Most of the songs were written and performed long before I was born, but as the piano started to play and the lyrics wafted across the room I knew each note and every nuance to each word.
Joy can be found in music. The toe taps, the head nods, and words arrive on the tip of the tongue.
It would have been hard to think of the line three minutes earlier, but as the music starts - it easily flows: "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone; Without a dream in my heart; Without a love of my own."
"Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through.
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true."
You may have learned some of these standards like I did, while driving with the family on long trips in the car. Before there were portable DVD players, IPads, or personal music players - even before car radios and really prior to cars... families would sing.
It's a way of sharing and learning. One of the first ones I remember my Dad singing was on our way home from the grandparents, "Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed..." I was shocked years later to hear the actors in the movie Jaws singing it during the epic fishing trip. It was even more shocking to learn it was a drinking song on some level, I always thought it referred to all the Pepsi I drank at Grandpa's.
During the summers I spent time with Grandpa and Grandma, Grandpa and I would sing while driving in his van. He was a good singer, and I remember how fast the time flew as he taught me the words.
My appreciation for the American Songbook began in earnest during my first radio job at WCLO/WJVL. It didn't happen often, but occasionally I was asked to run the board for a live Sunday morning program on WJVL that featured Big Band music.
Hosted by Bill Korst, he featured hits by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Tommy Dorsey. Even though my taste in music at that time revolved around Fleetwood Mac and Billy Joel; I liked the sound.
When I returned to Wisconsin a couple years ago, I was shocked to find Bill Korst - still on the radio and still playing songs from radio's Golden Age. He still does "Name that Tune" contests for his audience listening in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois on WEKZ-FM and those listening around the world streaming it over their computers.
As time goes by, the music of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s become the standards for that generation who came of age with those songs.
I suspect, however, that there will always be a place in our hearts and a tap in our toes when the old hits are sung or heard again...
You are My Sunshine
My only sunshine,
You make my happy when skies are gray.
You'll never know dear,
How much I love you...
Please don't take, my sunshine away.
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