Last weekend we went for a movie screening of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, shown as part of New York International Children’s Film Festival. Lifelong Beatles fan that I am, I have never actually seen the movie in its entirety before, so it was a treat (followed up by a nice dinner with friends at an
One of those songs that I cannot get out of my head for days once someone plants it there. Maybe, if I pass it on to someone…
My Russian-speaking audience will enjoy this impromptu performance by Becky of the well-known New Year’s song, which she literally learned in an hour or so prior to going to her New Year’s party. Those of you who do not speak Russian may still be able to appreciate the fact that Becky started playing guitar only
I think I’d do really well as a blogger if all I did was to borrow content from Exler. So here it is, two appropriations in a row. This is Axis of Awesome with an awesome demonstration that a huge number of modern hits are written with only the same four chords. That makes me
I am getting into a car to go pick up my teenage daughter and a couple of her friends from a trip to the mall. Because I’ve been volunteered to deliver those kids to their homes, and because one of them lives as far as is geographically possible from us while still technically residing in
I have been wounding down this recurring feature on my blog, for lack of material. Unless I get a sudden flashback to some remarkable piece, I can no longer think of a non-Russian song or performer that holds a special place in my memories. And I do not feel much enthusiasm for pulling in Russian
Sometimes, the most insignificant of memories lodge themselves in one’s brain… I must have been four or five when I overheard my Mom and her girlfriends discussing comparative qualities of foreign singers who appeared on the Soviet state TV. I cannot recall anything from that conversation except the consensus that nobody moved onstage quite like
My tastes as far as Russian music is concerned more or less calcified at the point of my emigration. Whatever I liked then, I like now. New acts that sprouted in the last two decades – not so much. There is a show on Russian TV that purports to select the best of all of
I thought this was a really nice compilation of musical hits from 1940’s to 1990’s, so I figured I’d post a link here. It’s a Russian LiveJournal blog post, but the list is heavier on Western music rather than Russian. Those of my readers who are interested in rare insights into the Russian soul that
The other day, my teenager and I got into one of nowadays frequent verbal exchanges that end with her effectively telling me to mind my own business, since she is grown up and all that and is capable of going through life without her old man trying to teach her at every opportunity… With a
This song is one of “signature” pieces of my DJ days in high school. As I noted elsewhere, I’ve been an unwilling dancer for my entire life, so it was only natural that I became a “designated DJ” at some point. Everybody else wanted to be on the floor… I was also the resident komsomol
When my Uncle was emigrating a couple of years ahead of us, he left me a handful of cassette tapes for my new shiny tape recorder (which he himself had bought for me in New York on his voyage there several months prior). Among those tapes was an album of pop songs in Hebrew by
Ok, still no time – or fodder – for regular blogging, so how about going back to an old recurring feature… I mentioned somewhere that I went through a period of being much into country music in my 20’s. That coincided with the peak of fame for Garth Brooks, and there were quite a few
Another one of those huge Euro-hits of the late 80’s that were so popular in our discotheques. And another one of one-song performers for me… The song obviously speaks to my wanderer inclinations. You could guess that even if your knowledge of French does not go far beyond the title… Sergej Minaev (who
Half a year or so into my American immigrant life, I earned enough money through a couple of small jobs to splurge on my very own CD-playing boombox. Lured in by the infamous “12 CDs for the price of 1” offer, I then joined BMG Music Service (which I accidentally learned is ceasing operation this
I haven’t heard this song in ages and suddenly recognized the tune in a McDonald’s commercial, of all places. The Proclaimers‘ cover of the Roger Miller hit is one of my most vivid recollections of the time we started to get regularly exposed to the Western music acts via a weekly MTV hit-parade (I already
Continuing with musical genres other than pop or rock (the last installment was classical waltz, remember?), another frank admission: I am very partial to stage musical. In years living in or near the New York City, I’ve seen probably fewer musicals than my natural inclination suggests, but still a fair share. We went to a
I like classical music. Johann Strauss is one of my favorite composers. This entry was meant to be filed under “Musical Tiramisu” series – my disposition always improves upon hearing a few notes of a Strauss’ waltz. But there is a clear mental picture that often pops into my head when I’m listening to a
The intro to this song always wakes up some deeply buried associations with my childhood – it was used as a theme for a popular TV program (which one, I can no longer recall) back in the 70’s in the USSR. No less importantly, hearing Mireille Mathieu reminds me of vinyl records and turntables that
No specific memories here, just one of my old favorites. Wikipedia suggests that in 1978 this song rose to the US Top 10, so it might not be totally obscure to my American-born readers, even though Chris Norman and Smokie were primarily superstars in Europe, and Suzy Quatro, an American, was, at best, a B-list