“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.

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

Three Dog Night

The popular band that sold more concert tickets than any other from 1969-1974 has been touring again.  I attended their sold-out concert June 10, 2012 at Hudson Gardens in Littleton, Colorado. Lead Singer Cory Wells told us that one night, an audience member said  that he thought the song “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” was the great-great-great-grandaddy of  rap songs, presumably because of the spoken verses.   

Inspired by this fan, the band provided a bit of comic relief by doing a rap version of the song (with a little bit of music commentary thrown in for good measure.)

After putting on their backwards caps and flashing a few rap moves, they launched into lines like “You don’t need to sing/ all you do is rhyme,” and “You don’t need no talent, just attitude.”

Photo: mrpattersonsir

Three Dog Night Songs Available for Free

The songs from the album Three Dog Night Greatest Hits Live are available to download for free from Freegal. The songs include:

One

One Man Band

Family of Man

Eli’s Coming

Easy to Be Hard

Never Been to Spain

Mama Told Me (Not to Come)

Old-Fashioned Love Song

Celebrate

Try a Little Tenderness

Joy to the World

Liar

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.