Bill, Arlene, Anne, PJ, Jack, Larry, Sally, Jean, Ken, Jen, David and WendySue were here to give a fond send-off to Bill, who will be selling his house and moving upstate. We had homemade cupcakes from Jen, plus other things you shouldn’t eat too much of. Our topic, in honor of Bill, was songs of FAREWELL. Bill is a great guy and will be missed.

1. Big Rock Candy Mountain

In this hobo’s daydream “There are lakes of stew and of whiskey, too. You can paddle all around ‘em in a big canoe in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.”

2. Jamaica Farewell, Harry Belafonte, 1956 (Ken)

Bill made the chord sheet. He and WendySue played kazoo.

3. So Long, Farewell, from The Sound of Music, 1959 (WendySue)

The beginning was hard, and what seemed like it would be an easy song turned out not to be so easy.

4. Don’t Mess With Bill, Marvelettes, 1966 (WendySue)

No one could quite get the melody on this. I thought I knew this one better, but I only knew the chorus.

5. Bye Bye Birdie, from the movie of the same title, 1963 (WendySue)

I must re-watch this movie. I only remember Ann Margret and Paul Lynde, and had forgotten Dick van Dyke. He sang the show’s most famous song, Put On A Happy Face.

6. Goodnight Ladies, Edwin Pearce Christy, 1847 (Bill)

Everyone knows this melody. Compare this to an unrelated song by Lou Reed, from 1972, also titled Goodnight Ladies.

7. Leaving On A Jet Plane, John Denver, 1966 (Jean)

This was Peter Paul and Mary's final Top 40 hit (1969), and their only #1.

8. On the Road Again, Willie Nelson, 1980 (Jean)

We missed the tacets at the end of the second line of the choruses, but were otherwise good.

9. Bye Bye Love, Everly Brothers, 1957 (Arlene)

This is a singalong crowd-pleaser from the great Everlys, and their first hit.

10. Bye Bye Blackbird, 1926 (Arlene)

Another singalong favorite, like Side By Side.

11. Bye Bye Blues, Les Paul and Mary Ford, 1952 (Arlene)

It was a so-so performance, but I do love this song.

12. Happy Trails, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, 1952 (Arlene)

I heard that when booking acts for the 1969 Woodstock concert, the organizers sought to get Roy Rogers to close the show with this song, for all the kids who had grown up in the fifties and watched The Roy Rogers Show. (I’m not sure if this is a true story.)

13. Gotta Travel On, Billy Grammer, 1958 (Arlene)

We played it flawlessly. It’s worthy of The List.

14. Yellow Bird, Arthur Lyman, 1961 (Bill)

They used this in an ad campaign for Northeast Airlines, whose jets were painted yellow.

“Wow, our seats are wide.

Lots more room inside.

Food is cooked on board.

Have your faith restored.

So just fly away

In the sky today.”

I can’t remember the rest.

15. Ain’t That A Shame, Fats Domino, 1955 (Bill)

16. Ramblin’ Man, Allman Brothers, 1973 (Ken)

It was the big AM radio hit for the Allmans.

17. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John, 1973 (Jen)

We tried one easy set of chords, but it wasn’t easy to sing it. Then we switched to harder chords and the singing went much better. The last line of each verse was [Db] [Eb] [Ab] [Db] [Bbm] and [C7]. If you could play them fast enough, and Ken did (I was unable), they sounded great, along with the singing of aahs and oohs. For this reason, it was my favorite song of the night.

18. Ruby Tuesday, Rolling Stones, 1967 (PJ)

We were very good, failing only at the little instrumental flourish at the very end.

19. The Happy Wanderer, The Stargazers, 1954 (Arlene)

Very fun to sing. “Valderi, valdera, valderi, valdera ha ha ha ha ha ha.” Just like you can’t be in a depressed mood when you’re swimming or eating ice cream, you can’t be morose while singing such marvelous nonsense.

20. San Francisco Bay Blues, Jesse Fuller, 1954 (Bill)

I didn’t know this, but it sounded like the song Garrison Keillor used to open his radio program (A Prairie Home Companion) with, but that one turns out to be Tishomingo Blues.

21. Travelin’ Man, Ricky Nelson, 1961 (Arlene)

Great song. I don’t remember doing this before. This and Poor Little Fool were his two biggest hits.

22. Ramblin’ Man

We played this again to end the night.

Our next theme will be anything related to HALLOWEEN: black and orange, witches, ghosts, candy, goblins (What is a goblin? Has anyone ever seen one in the daytime?), or anything scary. Feel free to come in costume, if that’s your thing, although I expect you’ll be the only one.

-- Dan.