Doo Wop and Jukebox Music

What have I been up to lately? Lots of work related processes, which is good as it helps to keep my job. On the side though I'm sure many of you will agree that nothing stirs up the blood and gets your mojo on that music to get your groove on.

A friend of ours, Atty. Tess, once told Yna that I was an old soul. She's right you know. And why is that? Its my type of music when I'm for relaxing/driving perhaps? What I end up singing on karaoke? How I think and act in situations? Hmm... all of the above?

I may be known to be a party animal, and surely there's a post here somewhere that shows me grooving to "California, knows how to party ...". My feet will probably move by themselves when Bizaare Love Triangle or INOJ's version of Time After Time blares on the speakers.

These days, working quietly on my laptop (which so far has been a good boy and working its poor soul out for me), finds myself listening to doo wop.

So back to why an old soul? Doo wop or jukebox music is R&B music .... on the early 50's .... ladies and gents. That puts it at least some solid thirty years before my time and about six decades old today. I've got the musical tastes of some old and balding gentleman somewhere. Hah! But with the techie knowledge of today's yuppie.

Why this music? In fact I like the Sound of Music (you can ask Hannah of SessiOn Road) of which I seem to remember watching in 1979 as well as seeing young Drew Barrymore in Steven Spielberg's E.T. On long drives though to San Fernando , La Union with family this was the music that was on the radio. We had a set of collectible tapes from Readers' Digest called Mood Music from the Shows and other stuff.

Doo wop though has stuck in the forefront today as it reminds me of happy times. When things weren't as complicated. Like "Grease Lightning" many years later it was a time of fancy cars and bat-mobiles, slicked hair, and words like soda pop and drive-in movies. Sweet.

I was listening to PBS the other night and they said it was music that was dieing out in America. That has my agreement. So am pretty glad that revivals of this genre in film and sit-coms are coming to light.

Here's a couple for the uninitiated off the top of my head from shows and ads that I've seen through the years:

Format: "song" - movie, tv show, tv advertisement - scene or setting

"I will Follow Him", "My Guy" - Sister Act 1 & 2 - contest
"Chantily Lace", "Yakety Yak" - Rags to Riches - scene acts
"Unchained Melody" - Ghost - Whoopie G gets possessed by Demi
"In the Still of the Night" - Toys - bathdroom
"Its in His Kiss" - Sex and the City - Mr. Big?
"You've Lost that Loving Feeling" - Top Gun - Tom Cruise's character
"The Nearness of You" - Norah Jones - music)
"Downtown" - Lost - Desmond sees the light from above the hatch
"La Bamba", "Donna" - La Bamba - movie track
"Earth Angel" - The Twilight Zone - intro track
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - Lion King - Simba walks the plains
"Stay", "Be My Baby" - Dirty Dancing - Patrick S again?
"Day-O" - Beetlejuice - that funny poltergeist
"Big Girls Don't Cry" - No More Tears (Johnson & Johnson) - tv ads
"Help Me Rhonda" - Alf - singing about his lost space love

I'm now playing the whole list of selections from Time-Life's Malt Shop Memories and I have to say its worth the purchase for anyone wanting to recapture the golden era of doo wop!

Needless to say, I'm having a blast!