h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sounds fun. What are you singing - Barber shop? Madrigals?

One Caribbean-style close harmony (four men) - "Yellow Bird"; one in "Manhattan Transfer" style, with S.A.T.B. "Somewhere over the rainbow" (with a difficult key-change in the middle).

And I thought no one remembered "Yellow bird". (Nina and Frederick?)

'Listen to the Ocean' is what I associate with Nina & Frederik, 'Yellow Bird' with Harry Belafonte.

Are we talking 50s here? Wow.

Our Gibbons to Gershwin (Heavens to Murgatroyd!) is a nice programme -- lightweight madrigals (Fair Phyllis, Fyer Fyer, Sweet Suffolk Owl, Dainty Fine Bird (by Gibbons), Too Much I Once Lamented, Weep Weep Mine Eyes) and some Rosemantic pieces (Sullivan's 'The Long Day Closes', Stanford's 'The Blue Bird') three Shakespeare settings by Vaughan Williams, and some 20th century popular songs (Blue Moon, I Got Rhythm, Over the , Smoke Gets in Your Eyes), a silly setting of 'This Old Man' mixed with 'Michael Finnegan' by Andrew Carter, and a wonderful encore piece 'Name That Tune' by Grayston (known as Bill) Ives.

We're doing some of the programme in a charity concert tomorrow (Wed 25the, Towel Day) in The Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin at 8. But Airfield on the 12th will be a wonderful venue, right size, good acoustic, lovely setting.

Which of the above songs is by the Gershwin brothers?





(No, Blue Moon is Rogers & Hart! I Got Rhythm.)

I remember 'Yellow Bird' as Harry Belafonte too. There must be a few of us ...

I knew the answer to the Gershwin question. I wouldn't have said that it was Blue Moon, anyway.

I have memories of a woman's voice singing "Yellow Bird".

According to

http://web.telia.com/~u87125667/lyrics/yellow_bird.htm

it was recorded by all of the following:


Irving Burgie -
The Brothers Four
Greg MacDonald -
Lord Bill Banes
Lord Busta & The Caribbean Royals -
The Merrymen
The Norman Luboff Choir
The Phoenix Singers
Jan Lindblad -
Nina & Frederik
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

As this list doesn't mention Harry Belafonte, I'm not sure how reliable it is.

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Then I found this: http://www.belafontetracks.ca/fan_forum_1.htm which says that Harry Belafonte never ever recorded the song, nor did he wcwe sing it in concert.

I'm quite surprised at this; I was prepared to believe that he had at least sung it. He recorded the song with different words.

Sorry - I'm typing in the dark here - that was supposed to say "nor did he ever sing it in concert".

That's a handy code: type one letter to the left. Xybbubf.

Amazing. Belafonte never sang Yellow Bird. Whose voice is that in my memory then?

' Harry Belafonte popularized both Jamaican Farewell and Yellow Bird on his 1956 album “Calypso”.' it says on this link: http://www.toucans.net/Albums/Buffet/bufsongs.html

Hmm, mind you, I think the link may be mistaken - having looked at the contents of Calypso, I can't see 'Yellow Bird'!

Yes http://www.belafontetracks.ca/fan_forum_1.htm which looks authoritative says he never recorded Yellow Bird, and probably never sang it live, despite frequent requests.

Ah yes, Trillian's link precisely.

I'll try and make it to the Gaudete Singers concert in Airfield.

It'll be good. It'll be nice. And they give you wine.

The Quartet Competition was great fun! It turned out there were only three entries. Since we only had a week to practise, the only people who entered were the ones who didn't care about winning (the perfectionists would have needed more time to practise). As a result, everyone enjoyed themselves.

I'll definitely be at the Gaudete Singers' concert.

Excellent. I can give you my belated contribution for the mini-marathon. Anyone who has that much fun deserved to be paid for it.