I Sing The Body Electric

I sing the body electric/I celebrate the me yet to come
I toast to my own reunion/When I become one with the sun

Indelibly in my head since I was about 14. An exultant anthem of youth, and yet another song reminiscent of my time in the Jewish teen scene, when everything was Dramatic and Intense And Amazing.

Artist: Michael Gore (writer); Performed in the movie Fame by Laura Dean, Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Traci Parnell, and Eric Brockington
Year: 1980
Rating: Luke Hot

Lullaby of Broadway

This song is so deeply embedded in the popular culture, and yet, I have no clear mental reproduction of the precise recording I'm summoning. The first appearance of the song was in the film Gold Diggers of 1935, a movie I've never seen. It's quite possible that the version I heard the most while growing up was by the Andrews Sisters, but I'm guessing I just know it from various homages in movies and TV.

Artist: Wini Shaw
Year: 1935
Rating: Warm

Girl For All Seasons

Grease 2 now has its own tag. This is the fourth song from the movie that's been in my head since starting the blog in 2009. Shockingly, I still haven't woken up with a song from Grease, the original, in almost four years of blogging. I will say that Beauty School Dropout floats through my head with some regularity, but I haven't woken with it, and thus, it's been disqualified from the blog so far.

Artist: The Pink Ladies
Year: 1982
Rating: Luke Hot

I Get A Kick Out of You

It's strange to wake up with a song about the zing! and thrill! of love, and have no particular person come to mind. It's a blank, neutral feeling. Which is oddly refreshing.

Artist: Frank Sinatra (written by Cole Porter).
Year: 1934 (original); first recorded by Sinatra in 1953.
Rating: Warm

Movin' Right Along

Saw the new Muppet flick (so fun, and moving! I actually teared up a couple times). Predictably, a song from the original 1979 movie popped into my head the next morning.

Artist: Kermit & Fozzie (performed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, music by Paul Williams)
Year: 1979
Rating: Luke Hot

Pure Imagination

While pouring myself my morning cup of coffee, the distinctive three-note intro and interlude sequence of this Willy Wonka song came to mind. It's a tense, cautious sort of musical theme carried throughout an otherwise optimistic song about seizing the moment, realizing the beauty that's all around you, creating your own reality:

If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it. Wanna change the world? There's nothing to it.

Those three notes taunt me, dare me to wake from my insular repose, my holding pattern of not-doing. I drink my coffee and start my day, cautiously, optimistically.

Artist: Gene Wilder (music by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley)
Year: 1971
Rating: Luke Hot

Do It for Our Country

Time to get down in a nuclear fallout shelter!

Artist: Peter Frechette as "Louis" and Maureen Teefy as "Sharon" from the Grease 2 soundtrack
Year: 1982
Rating: Hot, or not

Note: This is the third song I've blogged from Grease 2; curiously, no songs from the original have made it into my head yet.

Show Tunes

A friend took a snapshot of this bumpersticker recently; thought it was appropriate to share with y'all.


Thanks, Rana!

Hello Again

Maybe it's been crazy
And maybe I'm to blame.

Artist: Neil Diamond
Year: 1980
Rating: Luke Hot

Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee

Keep that pelvis far from me!

Artist: Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, Dinah Manoff and Jamie Donnelly
Year: 1978
Rating: Luke Hot

Send in the Clowns

This might very well be the most random song I've had in my head since starting the blog. The melancholy '70s ballad floodgates are now fully open!

Artist: Judy Collins
Written by: Stephen Sondheim
Year: 1973 (original); 1975 (Collins)
Rating: Lukewarm

Under Your Spell

I think it's getting to be time to watch the entirety of Buffy the Vampire Slayer again. I've been reading the Season Eight comics, but it's just not the same.

Artist: Amber Benson as Tara
Year: 2001
Rating: Warm

Note: The last time a song from the musical episode Once More, With Feeling was in my head was July 4, 2009.

Prowlin'

I'm gonna show you cats some action,
Like you've never seen before.
We're gonna get some satisfaction
Down at the grocery store!

Seriously. The worst. Song. From Grease 2. But funny that it's in my head.

Artist: The T-Birds
Year: 1982
Rating: Cold

Singin' In the Rain

Yes, my unconscious soundtrack can sometimes be rather predictable and dependent upon obvious environmental factors. This clip from the 1952 movie is so sweet though; it's hard to resist. And here's a link to one of the early recordings of the song from 1929.

Artist: Gene Kelly
Year: 1952
Year: (original) c. 1927, written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
Rating: Warm

The Spanish Inquisition

I gotta say, my timing couldn't be more perfect. To wake up chanelling my historic Jewish persecution on Christmas morning represents a real mother lode of psychological trauma.

Merry Xmas, all you sinners!

Artist: Mel Brooks et al
Year: 1981
Rating: Like a red hot poker up my ass

Do-Re-Mi

Specifically, I woke with the "So-do-la-fa-mi-do-re" line in my head. I had absolutely no idea that the Sing Along Sound of Music was playing at the Castro this weekend. I swear it!

When you know the notes to sing/You can sing most anything!

Artist: Julie Andrews & co
Year: 1959 (original stage production) 1965 (film)
Rating: Warmly warm
Written by Rodgers & Hammerstein

Cool Rider, Redux

Last in my head on April 29, 2009.

I'll Never Tell

If you're not (yet!) a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this song/video might not make too much sense. Standing alone, it's amusing, but in context of the show, it's undeniably genius. In the 2001 episode Once More, With Feeling! a spell is cast on the entire town of Sunnydale, forcing its residents to burst out in song and further the dramatic arc of the show through lyrics. If you're currently watching Buffy and haven't made it to Season 6 yet, you might skip watching the video, 'cause it's got plot spoilers.

Artist: Emma Caulfield and Nicholas Brendon as Anya and Xander.
Year: 2001
Rating: Hot!

Cool Rider

Can't tell you how many times I watched Grease 2 when I was a kid/teenager. I was totally obsessed with this cheap knock-off of Grease, and the songs and much of the dialogue are permanently etched into my neocortex. I'm surprised this is the first of the Grease oeuvre that's made it into my head since the start of this project.

Artist: Michelle Pfeiffer
Year: 1982
Rating: "Burn(s) me through and through!"