chord sheet became confusing so we dropped it. Betty was redeemed by her third offering, BUS STOP. We’ve done it and enjoyed it in the past and we did last night as well.

2. PJ gave us Harry Nilsson’s EVERYBODY’S TALKIN’ (1967). Featured in "Midnight Cowboy", "Borat", "Forest Gump", and "Hangover Part III". While Nilsson was a prolific song writer, this hit was penned by someone else (Fred Neil). He had many highs and lows in his life which you can see in the interesting documentary "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)". You can find it on Amazon and YouTube. We did this very well and it should go on our list.

3. Bill makes wonderful chord sheets and his first for the evening was Bobby Darin’s DREAM LOVER (1962) Ken loved it and we all got 100% on the tacets. Add to list. Next up was DA DOO RON RON by The Crystals (1963). Another winner. And, giving us another opportunity to shine with tacets, we played THE LETTER from the Box Tops (1967). I wonder, was someone looking at a cereal carton when they came up with that name?

4. I provided MR SPACEMAN using a chord sheet that Bill shared with us for our space theme this past July. It’s by The Byrds (1966). Classified as psychedelic country rock, Jim McGuinn was interested in astronomy and in connecting with extraterrestrial life but didn’t realize that AM sound waves do not travel far in space. Oh Well. Bill asked if PEOPLE ARE STRANGE by The Doors (1967) was written about me. Good thing I knew you were just kidding. We enjoyed PJ’s kazoo solo during the instrumental. The ending was strange! SPIRIT IN THE SKY by Norman Greenbaum (1969) was kind of nice but needs practice on the [D] – [C] – [A] sequences.

5. Ken provided a very nice color-coded sheet for The Angels’ 1963 hit MY BOYFRIEND’S BACK. We split up into Wendy Sue and everyone else and I think we did pretty well. With practice, this can earn a spot on the list. Ken reminded us that this tune was used for the Hess truck jingle.

6. Dan’s BIRDS AND BEES, Jewel Akens (1965), was short and sweet. We should look for a longer version some time. GAME OF LOVE by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (1965) was good and I found it easier once Dan explained we should use the strum used to play Wild Thing. THERE’S A KIND OF HUSH by Peter Noone’s Herman’s Hermits (1967). Someone asked who wrote this number: Geoff Stephens and Les Reed.

7. Another from Ken: The Australian folk group, The Seekers’ I’LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER YOU (1965). Popular for weddings. Written by Dusty Springfield’s brother Tom. This was a very pretty song and also qualifies for the list.

8. Three more of mine: LOUIE LOUIE by The Kingsmen (1963) suffered from a bad ending otherwise it’s fun to play hard and loud when you’re home alone. The chord sheet has a link you can play along with. Crank up the volume and go for it. The Zombies’ SHE”S NOT THERE (1964), was OK and Stone Poneys' (with Linda Ronstadt) DIFFERENT DRUM by Michael Nesmith (1967) was a good song. It was actually written 2 years prior and a stupid rushed version was performed on The Monkees TV show.

9. We concluded the night with two from Sally: John Denver’s LEAVING ON A JET PLANE (1969) and WINDY by The Association (1967). A nice ending to the evening.

There’s so much more to cover for this theme so we will do a Part II for our next meeting.

Until then, you Keep Strumming

-- Arlene.