Larry O'Connor

17/07/2024

Woohoo, indeed...

Woohoo! Larry O'Connor - Piano Man - Delivered! reached the 35,000 Views milestone on Jul 09, 2024 | via

17/06/2024

Belmar ~ sitting outside Dick's Sporting goods playing a piano while my sister paints it.

15/06/2024

Lakewood CO downtown, BELMAR, is having pianos painted by local artists. My sister is doing two of them. I did some kamikaze buskering as she painted.

03/06/2024

Moon River

07/02/2024

"Walking in Memphis" is a song written and originally recorded by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. It received a Song of the Year nomination at the 34th Grammy Awards in 1992, the same year that the 32-year-old Cohn won the Grammy for Best New Artist.

The song's lyrics are autobiographical, chronicling a 1985 trip that Cohn, then a struggling songwriter and singer, took to Memphis to overcome a bout of writer's block. After visiting the church where former soul singer Al Green was preaching, Elvis Presley's former home of Graceland, and a small nightclub in nearby Mississippi, as well as wandering various streets of downtown Memphis, he returned to New York and began composing the song.

05/02/2024

"Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison. Written by Morrison and recorded in March 1967 for Bang Records owner and producer Bert Berns, it was released as a single in June of the same year on the Bang label, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song spent a total of sixteen weeks on the chart. It featured the Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is considered to be Van Morrison's signature song.

03/02/2024

"Born to Be Wild" is a song first performed by the band Steppenwolf. It is often invoked in both popular and counter culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude. It is most notably featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider. Sometimes, "Born to Be Wild" is described as the first heavy metal song, and the second-verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" marks the first use of this term in rock music.

01/02/2024

"Big Yellow Taxi" is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970, and originally released on her album Ladies of the Canyon. It was a hit in her native Canada as well as Australia and the UK . It only reached No. 67 in the US in 1970, but was later a bigger hit there for her in a live version released in 1974, which peaked at No. 24. Charting versions have also been recorded by the Neighborhood (who had the original top US 40 hit with the track in 1970, peaking at No. 29).

I had the pleasure of working with Lou (Chickie) Stella of The Neighborhood for several years, doing a Four Seasons medley that would give the Jersey Boys a run for their money. That band also had Sam Valeo on drums, formerly of the American Breed of "Bend Me Shape Me" fame.

Mitchell said this about writing the song: I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi' on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart […] this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song.

31/01/2024

"American Pie" is a song by American singer and songwriter Don McLean. Recorded and released in 1971 on the album of the same name, the single was the number-one US hit for four weeks in 1972. A truncated version of the song was covered by Madonna in 2000 and reached No. 1 in at least 15 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. At 8 minutes and 42 seconds, McLean's combined version is the sixth longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (at the time of release it was the longest). The song also held the record for almost 50 years for being the longest song to reach number one before Taylor Swift's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" broke the record in 2021. "American Pie" has been described as "one of the most successful and debated songs of the 20th century".

The repeated phrase "the day the music died" refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, ending the era of early rock and roll; this became the popular nickname for that crash.

29/01/2024

"I Think We're Alone Now" was first recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells. It was a major hit for the group, reaching number 4 on the US Hot 100 in April 1967. It finished at No. 12 on Billboard magazine's year-end singles chart for 1967.

27/01/2024

"Happy Together" was released as a single in January 1967. To promote the single the band members performed on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in February. The Turtles would be called to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in May 14, 1967, and again on November 12. on March 25 it overtook The Beatles' "Penny Lane". It stayed at #1 for three weeks before being knocked out of the #1 position by Frank and Nancy Sinatra's duet "Somethin' Stupid". In total, the record stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 15 weeks.

BMI named "Happy Together", with approximately five million performances on American radio, the 44th most-performed song in the United States of the 20th century, placing it in the same league as "Yesterday" by the Beatles and "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel. And, in 2007, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

26/01/2024

Mary Louise Weiss, Lead Singer of the Shangri-Las (Leader of the Pack), Dies at 75
Mary Louise Weiss (December 28, 1948 – January 19, 2024) was an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Shangri-Las in the 1960s. Their single “Leader of the Pack” went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1964.

21/01/2024

Exerpts from a show I did on 1-17-24 for a group of 30-ish people that shows how much fun my act is. This also shows that my repertoire of 60's singalong music is embedded in American culture and being passed down to post-Woodstock generations. If your friends and family are under 75 this show will bring them lots of fun and memories.

Subscribe and get single songs from the whole show on odd-numbered days in 2024!

27/12/2023

"Maybe This Time" is a song written by John Kander and Fred Ebb for actress Kaye Ballard. It was later included in the 1972 film Cabaret, where it is sung by the character Sally Bowles, played by Liza Minnelli. It had already been recorded and released twice, in similar arrangements, on Minnelli's debut studio album Liza! Liza! (1964), and subsequently New Feelin' (1970), but it turned into a traditional pop standard after its 1972 inclusion in Cabaret.

25/12/2023

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an English Christmas carol.
The greeting "a merry Christmas and a happy New Year" is recorded from the early eighteenth century; however, the history of the carol itself is unclear. Its origin probably lies in the English tradition wherein wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve, such as "figgy pudding" that was very much like modern-day Christmas puddings; in the West Country of England, "figgy pudding" referred to a raisin or plum pudding, not necessarily one containing figs. In the famous version of the song, the singer demands figgy pudding from the audience, threatening to not "go until we get some".

24/12/2023

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Bing Crosby's record topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks in 1942 and returned to the number one position again in December of 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.

Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by many artists. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the world's best-selling single (in terms of sales of physical media), with estimated sales in excess of 50 million physical copies worldwide. When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million.

24/12/2023

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958; it has since been recorded by numerous other music artists. By the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee's original version had sold over 15 million copies around the world with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single. In 2019, Lee's recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In November 2023, Lee released a music video for the song, and in December 2023 the song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking Lee's third number-one single and making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the Hot 100 at age 79. The song also set the record for the longest period of time between an original release and its topping the Hot 100 (65 years), as well as the longest time between number-one singles by an artist: 63 years, one month and two weeks.

22/12/2023

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.

The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents "on" the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams". The flip side of the original recording was "Danny Boy."

22/12/2023

Here is an interview I did.

We were lucky to catch up with Larry O’Connor recently and have shared our conversation

21/12/2023

"Winter Wonderland", 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himber, it has been covered by over 200 different artists.

The song's lyrics were about a couple's romance during the winter season. A later version of "Winter Wonderland" (which was printed in 1947) included a "new children's lyric" that transformed it "from a romantic winter interlude to a seasonal song about playing in the snow." The snowman mentioned in the song's bridge was changed from a minister to a circus clown, and the promises the couple made in the final verse were replaced with lyrics about frolicking. Singers like Johnny Mathis connected both versions of the song, giving "Winter Wonderland" an additional verse and an additional chorus.

20/12/2023

"Jingle Bell Rock" is an American Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas season since then, and is generally considered Helms' signature song. " Brenda Lee recorded the song in 1964, for her album Merry Christmas from Brenda Lee. Lee's recording of "Jingle Bell Rock" has charted every year on the Billboard Top 100 since 2019.

19/12/2023

"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions. The song was first recorded that fall by Vaughn Monroe, was released just after Thanksgiving, and became a hit by Christmas.

Despite the lyrics making no mention of any holiday, the song has come to be regarded as a Christmas song worldwide due to its winter theme, being played on radio stations during the Christmas and holiday season, and having often been covered by various artists on Christmas-themed albums.

18/12/2023

"Blue Christmas" is a Christmas song written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson and most famously recorded by Elvis Presley, although it was first recorded by Doye O'Dell in 1948. It is a tale of unrequited love during the holidays and is a longstanding staple of Christmas music, especially in the country genre.

Elvis Presley cemented the status of "Blue Christmas" as a rock-and-roll holiday classic by recording it for his 1957 LP Elvis' Christmas Album. Presley's original 1957 version was released as a commercially available single for the first time in 1964.

17/12/2023

"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespi. When it was covered by Eddie Cantor on his radio show in November 1934 it became a hit; within 24 hours, 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records were sold. The song has been recorded by over 200 artists including Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, the Crystals, Neil Diamond, Fred Astaire, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Bill Evans, Chris Isaak, the Temptations, The Pointer Sisters, the Carpenters, Michael Bublé, Luis Miguel, and the Jackson 5.

16/12/2023

"Sleigh Ride" is a light orchestra standard composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had formed the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946, and he finished the work in February 1948. Its first performance was by the Boston Pops, Arthur Fiedler conducting, on June 7, 1948. The original recordings were instrumental versions. The lyrics, about riding in a sleigh and other wintertime activities, were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950. Anderson also made arrangements for wind band and piano.

The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. "Sleigh Ride" was a hit record on RCA Victor Red Seal, and has become one of the orchestra's signature songs. The 45 rpm version was originally issued on red vinyl. The Pops have recorded the song numerous times, with Fiedler as well as John Williams, their conductor from 1979 to 1995, and Keith Lockhart, their current conductor.
The Ronettes recorded a cover of "Sleigh Ride" in 1963 for Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You.

15/12/2023

"Deck the Halls” is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, "Nos Galan", while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862. The tune was first found in a musical manuscript by Welsh harpist John Parry dating back to the 1700s. In the eighteenth century the tune spread widely, with Mozart allegedly using it in his 18th violin sonata (1778) and later Haydn arranged it in under the Welsh title, "Nos galan" (1803).

14/12/2023

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol. A classic example of a cumulative song, the lyrics detail a series of increasingly numerous gifts given to the speaker by their "true love" on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days that make up the Christmas season, starting with Christmas Day). The words were first published in England in the late eighteenth century. A large number of different melodies have been associated with the song, of which the best known is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin.

13/12/2023

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" (also called "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas") is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. The song has since become one of the top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century. The song was featured in the 1964 Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which Burl Ives voiced the narrator, Sam the Snowman. This song, as well as "Silver and Gold", was done by Ives. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" continue to chart annually on the Billboard holiday charts into the 2020s.