From the Get-Go

1.  Tumbling Tumbleweeds by The Sons of the Pioneers

2.  May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose by Little Jimmy Dickens

3.  Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go To Sleep) by Perry Como

4.  Yakety Axe by Chet Atkins

5.  I Left My Heart in San Francisco by Tony Bennett

6.  Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton

7.  He'll Have to Go by Jim Reeves

8.  Moon River by Henry Mancini

9.  Alley Cat by Chet Atkins

10.  Wipe Out by The Surfaris

11.  Dream by Roy Orbison

12.  Exodus by Ferrante & Teicher

13.  Theme from "A Summer Place" by Percy Faith & His Orchestra

14.  Cryin' Time by Buck Owens

15.  I'm Sorry by Brenda Lee

16.  El Paso by Marty Robbins

17.  Cryin' Time by Ray Charles

18.  Dream by Chet Atkins

These are the songs I have the most earliest memories of and which seem to have been part of the fabric of my life from the get-go.  Perhaps they weren't released as of May 14, 1960 but they probably were soon after.  

Tumbling Tumbleweeds and Cryin' Time are both songs I remember being taught to harmonize to.  We'd be riding in the car to visit family or friends or just out for a Sunday drive (that's what we did before TV and the internet) and my parents would sit in the front seat and start singing.  They'd turn around to us kids and say, "Hey, why don't you pick up the harmony on the chorus?"  And we did.  I think maybe just hearing it over and over again like that made us instinctively know how to do it.  We never had formal voice training, but my parents were always pointing out harmony to songs and had us kids listen and then participate.  It was great fun.  Once in awhile they'd choose one of us to "take it" and we'd get to do our solo part with everyone else chiming in with harmony or backup.  I'm smiling now just remembering it.  All of us could sing.  Weird, huh?  With both of these songs, there are different versions.  I struggled with whether to use Gene Autry's Tumbleweeds or 

The Sons of the Pioneers' version, but finally opted with The Sons of the Pioneers' because their phrasing most closely matched those that I remember.  And Cryin' Time is most well-known as Ray Charles' song but Buck Owens wrote it and I love Buck's version best.  It's probably the one we sang along to.  I included both because they're equally lovely.

May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose is a hilarious song and I remember giggling hysterically to it as my dad would sing it - again in the car on the way to who knows where.  I remember it took me what seemed like forever to get the words to that song down.  You really should check it out.  Funny stuff!  Oh, and by the way, it's currently Kenny's ringtone.  

Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba is one of the first songs I remember being taught to sing for company.  I love it. I've sung it to each of you kids as a lullaby.

I'm surprised at how many of the songs ended up being instrumentals.  Orchestral scores must have been huge then.  I try to think of purely instrumental songs nowadays and have a hard time thinking of any.  These are particularly beautiful and memorable.  It's a heady experience to ride in a car on a lovely summer day, windows down (no A/C) and the strings singing through the air on the radio.  Mmmmmmmm - nice!  

Chet Atkins - he was like a God in our house.  He still is in my book.  If you EVER want to feel your Grandpa Alspaugh near, play some Chet Atkins - this works for me.  I loved it when my Dad would play the guitar, especially at night after us kids were in bed.  Did he do this on purpose?  I wonder.  But the strains of his guitar would float up to us and there was nothing better to ride off to sleep on than the music he played.  Alley Cat is sweet and impish.  I included Chet's cover of Dream but I mainly remember that being sung by my Dad.  But Chet's cover is soooo wonderful.  Dream was the song that my parents' band and our family band ended every job with.  It's a sweet sendoff.  Two versions included, the popular one and my personal favorite.

Exodus was very popular at the time and I included it because it gives me such warm memories of my oldest brother, Ed.  He sang this song for some occasion, I think.  I just remember him standing at the piano, my Mom playing, and practicing this song and thinking, "He has such a wonderful voice!  He's going to be famous someday!"  I loved hearing him sing. This is an instrumental version - check out one with the words sometime!  Or ask Ed to sing it for you!

Wipe Out is really out of place musically, it seems, but it still fits the theme.  Often my parents would have band practice at our house and it would go late into the night.  We'd be sent off to bed, but instead of the sweet guitar solos floating up, we'd get full band numbers rocking the house.  Did it bother us?  Heck no!  I know I loved it!  I learned many things about music by listening to their practices.  And when Wipe Out was played it struck a chord deep inside - tickling a part of me that I would come to know much better as I grew up.  I LOVE RHYTHM!  I LOVE DRIVING BEATS!  As some of you may well know!  Of all the drummers I've heard rock this song, my favorite is my brother, Kevin.  

I have one Bobby Vinton song on this playlist.  I can promise that more will come later.  He COULD  be worthy of his own playlist.  But more on that later . . .