“My, my, my, my, my boogie shoes”: “Boogie Shoes” by K.C. and the Sunshine Band

Dancing in Boogie Shoes    Photo: RyanStecker

I wish I had met Henry Wayne Casey (K.C) back in the day. I think I could have been a good lyricist for them.

If I counted correctly, “Boogie Shoes” uses just 29 different words, the majority of them being “my,” “boogie,” and “shoes.”

The Cat in the Hat uses 10 times as many. (I will admit that Dr. Seuss is a little harder to boogie to.)

Looking at their other songs, I also feel pretty confident that I could have come up with a chorus as good as “That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh.”

Still, I have to say that “Boogie Shoes” always makes me want to get up and dance.

And…the words are easy to learn.

Lots of the band’s hits are available on Freegal. For some reason, you need to search for “KC” under artist, rather than the name of the whole band.

“So you better treat her right”; “She Works Hard for the Money” by Donna Summer

Workin' Hard for the Money     Photo: Merzperson 

In the mid-80’s I was working my husband through graduate school. When the school had a talent show, I joined the other wives in doing a rendition of “She Works Hard for the Money.”


Most of us had what I call a “just-a-job.” They weren’t particularly interesting or fulfilling; they were just a way to keep food on the table. I worked selling stamps at a little dry goods store. Others were secretaries downtown or managers at McDonald’s. The hours were bad but the pay was lousy.

But we had Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco.

You can get lots of her songs on Freegal.

Born LaDonna Andrea Gaines, she found her name in an unexpected place. Back in 1966, she got a part in the musical Hair and moved to Europe to perform in Germany & Austria. She married her fellow performer Helmut Sommer—and took the name Donna Summer.

Too bad she never recorded a disco song in German. That would have been interesting.

RIP, Donna Summer. May 17, 2012.

A Song for Thanksgiving: “Thankful” by Kelly Clarkson

Afternooon sun at Hudson Gardens. Photo: Ellen Mackey

Once there was this girl, named, Kelly in Texas who was great in school choir and was regularly chosen for the lead in school musicals. She dreamed of a career in singing, but back in ’02 she had a job handing out samples of Red Bull.

A friend convinced her to try out for this new TV show, called American Idol, or something like that. Kelly was known as a late sleeper, and she was so worried she’d miss the audition that she stayed up all night the night before.

Seems to have worked.

Thankful  is also the name of her first album. It’s available for free download from Freegal.

Somebody That I Used to Know by Walk Off the Earth

I came across this song on Freegal's top 100 hits. It's categorized as "alternative" music.

I'm still trying to figure out how so much music can be "alternative," but the nearest I can tell is that it's defined by what it's not. Not country--not rap--not bland and over-produced pop.

This song is moody and catches deep in your brain to the point where you find yourself internally humming the chorus several times a day.


photo: Scott Meltzer

Then I came across this video cover of the song with words like "Gotye" and "WOTE," both of which sound like uber-cool slang that I'm not a part of.

I did a little digging and found out that Gotye is the Australian singer who wrote and performed the first song.

WOTE is an acronym for Walk Off the Earth, a Canadian indie band that made it big, largely owing to the success of this video which went viral and garnered 125 million hits in four months.

Five people on one guitar. This is really cool.

The WOTE version is the one available through Freegal. I see that they have a few other songs available including "Little Boxes," the 1962 satire that captures suburban life.

To learn how you can download Walk Off the Earth's songs free and legally, check out this information about Freegal

Carrie Underwood – Good Girls

I remember when Carrie Underwood was just one of a bunch of contenders on American Idol. She seemed pretty good, but so were some of the others.

Then one day Simon Cowell said, "I predict that you are going to not only win American Idol, but you are going to be the top-selling American Idol winner ever."

He was right. I would say you can tell by that smug look on his face, but he always has that look.

This is Underwood's newest.

This song is now available for free music download on Freegal

photo credit : Faguo shoes 

Just Another American Saturday Night – Brad Paisley

The Fourth of July reminds me of this up-tempo song.

Paisley sings of things America has borrowed from other cultures – Italian leather boots, German cars, Canadian bacon, pizza pie – things that become so commonplace that we have almost forgotten that they originated in another country.

As part of a family with German, Irish, and Chinese traditions, I like the sentiment.
You can get free legal downloads of this song through Freegal
Photo: Cyril Mayer

Call Me, Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

Wow! Freegal is really up to date.

This song has been dubbed "the song of summer 2012."

It was originally written a folk song, but turned inot a pop song by the producer. It's hit number one in several countries, and has inspired a ton of spoofs on YouTube.

It's available for a free and legal download from Freegal.




Photo: egen bild

"The House That Built Me" by Miranda Lambert

The first house that I lived in was a little 8 x 24 trailer, and this song captures the feeling of that little childhood home perfectly.

This meditative tune was originally meant for country singer Blake Shelton (now Miranda Lambert's husband.)

But when Lambert heard the song, she was so touched by it, that Shelton encouraged her to records it.

"The House That Built Me," became Lambert's first number one song on the country charts, and she won a Grammy for it in 2011.

When Lambert sings her slow songs, she reminds me a little of singer Nanci Griffith.


photo credti: Ellen Mackey c 2012

The song is available for a free and legal download from Freegal.

To read more about Miranda Lambert, click here.

Freegal App for Apple and Android: Free, Legal Music on the Go

Freegal now has an app for mobile devices, both for Apple and Android.

It's as easy as iTunes for getting songs on your phone. Except these are free, and even though they're from the library, you get to keep them always.

As soon as I heard about it, I downloaded the free app. Then I punched in my zip code, chose my library, and entered my card number and pin.

Now that it's all set up, all I have to do is tap on the arrow and the song downloads into the Freegal library on my phone. So cool.

To learn more about Freegal, click here.

Adele: Free and Legal Music Downloads

Best quote from Adele's website:

 "I love food and hate exercise...I don't want to be on the cover of Playboy or Vogue. I want to be on the cover of Rolling Stone or Q. I'm not a trend-setter ... I'm a singer. I never want to be known for anything else. I'd rather weigh a ton and make an amazing album...."

Adele's songs are available for free and legal download from the Freegal website. Read more about how to access this service here.

All of the tracks on her albums 19 and 21 are available to download for free. Read more about the songs that are available.

Photo: Christopher Macsurak via Wikimedia

Jason Aldean: Free and Legal Music Downloads

I first heard country singer Jason Aldean on one of those compilation CD's of best country songs of the year.

The song was "Crazy Town," his ode to his  Nashville experience. "One year they repossess your truck/ the next you make a couple million bucks."

I like the strong beat and the lyrics. My 14-year old daughter loves the hard-hitting violin intro. For more info on Aldean, as well as where to get free downloads click here: Jason  Aldean   For more info on Freegal, click here: Freegal

[Jason Aldean at McElroy Auditorium , Larry Gaffey
CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia ]

Doc Watson: Free and Legal Music Downloads

Doc Watson, who passed away recently, played Appalachian strings music and was one of America's most respected folk artists.

Roger Wolmuth, a People magazine contributor said in 1987, "Watson's blizzard-quick flat picking and warm, mountain-clear baritone have ... established the soft-spoken Blue Ridge Mountain native as one of America's premier acoustic musicians."

Blinded by a childhood illness, the musician sometimes played on the street for change, when he wasn't working on his family's farm. After Watson became famous, a reporter asked him if he was ever ashamed of playing on the street. He replied, "No, I was selling something then, just like when you bought a ticket to get in here." He recounts, "That hushed [the reporter] up right quick." He also commented, "Blind people, most of them, are oversheltered. People don't understand. I went and did as I pleased."

[photo credit: Doc Watson (Photo by Austen Millkulka) via Wikimedia CC-BY-SA 3.0]

You can download free songs from Doc Watson through the site Freegal, which is provided by many public libraries. To learn more about this free service, click here: How You Can Download Free Music from Freegal

Freegal includes tracks from his albums Songs for Little Pickers and Rambling Hobo as well as recordings he made with the legendary Chet Atkins.

"Doc Watson." Contemporary Musicians. Vol. 59. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 31 May 2012.