The Real Old Songs

[mark]

Hi guys,
As you are aware there are several of us whom entertain in care homes. We are often asked for songs which we are not familiar with and we dont know the artist. If Under O on the main desk we could say have Oldies Section. You could put songs there that befit the status. I have just put together the Song If I Had a Talking Picture of you by janet gaynor(1929). Not many i suspect would have heard of her.You Could put your max bygraves medleys,George Formby etc under one heading. Only an idea!

Regards

Mark

[midimart]

This is a great idea but could take a long time to implement. Next time we upgrade the main site we will look into this.

Meanwhile you could download the "Text Listings". These are all the files that are available on the main site. The zip folder includes songs by Artiste and also by title.

They are available in a text format to browse at your leisure.

Nice idea and worth a thought.

[jacqui01]

I agree Mark, it would be nice to have an Oldies section, it's a bit hard to know who to look for sometimes with some of the really Old songs, because they have often been covered by so many artists over the years.
It's like some of the Music from the Old Tyme Music Hall Days, who sang most of those?
Mind you, it's surprising what some of the folks in the homes ask for, I've recently had requests for, Katie Melua, Rod Steward, The Wombles & Ricky Martin to name a few!

[mark]

Jacqui
I was recently asked for Tom Jones Sex Bomb at one care Home.
You should have seen the size of the bloomers thrown at me.LOL
Regards
Mark

[pdiroma]

Well guys and gals,

It won't be long and the "real old songs" will be a thing of the past as the people who request them are in their 70's, 80's and 90's. I've been playing in the same club for about 5 years and they don't come out much and if they do, they go home at 8 or 9 PM. However, I don't play in nursing home because I am in and out of them every day with my job. I mean, I play oldies music, 50's, 60's and 70's, this is oldies now. No 30's or 40's. However, if you're working, go for it. I'm still in the Clubs.

Patrick

[dingadong04]

i have a load of songs, waltzs tangos ,swing and jazz i have,nt a clue who sung ,played or wrote any of them but they might be of use to yer good selves who play the older songs just lets me know and i,ll send them on ..all the best cubb

[JazzCat]

Personally I do not care to list tunes by artist and here's my logic on the thought. First off, there are hundreds of thousands of artists, and many of them are one hit wonders. There are only 26 letters in the alphabet. Makes searching a page lot faster! LOL! Second, how many of you can tell me how many artists have covered the tune "Your Mind Is On Vacation"? If I only know of 2 and the tune is listed under another artist I've never heard of I'll never find it! The name of a tune never changes, but there are a ton of tunes that have been covered by hundreds of artists!

I realize there are a ton of tunes that also have the same name. But, that is when the artist's name comes in handy. That will be the clue as to which tune it is or, the style a tune has been sequenced in.

BTW Mark, If you need some old tunes for the geriatric set, ask me. I might possibly have it or be able to come up with it as I belong to one group that is almost all older musicians. They've got a lot of the older stuff!
Cat >^..^<

[thingyy]

"Geriatrics" in a few years time were around in the Bill Hayley,Elvis , jitterbug era.

[midimart]

I totally agree with you Cat....

And that is why we list them (in a text version) in both artiste order and title order.....

See here Title and Artist text lists.

Makes a great read after setting up at a gig....

[rossi]

Talking of the old songs...I find that if we keep playing the fifties/sixties etc, they all come around again at some timer or other. I remember some youngster asking me for a song by the "Gee bers" or something not long ago,(thinking that an old has been like me couldn't do it...) I did it and he was amazed that I was cabable of playing something from the top ten. I didn't bother telling him that it first came out in the sixties by Creedence ClearwaterRevival.
We wait long enough and we become up to date again!
"Put your head on my shoulder"...Paul Anka, goes a bomb at the end of the night. can't wait for one of these "Boy" bands to resurect that one, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
Melodies will always come to the front...just a matter of playing the waiting game!
Rossi

[mark]

Rossi

You are absolutely right.Emma Bunton has just released Down Town.
They all come round again, unlike this modern stuff

regards

mark

[Emerald Midi]

Yes, good point Mark. I wonder how many of today's music will be golden oldies in time to come.

[dingadong04]

when i,m in a home there will be a young girl or fella singing to me and me mates and if they do,nt sing, Madness , Bad Manners or the Undertones etc there will be trouble.. cos they will be my golden oldies they are the songs that i , danced , kissed , fumbled , fought , won , lost, laughed cried , drank . made love , flopped , run , stayed and everything else that yi can imagine, i grew up with them songs they are my memories . the songs my Ma taught me , Tony Bennet ( my all time Favourite) Sinatra , Commo and all the other greats are classics and i love them .. but i would love when i,m 99 just to hear a wee bit of ska in me nursing home the zimmer wud be thru in the bin and i wud die dancing ..down side the sing songs wud be rubbish ..lol

[mark]

Hi Dingadong

My sentiments exactly. I hope someone will sing and look as good as Kylie when I am in a home." I'm Spinning around"not the song its the drugs there giving me.

regards
mark

[shyamwestwind]

Hi guys - its a real come around with the music we still play. I cant agree more with Rossi .it sure is a waiting game !! A young fellow asked me how I knew the song "Words" !!!!!!!!! Obviously he didnt know about the Beegees. "Smoke on Water" is still Top of the Pops .
Actually I catch myself smiling wondering how easy it is to stat on top with all the re-mixes of the good old oldies !!
OLD IS GOLD, 24 carat or mixed!!!
Warm regards
Shyam

[keeeko]

I totally agree, old songs are comming around again and if you think of it just look at the clothing trends, how many times have they gone around.....

[arman]

When I think about the clothes I used to wear as a teenager, if I had kept them they would have been back in fashion again now - only thing is they wouldn't fit me!!!!

[oldsage]

i,ve been archiving my midi files in order of dates.so far i can go back as far as the fourties,most of these are big band numbers though.but my collection is growing every week.my last count was 2500,but i still haven,t finished on my backup drives,so there maybe another couple of thousand there.trouble is you never know if they are duplicated.i send quite a lot of oldies into glenn,i think that is my speciality.i,ve slowed down the amount that i send in at the minute to give poor old glenn a breather ahhh!.never know whether to send in the ventures or something from way back like singing in the rain,brigadoon, or bobby sox to stockings 1959 by frankie avalon.so watch the midi file section for them oldsage

[jford]

If you're interested in the oldies, you might want to do a web search for some of the top-10 or top-100 charts for those eras; then do a comparison against the MIDIMart master list. With all the Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett songs that seem to crop up all the time, I suspect you'll find quite a number of the popular songs from just about any decade. You could also probably go to your local library (what a concept) and find a book on the popular songs of a particular era. I know I've bought several over the years and have often seen them in the library as well.

- John