Isn't he Wonderful?

Two weeks ago, Stevie Wonder celebrated the 63rd birthday of his wonderful, genius life. I meant to mark the occasion by blogging on his actual birthday, May 13th, but well... better late than never.
Stevie Wonder. Why is he so wonderful? Because the average artist's album holds one or two hit songs and you can just forget the rest in a whiffy, whereas Mr Wonder's albums are just full of the greatest songs. He is amazingly innovative with the way he uses instruments in his songs (mastering a dozen different instruments might help with that) as well as with his lyrics. The range of his lyrics cover a wide spectrum, from concerns of poverty and inequality to celebrations of the miracles of life, with some must-have relationship/love songs in the middle. It seems that Mr Wonder has no problem deviating from the overused "I loved her so much but then she left me and now I'm sad boo hoo" theme, which is very refreshing! No wonder he was awarded with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and 22 other Grammys.
I think it's song-sharing time again! Here are some of my favourite Stevie Wonder masterpieces.

Superstition
This one gets the top of the list because it's one of my absolute most-loved songs in the world. It also gave Stevie Wonder his first two Grammy awards in 1972, for Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. There's this amazing instrumental intro with a dual effect: on the one hand, it fills you with expectation and you can't wait for the song to start. Then again, the intro itself is so damn wonderful you could just listen to that till the end of time. Superstition ain't the way!

I Just Called To Say I Love You
A sweet and simple song with a sweet and simple message: you don't always have to have any special excuse to tell people you care about them. Won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1984 – it was featured in a movie called The Woman in Red.

Saturn
This wonderful song captures the desperation of the state of the world, imagining there's a better place where "just to live to us is our natural high". This is the song that I listen to when it seems like everything is a total mess and the idea of packing off to another planet feels quite tempting.

Evil
Another (earlier) expression of the injustice of the world. Questions that are never answered.

Ebony Eyes
On the more cheerful side, with a nice groove...

Living for the City
Another Best R&B Song Grammy winner (in '74), and no wonder why! Just listen to it, that amazing beat and that lovely, raspy voice!

As
The chorus is unbelievably catchy.

Part-time Lover
A bouncy tune with an especially bouncy intro – he really knows how to do these intros! Pa pa pa, pa pa da-da-da-da...

Pastime Paradise
I find this song somehow intriguing. And once again I love the instrumentations in the background.

Sir Duke
To conclude, a celebration of great musicians and good music – the title is a reference to Duke Ellington whom Stevie Wonder admired. I agree with Stevie wholeheartedly, music is such a great thing. So go and listen to some good music, but first you can tell me what musicians you admire and why :)

Let's get singin'!

Yay, back to blogging after a couple of weeks' pause. I've got some awesome blog posts on the making – I don't know if bloggers usually spend days and days typing and fussing over their posts, but I do. However, something great and unexpected happened today, well worth a quick post before I get those other ones ready!

 Don't you just love postmen (or women) when they come to your door with a package for you that you've been anxiously expecting for weeks? Well, today around midday I got a package all the way from the States! What was especially wonderful about this event was that I'd been tracking the package via Amazon and I was under the impression that it was still stuck in Virginia, customs delay or something. But here they are now: Be A Broadway Star! board game and The Teen's Musical Theatre Collection: Young Women's Edition, some wonderful sheet music!




As board games and musical theatre are two of my most favourite things, it was only natural that one day I started wondering if there was a musical-themed board game out there somewhere. Amazingly, Google gave me a very straightforward answer when I asked for "Broadway board game": it led me to Be A Broadway Star!, by Broadway producer Ken Davenport and BroadwaySpace.com.

In the game, you're pretending to be an aspiring Broadway star and as you roll the dice and move your piece you have to do things like buy a new makeup kit, pay your agent and publicist and audition for roles. If you audition successfully, you earn some nice bucks and you can even win Tony Awards! The goals are to reach the Broadway Hall of Fame and to gain as many fans as possible – the amount of fans is indicated in Fan Cards, each worth 25, 50 or 100 fans. Getting cast in shows gets you more fans, but if you do something bad like yell at a child actor, you lose fans. All you can do is throw the dice and see what your landing space says.

There are two especially fun things in the game. First of all, when you audition (by taking an Audition Card which tells you which show and role you auditioned for), you get an extra turn if you can sing two lines from the show in question.

But sadly, sometimes your audition fails and you don't get the part. I would never ever get this specific "cut" card in real life:

Another element of fun are the "Make or Break" challenges. When you land on a "Make or Break" space, you have to pull a card and perform the challenge, such as:

Actually, this challenge would be an easy one for me. By the time I graduated from high school (or whatever the heck this Finnish system would be called in English) I'd become such a Shakespeare nerd I put the beginning of the "All the world's a stage" speech into my grad party invitations. But most of these challenges are NOT going to be easy – like "Perform two Bob Fosse dance moves"...

The box is really long and thin. See how I can't fit it properly into my bookshelf with my other board games!



This game sounds like loads of fun, especially with a bigger group (up to six) of musical-minded friends! I'm going to do a test round tomorrow with a friend whom I'll call Em here, and then I'll try to round up a couple of more friends who might like this so we can have a proper supercalifragilisticexpialidocious game night. You'll be sure to hear about it in this blog if and when it happens!

Alright, item two of the package: great sheet music for women from musical theatre! Well, there's a couple of Disney songs as well (such as Beauty and the Beast and God Help the Outcasts), which is a bit weird as I wouldn't call Disney movies musical theatre, but I don't mind at all because I love most Disney tunes to pieces. The songs from actual musicals include some of my absolute favourites, such as Memory (Cats), On My Own (Les Mis), There Are Worse Things I Could Do (Grease) and Wouldn't It Be Loverly (My Fair Lady). Then there are plenty of tunes which I've never heard and I can't wait to get to know them! The music is presented in the regular sheet music fashion: melody and piano accompaniment. But with the unknown tunes, it's especially great to have the accompaniment CD which plays piano accompaniments to each song, with the melody as well.

Here's some of the songs listed on the back cover:


See how wonderfully chunky it is (I'm holding it between my fingers)! 33 songs!
I think I'll be spending even more time singing show tunes from now on. Thank goodness I have good thick walls in my apartment...

New York, New York

I'm in a New York state of mind today! Possibly because I ordered some really exciting, Broadway-related stuff on Amazon.com: a board game Be A Broadway Star, and a super amazing musical song book for female singers! You'll probably hear more about them when they arrive, but now let's get to the topic of the day...

There are a lot of New York themed songs out there, aren't there? Songs with New York in the title, or at least very prominently in the lyrics. I've never been to New York City (though I was very close to becoming a New Yorker once!) so I can't really comment on whether it lives up to its reputation in songs. The Big Apple certainly has an interesting history and has continued to grow into a home of multiculturalism and performing arts (Broadway!). The words "New York" and its derivatives are constantly being used as a symbol of some special kind of lifestyle – what it is precisely, I can't say. But I can share ten of my favourite, fabulous New York tunes!

Empire State Of Mind (Part II) Broken Down by Alicia Keys
The original one is by Jay-Z with Alicia Keys singing the chorus, but I happen to prefer this version. The vocals in the beginning are chilling, and I love the atmosphere in general. Treats New York as a city where you can fulfill your dreams.

New York by Paloma Faith
I really love the sound of this song, but to this day I can't figure out what "New York" stands for here. Is it the actual city or, literally, "another lady"? The music video only adds to the confusion!

I Love New York by Madonna
The queen of pop sings about New York as "the only city that makes me glad". I'd like to know why!

New York State Of Mind by Billy Joel
Has been covered numerous times, by Shirley Bassey and Barbra Streisand to name a few. Such a nice and mellow tune, with some beautiful piano and sax. And Billy Joel's voice, of course.

Englishman In New York by Sting
I start tapping my foot the moment I hear the first beats of this wonderful classic piece. Deals with culture clashes I guess, though eventually the melting pot will without a doubt consume the Englishman.

New York City Serenade by Bruce Springsteen
A ten-minute jumble of many parts and lyrics that kind of don't match, but it's really beautiful, which a word that I usually don't associate with Bruce Springsteen, though I do associate many other positive adjectives with him.

The Only Living Boy In New York by Simon & Garfunkel
I think it's so sweet that Paul Simon wrote this to Art Garfunkel when the latter was in Mexico and Simon felt lonely. It's a beautiful piece, once again. I guess it is possible after all to feel lonely in the city that never sleeps.

There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York by Sammy Davis Jr.
This is from the musical Porgy and Bess which I really know nothing about. Anyway, it's a nice song with a great swing! Presents New York in the usual light of the destination of "high life".

A Nightingale Sang In New York by Bing Crosby
I'm so happy I found a New York song by Bing Crosby because he's like one of my favourite people in the Universe. My Christmas is never complete without his White Christmas and O Come All Ye Faithful, but no matter what that man is singing, it sounds perfect. I don't know why this is called A Nightingale Sang in New York on Spotify and A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square everywhere else.

New York, New York by Frank Sinatra
Of course, you can't talk about music and New York without mentioning this famous piece by Frank Sinatra (who also sings about "Chicago, Chicago"). Jay-Z knows that too, as he pays tribute to Sinatra and his famous line "if I can make it there, I'm gonna make it any God damn where" in Empire State Of Mind

Maybe I should go find out songs about London next... Yesterday, a friend and I bought plane tickets to London and tickets to Queen's Theatre to see Les Misérables and we've been celebrating ever since! I'm so happy to be going to London again! My pilgrimage to New York and Broadway will have to wait a little longer, but it will happen.