Betty, Frank, Jean, Bill, Arlene, PJ, Anne, WendySue, Irene, Sally, David, Geoffrey, Ken, Jen, Jack, Dawn and Bounce were here this evening to do songs with MAYBE -or- BABY in the title, or sometimes in the lyrics. One new guy, Al, was also present. He plays in a group in Queens, mostly for new ukulele players.

1. Big Rock Candy Mountain, Harry McClintock, 1928

This has replaced "Side By Side" as our opening warm-up. It was played in the George Clooney movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

2. Maybe Baby, Crickets, 1958 (Jack)

Great opening number. Buddy Holly does a lot of his stuff with [A] [D] and [E7] (Oh Boy!) or [A] [F#m] [D] [E7], and this was one of them. These are fun and easy chords, and most of us can do them fine even when the chords change quickly, such as at the end of these verses. We did very well with this one and all ended together. Impressive.

3. Baby Face, Jan Garber, 1926 (PJ)

It should have been easy, but as happens often, we rushed from one bit to the next. I don't know how this could be prevented since we don't have real sheet music in front of us, and most of us don't read music, I don't think. I can't. I wish I could say with authority, "That's two measures," or "That's four beats." If we could talk that way to one another, we'd end this needless rushing.

4. Baby I'm-A Want You, Bread, 1971 (Irene)

Bread was one of the big acts of the early seventies. They were always on the radio. Great group. Go out and buy their greatest hits. You'll know six songs.

5. For Baby (For Bobbie), John Denver, 1972 (Jean)

This was on the Rocky Mountain High album.

6. Yes Sir, That's My Baby, Margaret Young, 1925 (Bill)

Terrific job. We used kazoos.

7. Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me, Mac Davis, 1972

He had a TV show from 1974 to 1976. This was his biggest hit. Our timing was awful on the verses. We should have done the chorus better. Everyone knows the chorus.

8. Hello! Ma Baby, 1899 (Arlene)

At the time, fewer than ten percent of US houses had telephones. This was the first well-known song to mention them. (So says Wikipedia.)

9. Baby I'm Yours, Barbara Lewis, 1965 (Arlene)

Her biggest hit was Hello Stranger ("It seems like a mighty long time. Sh-bop sh-bop, my baby. Ooh.")

10. My Blue Heaven, Fats Domino, 1956 (Arlene)

It's one of my favorite songs by him, but I can't remember if we did this fun song well or poorly.

11. Bye Bye Love, Everly Brothers, 1957 (Betty)

We did it in the key of C, which meant it was easy to play, but it didn't sound that great sung. The song would be easy enough to play in the original key, I bet.

12. Bare Necessities, from the movie "The Jungle Book", 1967 (Bill)

I got to see this in the theater. I wonder if I got Milk Duds. I remember the bear dancing and singing this.

13. Baby Love, Supremes 1964 (Jack)

I may be repeating myself from a jam summary long ago. I saw John Sebastian (of the Lovin' Spoonful) on The Merv Griffin Show. Merv asked him to play "(What A Day for A) Daydream". Sebastian told him that he wrote it with this Supremes melody in his head.

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

Here's an easy one to do well.

15. In Spite of Ourselves, John Prine, 1999 (Bounce)

Prine's comical number was easy enough, though most of us didn't know it.

16. Baby I Love Your Way, Peter Frampton, 1976 (Ken)

I love this song from his monstrously successful double album, "Frampton Comes Alive!". Frampton appeared to have fallen out of the sky in 1976, though he had been in the English band Humble Pie at the end of the sixties, then was a solo act for the next five years. He was the new Elton John for a time. I just replayed it, and it sounded fine, but wasn't as good played with a group. There are many traps to fall into with regard to timing. Despite our so-so execution, it was my favorite song of the night.

17. Take Good Care of My Baby, Bobby Vee, 1961 (Ken)

Great execution on this one. Arlene says to put it on the list. This may be a good time to talk about "THE LIST". Once when Bill asked Arlene for a copy of the list he discovered that it is only a mental construct in the mind of Arlene, myself, or anyone else who thinks we did well on a particular song. No one has ever compiled the names of these songs and put them to paper. To me what makes a song worthy of the list is that we all played together and made no obvious mistakes. Hopefully we all started and ended on time. No matter that I really liked the previous Frampton song, I wouldn't put it in the list, because we were imperfect and would need to practice it a bunch of times to get up to snuff. But this Bobby Vee song was smooth sailing and we'd be able to impress an audience. To create a real list would take a little patience. I would re-read past jam summaries and look for songs where it was noted that we were mistake-free. Now that I'm retired, I suppose I could, in between naps, give it a try and spend some time searching.

18. Calendar Girl, Neil Sedaka, 1960 (Bill)

Nice chord sheet, Bill. Some of us sang the main words and some sang the names of the months. This was a good one from old Neil.

19. Baby Can I Hold You, Tracy Chapman, 1988 (Jen)

Her song goes on my list of the Top 5 Most Beautiful and Heartbreaking Songs I Can Think of At the Moment. To tell someone you're sorry, to ask forgiveness and to forgive people close to you are some of the hardest things we'll ever do. "Years go by and still words don't come easily." A couple of suspended chords looked intimidating on paper, but were not difficult. The [A7sus4] has become one of my new favorites. You can find it in the chorus of Neil Young's Harvest Moon as well. Just press the C-string on the second fret and there you have it. It's right next to a normal [A7] and it sounds terrific. Here was my second favorite song of the night (but still not a candidate for "the list", in my judgment.)

20. Maybe I'm Amazed, McCartney, 1979 (Ken)

It was one of the first songs out of the gate for Paul as an ex-Beatle and he hit a homerun. I like the studio version from his first album (titled McCartney) better than the live version from the Wings Over America triple album. The live version is almost always played on the radio and the studio version very rarely. "McCartney" is a cool, quirky album. I urge everyone who likes Paul or the Beatles to go out and buy it. He plays all the instruments on the record. Linda sings some stuff with him.

21. Baby, We're Really In Love, Hank Williams, 1951 (WendySue)

I think only WendySue knew it well, but it was easy enough for everyone to do a good job.

22. Maybe I Know, Leslie Gore, 1964 (Dan)

This teenager was the darling of AM radio in 1963 and 1964.

23. Who Put the Bomp, Barry Mann, 1961 (Betty)

Very funny stuff. We'd have to practice the opening, and the spoken end bit. This loving send-up of doo-wop songs became an excellent doo-wop song itself. It was sometimes hard to get the nonsense words out correctly and in a timely manner. "Boogity boogity boogity boogity shoo" is a kind of tongue-twister.

For our next session, we discussed possible themes: dance, colors, "maybe sometimes never", "something old, new, borrowed or blue,'' hearts, and general body parts. There have been loads of songs about hearts. Has there ever been a hit song about elbows or knees? That might be an unexplored niche for any of you future songwriters.

The winning suggestion came from Arlene, and it is BAKED GOODS. Possible key words to look for include: pastries, hard rolls, Napoleans, cherry cheesecakes, black and white cookies, birthday cakes, Italian cookies, bear claws, apple turnovers, cheese danishes, crumb buns, jelly buns, rye bread, onion rye, wedding cakes, pecan rings, chocolate eclairs and banana cream pies. I suppose anything seen or heard in a bakery would be acceptable, such as the bread slicer, the counter girls, boxes tied with thin strings, "take a number," etc. If you find any of these things in the title or lyrics, that's fair game.

-- Dan.