April 17, 2016 – Dandelion Fuzz

No!– They Might Be Giants

We discovered They Might Be Giants when we began watching the tv show, Malcolm in the Middle. The theme song, Boss of Me, immediately caught our attention and we wanted to hear more about the group who sang it. That’s when we found No!

“No is no
No is always no
If they say no, it means a thousand times no”

My kids quickly learned not to push it if they asked a question and received no for an answer in the form of a song. My husband has the song on his phone and when 6 year old CJ asks the same thing repeatedly, he will play this song. Little Beej has chosen not to recognize this song yet, despite having a quite diverse and varied playlist of his own. I wonder why not? It couldn’t have anything to do with him being 16 months old and adverse to the word “no”, could it? 🙂

Blogging From A to Z Challenge: M

My Kind of Town– 1964

My dad’s passion is music and singing. He has been singing as long as I can remember and it’s because of him that I truly believe there is a song for every occasion. Growing up, it did not matter what happened, he could reach into his endless memory bank and pull out lyrics from a song that applied to whatever we were talking about. His favorite performer was Frank Sinatra, or Francis Albert, as he affectionately called him. As a result, me and my siblings had memorized every Frank Sinatra song at a very young age.

Some fun facts about this song-

My Kind of Town was written for the movie- Robin and the 7 Hoods in 1964.
The song was nominated for the 1964 Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins.
In the movie, this song is sung by Robbo (Sinatra) as he walks out onto the steps of a courthouse in….you guess it- Chicago, having been acquitted of murdering the sheriff.
Sinatra would occasionally change the lyrics “The Union Stockyards” to “The Chicago Cubbies” but being a South Sider, we won’t go there. (It’s a Chicago thing.)

I was born and raised just south of Chicago and continue to live nearby. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Chicago Bulls, Sears (Willis) Tower, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, Lake Michigan, Printer’s Row, State Street, museums, theaters, zoos, skyline, people…….even the wacky weather.