View Full Version : on the street where you live - songs i learned to love in nyc
billkilpatrick
May-23-2009, 7:10pm
imagine it's 1958 and you're sitting at the top of the stairs in your pajamas as your incredibly elegant mother and father exit the house in evening wear - smelling and looking like something from heaven - to go see the broadway production of "my fair lady" with rex harrison and julie andrews ...
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... spare a thought also for the poor baby sitter and all that followed.
That was quite nice but I was hoping to hear you sing it. I tried to imitate the Harmonious Wailers' version a couple of years back. I had to take it down a few keys, I think. I then got sidetracked and I've now forgotten what I worked out. I remember the chord structure is great fun. Please have a go at singing it, your voice range is much the same as mine. Except you have a nicer voice.
As a matter of interest I wonder what people's first memories of this tune are? Back in the 1960s I had an uncle who used to sing it as he drove in his car. I was absolutely fascinated by this because he sang so incredibly out of tune. I often wondered if he realised he were tone deaf but did not dare ask. More recently I asked my aunt who replied that he did indeed realise he was singing it completely out of tune but did not care at all.
Any other first impressions?
Barbara Shultz
May-24-2009, 8:47am
The only thing I can add, is that I'm sure my singing voice sounds pretty off, as well, and I don't care, either! :)) I love to sing, and if I'm in a store with canned music, I'll find myself singing out loud.... and I'm sure everyone withing earshot is thinking.... ugh!
billkilpatrick
May-24-2009, 12:22pm
ald - thank you for your gracious invitation but the song requires a youthful, irish tenor and i am neither.
Eddie Sheehy
May-24-2009, 6:16pm
I think it's ideally suited for your voice... besides, if I had an Irish tenner I'd spend it... C'mon Bill, give us a few bars...
Rando7
May-24-2009, 6:50pm
Back in college I used to sing this as I walked by the dormitory where the girl I had a crush on lived. What can I say, I was a hopeless romantic.
Yes, pretty please, Bill. You don't have to sing it like a youthful Irish tenor. After all you sing Groovin' which is tailor-made for a youthful Italian-American singer who can reach the high notes and a very creditable performance you provide to boot.
From what I remember from my lame attempts at the song a couple of years back, you have to find a key where you do not find yourself singing to low in one part and too high in the other or vice versa. Listen to the Harmonious Wail's version (http://www.amazon.com/Nonchalant-Harmonious-Wail/dp/B00008D4GO). She's singing high because she is obviously female but I'm sure it can be adapted (and just listen to those great mandolin chords backing her up).
billkilpatrick
May-25-2009, 5:35am
nooo waaayyy ... but here you go:
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Bertram Henze
May-25-2009, 12:46pm
imagine it's 1958 and you're sitting at the top of the stairs in your pajamas as your incredibly elegant mother and father exit the house in evening wear - smelling and looking like something from heaven - to go see the broadway production of "my fair lady" with rex harrison and julie andrews ...
... spare a thought also for the poor baby sitter and all that followed.
Now that's creepy - I don't have to imagine, I vaguely remember. The only detail that's different is that my parents went not to watch but to perform. And those baby sitters were abominable old hags, hated them all.
Oh, the other detail that's different: it wasn't NYC.
Bertram