Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I Need a Stage Name

When I was little, my sisters and I sang.  A lot.  We had the parts down to "Love is Spoken Here."  And Dad would (occasionally) have us perform it when the missionaries (or other families or crushes) came over.  We would also perform "Called To Serve" while marching around the coffee table and saluting to the beat of the music.
We sang while doing our After Supper Jobs.  Aladdin's "A Whole New World" was a constant performed most often by Julie and Victoria.  For a time Mulan's "Reflection" was big... and the last slam dammer was Ja-Rule and J-Lo's "I'm Real."
Julie is wearing my all-time favorite dress of hers.  She recently gave it to me. 
My goal is to wear it (and look presentable) by my birthday.
 We'd had lip synching competitions. Primarily to Lisa Loeb's "Stay."  After we each had a turn winning (twice or three times) we put in the Spice Girls' SPICE CD and lip synched "Too Much."
I may be speaking out of line, but... We were Performers.  (Capital "p" necessary.)  A new musical breathed new life into us.
Bye Bye Birdie. We became Ann Margret.  Byyyyye Byyyyyye B-herrrrrrrd-ie, the army's gotcha now.  But more than the main title... whoa.... The Telephone Hour.  I was always the dweeby Harvey Johnson calling to try to get a date.  And... the creme de la creme from that musical... "How Lovely To Be A Woman."  Oh!  Life changing.  Still one of my all time faves.  How lovely to be so grown up and FREEEEEEEE!

After we saw 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.  We each chose a brother to be our husband.  OoooooOOOooo.  OooooOOOOoooooooooooooooooo.  Can't make no voooooows, to a herd of cows.  All those Sobbin' women.  We never really could get over Dorkus.  None of us wanted to be Dorkus.

Uncle Victor brought over Thoroughly Modern Millie and we were flappers.
Saw Evita and we were dying Madames of Argentina.
We were the Mistresses of Murderers Row from Chicago.
Teachers in Siam in the King and I.
I was Chava.  I was disowned for marrying a Russian Orthodox. Tradition!
Music was magical.  Singing was liberating.

Maybe it was the six years of Concert Choir I took, maybe it was the 2 awards I received (oh.  hold up. *dusts shoulder* I had a little dirt on there), but singing has just stuck with me. 



I love it!

iPods have been a blessing.  You put those earbuds in and sing as loud as you can and you don't even know if you're on pitch or not.  I mean, I know... because I have a gift.  But "you" was meaning people in general.  When I got my first iPod the first CD I put on was Cher's Greatest Hits.  If I could turn back Ti-ime! ner-ner-ne If I could FIND a way! I take back all those words that had hurt you and you'd staaaay!  I filled my iPod in like 3 days with all my favorite songs and then I gave Ken a headache.

And thank Heaven for the Glee soundtracks, right?  I love singing to them.  I sound more like Kurt Hummel than Rachel Berry these days- but- oh... love those CDs.  Ken will ask me why I buy the Glee songs instead of the real singers.
Uh.
Because I can sound like the Glee kids.
Duh.

With the kids, and being home all day, you can bet Spotify is on.  Last week we were part of the French Revolution and I was Cosette, Fantine, Jean val Jean, Javert, and Eponine. Busy day for me. Lots of costume changes. When that got old (For Kole.  Not for me.)  we put on our jeans, tucked our shirts in and sang some George Strait for a day.  Today, when Kole gets up from his nap, he's gonna be Big Boi and I'll be Andre 3000 and we are gonna blaze with a little Outkast.

It feels good to sing.  To sing the really high loud notes.  As you spread your arms.  And turn your head up as you close your eyes.  To bring.  The house.  Down.
And then take a bow.

Try it.  Put on your favorite song.  And sing it. 

Or to try something new:
1.  Didn't We Almost Have It All - Whitney Houston
2.  Don't Go Breakin' My Heart- Elton John and Kiki Dee
3.  Ice Ice Baby- Vanilla Ice
4.  There Is No Arizona- Jamie O'Neal
5.  We Are Young- Fun.
6.  I'm Not Lisa- Jessi Colter
7.  I Just Called to Say I Love You- Stevie Wonder
8.  Can't Stop Loving You- Phil Collins
9.  Come What May- Moulin Rouge Soundtrack (Do an encore with El Tango de Roxanne)
10.   Maggie May- Rod Stewart
11.  More Than A Memory- Garth Brooks
12.  Don't Stop Believing- Journey
13.  Shoop- Salt n Peppa
14.  Piano Man- Billy Joel
15.  Proud Mary- Tina Turner
16.  Stranger In My Hosue- Tamia
17.  One Two Step -Chiara
18.  The Story- Brandi Carlisle
19.  He Had It Coming- Chicage Soundtrack
20.  Long Time Gone- The Dixie Chicks
21.  I Never- Rilo Kiley

I got chills just MAKING that playlist.
Hmm.  What do you think I should add?

I'm the one in the light blue t-shirt.


5 comments:

Cinderella, the A-Train and Our Little Caboose said...

Great list of songs! I love music too! It calms me and motivates me. Life would be a bummer without it.

Juli said...

My ex husband knew Rob VanWinkle (Vanilla Ice) Ironically he never sang Ice Ice Baby around his house or the dirt bike track.

Too bad too... because I knew all the words.

Kar said...

Hello Mr. (Something - I can't remember the last name. You're going to have to help me with that one), this is Harvey Johnson, can I speak to Penelope Anne??? I love that you know musicals. And in Dorcus's favor, she was the prettiest of all the girls. Sadie and I were reading a library book recently, and one of the main characters was named Dorcus!! Which was your favorite brother? I had the hots for Benjamin. Which is weird, because now I'm married to a Benjamin!!! It's like FATE!!

DoublClik said...

Ok favorite things about this POST :
The "h" in Berrrrhhdie hahahah and how I knew the song only by reading "OOooooOoooOoooo" nice use of CAPS

Beth Willmore said...

Ok I totally just added Shoop like a week ago to my ipod and everytime it comes up on shuffle I rap my little heart out! (even though I don't exactly know all the "real" words which my hubs so sweetly pointed out...) Love it!

I also downloaded tons of 80's love songs. *sigh* makes my day now!

I seriously loved this post and I can't believe you got awards for singing! I'm pretty sure that the women fight in Relief Society about who has to sit next to me because they can't keep pitch with me belting it out all over the place. So what if I can't stay on tune, I sing like I own those songs so too bad for everyone else sitting around me! Maybe we should bet together and you could teach me a thing or two (or maybe just teach me how to lip sync!!)