This is a weird one.
Identify a song that you know / sing that you were surprised to find out was actually written by someone.
Let me explain: people have repertoires of songs just like they have repertoires of stories. I know not everyone is a singer, but you all know songs, and you probably sing in a number of contexts, even if none of them is on a stage in front of people. Many of these songs are products of popular culture and their association with their creators and/or most famous performers is still intact. When you get drunk and start singing "Wild Thing" or "Louie Louie," you probably remember that, as ubiquitous as they are, they are most famously associated with The Troggs and The Kingsmen, respectively. Even if you're not sure of the original artist you are probably aware of them as "created." (Anyone remember Shirley Ellis's most famous song? Again, you all know it, despite your immediate desire to exclaim "Who the hell is Shirley Ellis?") This is in part because they bear the hallmarks of popular music.
But there are other songs that you may know that you have had as part of your repertoire for so long that they seem not to have come from an outside source like popular culture but passed down exclusively through informal interaction. A classic example would be "Happy Birthday." I defy you to find an English-speaking North American who can honestly make a claim that they do not know or have never sung that song. Doesn't mean they like it, just that they know it. But "Happy Birthday" was not only written, it's copyrighted. I you have seen a movie where it was performed, watch the closing credits and note that it is listed in the song permissions.
If the question proves too weird, here's a modified version:
Identify a song in your repertoire for which the association to the originating artist is (largely) irrelevant.
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2 comments:
I'm not one of your students, but I do have a story I would like to share! My mother's familly comes from a very small town in a south region of portugal (Alentejo), a very rural and deserted area. They have a very strong poliphonic singing tradition, called "Cante". Since I was a baby my favorite song from that repertoire was one about a bird intitulled "Senhora Cegonha", that everybody singed. For me it was a song older then time. Earing it would make remember my lost grand parents, for me it was a link to my ancestors and my roots. Then,
only some years ago, when I was already in the University, I eard some older friends singing that same song, and I shared my enthusiasm with them. They told me it was one of them who composed it. First I didn't believed it. Then all of them confirmed it. It was him, when he was around 20 (he is now 60). The song becamed famose because it was edited in a Cassette, and it was on the radio all the time. So, this man , called Martinho, he was in fact as old as my parents, he lives a modern life in a city, and the music I associated with my blood ties becamed in fact a part of my region's culture through the modern media... And I still love that song!
Sorry for my english.
Wow: thanks for this. I'm using it in class today.
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