“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

"So What" by Pink

This song has one of the greatest break-up song openings.  Get out the air guitars and beat on the air drums.


Dancing with the Stars' hottie Gilles Marini did the Paso Doble to it. I don't always like modern songs with the classic dances, but this one really worked.

The video is worth a look. Says Pink on her website "If you EVER get a chance to drive a lawnmower down Sunset Blvd - I highly suggest it."

This song, along with a bunch of other Pink hits, is available on Freegal

Photo credit Daisy Romwall

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