From The Autobahn to The Name Game #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday.  It's time for music, and it's time for Music Moves Me!

Who are the members of Music Moves Me ?  We are bloggers who blog about music each Monday. If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  Just remember our simple rule:  you must include at least one You Tube or Vimeo video or your post may be subject to removal or labeling "NO MUSIC". You are welcome to write about music. too but there must be at least one music video.

So let's get started.

Each month, we have a guest co-host.  The guest co-host for August is Stacy from Stacy Uncorked, Her theme for today is "You Pick."

This one's going to be a little different.  I'm going to start with an earworm that took root in my ears this past week.

The Five Stairsteps and "O-o-h Child" 

The next couple of songs are memories of when my spouse was in military basic training years ago, and I lived with relatives (paying room and board) in another state for a couple of months.  There were a lot of good times, and, thanks to the musical tastes of a teenaged cousin, I discovered some new (to me) groups.

Kraftwerk  - Autobahn.  I ended up buying the album, and I will not post the full song, which is about 22 minutes long.  I will post, instead, the single from 1974.  This group is German, and the lyrics are in German.  They are about (drum roll): driving on the Autobahn. Speaking of misheard lyrics, the first stanza is not about fun on the autobahn, but Fahren (which means to drive) on the Autobahn, something my spouse has wanted to do for years  Guess it may be a while now before he can.

Speaking of electronic music, the other song comes from an album recorded by Larry Fast under the name Synergy.  I love every song on this album (which I owned in both vinyl and CD) but the one I will bring you today is one you may know because I've had it on my blog before. This song has been covered so many times, from the 1930's to the Ventures and beyond.  From 1975 (a cover of a song from 1936 by Richard Rogers written for a musical comedy On Your Toes):  Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. 

 

I first visited those relatives (who lived over a thousand miles from me) in 1968 and this is one of a couple of songs I associate with that trip:  Mason Williams and Classical Gas.

My next song is definitely not electronic, but is also a memory. In 1962, Joey Dee and the Starliters had a hit with "Peppermint Twist".  At the time, growing up in New York City, WMGM was one of the stations I listened to - until the late afternoon of February 28, 1962 when the station switched formats and also call letters, becoming (or going back in time, as you will) WHN.

 

Now, my final song is a song that, growing up around 1965, we all sang.  I never knew that Shirley Ellis (actual last name Elliston) was a school teacher, and would make up songs to teach.  And I never knew there was a "long version" of this song.  Enjoy, if you've never heard the long version before!   If this song doesn't get you to feeling good, you are really having a bad day.

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week, same time, same place, for another episode of Music Moves Me.