"I'm Only Sleeping" by The Beatles

I wish more than anything I was only sleeping.  It is unbelievable how f'ing tired I am.  The Beatles what an f'ing mess of various versions.  Until the "Mono" box was released in 2009 I had no idea that the Beatles were only involved in the mixing of the mono versions and somebody else mixed the Stereo versions.  A few songs are noticeably different in the mono and stereo versions.  One song is a different length in mono and stereo.  Then of course the first several albums were completely different in the U.S. and U.K. and the US albums having some funky reverb added.  Sigh!

Anyway, here are a couple of different versions:

YouTube (original-?-speed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npy4PQdqHxw
YouTube (mono-remastered): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MMDugt8ZRk

"You'd Be Surprised" by Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra

I woke up his morning with song stuck in my head, the version I like is the one from the "Dance Till Tomorrow" album shown in this video I made on YouTube.  I just love that album.  But I can't find that version on YouTube.

I had no idea the song was an Irving Berlin song dating back to 1919 and Eddie Cantor.  This version I found is kind of fun, I still like the Sammy Kaye version better.

YouTube (NaTasha Yvette Williams): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhfMhNBe_o

"Sleep Late, My Lady Friend" by Harry Nilsson

Another great Nilsson song, that I love from the "Aerial Pandemonium Ballet" album that I posted on 21-Mar-2013.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0nzCSzBDRw

"Gotta Get Up" by Harry Nilsson

I was having a Nilsson-fest this morning and played a bunch of his albums.  This is a great song from the Nilsson Schmilsson album.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKy_gTrdXaU

"American Boys" by Al Hirt

I was playing the Al Hirt "Now!" album this morning and remembered this fun song.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_08awGuE1M

"Cool Kids" by Echosmith

A great new song.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSCzDykng4g

"My Grandfather's Clock" by Lawrence Welk

Another song that was a childhood favorite.  I found this 45, the same one in the video, last week.  The other side is a good song too.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFxPRsp7fF4

"The Old Lamp Lighter" by Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra

I was playing my two favorite Sammy Kaye albums this morning.  It is so funny that I enjoy them so much, they are just so old.  This was one of my absolute favorites as a child.  Unfortunately, the version from the album I like is not the original 1946 version, so I can't find it on YouTube. 

YouTube (Billy Williams):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip4HjJULL-s

"Ashes to Ashes" by The 5th Dimension

In a similar vein to Thursday's Post this was a great song, now over 40 years old.  Things have changed faster and more than I could have ever imagined.  What have there been 3 different Salt Palaces?  Just so many things have changed and gone.

YouTube (Album): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0tww3BjjMs
YouLive (Live TV): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A5xug2Chcs

"Going Back to Big Sur" by Johnny Rivers

It's not exactly, but it does feel like a cold and rainy Friday night.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_SKx3o5cI

"Don't It Make You Want to Go Home" by Joe South

For some reason I have been thinking about this song lately.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AirBbS4R7Z0

"Everything Is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens

I think about this all the time now, everything is beautiful, everybody is beautiful.

YouTube (original): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTfoY4g0GZM
YouTube  (new): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a45z_HG3WU

"On the Sunny Side of the Street" by Tommy Dorsey

I know this seems like a strange selection for the day after I was robbed and spent the entire day trying to get ahead of possible account problems, identity theft, etc.  But I decided that I can't let things like this drag me down.

This song has come up in a couple of different conversations in the past couple of weeks and it is such a great song.   This describes me perfectly: "Used to walk in the shade, with my blues on parade, what a drag oh man."

These two versions seemed a little different so I included both. 

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5JSvpMM6t4
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZmgv1ywdkw

"Nice, Nice, Very Nice" by Ambrosia

Another interesting song by Ambrosia that sets to music a poem from Kurt Vonnegut's Cat Cradle.  Somebody broke into my car and stole my backpack this afternoon.  But I'm sure "we all fit together in the same machine".

Officer Bennett was very helpful and pointed out how tiny particles of glass were all over and could get blow around the car and get into your eyes.  So I went to a self service car wash and vacuumed the glass up as best I could.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfoLDtn4XKM

"Heart to Heart" by Ambrosia

This is another song that, along with yesterday's song, always reminds me of my days at Sperry-Univac and listening to them on my hacked together cassette player.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJXMpkAgQXU

"Takin' It Back" by Toto

This is one of my favorites I remember from my days working at Sperry Univac and playing it on my little cassette player that I kludged together.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzMkQ_dNhK0

"California Nights" by Lesley Gore

Found this 45 in Randy's 50 cent bin and had to have it since it is my favorite Lesley Gore song.  I remember her doing this song on the Batman TV show as part of Catwoman's posse.  Catwoman, my favorite character, Julie Newmar was so, well, HOT!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCO46rZJG-I
YouTube (Batman): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XoNF-fzYMw

"Pretty Ballerina" by the Left Banke

Having memory issues is so fun.  I've told people how stuff just disappears, I had it one minute and the next minute it is nowhere to be found.  And recently I've had a couple of cases of things magically appearing.  For example I went into the garage and there was a stack of 45s sitting there that, I swear, I've never seen before and have no idea where they came from.

Anyway, I would have sworn that I posted this song earlier, in the past week or so, but now it appears that isn't the case.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rzeGqqethE

"Itchycoo Park" by Small Faces

This is the other song that jumped out at me from the  "History of British Rock" compilation album (see yesterday's post).

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGEgRnvFzLY

"Easy Livin'" by Uriah Heep

I was listening to another compilation album "History of British Rock" and a couple of songs jumped out at me.  My friend Randy always called this band "you drive a heap" and I always think of that when I think of this band.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKxZY0DIxIk
YouTube (live): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4o--q6xuvs

"You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)" by Joe Jackson

How about another favorite Joe Jackson song?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3ZZN6ybwHg
YouTube (live): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo759np9-nM

"Took the Last Train" by David Gates

I was going to post the song "(It Ain't Necessarily) Byrd Avenue" by Spanky & Our Gang, but discovered that I had already posted it back on 30-Nov-2012.  So I'm going to add the new stuff to that post.  I was also posting some David Gate songs in April of 2013 and was reminded of this song.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjZo06Gasdk

"Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" by Norma Tanega

We were listening to one of my old favorites cassettes (see my post from 1-Mar-2013) amd wife was commenting the other night how many "obscure" songs I have.  I think this song would qualify for that category as well.

Funny coincidence that the publishing company listed is "Saturday Music" and this is Saturday.

YouTube (45): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W689VAeJOd0
YouTube (Live TV): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPZVrmJ2HH8
YouTube (photos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFd97LojySM

"Baubles, Bangles, and Beads" by The Kirby Stone Four

Playing another old compilation album, I found this happy little number from 1958.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orES0PaBg9g

"Jumpin' Jive" by Cab Calloway

I can't believe I forgot to post this song a couple of weeks ago, when I posted several other songs from the "Remember How Great...?  Volume 2" record (see my post from October 24th).  I played this song over and over again.  The video with the Cab Calloway poster sounds more like the version on the "Remember How Great...?" record to me.

YouTube (Photos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dcLXaJZ1WQ
YouTube (Poster): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTje7d2BhFI

"Money's Too Tight (To Mention)" by Simply Red

Paid $371 yesterday to replace the 12 volt battery in the Prius, that is so crazy!!  I've bought good used cars for less than that.  It's insane how much stuff costs now!!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrUB0g8Vjgg
YouTube (Live): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUP7Cfqo-5E

"Right and Wrong" by Joe Jackson

Voted today, reminded me of one of my favorite Joe Jackson songs.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkzb656WVuQ

"Tragedy" by Argent

I would definitely count yesterday as one of my worst days ever.  It was just one bad thing after another.  I can't even talk about it and I can't decide what song to post for it, so for now I'm skipping yesterday.

Over 30 years ago I had a poster on the wall of my cubicle "Murphy's Computer Laws" and one of them was "Badness comes in waves" and it is so true.  Anyway this song came to mind this morning and I have had it stuck in my head ever since (earworm).

Note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsv96lacyZwI included a couple of videos because the one that has been on YouTube wouldn't play because of format issues.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxb57lpKmxs
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsv96lacyZw
YouTube (Live TV): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt-cmi3MdUY

"Me and My Shadow" by The Mills Brothers

Album my Grandpa bought me when I was very sick as a kid

Note: I'm (Rachel) finishing this post almost 4 years in the future.

That morning I found my favorite cat ever dead behind our garage.  I believe I had never cried that much before in my life before.  And I cried for days afterwards.  I fear that being a black cat on Halloween was extremely bad luck for her and us.

In retrospect it may have been because I was self-medicating at that point.  I had been taking a phyto-estrogen most of that year, in an attempt to develop breasts.  I felt like I had developed small breasts at that point.  I suspect that the estrogen had given me more emotions as well.

Anyway, I still miss our Shadow to this day.  She was so tiny, but just so fierce.  She was obviously a tiny cat, but when you picked her up you realized she was all fur.  But the way she used to get up on the back of the chairs like she was the Queen of the House.

She was so fierce she would go after Grizzly our huge male cat in this blitz attack.  (Grizzly is so big I have to use bothn hands to pick him up.)  It was so funny!

I'm crying again now, I miss her so much...

---

Anyway, Sue used to sing this sing to shadow.  And the Mills Brothers album ("MMMM... The Mills Brothers") that has this song also has a special memory for me.  When I was young I had been very sick for a significant amount of time and so one night my grandpa took me down to Gibson's, just a block away on 36th Street, and bought me that album.

I've been sick like that again this year (2018) and been pretty sick for most of the last 5 months.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds8FqVse1SY

"Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett

I remember my cubicle neighbor when I first started working at E&S (I pretty sure her name was Pam) had a list of the rules of life (I wish I had a copy of them).  I do remember that one of the rules was that you get to repeat each lesson over and over again until you learn it.

I have repeated this lesson (if I eat a bunch of junk food and drink too much beer, my body is not happy about it at all) several times lately.  But apparently have not learned it yet :(

Anyway while feeling *VERY* sick this morning I was trying to think of a good morning after song (I already posted "Hangover Tavern" on 22-July-2012) and this came to mind.  I always loved the verse about:

Nothin' to show but this brand new tattoo
It's a real beauty, a Mexican cutie
How it got here I haven't a clue

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue2-ZVxpVjc

I just remembered we got one of our most famous cats ever from Pam.  It's name was Ulysses, but everyone, including Pam, called it "Useless".