Frank, Betty, Bill, Arlene, PJ, Irene, WendySue, Jean, Jack, Larry, Louise, Abbie, Jen and Ken were here to play “new” songs: songs which have “new” in the title, lyrics, theme or band name.

1. Big Rock Candy Mountain

2. Brand New Key, Melanie, 1971 (WendySue)

This chord sheet dragged out the end a little too far, but otherwise we did well on this fun song from the pride of Astoria, Melanie Safka.

3. I Can See Clearly Now, Johnny Nash, 1972 (WendySue)

Here’s a song about optimism, possibly after a period of despair. There’s one part where he stretches the word “sky” out to eight syllables (I counted) as the chords change from [A] to [C#m] to [G] to [C#m] to [G] to [C] to [Bm] to [A]. It’d be very pretty-sounding if we could co-ordinate everyone to sing and change these chords on time. That’d probably require a music director, a lot of patience and repetition. But it could be something to try by yourself. Play along with it on YouTube, and when you get up to that part, listen for the changes and strum each change once, just to prove to yourself how good it could sound. (My cheat for the horrible [C#m] is to play: G string, first fret; C string, first fret; E and A strings open. That’d be 1100. The catch is that you may NOT hit the A string or you’ll ruin the sound.)

4. What Are You Doing New Years Eve, Peter Allen, 1974 (WendySue)

Ken mentioned a nice video, a duet by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. She plays the uke and he plays guitar ***chord sheet link. They harmonize well. We quit half way through.

5. Everything Old Is New Again, from All That Jazz, Peter Allen, 1974 (Arlene)

This sounded nice. We had some trouble with an [Ab], and more when the last line of the verse had a change on each syllable.

6. I Just Called to Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder, 1984 (Arlene)

We couldn’t get the end bit, but the rest wasn’t bad, even the pesky [F augmented], which followed either a [Dm] or an [F]. If you use your index finger as an anchor for all three chords, the [F+] is less intimidating.

7. The Sidewalks of New York, Charles B. Lawlor, 1894 (PJ)

Good job and no mistakes on this catchy turn-of-the-century favorite.

8. A Beautiful Morning, Rascals, 1968 (PJ)

From 1966 to 1968, these guys were all over AM radio, with half a dozen Top Ten hits. We were not perfect, but it was my favorite song of the night. Their main message is: unless the weather is awful, get off the couch and go outside. To hear another nice one by them, try How Can I Be Sure on YouTube.

9. New Years Day, U2, 1983 (Dan)

This was a single off their album War, which had several excellent numbers. It was several years before 1987’s The Joshua Tree, a monster hit album with the popular songs I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and With Or Without You. We were sabotaged by a chord sheet with chords sloppily placed over the wrong lyrics. If everyone had known the song well, we may have been able to overcome that. That’s my fault for not doing a more thorough proofreading job or not finding a better chord sheet. It’s a good song by these Irish rockers.

10. Hey Good Lookin’, Hank Williams, 1951 (PJ)

Dead easy. We didn’t make any mistakes. The Brooklyn Ukes plays this a lot, as well as another easy Hank Williams song, Jambalaya.

11. House of the Rising Sun, Animals, 1964 (PJ)

It was their first and biggest hit, and has become a rock and roll staple. All garage bands are required to learn this.

12. I’ll Never Find Another You, Seekers, 1965 (Jean and Betty both suggested this)

We were perfect. Arlene says it’s to go on The List. My wife tells me, “Just go to a sheep farm if you want to find another ewe.”

13. Theme from New York New York, Sinatra, 1980 (Arlene)

I just re-played this. Most of it sounded OK until I got to the ante-penultimate stanza. (Betty taught me that cool word. It means the one before the penultimate, and penultimate means the next to last. There’s no reason we can’t build our vocabulary even as we strum ukuleles.) On that stanza, I couldn’t make it sound like anything. That’s also where we had our collapse. I’d like Jim (of Jim’s Songbook) to come to one of our sessions and demonstrate how these chords make sense.

14. New York State of Mind, Billy Joel, 1976 (Irene)

This was pretty hard in parts. Irene led us through and did a good job on the vocals.

15. A Whole New World, Tim Rice, 2019 (Irene)

I don’t know this song, but in the video a handsome young couple were flying around on a rug. Is that how people really get around over there? (I’m glad that in America our rugs stay put on the floor.) The song’s lyricist, Tim Rice, wrote the words to one of my all-time favorite albums, Jesus Christ Superstar.

16. Walk Right In, the Rooftop Singers, 1963 (Betty)

Fun song. I wonder what they’re singing about.

17. City of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie, 1972 (Betty)

We’ve played this many times on other nights.

18. Georgy Girl, Seekers, 1966 (Betty)

Imagine doing two (!) Seekers songs in one evening.

19. Winchester Cathedral, New Vaudeville Band, 1966 (Dan)

This song was meant to sound like a dance hall number from the twenties. It went pretty well and we got to use kazoos.

20. New Kid in Town, Eagles, 1976 (Jack)

This was a single from their hit album Hotel California. It was too difficult for us, and we surrendered half way through.

21. Twisting the Night Away, Sam Cooke, 1962 (Bill)

We got a little mixed up on this one.

22. Evil Ways, Santana, 1970 (WendySue)

We rushed. It’s not a slow song, but we were too fast. We needed to get into a mid-tempo groove but instead sped along artlessly. Try it at home with a repetitive [Am] to [D]. You’ll hear when the [E7] crescendo comes. Don’t even look at the chords on the page.

23. New York Mining Disaster 1941, Bee Gees, 1967 (Dan)

This is my favorite Bee Gees song, and they’ve had a bucketful of hits over the years.

24. Love Potion #9, Searchers, 1964 (Betty)

It’s a ukulele group favorite, and the only Top Ten for these English blokes. We ended the evening on a high note.

Since tonight we played “new” songs, Jen suggested doing “OLD” songs next time, and nearly everyone agreed. (Someone suggested Naughty and Bawdy as a theme. My proper Victorian sensibility would have a hard time with that.) These are songs or bands with “old” in their names, or “old” in the lyrics or the theme of the song. A nice one which comes to mind is Old-Fashioned Love Song, by the great Three Dog Night. Start thinking of your picks, finding chord sheets, playing through them, then post them to the NEXT CLUB JAM web page.

-- Dan.