Musichas been part of my life since I was eight years old. In high school I was encouraged to start my own rhythm-and-blues group, but when I moved to New York City in 1959, I had no entertainment career plans.
Evenings after work my colleagues and I would head for a Greenwich Village coffeehouse to play chess. One night I noticed a stage being constructed in a corner; the manager told me auditions for entertainment would be held later in the week. By that weekend, relying on nothing more than the songs I had created in my high-school and college days, I was in show business.
I gave up my day job and became a singer, comedian and master of ceremonies at the Gaslight Cafe. Increasingly I was drawn to the simple, yet profound, legacy of folk music. And each night between shows, I went to hear as many other performers as possible.
And then: despair. The impact of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy was devastating. The arts became more and more expressive of the dark mood of the country. Gone were the dreams of a better tomorrow. The only choices left seemed to be cynicism or escape.
Or so it felt to me. At the age of 30 I found success increasingly meaningless. The more popular Peter, Paul and Mary became, the emptier I felt. I began to recognize a barrier between my working lifestyle and my family, the people I cared for most.
I took the suggestion seriously. I started at Genesis and read the Bible whenever I could. I was fascinated, but it seemed like distant history. Then, after a concert in Abilene, Texas, a fan introduced me to the promises of Christ. He prayed with me. I knelt praying to a creator I had only hoped was there.
So I sang it that night, and the following nights. Each time it was well received, and each time I was amazed that something so particular had such a broad appeal. Is this what you wanted, Lord? I asked. Did you mean the song for everyone?
In the meantime I had chosen to spend more time with my family. I wanted to live a simpler life, away from the demands and pressures of performing. I half expected to hang up my guitar and stop playing professionally.
Last night as Anne and I sat down for dinner, Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven started playing from my "liked" Spotify playlist. Anne started to mouth along to the song, which is unusual since she doesn't listen to much music, especially classic rock. I asked her how she knew the song, though I've played it plenty of times, and she said it was because of lot of her customers ordered it as their wedding song through her custom print business.
I was a bit shocked since I'm very familiar with the inspiration of the song. I remember watching Eric Clapton perform it on MTV's Unplugged decades ago and seeing that there was some true emotion there. It was only more than a decade later when "googling" became a thing where I found out the inspiration of the song.
Released in 1991, Tears in Heaven was inspired by maybe the most horrific tragedy that any parent could think of. On March 20, 1991, Eric Clapton's 4 year-old-son, Connor, accidentally fell to his death at his mother's New York City apartment after a window was left open after janitorial work. It's such a tragic story that it's hard to even think about, but you can read more about it on
biography.com.
Anne & I's unoffical wedding song: The Hollies "The Air That I Breathe." It's a certified love song and longing for family. Albert Hammond, who co-wrote the song, moved to Los Angeles to be with a woman he fell in love with. He didn't quiet like Los Angeles. The "air" that's being sung about is the Los Angeles smog. He also missed his family back in London. Nonetheless, the song talks about how he doesn't need cigarettes, sleep, light, sound, food, and books as long as he's with this woman.
John Lennon's "Oh My Love": While there's a certain generation who is against John and Yoko Ono's union, there's no way to deny that they were really deeply in love and connected on a level that a lot of people don't. BTW, John Lennon, in interviews, credited Yoko Ono as being a co-writer of Imagine. Anyway, "Oh My Love," is basic and raw, simply talking about the love between two people and how that makes one see and sense things for the first time because of that.
The Beatle's "In My Life": Goosebumps, that's all I can say. It's been a while since I listened to this song and I just got goosebumps listening to it. It's a simple song talking about wonderful memories, but the best is yet to come since "they" are not together.
Elton John's "Your Song": Not sure there's much to say about this song. It's the song that made Elton John, "Elton John." It's one of the most popular songs that Anne prints for her business and you can't fault any couple for choosing it.
Envision yourself at a wedding. Someone from the bridal party stands up to give a toast. It starts with beautiful sentiment. They are complimenting the bride and groom and reflecting on their love. You assume this admiration will continue in the speech. But suddenly things turn south. The speaker starts accusing the happy couple of cheating, lying, and whole list of moral failures. You are shocked. Everyone is blushing with shame and the awkwardness becomes too much to bare. Hopefully someone rips the mic from their hand. This would be wild.
Notice the stark contrast between what God expected from His people and the result they gave Him. Instead of a unique, holy family among the wicked nations, God sees the same conditions here as He finds in cities who have no concept of Yahweh.
On behalf of all the crazy shit happening in the world right now , I decided to put some music together for you guys before the release of my album just to hold you over. This music wouldve never seen the light of day otherwise I've had all these songs for over a year now and they were all written during the same-ish time period . The special part about this lil project is that its fan titled! You guys made the suggestions on instagram , I picked the top 5 and You guys voted on which title you like the best.A special thank you to Jeff, Sandy , Dayyon and Fred for being genius collaborators and sharing their art with me. much love - Bi#BBsociety please stay indoors and healthy! A BIG thank you to anyone working during this time period!
You may have heard this song before. It may be the most popular modern wedding song. I wrote to Noel Paul Stookey of the group Peter, Paul and Mary asking if I could make a midi of his famous song. He responded, and even provided suggestions. My midi arrangement is very similar to his original recording, except I added some wedding bells at the beginning. - Elton, May 29, 2001
You can also listen to a recording by the O'Neill brothers. - Elton, November 9, 2007
But none of that means it is a personal piece of music, any more than Dirge is a personal piece of music. Rather, as I suggest, having written Dirge, he needed to write Wedding Song, just for a sense of artistic balance and his own well-being. And just to prove that he could still write songs like this.
Image falls onto image as thought pushes thought out of the way, but there is that unrelenting vision that he is not the Leader, he is not here to change everything, certainly not here to tell us what to do. He is just a guy.
I feel like everyone has a fantasy of having a song written about them. And my husband, Rob, wrote one for me as a surprise for our wedding in August of 2021. After the ceremony we walked over to the grassy dance floor. I thought the band was going to play a cover song by Elvis or something, but instead it was an original song that Rob had written and recorded for me down in Nashville.
After seven seasons, an eight year gap, and four brand new episodes, the inevitable finally happened on Gilmore Girls: Lorelai and Luke tied the knot. Their often rocky relationship has been a cornerstone of the series for a while, but things always seemed to get in their way. First it was Luke's surprise daughter April, then it was Lorelai's quickie marriage to Christopher; the obstacles were big ones, and they took time to navigate around them. But now that all of those things are in the past, they were finally able to get married and their wedding was full of nods to the show's past. In particular, Luke and Lorelai's wedding song is an important callback because it references the first time they danced together at a wedding.
That Season 4 dance was an important milestone in Lorelai and Luke's relationship because it really marked the turning point from friendship to romance for them. In "Last Week Fights, This Week Tights," Liz and T.J. had their Renaissance themed wedding, where Lorelai accompanied Luke as his date. Luke had been fresh off reading a self-help book that gave him some important realizations, and it was the first time it looked like their relationship was going to finally cross the line from friendship to more.
Jason Blume is the author of 6 Steps to Songwriting Success, This Business of Songwriting, and Inside Songwriting (Billboard Books). His songs are on three GRAMMY-nominated albums and have sold more than 50,000,000 copies.
www.jasonblume.com
"Hawaiian Wedding Song" originally entitled; "Ke Kali Nei Au" (Waiting There for Thee) was adapted from a 1926 love song written by Charles E. King and originally recorded by Helen Desha Beamer in its original (Hawaiian language) version but re-written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning and renamed as "Hawaiian Wedding Song". The song was recorded by Bing Crosby, Andy Williams and Elvis Presley.
In the US, Andy Williams' version (accompanied by Archie Bleyer and his orchestra, with backing vocals by Anita Wood) was released as a single in 1958 and reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 27 on the R&B chart.[1] In the UK, a single version by Julie Rogers went to number 31 on the UK Singles Chart in 1965.[2] Elvis Presley sang another version of the song in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii. In 1964, Hong Kong female singer Kong Ling covered the song on her LP album This World We Live In with Diamond Records (now under UMG).
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