T-60: SAS’ Sixtieth Birthday Countdown

60 for 60, not necessarily correlated to age, except where noted

June 5, 2023 (Song # 1982): “So Much In Love” (1963) sung here by The Tymes and written by George Williams and Bill Jackson. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY #1 SONGS FROM 1963

Counting down 60 songs until my 60th birthday! For the next 60 days we will have 60 of the songs that give me chills when I hear them, songs that are integral to the life I’ve lived so far. Currently, the list of songs that give me that special feeling (not including any classical pieces, which would definitely include at least another 20 pieces) has more than 80 songs; I’m not sure how I’m going to wean the list down, but STAY TUNED! And, of course, SING DAILY! Today is T-60, the number 1 song from August, 1963 and a song that made me melt when I first heard it sung by The Colgate 13 in college.

June 6, 2023 (Song #1983): “A You’re Adorable” sung by Perry Como, with The Fontane Sisters and written by Sid Lippman, Buddy Kaye and Fred Wise. Today is T-59, and this is a song my father used to sing to us a lot. We also listened to Perry Como and then, in 2009, I recorded it with Peter Propp & Josh Margolis. Here’s our version, if you’re curious (posted as the 2/14/18 Song of the Day): https://youtu.be/m92N3whVNLA LYRICS & CHORDS SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY Happy Birthday today Julie Owen Bain and Lesley Addario Bentivegna and Happy Anniversary to Emma & Sean!

Counting down 60 songs until my 60th birthday! From June 5 to August 6 we will have 60 of the songs that give me chills when I hear them, songs that are integral to the life I’ve lived so far. Currently, the list of songs that give me that special feeling (not including any classical pieces, which would definitely include at least another 20 pieces) has more than 80 songs; I’m not sure how I’m going to wean the list down, but STAY TUNED! And, of course, SING DAILY!

June 7, 2023 (Song #1984): “Carolina In My Mind” (1968) by James Taylor. T-58* is in honor of the year 1965, when my sister Caroline was born (thank you, mom & dad). She has brought joy to me and everyone who knows her every day since then. This song was written in 1968, but it gave Caroline one of her best nicknames (thank you, Alison). Happy Birthday today to Griffin Burke (hope you enjoy the planes in the lyric video!). xo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 8, 2023 (Song #1985): “I Got Rhythm” (1930) written by George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin and performed here by Judy Garland. My favorite version is this one performed by Gene Kelly in the 1951 musical film An American in Paris: https://youtu.be/mM-K2xVFyk0.

T-57 is a nod to all of the old movies I love to watch with my mom. Special shout-outs to John Bayers, whose father passed away this week but not before singing this song, and to the birthday girl, 95-years young, Dodo Bacharach (I hope she likes this one as much as I do). LYRICS & CHORDS SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 9, 2023 (Song #1986): “The Sky’s On Fire” written by me and Caroline in honor of our friend Noel DeCaprio; and performed by me and my brother Alex.

T-56 brings me back to 1967 when Alex was born; he has been an amazing brother and sings beautifully. Today his daughter Sophia celebrates her 23rd birthday and, coincidentally, she was nicknamed “Fire” by her aunt Caroline. APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 10, 2023 (Song #1987): “Teenager In Love” (1959) by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and sung by Dion and The Belmonts. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

Happy Birthday to Richard Foxhall, Maura Keating Hirschler & Sharon Freeman! xoxoxo

T-55* brings me to 1968 when my brother Russell was born; how lucky was I to get another amazing brother? This was his solo on our many car rides to and from Boston.

June 11, 2023 (Song #1988): “Frank Mills” (click the CC button below the video to get lyrics to sing along) from Hair (1968) written by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot and performed by Shelley Plimpton. T-54* brings me to consider 1969; I wanted to be a hippy and this song was my anthem.

Happy Birthday to Carole Robinson, Nancy Walker & Jenni Wilson Sinek. xoxoxo

June 12, 2023 (Song #1989): Today we post two songs, since I realized that I’m a day behind (the older I get, the more mistakes I make!). “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970) by Simon & Garfunkel. T-53* brings me to 1970; this record was played over and over and over again in our house on Lone Pine Lane and there’s something about it that elicits memories of New York City and the Auto Pub restaurant and my Uncle Kenny, but I can’t, for the life of me, connect the dots, so I just enjoy the comforting feeling (I think Uncle Kenny, my dad’s twin brother, was acquainted with Art Garfunkel, but I’m not sure of the exact story or if that’s even true.) LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

Song #1990: Here’s song #2 for today to bring us to T-52* and 1971, another memorable and formative year for me: the year I started playing guitar. The story goes: on April 2, 1971, my sister Caroline received a Giannini classical guitar for her 6th birthday. She started taking lessons from Hank Anderson and I spent every lesson lurking in the doorway of the living room watching and listening to him teach her “Here Comes The Sun”. Caroline was not at all interested in learning to play the guitar and Hank told my parents that she might be better off with a ukulele (prescient for the Propps?). Caroline resolutely refused the ukulele and later told us that she never wanted a guitar, much less a ukulele and was completely confused by the gift. I, on the other hand, took to it all like a duck to water. Thank you, Caroline, for graciously and unintentionally giving me the best gift ever, second only to having you as a sister. P.S. There are no lyric videos with good fidelity for this song, but the visuals on this one are pleasing. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 13, 2023 (Song #1991): “Brand New Key” (#1 in 1972) by Melanie. Here’s my version recorded by Josh Margolis with Peter Propp. T-51* brings me to 1972, when this song was #1 on the Billboard charts. (I was torn about what to play today, since 1972 is also the first year I went to Camp Pembroke, which has had a humongous influence on my life.) After taking my first guitar lessons from Hank Anderson, I took group lessons at the YMCA with a woman named Pru Gabert. She gave us tons of cool songs printed out on beautiful pastel-colored paper, but this one adhered to me like chain grease on a pant leg. It always makes people smile when they hear it; I hope you love it as much as I do. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 14, 2023 (Song #1992): T-50* brings me to 1973. Today is a big day for me in the recognition of my own little history: we are celebrating the moment this lucky human discovered harmony. I remember, distinctly, being in the back of a Gibb Family’s Volvo on a trip home from Aspetuck where we went apple picking. While we were concentrating hard to shine our apples using our t-shirts (I believe we were competing to see which of us could make her apple the shiniest), I became aware that the family was singing. The song was “Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose” and their voices were sweet and soothing. But then, the proverbial lightning struck when they started to sing the same song at different times. The sound stopped me in my apple-shining tracks and brought me into a totally new sphere. I am now, thanks to the Gibbs, forever chasing – and stumbling upon – beautiful harmony. I will always be grateful to have been in the way back of that Volvo; thanks for inviting me, Cyn. xoxo LYRICS & MUSIC Happy Birthday to Marissa Zeitlan & Suzanne Urban! Xoxo

June 15, 2023 (Song #1993): “Seasons In The Sun” based on Jacques Brel‘s “Le Moribond” (“The Dying Man”) with lyrics rewritten by Rod McKuen and performed by Terry Jacks. T-49* celebrates 1974, the year that this song was the #2 hit on the Billboard Chart and a huge hit during bunk clean-up at Camp Pembroke; all the key changes motivated us to sweep and clean the toilets with a little bit more enthusiasm. Happy Birthday to Justin Heller, Steve Dodd, Paula Harvey, Kurt Anderson & Linda Ronstadt. SONG HISTORY LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY P.S. If you want to hear the song I wrote that was inspired by my time at Camp Pembroke, click HERE to hear “World Outside“.

June 16, 2023 (Song #1994): “Your Song”(1970) by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and performed by Elton John (here live on “Tops of the Pops”. ORIGINAL VIDEO LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-48* brings chills from two separate memories.

Memory #1: When the town of Westport closed Bedford Elementary (now Town Hall) and split us up into the remaining elementary schools, families on our street were sent to Hillspoint while others went to King’s Highway, Coleytown El, Saugatuck, Green’s Farms and Burr Farms (Long Lots was a junior high back then); needless to say, it was devastating. Teachers got moved, too, though, which was a good thing; we got Ed Clarke, the cool, leather & handlebar mustache wearing, motorcycle riding Art Teacher.

Mr. Clarke knew how upending this move was for us, especially those who’d spent 1st-5th grade just waiting to be 6th graders at Bedford El (where we’d have had the privilege to sit in the balcony during assemblies). One day, Mr. Clarke told me to bring my guitar to school and he had me perform outside (I remember sitting on a stone wall with my classmates on the grass in front of me at what is now A Child’s Place preschool & The Learning Community & Children’s Community Development Center – is it still all those things?). I played “Your Song” – taught to me by Linda Clifford (upon whom my whole family had a crush). I remember feeling funny about this, but trusting Mr. Clarke; it sealed me in my classmates’ minds as “the guitar player” but inspired one boy to call me “conceited”, a word I had to look up and didn’t get over until I went to therapy, which I highly recommend. Despite the confusion caused by unkind words, I’ve always been grateful to Ed Clarke for encouraging me to perform, so I, in turn, encourage my own students to perform for their peers as often as possible.

Memory #2: In 5th grade, my two best friends and I dubbed ourselves “The Three Musketeers” (original, I know) and the closing of Bedford El was especially unkind to one of our squad: Ann was sent to King’s Highway by herself, while Cindy & I were sent together to Hillspoint (scene of memory #1). There is a line in “Your Song” about sitting “on the roof and kicking off the moss” and I have very strong memories of sitting on both Cindy and Ann’s garage roofs. One day Ann and I had the genius idea to slide down her mom’s asphalt roof in an attempt to wear out a pair of jeans so they’d look cool (Ann even had her mother drive over the jeans with her car). Geniuses, I tell you: afterward, the jeans still looked brand new everywhere except on the butts where there were two big holes. My friendship with Ann survived the forced split imposed upon us by the closing of our beloved Bedford El; we bonded again in full force at Bedford Junior High (now Saugatuck) and now I talk almost daily to Ann and let her know “How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” xoxo.

If you’ve read this far, allow me to add two more thoughts: (1) today is the last day of school in Westport and I feel for the 5th graders & 8th graders & 12th graders who are about to embark on a huge change in their life; they are ready, but it is still hard. Here is the song our Grade Five Singers sang yesterday at their Moving Up Ceremony: “Am I Ready?” (it’s not the Lizzo one, though, it’s mine). And (2): today is also the last day of school for our beloved principal, Kevin Cazzetta, who is retiring from life as a principal, but embarking on a new adventure. Kevin: As Elton & Bernie put it so beautifully: it’s been wonderful to have you in our world. xoxo

June 17, 2023 (Song #1995): “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten. T-47* brings me back to Linda Clifford, who was an amazing influence on my life. I had so many great guitar teachers and I’m grateful to them all: Hank Anderson, Pru Gabert at the Westport Y, Joan Slosberg, Terese Keenan, Joan Sprung, (plus a teacher at Yale who taught me classical guitar, but that didn’t really take) and the beautiful Linda Clifford. (Thank you, also, to my generous, supportive parents for researching, paying for and driving me to all these lessons.)

Most of you already know that I wanted to be a hippy: I wanted to look like Linda Ronstadt or Melanie Safka – and Linda Clifford was all of this but even prettier and nicer AND she actually came to my house (I started out going to her chic cottage on Rayfield Road, but that ended when we discovered that I was allergic to cats).

Linda taught us how to grow and eat mung beans, encouraged Alex to walk on her back, hugged me when she saw that I wrote “I love Linda Clifford” all over the cover of my spiral music notebook (much to the amusement of my friends) and, best of all, taught me how to fingerpick. I remember spending hours practicing this song in my bedroom, staring at my hands.

Here’s my version of “Freight Train” (with Josh Margolis, Peter Propp and Emily Mikesell) which we added to the end of “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad”, a song that I loved because it has 3 different melodies mashed together. I am including it today so that you can hear the results of Linda’s amazing teaching, but I do so hesitantly because this song is on the list of songs with a questionable past and disrespectful roots and I know that it needs to be reconsidered.

Happy birthday to Deirdre Daly and Pam Einarsen! xoxo

LYRICS & CHORDS SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 18, 2023 (Song #1996): “Blossom” by James Taylor. T-46* brought me back to 1977 and 8th grade (and, weirdly, the SOTD is late today because in 8th grade I was a horrible procrastinator and, when I channelled my 13/14 year-old self, I suddenly felt the urge to do everything except the thing I was supposed to do. My mom is not laughing at this one…)

Weirdly, I chose today’s SOTD before realizing it was Father’s Day: this song will always make me think of my dad, an amazingly supportive father whose eyes are welling up with tears as he reads this. When dad hears me start to play the first two measures of this song, he settles in for a long smile. I learned this song from Terese Keenan, my guitar teacher after Linda Clifford; Linda must have moved away, or something, and I remember needing a new guitar teacher. All the cool girls at Bedford Junior High took guitar with Terese, thanks to Margaret Silverman, the ultimate cool girl. Like Linda, Terese also lived in a very hippyish shabby-chic apartment above a garage on Red Coat Road and she would spend the first 2 minutes of our lesson hearing me play the song we’d learned the week before, then 5 minutes playing songs for me to choose from, then the next 15 minutes writing the new song out in my notebook. This left about 8 minutes for an actual lesson, but I didn’t care because I was so happy sitting in her space and absorbing all her hippy coolness. If anyone knows were she is now, please tell her I say hi and thank you. Happy Birthday To David Burke and Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate! LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 19, 2023 (Song #1997): T-45* brings me to 1978 and 9th grade, but, as I am acutely aware that today is Juneteenth, a seriously important day in our country’s history, I have chosen to honor it with one of my favorite songs: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” sung by Etta James. This is a song I learned in 3rd grade when I was in a play that celebrated the life of Marian Anderson (click here to read yet another story, if you’re up for it). Later, I learned from Judy Miller Wheeler (my amazing and beautiful general music teacher at Bedford El) that it could be sung as a “partner song” (two or three different songs sung at the same time). Here’s my version of that arrangement, sung by me with Peter Propp and Josh Margolis. SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

P.S. Normally, SingDaily would solely focus on the holiday at hand, but, since I’ve committed to a T-60 countdown AND I have so many amazing memories of my 9th grade year, I’m going to also share some personal memories that have nothing to do with the rest of the world and everything to do with me (naval gazing, I’ve heard it called). Please know that I’m 100% aware that everything I’m about to tell you is due to my privilege as a white person in an unfair and unbalanced society that needs to change. That being said… if you’re in the mood, visit today’s www.singdaily.com Song of the Day post.

Starting in the summer before 9th grade, my family left Lone Pine Lane and moved across town, thanks to Paula Leonard, to the Old Hill section of town. From the minute we moved in, the house was filled with kids playing, singing and having fun. My parents treated the house as a thing to be played in: it came with furniture and toys and shampoo in the showers (because the house had been previously owned by George Barrie, the owner and CEO of Fabergé Inc.). In addition, the house had enough bedrooms for us all, an indoor kitchen and an outdoor kitchen, too many bathrooms, a sauna, a tennis court (though none of us became great players) and a swimming pool that, legend has it, was enlarged three times because Cary Grant insisted that George Barrie make it so. Dad, of course, added a hot tub (why not?!) and it became the center of many parties. My mother purposefully decided not to recover any of the furniture right away, even though it wasn’t in her style (she had very hip and great taste), because she wanted us to enjoy the house as a place to hang out and not worry about being careful with brand new upholstery. I remember respecting her decision (my brothers were wild), until I walked in my bedroom and saw pink satiny-swirly wallpaper and green velvet curtains surrounding the bed. As a wannabee hippy, this was appalling to me; I immediately and unceremoniously tore the paper off the walls, much to my parents’ chagrin (now they felt they had to paint it right away, which wasn’t part of their laissez-faire plan of house decorating.) But, paint it, they did…with a huge rainbow covering both walls. (Reading this now I’m overwhelmed by my parents’ patience and generosity ALL of the time.) Another amazing thing that came with the house was a new best friend: right around the corner was the huge, loving, caring Bacharach family complete with 5 kids and a young girl just for me: Jeanie! It would take a few years for our friendship to cement into the rock-solid heart center of my life that it is today, but I remember laughing every single morning at the bus stop even before we were bffs.

As far as music memories go, there are too many to list here, but you can imagine me and my friends in the “lower” living room (adjacent to the “upper” living room), eating Baskin-Robbins ice cream from the soda fountain (what!?), all of us singing songs from 9th grade chorus (“All For The Best”, a song from Godspell was a big hit in our family), plus songs from Bedford Singers where Barbara Bayers (then Candee, then Muller, now Douyard) led us with her amazing piano skills (she became a mentor to me even before I decided to pursue teaching as a career). I could go on and on, and am afraid that, as I get closer to 60, these reminisces will get longer and longer, but I will try to refrain.

June 20, 2023 (Song #1998): “The Water Is Wide” sung by Karla Bonoff. T-44* brings me to 1979 and 10th grade – another year with so many memories (meeting new friends at Staples High School, Latin Class with the juniors, Sophomore Chorus with the inimitable George Weigle, Orchestra with John Hanulik and his son, my crush, Chris Hanulik) but this morning, the blog gods gave me a little gift when I saw my friend Kevin Gillespie’s name pop up in my Facebook notifications.

Kevin and I met at Bedford El and he was by far the cutest thing you’d ever seen. In 6th grade, Kevin, Cindy and I hid in the closet in our classroom at Hillspoint School to avoid music class (I did what?!) with Mr. Itner, who had to roll an upright piano into every music class since he didn’t have a dedicated music space (we should’ve been his best students, but we were definitely not; I’m sorry, Mr. Itner.)

Fast forward to ninth grade when we spent many nights on the phone singing harmony with each other (my parents generously bought me a phone and gave me a dedicated phone line; more privilege, more to be thankful for). Kevin cracked everybody up with his rendition of a local commercial: “everybody in the pool!” and his special party trick: crying on demand. At the end of ninth grade, he was distraught because he was voted “best looking” and “most popular” and I think he had to choose; it was not the choosing that caused him stress – rather, it was the thought that people were focusing on him that made him super uncomfortable. He deserved the accolades, though.

We sang together in choirs all the way through middle and high school, ending with the Orphenians and our incredible trip to Europe in 1981. However, my favorite, favorite memory is of Kevin, me and Ed Jordan: The Ex-Orph Trio (the name did not stick, but we thought we were clever). We thought we were the Crosby, Stills & Nash of Westport; we could make harmony out of anything with me on guitar and Ed on piano and Kevin with his incredibly gorgeous voice (I’m getting weepy just thinking about it). We performed at Grass Roots (the hippy wine bar on the Post Road at the Riverside Intersection between Ye Olde Bridge Grille and the Premiere market across from Art’s Deli) and at two fundraisers for the Susan Davis Lloyd Educational Memorial Fund. We sang together until life pulled us apart. I miss you, Kevin (and Ed) but I thank you so much for the harmony and friendship. Happy Birthday to you and Mary Ellen Barry and Happy Anniversary to Lisa & Russell. xoxoxo

P.S. Around this time, I realized that many of the good songs I loved were written by Karla Bonoff; it was the first time I realized what a singer/songwriter was and I remember being disappointed that Linda Ronstadt didn’t write her own music (I’ve gotten over that. 🙂 Though Karla Bonoff didn’t write today’s SOTD (it’s “traditional”), her version, with her sweet, unassuming voice, always gave me chills.

LYRICS & CHORDS SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 21, 2023 (Song #1999): “Older Sister” by Carly Simon from the “Hotcakes” album (1974). T-43 brings me to junior year of high school and 1980. Around this time, my Uncle Kenny’s third wife, Emily, gave me Carly Simon’s “Hotcakes” and “No Secrets” albums. She also introduced me to sushi and gave birth to my wonderful niece, Natascha. All three were life-changing.

Happy Birthday to my brother’s wife’s brother’s wife, Alisyn Camerota! xoxoLYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 22, 2023 (Song #2000): “To The Morning” (1972) by Dan Fogelberg. T-42* is the ROAD TRIP edition of the SOTD 60-day countdown. This song comes from senior year of high school during a coach bus ride to Jorgensen Hall at UConn for an All State Orchestra concert; a younger classmate (Julia Hendrickson, I think) introduced me to this record and couldn’t believe I didn’t know it already. I’m so glad she did! (If the YouTube link doesn’t work, try clicking HERE.) Thanks to Kerstin & Vijay for their beautiful meadow. xoxo Happy Birthday to Alison Stone Steiner! xoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

P.S. Many of my musical memories take place in moving vehicles:

Our parents sang in the car all the time: “Oh, You’re So Much A Part of Me”, “Abba Dabba Honeymoon”, “We’re All Together Again”, “The Quartermaster’s Store” (we sang it a lot faster than Burl Ives and we added hysterical words, like “well, it’s tea, tea, tea, that makes you have to…” We were a hoot!), “Teenager In Love” (see SOTD from June 10), and, as we got a little older: “Only One” by James Taylor and “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” (the Hall & Oates version).
During our Orphenian trip to Belgium, France, Holland and Germany in the summer of 1981 we sang “Fa Una Canzona” every chance we got, plus, we memorized every word from the two cassettes that Jeff Provost thought to bring on the trip (it was a different world, kids): Stevie Wonder’s “Hotter Than July” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run”.
After a full day on the mountain skiing with Melissa Balaban we sat in traffic waiting to get out of the parking lot and she introduced me to Rickie Lee Jones (sigh);
Steve Grune coming over and getting me to sit in his car in our driveway so I could hear Jimmy Buffett sing “Chanson Pour Les Petite Enfants” and inducting me as a Parrothead;
Sitting at the light at King’s Highway North and the Wilton Road driving to Staples captivated by the harmonies in The Spinner’s: “Working My Way Back To You”.
Driving to football games, tailgates and tunks during college in Van Goat with the amazing Swinging ‘Gates, singing, eating, laughing for four years (too many songs to mention, but stay tuned to future SOTD posts for one of my faves).
Ann, Cindy, Jeanie, Lisa and I singing along to every song on the radio every time we got in a car (and my father always saying: “How do you know the lyrics to every song??”, then me asking my own kids the same thing 30 years later), but especially: Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” in Spring Lake, NJ during Ann’s bachelorette party. Good times, good times…

I’m sure there are a hundred more that I’ll think of as soon as I hit “send”, but for now… you get the picture. Now, go sing…

Happy Birthday to my brother’s wife’s brother’s wife, Alisyn Camerota! xoxoLYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 23, 2023 (Song #2001): “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” (1982) by Chicago (written by Peter Cetera & David Foster) Happy Birthday to Chrissy Brennan, Jen Purdy, Brianne Chasanoff and Ann Mueller. Xoxoxoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-41* brings me to 1982 and one of the saddest days of my life (sorry to be a downer), but it also opened a door on something that has sort-of become my special party trick, so to speak: you’ve heard of “The Wedding Singer”? Well, I’m “The Funeral Singer”.

It was a super sad time for all of us and, if you don’t want to read about it, I suggest you skip today’s story.

In the summer of 1982, people in our town endured several horrible teenage deaths within just a few days of each other.

At first, I couldn’t figure out what was going on when the yellow phone rang while I was still in bed. It was my friend Tommy McMahon’s sister, Ann Marie. We’d spent the entire day before at the McMahon’s house, hanging out in Tommy’s bedroom (where I heard today’s SOTD), and she’d meant to ask me, but she’d forgotten, which is why she was calling now, a few hours before the actual funeral: “Will you sing in Tommy’s funeral today?”

I remember saying: “What?!”, then her saying “Tommy always loved your voice.” then me thinking: “This is not something you can say ‘no’ to.” then saying “Of course, which song would you like?”.

Ann Marie said that Tommy and Sharon, his girlfriend, loved the song “Yesterday”. “Of course, of course, no problem,” I said, even though I’d never played the song before. I quickly got out of bed, dressed without showering, grabbed my guitar and ran down to the living room to the Great Songs of the Sixties songbook to learn the chords.

When my friends came to pick me up for the funeral, they were aghast to see me standing in the door with my guitar. “What are you doing with that??” and, then, speechless as we made our way to Assumption Church on Riverside Avenue.

Our friends all filed slowly into the church and someone led me to the choir loft – by myself. I could see all my friends and half the town filling the aisles and seats (Tommy was a very popular football player from a well-loved Westport family). When it was time for me to sing, I remember singing the first few words, but then nothing else; I must have blacked out.

Afterwards, as I came down the narrow stairs from the choir loft, I grabbed a friend’s arm and said: “Did I do okay?” and she patted my arm and said: “You did fine…” I thought: “No, no, no, I’m not asking if I was good, I’m asking if I actually sang the whole song.” To this day, I still don’t know.

P.S. I’ve never posted “Yesterday” as a SOTD, mostly because it’s too sad for me. I chose today’s SOTD instead, because it reminds me of that time more than any other song and there’s a sweetness that makes me grateful for friends, even if their time with us is too short.

June 24, 2023 (Song #2002): “I’ll Dance At Your Wedding” (1946) written by Herb Magidson & Ben Oakland and performed by Ray Noble & His Orchestra with Buddy Clark. T-40* brings me to 1983, but today we’re going to skip my sophomore year of college and zoom to the present where my parents have their first grandchild getting married!!!!! When I was growing up, this was one of the songs my dad used to sing a lot; I especially remember him singing it to me during the days leading up to my own wedding day in 1992. Today, I used the Buddy Clark version to make a lyric video in honor of our first nephew, Jeremy and his beautiful wife Lindsey. Happy Wedding Day!!!! (We love you!)

Also, happy anniversary to Jen & Artie!

xoxo

June 25, 2023 (Song #2003):

“Softly” (1962) written by Tony De Vita and Hal Shaper and sung by Matt Monro. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-39 brings me to 1984, my junior year and the year that my Swinging ‘Gates mentors graduated from Colgate. At this point, you’ve heard me talk about a bunch of important moments in my life and it must seem that I have as many pivots in my journey as I have days I’ve lived. But, seriously people, being a Swinging ‘Gate was, for me, like being in a sorority in the movie “Legally Blonde” – there is no story without it. The seed for becoming a Swinging ‘Gate was planted in a letter I received the summer before I went to Colgate. Colgate totally knew what it was doing when they assigned Alison King to be my “big sister” (hence, the letter): she became one of my closest friends, the Alto 2 to my Soprano 2 (her ba-dums and “Steam Heat” brought the house down), my roommate in NYC, my work partner at GRP, a bridesmaid in my wedding plus a soul sister to my daughter Rose (since they have the same birthday). At first, the idea of being in a women’s a cappella group didn’t resonate until I heard the group sing at convocation. I was immediately struck by Jenni Wilson’s golden locks (all brunettes want to be blonde, people) and solid soprano, Ellen Rosen’s hysterical intros and flirty “Freddy, My Love”, Alison’s aforementioned bass lines, Cindy Dietzel’s beautiful voice and incredible lead on “Never My Love”, and their leader: Leslie French with her outrageously gorgeous voice and solo on “The Rose” (move aside, Bette). When I found out that Leslie was just a sophomore (and had been elected leader as a freshman!), I knew I had to get to know her. Fast forward 35+ years and she continues to blow me away with knowledge and clear vision of the world around her, not to mention her sharp sense of humor. I’m still grateful to her and all the others for letting me in the group and giving me a song to sing and friends who I still love.

June 26, 2023 (Song #2004): “Only You” Sung by The Flying Pickets, written by Vince Clarke of Yaz (known as Yazoo in Europe) (Here’s the YAZ version: Only You by Yaz) SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-38* brings me to 1985, the year I graduated from Colgate. I learned this song while in London on a semester abroad in the spring of 1984, then it was my solo in the Swinging ‘Gates on an arrangement that was done (or brought to the group?) by Betsy Morris. Betsy is just one of the many friends I made in the ‘Gates but she stands out for many reasons (she had the most beautifully striking voice – and face – and she was an incredible musician); it crushed us all to pieces when she died a few years ago, but I have amazing memories of her (she took me to my first Bonnie Raitt concert in Boston and she and I and Emily Mikesell sang a beautiful Sarah Bareilles song – “I Choose You” at Jen Dowd & Artie Spangel’s wedding.) (I could write an entire blog post on Emily Mikesell and Jen Dowd; stay tuned?!)

1985 is also the inaugural year of the “Celibacy Retreat”, which kicked off with a trip to Delaware during Colgate’s “Senior Week”. There are 16 of us – Amy, Elizabeth, Jeannie, Jenny, Jenny, Judy, Kathy, Leslie, Liz, Meg, Megan, Sandy, Sonya, Storey, Susie & me – and we’re still friends (we had our most recent reunion a few weeks ago in Westbrook, CT at Liz’s and my belly still hurts from laughing.) Today’s SOTD was a huge favorite for most of us and was sung at at least one of our weddings.

And, speaking of weddings: today is my parent’s 63rd anniversary and I am SO glad they got married. 🙂 SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 27, 2023 (Song #2005): “Cracking” (1985) by Suzanne Vega. T-37* brings me to 1986 when I lived in Alta, Utah for almost a full year (August-May). I became obsessed with this record and, in between working at the front desk of the Alta Lodge, driving downtown to purchase and arrange the flowers for the dining room, playing guitar and singing in the Sitzmark, hanging out with my roommate Julie and friends Cassie & Marcus and recording with John and skiing as much as possible, I listened to this record (in Tom’s cool room – was it called “the laundry”?? – on his record player). Five years later I started dating Peter Propp (Mr. Sing Daily to you) and then married him on this day in 1992 – Happy Anniversary, honey – ) and did it all again (this time with him at the front desk and me up in the reservations office with the iconic Mimi Muray Levitt, trying to use what I’d learned at Columbia Business School to help computerize their systems – I was passionate about Merge Letters and Spreadsheets.) LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 28, 2023 (Song #2006): “I’m Lucky” by Joan Armatrading (1981). No lyric video today; instead click on “more” below the video to see the lyrics and sing along. T-36* brings me to the 1986-1987 year and a summer visit to Moab, Utah, where Cassie & Marcus & I went hiking and I couldn’t stop singing this song; it’s definitely my theme song.

Very soon after coming home from Utah, I tried to get a job at Columbia Records, but, since I couldn’t type, I never made it past the introductory interview (but thanks to Colgate graduate Paul MacCowatt, Tom’s dad, for trying to help me out). Soon thereafter, I went to a music business head-hunter (she was a blonde version of Susie Meyerson on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” complete with cigarettes and pigeons on the windowsill); she asked me if I would take a job as a receptionist at a jazz label in Hell’s Kitchen. I said yes and went outside to call my parents from a payphone to tell them that, if I didn’t come home, they might find me somewhere around 11th ave and 57th street. When I got to the interview at GRP Records (555 West 57th Street), Mark Wexler gave me a cassette of Dave Grusin’s album with “Mountain Dance” on it; my heart practically stopped on the Metro North train back to Westport when I heard the song: Curtis Beller, one of the kitchen guys at the Alta Lodge, had used it as the background in his end-of-the-year Emp slideshow. I took it as a sign and took the job; it was an amazing experience. Lucky, indeed. LYRICS INTERVIEW WITH JOAN ARMATRADING APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 29, 2023 (Song #2007): “Summer Fly” (1987) by Cheryl Wheeler. Happy Birthday to Marcus Dippo & Meghan Murray! LYRICS & SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-35* brings me to 1988. I remember working at GRP when Craig Sussman, from Cypress Records/A&M, came to visit the office and put this CD on my desk (Half-A-Book). I took it home to the apartment I lived in (301 East 69th St) with Caroline (who’d just started an amazing job in M&A at Goldman Sachs – hence the fancy apartment address) and Alison King (who was getting her master’s at the NYU School of Journalism), and we listened to it over and over again. We loved Cheryl’s voice and songs; I couldn’t get her music (especially this song) out of my head. I remember asking Craig, on a subsequent visit: “How come she’s not famous???” He gave several reasons that it hadn’t worked out for her and it changed my perspective on the connection between talent and fame: I’d thought that if a person was talented enough, s/he could automatically become famous. I’d never considered the politics and fickleness of fame.

A small part of me had wanted to be a performing singer/songwriter and I’d signed up to play at a few open mics in the city; I remember not telling anyone I was performing since I’d only ever performed for welcoming audiences of friends & family and I wanted to see what it was like to perform for strangers. The performances went well enough, but they weren’t all that much fun (and, to be honest, no one ever invited me back). When Craig told me about Cheryl Wheeler’s career, I realized that being a good singer/songwriter isn’t enough; real magic has to happen on so many levels for a person to be “famous”. At some point I realized that true success for me is satisfaction and contentment and that being “famous” in the grand scheme isn’t going to make me happy. I don’t know how Cheryl Wheeler feels about not being Taylor Swift-level famous, but I hope she knows that she impacted at least one life (mine) in a beautiful way. (P.S. It turns out that being a music teacher in my hometown has given me a comfortable amount of attention and a tiny taste of “fame”; being recognized by my students in our local grocery store sparks a lot of joy in my life, even if it drives some of my friends and family crazy.)

P.S. Peter, Rose, Bennett and I used to listen to a lot of Cheryl Wheeler on our roadtrips. Our favorites Cheryl Wheeler songs are “When Fall Comes To New England”, “POTATO” and “Estate Sale”. Please check ‘em out.

June 30, 2023 (Song #2008): “Once In A Very Blue Moon” (1984) sung by Nanci Griffith (written by Pat Alger)

KARAOKE! Listen to Nancy singing it on “Austin City Limits” in 1985. APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-34* (today we should call it: TMI-34*) brings me to 1989, my 3rd year at GRP Records. Three years before, while singing in the Sitzmark Bar at the Alta Lodge, a man told me that I sounded “just like Nanci Griffith; have you heard of her?” “No, “I said, “Well, I tell ya, you sound just like her.” So, I immediately picked up my phone and found Nanci Griffith on Spotify (HAHAHA! This is almost 40 years ago, people!. Scratch that.) Rather, I drove the thirty miles down Little Cottonwood Canyon in the lodge van (which they let me use because I was buying and arranging the flowers for the dining room) and found a record store in Salt Lake City (I’m thinking it must have been a “Sam Goody’s” or “Tower”?) so I could buy a Nanci Griffith CD.

The minute I got back to the Lodge and put it on, my world stopped spinning: Nanci Griffith’s voice was nothing like mine, but it was also like nothing I’d ever heard before and I wasn’t completely sure I liked it.

I was confused; the song lyrics, melodies, harmonies and instrumentation were compelling but her voice was high and wobbly (did that guy in the Sitzmark think my voice was high and wobbly?). Still, there was something about her songs and her voice that made me listen to the CD 25 times that first week. I quickly learned “Once In A Very Blue Moon” and played it constantly; the chord progression became so much a part of me that I still play it every time I sit down at a piano (I may have borrowed it and put it into at least one of my own songs).

At one point in 1986, Nanci Griffith performed in Salt Lake City and, since my brother Russell was visiting, we went to the concert together. I noticed him looking at me during the concert and I said: “What?” and he said: “Watching you watching her is way more entertaining than watching her….” Yep.

Now, back to T-34* and 1989: I was still working at GRP Records and one day my boss said to me and Alison: “You should take these tickets to this CD Release Party, no one else wants to go.” “Who is performing?” I asked and when he said “Nanci Griffith”, Alison King and I ran out of work and headed to some bar in the middle of Manhattan and down the stairs to a tiny cocktail party where no one was paying any attention at all to the music. We sat down at a table right in front of her and grinned and basked in her incredible talent while she played the songs from her new “Storms” album just for us.

Later that year, I began to get frustrated by the work/paycheck ratio of my job. I’d been hired as a receptionist and was quickly promoted when they needed someone to learn “Lotus 1-2-3” in an effort to computerize all of their written production schedules. After learning the program and transferring all the written documents to computerized spreadsheets, my boss, Dotty Kenul, quit (I’ve always felt sad about that.) They gave me her title (“Production Coordinator”) and soon added “Director of International Distribution” (since I came in to the office at 9am, and, thus, was the only person in the office who could communicate with the foreign distributors when they were at work), and I got raises – which, industry standard dictated, was 10%.

But, when I stepped back and thought of how much work I was putting in (I almost always stayed at work until the art department – who came to work at noon – was ready to go home, usually at about 8pm) and how little I was being paid, I asked my boss to reconsider my salary. He said no, but they offered to print my name in the CD credits (if you have any old GRP CDs, check it out). When I asked for more money again a few months later, they changed my job title to “Director of Production”, but still, no money.

I thanked them for the gesture and started looking for another job.

Around this time, I had been listening to a CD sampler that I loved called “Here It Is: The Music” put out by Rykodisc, which had three songs on it that blew me away: The Red Clay Ramblers’ “Home Is Where The Heart Is”, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s “Henry & James” and, of course, Nanci Griffith’s “Once In A Very Blue Moon”.

Somehow I got an interview with Don Rose at Rykodisc and they offered me a job with a generous salary and an allowance for moving to Salem (I remember visiting their offices at Pickering Wharf). Though I would be sad to leave my sister, Alison and NYC, I was ready to be fairly compensated.

When I told my boss, he told the co-president of the company, Larry Rosen, that I was leaving; Larry quickly ushered me into his office: “What is going on???” I told him “I’ve been asking for a raise for months.” and he said: “I did not know that. I’ll give you whatever you want to stay.” He then proceeded to match the Rykodisc offer and then some. It truly felt like a “Once In a Blue Moon” moment and I always felt that, somehow, I had Nanci Griffith and that song to thank for that raise.

July 1, 2023 (Song #2009): “Ain’t Life A Brook” (1980) by Ferron. T-33* Instead of focusing on 1990 (the year Caroline left New York to go to Kellogg and I applied and got into Columbia Business School) I’m going back to the 1970s (you’re welcome, Russell) when the Shermans and the Addarios joined forces in friendship, fun and our mutual love and devotion for family. Sundays at the Addario house on North Ridge Road were filled with inlaws and outlaws and swimming and running and laughing and eating and singing (and drawing on the walls); it was a magical time and they are magical people (I’m still wearing the necklace that they gave me for my Bat Mitzvah in 1977). To get a sense of this wonderful family with whom we shared a big chunk of our childhood, listen to this: SIBLING REVELRY with Kate Hudson & Oliver Hudson featuring Lynsey & Lisa Addario. Oh, and the connection to this amazing song? Lisa taught me this one and it still gives me “brain joy” (Lori Hashizume: thanks for this phrase. 🙂 Happy Birthday to Catherine Lewis, my equally beautiful and magical sister-in-law. Xoxoxo LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 2, 2023 (Song #2010): “You Are The New Day” written by John David, arranged by Peter Knight and sung by The King’s Singers. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

TMI-32* brings me to 1991, the year that Peter and I finally started dating. I’d played this song for many first dates: the date’s reaction to this song was the gateway to a 2nd date. Peter liked it.

“How did Peter and you meet?,” I hear you asking…

Feel free to skip today’s entry if you are not a blood relative; no one needs to read all of this except for, maybe, our future-grandchildren (no pressure, kids).

Our mutual friend, Steve Ochs, had been trying to get Peter and I to date for a while. I knew Steve from Colgate (he was my first college boyfriend’s roommate) and Peter was Steve’s high school friend’s roommate at Kenyon; Steve and Peter were roommates on Sullivan Street.

The first time I saw Peter, I was sitting in his Sullivan Street kitchen with Steve. Peter walked in the kitchen, dark, curly hair, strong and sweet looking, with a cool black suede jacket and jeans (sort of a cross between Mark Ruffalo and Paul Rudd) and I thought: “That’s exactly my kind of guy,” but then, right behind him, came his girlfriend and she sort of looked like me: short, curly dark hair, pale skin (y’know, that Irish – Jewish look); I thought: “Bummer, he’s already met a me”.

Peter and I then met several more times, always with Steve, but one of us was always dating someone else:

We hung out at a Columbia-Colgate football game in the fall of 1986 and even have a photograph of us sitting next to one another but looking in opposite directions).
We met at “The Hunt” horse race in New Jersey (I was with Jeanie, Ann & Donald and Peter was with Steve, Jeff and Joe).
Steve and I went to hear Peter’s band play (maybe at CBGB-OMFUG?)
We all went dancing at the Limelight after watching Jeanie in a very sad play which Peter dubbed “The Exotic Adventures of Pinocchio” (actually The Return of Pinocchio) starring Rob Morrow.
After I started working at GRP, we met for lunch to discuss the music business and Peter drew a map of Kenyon on a napkin. I later sent the napkin back to him with some GRP CDs. He said: “I didn’t think you liked me because you returned the napkin.” I said, “Of course, I liked you…I kept the napkin in the first place!”

Finally, in the spring of 1991, Peter and I were both single at the same time. Steve called us both and said “Now! You’re both single! Go!”

“Is he Jewish?”, I asked, “I just think it will be easier if I marry someone Jewish; we’ll have one less thing to work out”.

“YES!,” Steve said, “he’s more Jewish than you are!”

“What does that mean??”, I was weirdly insulted by that. “Yeesh.”

Then I asked: “Is he a nice guy? I just want a nice guy.”

Steve sighed: “Peter Propp has the biggest heart of anyone I know.”

“Oh.” I said.

That seemed as good an endorsement as any, but, then, I said, childishly, “Well, if he wants to call me, he can.”

Steve huffed (rightfully so) but, fortunately, he was willing and able to persuade Peter to call me.

Our first date, we went to see The Doors movie and then to a restaurant near our upper west side apartments called “Positively 104” (named after the Bob Dylan song “Positively 4th Street”, a fact I didn’t know but Peter – a music history buff – did).

At the end of the night, we kissed under the scaffolding of my apartment building (275 West 96th St where I lived with my roommates Mark Goodman – son of George, host of “Adam Smith’s Money World” – and Andrew Stuart – son of Mel Stuart, the producer of “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory” ; I was star-struck by my roommates).

I said: “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

He said, surprised: “Oh…I’m having dinner with my friends Lauren Chattman & Jack Bishop and they’re amazing cooks. Would you like to come?”

I said: “Oh, no! I have a study group tomorrow night” (I was in my first year at Columbia Business School)

He said: “How about the next night?”

I said: “I can’t… I have blah-blah-blah” (I don’t remember EVERYthing, people.)

He tried again: “How about the next night?”

I said, hands to face: “Oh, gosh, “I can’t do it the next night!”

He said: “Then why’d you ask me???”

I said, bereft: “I don’t know!”

I was clearly smitten and desperate to see him again, but I was not going to blurt that out.

The next night, he did go to dinner at Lauren and Jack’s, but then came over and we listened to all of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album in my tiny bedroom.

Our next date was on May 1st and we met for dinner.

I raised my glass and said: “Here’s to May!”

And he paused and said: “Okay…here’s to you!”

I should have known then and there that I’d fallen in love with a chacham (Yiddish for “wise guy”, sort of).

Another date, we went to visit his friends Jill & Michael. Jill’s parents Lisa & Tom were one of Peter’s parent’s Vera & Richard’s closest friends. The whole night, I was chatting away with my typical hyper energy and Peter kept whispering “chill” as he sat next to me on the couch.

When we left and got into the elevator, I turned to him and said: “If you ever tell me to chill out in public again, that’s it. We’re done.”

He paused and looked at me and said: “Jill. Her name is Jill.” I’d been calling Jill her mother’s name – “Lisa” – all night. Cue Suzanne falling to the floor in the corner of the elevator in utter shame and embarrassment.

When Peter first came to Sherman’s Way, my father and he were in the basement and, for some reason, were folding up cardboard boxes. Peter quickly and efficiently folded a box and my dad said, admiringly: “Wow! That was great! You can marry my daughter!” I was mortified; my dad’s criteria for his future son-in-law was efficient box folding??

About a month into our courtship, while on a business trip to Florida on which Peter invited me to join him (he was working for Hill & Knowlton on the Florida Department of Citrus account), chef Pierre Franey took us out to dinner and, after chatting with us for a while, said, with his charmingly thick French accent: “How come you two aren’t married??” We couldn’t look at each other for the rest of the dinner, but, that night, on a midnight swim in the ocean, we said: “Should we discuss what just happened?”

July 2, 2023 (Song #2010): “You Are The New Day” written by John David, arranged by Peter Knight and sung by The King’s Singers. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

“How did Peter and you meet?,” I hear you asking…

Feel free to skip today’s entry if you are not a blood relative; no one needs to read all of this except for, maybe, our future-grandchildren (no pressure, kids).

Peter and I then met several more times, always with Steve, but one of us was always dating someone else:

We hung out at a Columbia-Colgate football game in the fall of 1986 and even have a photograph of us sitting next to one another but looking in opposite directions).
We met at “The Hunt” horse race in New Jersey (I was with Jeanie, Ann & Donald and Peter was with Steve, Jeff and Joe).
Steve and I went to hear Peter’s band play (maybe at CBGB-OMFUG?)
We all went dancing at the Limelight after watching Jeanie in a very sad play which Peter dubbed “The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio” (actually The Return of Pinocchio) starring Rob Morrow.
After I started working at GRP, we met for lunch to discuss the music business and Peter drew a map of Kenyon on a napkin. I later sent the napkin back to him with some GRP CDs. He said: “I didn’t think you liked me because you returned the napkin.” I said, “Of course, I liked you…I kept the napkin in the first place!”

Finally, in the spring of 1991, Peter and I were both single at the same time. Steve called us both and said “Now! You’re both single! Go!”

“Is he Jewish?”, I asked, “I just think it will be easier if I marry someone Jewish; we’ll have one less thing to work out”.

“YES!,” Steve said, “he’s more Jewish than you are!”

“What does that mean??”, I was weirdly insulted by that. “Yeesh.”

Then I asked: “Is he a nice guy? I just want a nice guy.”

Steve sighed: “Peter Propp has the biggest heart of anyone I know.”

“Oh.” I said.

That seemed as good an endorsement as any, but, then, I said, childishly, “Well, if he wants to call me, he can.”

Steve huffed (rightfully so) but, fortunately, he was willing and able to persuade Peter to call me.

I said: “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

He said, surprised: “Oh…I’m having dinner with my friends Lauren Chattman & Jack Bishop and they’re amazing cooks. Would you like to come?”

I said: “Oh, no! I have a study group tomorrow night” (I was in my first year at Columbia Business School)

He said: “How about the next night?”

I said: “I can’t… I have blah-blah-blah” (I don’t remember EVERYthing, people.)

He tried again: “How about the next night?”

I said, hands to face: “Oh, gosh, “I can’t do it the next night!”

He said: “Then why’d you ask me???”

I said, bereft: “I don’t know!”

I was clearly smitten and desperate to see him again, but I was not going to blurt that out.

The next night, he did go to dinner at Lauren and Jack’s, but then came over and we listened to all of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album in my tiny bedroom.

Our next date was on May 1st and we met for dinner.

I raised my glass and said: “Here’s to May!”

And he paused and said: “Okay…here’s to you!”

I should have known then and there that I’d fallen in love with a chacham (Yiddish for “wise guy”, sort of).

When we left and got into the elevator, I turned to him and said: “If you ever tell me to chill out in public again, that’s it. We’re done.”

Peter proposed on November 4th, 1991 at “One If By Land, Two If By Sea” and we were married on June 27, 1992. I’m still so grateful to Steve; we showed our gratitude for his stick-to-it-iveness and foresight by asking him to be the best man at our wedding. 🙂

Here is a video of a portion** of the song sung by Rich Pickett, Alan Strick, Bob Connelly, Greg White, Bob Austrian, Eric Seidman and Alex Sherman at our wedding at Gedney Farm. **The videographer missed the beginning, but the middle and end are beautiful. Special thanks to Greg & Alan (whom we miss so much) for learning the song especially for us (Rich, Bob, Boz, Eric & Alex all sang it in the Colgate 13, which is where I first heard and fell in love with it.)

P.S. Our first dance was “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland; we heard James Taylor’s version in a grocery store on the upper west side and realized that it was perfect.

July 3, 2023 (Song #2011): “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland and sung by James Taylor. T-32* brings me to 1992 and the year Peter and I got married. As I wrote yesterday: Peter and I heard James Taylor’s version of this song in a grocery store on the upper west side and realized that it was perfect song for our first dance.

If you got all the way to the P.S. yesterday, then you understand when I say that

yesterday’s post wiped me out, so, today, let me just say: I’m forever grateful to James Taylor for his beautiful voice, intricate guitar playing, awe-inspiring songwriting and his fun, entertaining live shows – of which I’ve seen at least 20. I am a humongous fan. THANK YOU, JAMES TAYLOR. Happy birthday to Amybeth Cohen & Elizabeth Repa Shea. xoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 4, 2023 (Song #2012): “Top of The Rollercoaster” by David Wilcox. No Lyric Video, today; just listen a bunch of times and you’ll catch on, especially if you click here to read the lyrics: LYRICS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY T-30* brings me to 1993 when Peter and I took off on a year-long honeymoon, traveling for two months** before ending up in Alta to work at the Alta Lodge for the 1992-93 Ski Season. This song (and the whole album) was a joyful staple for us, until we were robbed in Albuquerque; our car was broken into and the thieves took all of our carefully-curated cassettes, our camera and candy; they only stole things that started with the letter “c”, which is why they left our guitars, lucky us.

**OUR TRIP (What a great way to celebrate July 4th: celebrate all of the places in this beautiful country that we were fortunate to visit.): Gedney Farm to Nantucket (4 days on Children’s Beach) back to Westport (to hug Ruthie & Larry goodbye) to Albany (to hug Richard & Vera goodbye) to Gambier, Ohio (to see Kenyon and Julie Owen) to the Upper Peninsula, Michigan (for ice cream), to Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin (to see Sears Carpenter and his family on their farm), to Blue Mound State Park in Minnesota, to Badlands in South Dakota (where we found a mail drop to send a care package with clean socks for Caroline, Alex, Russell and Bones on their cross-country bike trip) to Bozeman, Montana to Glacier National Park (where we did a gruelling 18-mile hike without enough water, but plenty of singing to keep the bears away) to Whitefish to Calispell to Calgary (where we ate peaches as big as our heads), to Hotel Lake Louise in Banff (where the “honeymoon” suite looked onto the parking lot), to Jasper Park Lodge (where I got the white hotel slippers that I still wear today), to Muncho Lake in British Columbia (so many bugs!), to Haines, Alaska (via an 11-hour drive), to the ferry that took us to Prince Rupert (sleeping on the deck and brushing our teeth with 100 other travellers), to Vancouver Island in Victoria to Seattle to Portland to Weed, California (to see my dad’s cousin Karen and her husband and her mom, my Aunt Sally and their goats) to San Francisco (to see Lee, Lori, Amy, Uncle Donny, Aunt Maggie and other friends) to Big Sur to San Simeon (where we slept on the side of the road and woke up to noxious smells coming from the seals surrounding our car; seals are smelly mammals, folks) to Los Angeles (to see Melissa & Adam and Cindy and Auntie Dee & Uncle Sam and Peter’s aunts & uncles & cousins), then to Albuquerque, (where our car was broken into) to Las Vegas, New Mexico (where we stayed and hiked and rode horses with Lauren Addario and her husband and sisters, Lisa, Lesley & Lynsey and her mom Camille and MY mom, Ruthie, who was also visiting – while the car door was fixed) then to Moab and finally, to Alta for the 1992-93 ski season (Peter worked at the front desk and skied for 100 days and I worked upstairs in reservations with Mimi Muray). (At some point we visited Las Vegas, Nevada for a night and I freaked out when Peter wanted to play some of the games: “what have I done? I’ve gone and married a GAMBLER!?!” He agreed to spend only $25 and lost it in 28.5 seconds. We then walked round the city and all I could see was people ruining their lives. I was a lot of fun to be with that night….)

Like everyone’s lives, our trip and our first year together had many ups & downs, but I wouldn’t change anything – not the bugs on Muncho Lake, not the 18-mile hike without enough water, not the robbery in Albuquerque, not the quarrels and sad days (my papa died in November of that year). It was (and has continued to be) a sturdy, surprising, stimulating, safe, sweet rollercoaster and a beautiful ride (#callback).

July 5, 2023 (Song #2013): “Are You Happy Now” (1992) by Richard Shindell. LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY T-29* brings us to the year 1994. After we left Alta, we went on a final visit to Moab to say a teary goodbye to Cassie, Marcus, Sam and Wilson, then took the southern route back to Connecticut, which included a visit to Lubbock, Texas to see Peter’s cousin (and buy cowboy boots that I still have), a stop in Oklahoma to see my mom’s good friend Nancy Margiotta, a visit to Memphis, a stop in Alpharetta, Georgia to see Lisa & Chris Strausser and then, finally, back to Westport. Richard Shindell’s “Sparrow’s Point” album was one of the new cassettes we’d bought to replenish our ravaged collection and included another one of our favorite songs: “Kenworth Of My Dreams” in addition to today’s SOTD, which still gives me brain joy.

We lived at Sherman’s Way for a while, then moved to the first floor of a house on Strawberry Hill Ave in Norwalk. Somehow I got a job at “Green Linnet Records” in Danbury (it may have had something to do with our family friends, the Margolises, being cousins with the owner, Wendy Newton?), but then I was offered a job in New Product Development at Columbia House Record Club (remember: 10 CDs for a penny?) in New York City.

Every day, during staff meetings and lunches and fire drills, one of my colleagues, a recent NYU grad named Chris Wilcha would carry a camera and videotape us. Sometimes he’d ask us to act out scenes: “When I come into your office, will you ask me to return my keys to you as if I’ve gotten fired?”. I laughed and said “sure”. I thought Chris was sweet and quirky; I didn’t think twice about what he was doing.

Ten years after I left Columbia House, Peter read that Chris Wilcha had made a documentary called “The Target Shoots First” (click here to read a review) and it was premiering at a theater in New York City; “You should go!” he said. And so I did.

Since I’d never heard from Chris about rights or permissions, I assumed I wasn’t in the movie. But then, in the restroom before the premiere, a woman pointed to me and said: “You’re in the movie!”; I said, “I can’t be!”, she said “Were you pregnant at the time?” I said: “Yes”. She said “Oh, you’re in it, alright. And you’ve got a big part!” I watched the movie with a pit in my throat.

Sure enough, there I was on the big screen. There was me working in the office, asking Chris to give me his keys and me standing in a staircase during an emergency drill and, most discomfiting, there was an ultrasound image of our daughter Rose with my name and birthday right up there on the screen (hello, privacy issues). Even weirder, the “me” in Chris’ narrative was not the “me” in real life; Chris only used my image to illustrate a story about one of his bosses who’d gone on maternity leave. It was so discombobulating and weirdly insulting; I thought Chris and I had been friends, but he had just disregarded the real me altogether.

Watching the end credits rolling with all of my work friends’ names, I felt the heat rise in my body; I was angry and embarrassed; he had gone to the effort to ask our colleagues for permission, but not me.

When I came out of the theater, I saw Chris chatting with fans, friends and family, but I couldn’t get his attention. What was I going to say anyway? The story of his pregnant boss was only a small part of the whole movie; he could take every image of me out and it wouldn’t change the premise. So, maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal, but 20 years later, it still hurts a little bit; I hope Chris is happy, though, and wish him the best.

July 6, 2023 (Song #2014): “The Chain” by Ingrid Michaelson. LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY T-28* brings me to 1995, one of the best years of my life. In the summer of 1994, Peter and I went with our family and friends Jay & Emily Schmalholz to the second “Woodstock”; it was pouring rain and our feet were filthy and 30 of us slept in one hotel room, but it was fun. Shortly thereafter, Peter and I found out we were pregnant. In May of 1995, Rose was born and our lives were forever changed. She was the most beautiful being on the planet and brought even more love and harmony into our lives than we could have imagined. I used to love to cuddle and play and sing with Rose; I could look at her forever. When she was a little older, I made her this “Harmony” playlist so we could sing harmony together (I could have used almost any song in this playlist:) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2nK1GDUDUXwqCTfow0L6Zh?si=ba3b322731de4843

P.S. We do a mean “Ho Hey” a la Lennon & Maisy

P.P.S. Rose: I was going to feature “2-Dollar Shoes” by Rosie Thomas, but I wasn’t sure you’d remember loving it as much as I did.

July 7, 2023 (Song #2015): “The Babysitter’s Here” by Dar Williams (1993) LYRICS & SONGFACTS SPOTIFY APPLE MUSIC Happy Birthday to Alison Werner Cooper & Emily Borden! Xoxo T-27* = 1996, when I worked at The Mark Spector Company. At the end of the summer in 1995, Rose was about 3 months old; she was sweet, social, smiley and always watching what was going on around her. Her calm, peaceful, engaged manner inspired people to call her “an old soul”.

Rose’s first summer, weather-wise, was brutal: temperatures hovered around 90 degrees with 90% humidity so going outside wasn’t an option, except for a few minutes at a time. I felt bad keeping her inside, but even worse taking her outside in the heat, strapping her into a carseat and then rushing her into an over-air-conditioned store (I kept thinking I’d be arrested for taking her outside – it felt illegal).

In late August, it dawned on me that both Rose and I needed outside stimulation; she was ready to start making friends her own age (ha!) and I was ready to go back to work. Of course, this was hard for me to accept: in a 7th grade paper for Bernie Berube at Bedford Junior High I wrote emphatically “I love kids! I will have a hundred kids!”.

Three months in, I was shocked to find that I wasn’t ok with sitting in a small apartment all day watching my beautiful, sweet infant sleep. I thought it would be a dream come true, but, in fact, it was hard; I was disappointed and embarrassed when I realized I was restless and cranky.

With Peter’s help and support, I made the previously-detestable decision to go back to work and prayed that my kid would be better off when I did. Fortunately, there was no family drama: our families fully supported the idea and thought it was the healthiest decision for us, both financially and emotionally.

So, off we went, job & daycare hunting! The first daycare we learned about was from our friends Mindy Eichner (Malinda Johnson to you) and Jennifer Utz Worsfold; they’d sent their kids to the amazing Lucille Saponare. Lucille’s daycare had a spotless reputation, so, of course, it was full.

Then our friends Melissa & Adam (who were living in Fairfield at the time), introduced us to Jen, who was taking care of their daughter Maya. Jen had room for us and we were thrilled. All went well, until the day Jen abruptly announced that she was closing her daycare and we had a week to find a new one. Somehow, the daycare gods shone their light upon us and Lucille had an opening (insert a million heart emojis here).

Lucille’s home and the daycare space were clean, friendly and adorable, but I was a wee bit nervous about sending Rose to spend the day in a basement with only high casement windows. My mom set me straight: “You are lucky that she has an opening! The kids are so happy and Lucille is so nice; Rose is going to thrive and you need to send her here immediately.” She was right, of course. I still can’t see Lucille at Stop & Shop without tearing up with gratitude. Mom and Lucille: THANK YOU!

As far as work went, my friend, roommate and bridesmaid, Amy, and I wrote an outline for a business plan for a marketing company (we even had a logo designed for “Broad Street Marketing”, named after a street at Colgate), but then she got pregnant with her 3rd child and our idea fizzled out.

Then I found a scrap of old newspaper in my wallet. A few years earlier, Mindy had found a classified ad clipping for a Music Job from the Westport News that she carried in her wallet, planning to share it with me the next time she saw me. I then carried the ad around for a few more years so, by 1995, the faded, crumpled piece of paper was about five years old. I thought: well, shucks, it couldn’t hurt to call the company, could it?

No, it couldn’t; as it turned out, The Mark Spector Company, whatever that was, was hiring!

When I interviewed for the job (office assistant, receptionist, tour marketing), I learned that Mark was Joan Baez, .38 Special and James McMurtry’s manager and his office was in downtown Westport in a house near the intersection of the Post Road just west of Wright Street.

It felt like a sign. I wasn’t a huge fan, but I loved dancing to “Hold On Loosely” and respected the heck out of Joan Baez (and always thought that my guitar teacher, Joan Slosberg, and she were somehow the same person, since they had the same first name and sort of looked alike) plus Joan’s Diamonds & Rust album was one of my first records.

I loved the title song “Diamonds & Rust” and “Hello, In There” by John Prine, who became another favorite of mine when my parents gave me his Diamonds In The Rough album in 1972 (I sang the song “Clocks & Spoons”). (Later, one of my guitar teachers taught me John Prine’s “That’s The Way That The World Goes Round” – click “CC” for the lyrics – which is a somewhat inappropriate song for a kid to sing, but it was a crowd favorite. When I heard Bonnie Raitt sing “Angel From Montgomery”, my passion for John Prine was sealed. Later, Peter and I both fell in love with his In Spite Of Ourselves album and his performances at the Newport Folk Festival.)

But, back to Joan Baez: I loved working with Mark and Rose seemed super happy at her daycare (plus Mark had been very generous and allowed me to come in late on Wednesday mornings so I could take Rose to the YMCA for a “mommy & me” gymnastics class, where we made a super new friend, Jen Kanter and her adorable son Will). I had a chance to talk to Joan and see her at concerts and she was always gracious and friendly; my job required me to help with Tour Marketing, so I spent a lot of time speaking to venue managers and radio stations in an effort to come up with ways to boost ticket sales.

Where does Dar Williams and today’s SOTD fit into all of this? Well, during Joan’s 1996 tour, Dar Williams was her opening act. I was (I know I say this a lot) completely smitten by her voice, lyrics and harmonies. She was super sweet to work with and even sent Peter and I a baby gift when, in 1997, we gave birth to the adorable Bennett Elihu Propp (see T-26 tomorrow for more on that!).

Dar’s songs are incredible; if you haven’t heard them, go straight to your favorite music streaming service and listen to “Iowa” (SOTD #1571 from 4/20/22), “When I Was A Boy” (SOTD #1935 from 4/19/23), “The Christians and The Pagans” (SOTD #1090 from 12/25/20) and “You’re Aging Well” (SOTD #385 from 1/20/19). Then go back and listen to each of her albums all the way through. It will be a day well-spent.

P.S. RE: babysitters. I remember that Rose never liked having a babysitter and would put herself to bed minutes after we left for the night. Her babysitters were sweet and kind and couldn’t understand what they’d done wrong, but we told them it was just an early example of her independence and ability to take care of herself and her needs. It cracked us up.

P.P.S. Caroline, Alex, Russell and I had many, many babysitters, including Mrs. Watson, an older woman who presented my parents with smiley-face (or frowny face, if we were naughty)-filled report cards when they got home (she used batteries to trace the circles, which, along with her uniform – a white button-up collared dress – made her seem a tiny bit deranged. Plus, I remember feeling that she didn’t really like and was unduly harsh with Alex and Russell; they were active and unruly and filthy-dirty at the end of the day, but they were super good kids at heart.) Ellen O’Connor (about whom I’m sure Dar Williams wrote “The Babysitter’s Here” and whose laugh I sometimes hear coming out of my own mouth), Donna Stephens (who impressed me to no end by bringing textbooks to study with after we went to bed; she couldn’t believe the junky snacks my mom left for us), and several teachers and teacher’s kids: Tyra & Greg Fullam, Liza & Lenny Paglialunga and Linda Uddyback. I’m so glad my parents got out of the house occasionally; we were a handful, for sure.

P.P.P.S. When I left Mark Spector after Bennett was born, both Crook Stewart (Joan’s stage manager) and Nancy Lutzow (Joan’s personal assistant) laughed and said: “OMG! We didn’t want to say anything, but you lasted the longest of anyone else at that job!” Which is why he was hiring several years after the original ad had been placed.

July 8, 2023 (Song #2016): “Where Is The Love” by The Black Eyed Peas (originally posted as a SOTD on January 16th, 2018, the National Day of Racial Healing.) LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY T-26* brings me to 1997, when our sweet, funny, handsome Bennett Elihu Propp was born. I could’ve posted “God Bless The U.S.A. (aka “Proud To Be An American”) or “Brown Eyed Girl” or his original song, “I Like To Race” (in 2003, the same year that Ron Fair, will.i.am and Justin Timberlake wrote today’s SOTD, both Bennett and Rose worked with their producer/father Peter to write original songs; her’s was called “Little Bit”. They are both mega hits in our family.), but I chose this song, because nothing makes this mama happier than hearing her kid sing and rap about love.

P.S. Today, July 8th, is the day that my father-in-law Richard was born; he would have been 89 today and I miss him and his stories and jokes; watching Bennett and Peter and Richard convulse with laughter was one of my favorite things ever. He was quietly proud of and loyal to his hometown (Albany), his immediate and extended family, his religion (he was a founder of B’Nai Sholom in Albany), his college (Union), his profession (internist/hematologist), health-care reform (he founded the Capital District Alliance for Universal Healthcare), his ancestors (from Shkudvil, Lithuania and Propps all over the world), his garden, his clarinet, his other hobbies (photography, fly-fishing and fly-tying, tennis, golf, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, reading and biking), Tupper Lake (where his grandparents lived), annual trips to the Adirondacks with Bennett & Peter, and, especially, his wife, his kids and his grandkids. He died in April of 2019, but we think about him every day.

July 9, 2023 (Song #2017): “Alligators All Around” by Maurice Sendak & Carole King from Really Rosie. APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY LYRICS (I could post any song by Carole King, especially any song from Tapestry, but the harmonies on today’s SOTD just knocked me over when I first heard it and it illustrates, perfectly, why I love kids and teaching them. The whole soundtrack is musically fabulous and fun, even though Maurice Sendak’s script is predictably bratty and dark.)

T-25* brings me to 1998, the year I realized I wanted to be a music teacher; little sparks had been subtly brightening my life for years, but in 1998, the flame was fully lit. I’ve already written about how much I love kids, but I haven’t yet mentioned that, during vacations from school and work, I’d been visiting Barbara Bayers’ music classes at Helen Keller middle school in Easton and Jackie Weisburger at the pre-school where she worked. Jackie also got me a summer job teaching music at the Mead School where we did the play “Really Rosie” and she told me a million times over that I should be teaching kids. My friend Lisa Schatz Strausser also used to say it every time she watched me play with her own kids: “You should work with kids.”

In business school, when we were assigned the task to read any management book (our choice), most people chose books like: “One-Minute Manager” or “Getting To Yes”, but I chose Tracy Kidder’s Among Schoolchildren and argued that teachers have the most complicated management job around with many constituents (the professor, Mary Ann Hedaa, agreed and we got on like wildfire; she ended up hiring me and my friend Brian Schreiber to be her TAs the next semester). Even then I didn’t consciously consider being a teacher. Clueless.

The actual tipping point for me was the annual Carol Sing at the Bacharach’s house in December of 1997 (for a beautiful essay about the annual party written by fellow guest Dan Woog, click here: https://06880danwoog.com/tag/12-days-of-christmas/ )

In December of 1997, Rose was 2 ½ and Bennett was 8 months old. After Bennett was born (in April) I left the Mark Spector Company and was now helping my dad, who had started teaching at Columbia Business School after I graduated (I’d introduced him to my Entrepreneurship professor, Murray Low, during the last week of school in May of 1992 and they hit it off; my dad became an adjunct professor at Columbia for the next seven years. I used to joke that I got an MBA, but he got a job.).

At the Caroling Party, I saw my former Staples High School teachers: Mr. Leonard, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Kuroghlian. After fan-girling them with hellos and hugs all around, they said: “Tell us what you’re up to!”

“Well,” I said, “I’m thinking of buying a franchise called “Music Together” so that I can use my MBA, run my own business and sing and make music and work with kids!” I thought it was a genius idea!

That got them going: suddenly, they were all talking at once: “If you want to work with kids, become a public school teacher.” said Gerry Kuroghlian. (I’d always thought that was a horrible idea because, with all due respect, I’d believed “Those who can do, do, and those who can’t do teach”. I’m embarrassed now.)

“If it snows, you’re going to be the one shoveling the walkway and canceling classes and then you’re going to have to figure out a time to make them up”, said Dick Leonard.

Dave Harrison chimed in: “If you’re a public school teacher, you’ll get to make music with kids, but you’ll get summers off and someone else will clear the sidewalks in the winter.”

Then, Gerry Kuroghlian, again: “Think about the insurance! What if someone trips on that icy sidewalk??”

Phil Woodruff finally said: “You need to check out this program run by the State Department of Education. It’s called the Alternate Route to Certification (ARC). My son did it and it was the greatest thing.”

“But I don’t know anything about teaching?!” I said, truly confused by their idea.

“They’ll help you learn!” said Dr. Woodruff.

Dave Harrison said: “You should put your name on the sub list in Westport and you’ll find out if you like being in a classroom.”

Dr. Woodruff ended the conversation by saying: “Promise me you’ll check out the ARC program; the application is due very soon.” I left that party in a complete tizzy.

I am a rule follower and a pleaser, so I checked out the ARC program and put my name on the sub list. Indeed, I only had about a week to pull together my application and references; I called Dr. George Weigle (choral conductor extraordinaire) and asked him for a reference. He said “yes”, but then spotted me walking in the snow at the beach a few days later and said: “Hey, do you play piano?” “YES!” I said. “OK” and he drove off.

A few weeks later, I got a call from the Westport Public Schools asking me to sub for the music teacher at Long Lots, Anne (then) Ward (now) Hadden. The lesson plans required that I give a few worksheets to the students, but it seemed fun enough (my neighbor, Tommy D’Agostino was in 3rd grade at the time and we were psyched to see each other).

Then, I got another call on March 23rd asking me to come into Coleytown Elementary School because they were desperate for a substitute music teacher for the remainder of the year (the full-time teacher went into early labor and they weren’t prepared for that).

I went in to meet the principal Kaye May and, as I shook her hand, I said: “My friend Mindy Eichner has told me a lot about you and she thinks you’re fabulous”. She stopped what she was doing, looked me in the eye and said: “Mindy Eichner? You’re friends with Mindy Eichner? You’re hired!” Then she called Jim Andrews, the beloved orchestra teacher, into her office; he looked me up and down and said: “she’ll do.” and walked out (they weren’t being picky; all they wanted was a person with a pulse).

Peter was 100% supportive, as always, and then I called my dad, who was on a trip to Russia with students from CBS and, of course, he was also totally and utterly supportive. I, however, was sobbing like a baby and riddled with self-doubt, all for a very good reason: I had no idea what I was doing.

As many of you know, it has all worked out, and then some. I have so, so, so many memories of teaching – happy, sad, good, bad – from kids, to colleagues, to parents, to birds flying in to my classroom in the middle of a lesson – but I’ve gone on too long already.

Let me just say: THANK YOU to the powers-that-be for leading me in this direction. I couldn’t have taken the leap without the cushion of support from family & friends that surrounds me every day.

P.S. Starting tomorrow, with T-24, I have summer plans that will preclude me from posting a full reminiscence every day, so, here on in, the posts are going to be short and sweet but will still highlight songs that give me brain joy. Because I have way more than 60 songs that make me happy, some days I will post two or three. Just keep singing!

July 10, 2023 (Song #2018): T-24*: “Ten-Year Night” (1999) by Lucy Kaplansky.

Happy Birthday to Carmel Gunther Robinson!

*P.S. Starting today, with T-24, I have summer plans that will preclude me from posting a full reminiscence every day, so, here on in, the posts are going to be short and sweet but will still highlight songs that give me brain joy. Because I have way more than 60 songs that make me happy, some days I will post two or three. Just keep singing!

July 11, 2023 (Song #2019): T-23*: (Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna) Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder (1983). Happy Birthday To Leslie French Seidman! We’ve never sung this one together, but I can just imagine her loving it (I hope!) xoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 12, 2023 (Song #2020): T-22*: “Yaicha” by Pousette-Dart Band (1977). To hear Jon Pousette-Dart talk about this song, click here: https://youtu.be/_R8WTYN9plg APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY Happy Birthday to Emily Sisto & Walter Egan!

July 13, 2023 (Song #2021): T-21* “Back In The High Life” by Steve Winwood. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 14, 2023 (Song #2022): T-20* (Most persistent ear-worm of my life): “Breaking Us In Two” by Joe Jackson. Happy Birthday to Lori Raineri & MJ McNamee! xoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 15, 2023 (Song #2023): T-19* brings me back to 2004 when The Wailin’ Jennys released Ruth Moody‘s song, “One Voice”. This song continues to make me as happy as the first time I heard it. Happy Birthday to Kerri Kohlun! xoxo LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 16, 2023 (Song #2024): “Luckiest” (2001) by Ben Folds. Happy Birthday to Julie Lyon Borden & Morgan Morse. xoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-18* Today I want to celebrate one of my favorite families, besides my own: The Bordens. This whole T-60 thing was inspired by Tom Borden, who, last spring, sent us a playlist with his 60 favorite songs when he turned 60. I meant to just copy his idea, but then blabber-mouth here couldn’t stop typing.

Tom and I met at Colgate. He is a year older than I and a Colgate 13er; I was a Swinging ‘Gate, and I loved watching him perform and hearing him sing and scat (this guy’s got chops). Peter knew Julie Lyon as “that cool upperclassman, er woman” at Kenyon. Though neither Tom and I, nor Peter and Julie every remember talking in college, we did share many close mutual friends. Fast forward to a Princeton/Colgate football game years later and a post-game party on Hodge Road. Somehow, the subject of live music came up; we were both fans. A few years later, they moved to Newport, where Julie grew up, and generously invited us to the Newport Folk Festival (the first year, they only had Friday tickets available, other people were using the Saturday & Sunday tickets). We went, had a blast, must’ve been half-way decent guests, and were invited back the next year for two days! Fast-forward, again, to the present: now we go to NFF for three full, glorious days (once for SIX DAYS!) and our kids and their kids have become friends. If you know me at all, you know that I feel lucky about many, many things, and our friendship with the Bordens is among “the luckiest”.

P.S. Please sing along with “Annie Waits” and “Zak & Sara” (click on “More” beneath the video for the lyrics), two more Ben Folds’ songs that we loved to sing on every car ride with our kids; get your clapping hands ready.

July 17, 2023 (Song #2025): T-17*: “Circle” (1988) by Edie Brickell and New Bohemians. This opening guitar lick sent me back to my bedroom (a la “Freight Train” circa 1972). Happy Birthday to Tim Lewis; I’m so that you’re part of our circle of friends. xoxoxo OFFICIAL VIDEO LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 18, 2023 (Song #2026): T-16*: “Amie/Falling In & Out Of Love” (1972) by Craig Fuller and Pure Prairie League No lyric video today, but you can click here and read along: LYRICS & CHORDS T-16* falls on my college roommate and bridesmaid, Amy Freedman Jurkowitz’s birthday. I was and am still jealous that there was a song this beautiful with Amy’s (albeit misspelled) name in it; when I first heard these harmonies and the amazing guitar lick, I was hooked. (My sister, Caroline, is equally blessed; she’s the hit of every party when “Sweet Caroline” comes on and she once wrote a medley of songs with her name in it – every one a hit!). Happy Birthday to Amy Jurkowitz, JB Rodgers & Lauran Addario! xoxoxo LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 19, 2023 (Song #2027): T-15*: “Can’t Find My Way Home” by Steve Winwood with Blind Faith

July 20, 2023 (Song #2028): T-14*: It’s a two-song day! ”Extraordinary Machine” by Fiona Apple and “I Like Giants” by Kimya Dawson

Happy Birthday to Malinda Johnson! Xoxo

At some point during my teaching career, I realized that, no matter what school you visit, the oldest kids think they’re the coolest; elementary school is no exception. Kids love music class in K, 1st, 2nd and 3rd (of course they love it – I give them recorders!), but starting in 4th grade, some kids start to realize that loving a teacher, publicly, is not the road to popularity (which is why, as I reflected in T-44 SOTD, I hid in the closet in 6th grade). By the time most kids get to 5th grade, I’ve lost them. It’s sad.

So…In an effort to make music class super duper fun (haha; a girl can try, can’t she?), I started “DJ of the Week”, a unit I created to teach “expression” in music (i.e. dynamics, tempo, timbre and articulation, the theoretical aspects of music that affect our emotional responses). Each 5th grader is assigned a date to bring in their own music (no songs with “clean versions” and no super-popular songs; students are encouraged to ask their family to come up with a favorite song that is new to their classmates). All students have a “DJ of the Week” journal and they start each lesson by writing down how they feel (using the Mood Meter from the R.U.L.E.R program developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence as a guidline), then, while they are listening to the songs, students write down words to describe the Dynamics, Tempo and Articulations. At the end, they jot down their mood and discuss how the elements of music can affect a person’s mood. It’s turned into one of my very favorite activities.

Today’s songs are two songs that I’ve never heard before 5th graders introduced me to them (thanks to Henry Koskoff for the Fiona Apple song; I can’t remember who shared “I Like Giants”, but it must’ve been a pretty cool kid.).

July 21, 2023 (Song #2029): T-13*: “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Leonard Cohen and sung by Jennifer Warnes. This is from another incredibly impactful and beautiful CD given to me circa 1988 by Craig Sussman at Cypress Records; click here to read about the other one. Shout-out to my new old friend Michele Rubin, a fellow Leonard Bernstein appreciator. xoxo ALBUM HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 22, 2023 (Song #2030): T-12*: Celebrating The Roches (No lyric videos today, but click on “more” in the description below or this link to their website and you can sing along)

Listen to some of our faves….

“Hammond Song”, “Hallelujah Chorus”, “Losing True”, “Mr. Sellack”, “The Troubles” and everything else by The Roches.

P.S. As some of you know, we have fallen in love with Ireland over the past 10 days; the beautiful scenery (the ragged, rolling hills, the jutting cliffs, the Wild Atlantic Way, the flora, the fauna and the brightly painted “tidy” towns), the warm, welcoming lodging and delicious food, the fun (and sometimes challenging) driving, the Guinness and Jameson, the music, the pubs, and, even, the weather (cool and rainy with bursts of blue sky and sunshine).

We love to plug in our phones, enter our destination and turn on the music; the Roches’ “The Troubles”,“ led us into a fabulous Spotify playlist that accompanied us on our journey.

July 23, 2023 (Song #2031): T-11*: “Mirror of Life” and “Hand Me Back Down” written by Judy Shore Stone, my camp counselor and singer/songwriter/guitar hero and performed by JoJo, Jud and me. xoxo

P.S. Camp Pembroke figures strongly in my past with respect to music, plus I love and adore my friends. My mom, Ruthie, and her sister, my Auntie Dee and Caroline and Natascha and Rose and Maya and Sadie have all experienced Camp Pembroke and we’re all forever changed by the impact it’s had on our lives. Thanks to the Eli & Bessie Cohen Foundation.

July 24, 2023 (Song #2032): T-10*: “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel.

This song has always killed me. I first heard it in college when a classmate suggested we add it to our Senior end-of-the-year slideshow. In the ~40 years since then, it continues to bring me intense brain joy whenever I hear it. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Happy Birthday to Suzann Redding, Aleda Santos-Warren, Laura Nigris Anderson, Christine Theiss & Katherine Bruan (with love to you all from England). xoxoxoxo

LIVE VIDEO LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 25, 2023 (Song #2033): T-9*: “Corner of the Sky” (no lyric video, but click on this link to sing along) and the whole soundtrack from Pippin.

When we were young, our parents took us to see many, many Broadway shows and we listened to tons of Broadway Original Cast recordings. My response every time was (1) awe and (2) complete memorization of every word to every song.

This album was one of my faves, along with Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, The Wiz, Chorus Line, Annie (natch), They’re Playing Our Song, The Fantasticks, and many many more, including “Sweeney Todd” of which my parents bought a small share for each of us (which we no longer benefit from but for many years it was super cool to get the checks from “The Barber Company”. Get it?). What a thrill to attend opening night in 1979 at the Uris Theater with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, even though I didn’t come to appreciate Stephen Sondheim or Sweeney Todd until much later (at the time it Freaked. Me. Out.). I’m so grateful to have been given these amazing experiences; my parents’ generosity and kindness knows no bounds. Xoxo

July 26, 2023 (Song #2034): T-8*: “Someone To Watch Over Me” performed by Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra from their 1983 album “What’s New?”. The song was written in 1926 by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, assisted by Howard Dietz.

This is a perfect song to celebrate today’s birthday girl Molly Barreca, friend extraordinaire, and my mother-in-law, Vera Propp, who was born on this day. Peter’s mom was an incredible woman and we are so grateful that she watched over us and we miss her every day. Both Molly and Vera found great guys to watch over them; for this we are also incredibly grateful. xoxo SONG HISTORY LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-8 brings me to celebrate the gorgeous voice of Linda Ronstadt. I still can not believe her talent and have always wished I could sing like her; I remember being slightly comforted when I found out that she was trained as an opera singer (I was not, so, therefore, I could never sound like her, right?). Growing up, I memorized and sang along to every song from “Heart Like A Wheel”, “Prisoner In Disguise” and “Hasten Down The Wind”. In 1982, when she released “Get Closer”, Ann Wriedt & I learned every word and went to see her album tour. When Peter and I met, we realized we both loved singing and playing Lowell George’s “Willin'” though he learned it from Little Feat and I learned it from Linda. Watch the documentary about her life and incredible voice: “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice”.

July 27, 2023 (Song #2035): T-7*: “Give Yourself To Love” by Kate Wolf. I’ve sung this song in many friends’ weddings; it’s a beaut. Thanks to my dear friend, Jo Werther, who introduced me to the songs of Kate Wolf (though, when I heard them, I recognized her “Across the Great Divide” because I’d heard Nanci Griffith sing it). Happy Birthday to my funny, cute, kind, smart and generous cousin Craig Sherman, Colgate friends Susie Kincaid and Jenny Banks Murray and thinking of my wonderful grandmother Rose Klayman who was born on this day in 1911. LYRICS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 28, 2023 (Song #2036): T-6*: Celebrating the Eagles: “Lyin’ Eyes”, “Peaceful Easy Feelin’”, “Take It To The Limit” (featuring Randy Meisner, who died yesterday) and “The Last Resort”,

T-6 brings me to 2016, the year that Mannasses Ogutu graduated from Staples High School. “Manny” came into our lives through Eric Seidman and the A Better Chance program.

When I asked my kids to describe Eric they immediately said: he is kind, funny, a great conversationalist, knowledgeable on a million subjects, always interested in everyone around him & tall.

I met Eric at Colgate my freshman year in 1981; from the moment we met, I thought of him as an older brother-from-another-mother because we share so much in common: a love of skiing (Eric spent a year skiing in Alta the year after I did), a love of music (we both sang in the Colgate a cappella groups), a love of people and, particularly, a love of Leslie Seidman (see SOTD from June 25th) (ok, we love her in different ways, but still). Eric is also my personal memory bank: if I ever can’t remember anything that happened to me, I just ask Eric.

Eric is the kind of guy who makes it hard to say no to him: he’s incredibly smart and charming and can basically persuade a person to do anything, which is how we fell under his spell as he told us about a program for which he was volunteering in Westport: A Better Chance. We were completely blown away by the mission of this organization and then he said: “You guys need to be a Host Family” (ABC scholars live in a group home during the week and spend each Sunday and one weekend a month at their Host Families’ homes). Wait-a-whoa… What?

We were fascinated by the idea, though not actually ready to dive in until 2013; man, oh man, are we glad we did. In the fall of 1993, Rose started her freshman year at the University of Maryland and Bennett was a junior at Staples; we went to the ABC house in Westport to meet Mannasses Young Ogutu and his father, Nahashon and cousin, Lydia (a few months later, we also met his mom Stephanie). To say that it was “love at first sight” sounds crazy, I know, but it was. The minute I hugged Mannasses I felt as if we were bonded for life. Eric, of course, was right.

Today’s SOTD is one of Manny’s favorites (along with apples and anime), which reminds me of another one of my favorites (“Peaceful Easy Feeling”), that I used to sing with my friends Kevin & Ed (see SOTD from June 20th), and, I may have gotten this memory wrong (Eric?), but I think one of Eric’s favorites is “The Last Resort”. Enjoy, Big Er. xoxo

LYRICS CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 29, 2023 (Song #2037): T-5*: “Goose Snow Cone” by Aimee Mann. T-5 brings me to 2018, a year in which I listened to Aimee Mann’s album Mental Illness on repeat. This is by far my favorite song on the album.

Sorry: there is no lyric video for this song and I wasn’t able to make one today because I spent all day at the Newport Folk Festival, my favorite musical event of the year, where Aimee Mann performed live; she did not disappoint (even though she didn’t sing this one). LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 30, 2023 (Song #2038): T-4*: “This Old Guitar” by John Denver. Tonight, at the end of the third day of our 9th Newport Folk Festival (which was amazing, again), I am celebrating live music.

I remember, circa 1974, my parents telling me that they had a surprise for me. We drove into New York City to Madison Square Garden and I distinctly remember walking in the cold cement bowels of the building, seeing cages with huge, gray elephants kicking around hay and looking very out-of-place. My only thought was “ew” and I started worrying that my parents’ “surprise” was a trip to the circus; I was not excited.

But then, suddenly, we were on the floor of Madison Square Garden and I remember noticing that people all around me were yelling the names of songs. I was taught that you shouldn’t yell at performers – or anyone – in the middle of a concert, so I was confused. But, then, I caught on and asked my parents if I could yell at John Denver, too. Sure, they said (of course) and helped me up on to my chair so I could yell “THIS OLD GUITAR!” at the top of my lungs over and over again, and, guess what, folks?! HE PLAYED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you imagine my joy at discovering the power of just asking for what you want?!

Our next concert was the Carpenters at Oakdale Theater and we got to see their car with the license plate: SING4U (I think?!) I’m sure the concert was great, too (I mean, it was THE CARPENTERS!) but all I remember is their license plate.

Live music is an amazing experience, and one my friends and family and I try to enjoy as much as possible. We go to the Newport Folk Festival and Tanglewood in the Berkshires every summer and try to see as many concerts during the fall, winter and spring as we can (one of our funniest memories is our kids when they were young yelling “MEXICO” at a James Taylor Concert along with a bunch of drunk 20-year old guys who were sitting nearby). Thanks, again, to my parents for lighting that flame. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 31, 2023 (Song #2039): T-3*: Speaking of the Carpenters… “For All We Know”* sung by the Carpenters and written in 1970 by Fred Karlin, Robb Wilson (Robb Royer) and Arthur James (Jimmy Griffin).

T-3 makes me realize how nuts it was to think that I could pick only 60 songs to celebrate my 60th birthday and that, of course, there are an infinite number of songs in the universe that can give me goosebumps (many of which I forget until I hear them again). I am a little bit horrified to realize that I would have left the Carpenters out of my T-60 countdown altogether if their license plate at the Oakdale Theater hadn’t popped up in my memory while writing yesterday’s post. Their records were on constant rotation in the Sherman living room at 10 Lone Pine Lane and I could’ve picked any one of their songs to highlight, but I chose this one because I love the instrumentation and the choral “la”s (and I haven’t featured it as a Sing Daily “Song of the Day” yet*).

In addition to all the songs and musicians I know I’ve left out, I am aware that there are also unborn and hidden songs that will give me brain joy once they enter my consciousness, which is why I love turning on the radio when I get in the car (I listen to WFUV 90.7 when I want something with lyrics and WSHU 90.1 when I’m in the mood for classical music). I get a little thrill out of sensing my mood change as the first notes make their way out of the car stereo and into my brain.

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*Thanks to my Staples friend and fellow-Orphenian Robin Perry Rothman for requesting this song a few years ago; I was so happy to find it in my spreadsheet of 2500+ songs among the group of 650 songs that I haven’t posted yet. Thanks, Robin! Xo

P.S. Happy Belated Birthday to Alison Fisher and Amy Kateri Laurino who celebrated on Saturday. Xoxo

August 1, 2023 (Song #2040): T-2*: Rabbit-Rabbit People. “Wayland The Rabbit” by Seals & Crofts (no lyric video today, but you can click on CC below the video to read the lyrics.) LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-2 is a song that reaches way down into my core; it reminds me how grateful I am to have had a chance to learn how to deal with the good, the bad and the ugly in life. As Coach John Wooden said: “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”. And, since today is also the 1st of the month, it reminds me of my mom and her group of close girlfriends (“Camp Thunder Thighs”) who said “Rabbit Rabbit” on the first of every month for “good luck”. Mom’s friendships with these people (and many others) taught me, among other things, what it means to be a good friend. I am so grateful for the lessons and am even more grateful that what I learned from her is alive and well in my own children and their wonderful friendships.

August 2, 2023 (Song #2041): T-1*:

While combing through my list of the 600+ songs I’ve never posted, I was confused when I realized that during the 5 ½ years and 2041 songs I’ve posted as a Song Of The Day, I never shared this song: “Helplessly Hoping” written by Stephen Stills and performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash.

How is it possible that a song that’s brought me so much joy has been neglected?

The answer can only be that the world is full of so much “good” music

that it’s impossible to capture all of it in a finite amount of time.

A similar, related answer is that I find most music in this world “good”,

so the possibilities for connection are endless.

If you know me, you know that I feel that way about people, too.

So, there I am in a nutshell, on the day before my 60th birthday and the beginning of my seventh decade on this planet: I am a sponge for all things beautiful, fun, poignant, and relevant – which includes you.

Thank you for joining me on this “Sing Daily!” journey.

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This song, along with “Closer To Fine” by the Indigo Girls (SOTD #12): “By My Side” (no lyric video) from Godspell (also never posted) and “You Can Close Your Eyes” by James Taylor (SOTD #108) are four of my favorite songs to sing with friends and family. If you see me on my birthday tomorrow, please sing along with me.

Happy Birthday to Kevin Cazzetta (hope you’re enjoying retirement!) and cousin Jeffrey Winston!

August 3, 2023 (Song #2042): “People’s Parties/Same Situation” by Joni Mitchell from Court and Spark. LYRICS & SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC

Sometime in the spring of 1984, a double-sided cassette tape with both “Ladies of The Canyon” and “Court and Spark” made its way from a sidewalk record seller into my AIWA walkman. The first time I listened to these two Joni Mitchell albums, I lay on my bed for two hours and didn’t move. Just like everyone else, I’d heard the songs “Help Me” and “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Circle Game” and “Both Sides Now” and “Chelsea Morning”, but these records were something else altogether. I can’t explain why, except that the songs seemed to be other-worldly. Almost 40 years later, I still consider Joni’s voice and songwriting to be the pinnacle of the art.

Last year, I was one of the lucky ones who saw Joni Mitchell sing at the Newport Folk Festival with the amazing Brandi Carlile. I love Brandi and her shows at Newport are always fabulous, so I’d pushed my way to the front of the standing crowd and stood a few feet from the stage to watch her perform; when Brandi announced that Joni was joining her, I finally understood the crying, screaming, fainting teenagers in the black & white news footage from 1964 when the Beatles came to America. That was us! Everywhere I looked there were people sobbing, including me.

So now, a year later, it’s my 60th birthday and I’m ready to make a change. Some of you probably knew this was coming: I am giving myself the gift of time and new interests. Therefore, today’s SOTD post will be the final “Song of the Day” for a while. I may strike it back up again, I may not.

“What are you going to do with your time, Suzanne??,” you ask? Well, first, I’ll spend less time on this computer and more time with Peter and our kids. I’d like to walk more, bike more, do more yoga, visit more with my parents, siblings and friends, finish some of the books that are in piles next to my bed, get through a New Yorker or two, be a better, well-rested teacher once the school year starts, maybe sell one of my songs to a movie, maybe write a movie, maybe take up cooking or sewing and, of course, make more music. Yes, I’ll definitely continue to sing every day and hope you do, too. The website will still be here with lots of links to lots of songs and, who knows?, maybe I will post again occasionally.

Thank you ALL so much for your support during the past 5 ½ years. It’s been a pleasure. Sing Daily & Stay Healthy! Xoxo

Artists I didn’t celebrate enough:

BRANDI???
KACEY?
MAGGIE?
TAYLOR?
HOZIER?
DAWES?
JOHN MAYER (Rose?)
BEATLES?
Avett Brothers
Mumford & Sons
Lumineers
The Story Grace In Gravity
He Drives It Amy Correia
Nobody’s Fat In Aspen Christine Lavin 2015