I have been working with friends on a comic number for an upcoming Late Night Off Center show at our community center next month. We're singing and dancing to "YMCA" by the Village People, but with different lyrics that satirize a hotly debated issue in the news today.At our first rehearsal, our choreographer was talking about why this song has lasted. What qualities must it, or any song, for that matter, possess in order to stick around as long as "YMCA" has? First of all, "YMCA" has drive. Its beat is insistent and proud. In addition, the melody "keeps going up," our choreographer observed. Each measure inches up and up and up, incrementally higher than the last. She makes a good point. We have had three rehearsals now and I never tire of running through this music. It's fun. It moves. And it's a spirit-lifter if ever there was one. Check out the original 1978 video for a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k.
I also love what one viewer posted about the video. "It's weird but this song gives me a Christmas feeling." Says it all, doesn't it?
What songs give you a Christmas feeling?
I love Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home" among many others for Christmas. Love the jazz, love the harmonies, and it always seem to touch a very poignant spot in my memories.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting, Becky. You are the first, so I know the site must be working! Do you have a link to that song? I always liked Kenny Loggins but I don't know this song specifically. To date myself, I saw Loggins and Messina in concert at UT in the early 1970s. They were just starting. They played in the basketball gym. Tickets were 50 cents and everyone sat on the floor. Yes, reefers were passed. I think it is one of my favorite college memories.
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