Of Thee I Sing

The other day we found ourselves in the midst of a discussion about favorite singers and musical influences, and here’s the twist! They weren’t our personal inspirations but those of other artists. We were pretty surprised at who admired whom. It seems a shame to keep all the fun to ourselves, so for your cyber amusement here’s a little quiz to start off your week. Can you match the admirer to the admired? For brevity’s sake we’ve kept it to just one per performer. We’ll post the answers in a day or two.

Performer                           Influence

1.) Madonna                       A.) Frank Sinatra

2.) Beyoncé                        B.) Maria Callas

3.) Jim Morrison                C.) Connee Boswell

4.) Stevie Wonder             D.) Judy Holliday

5.) Linda Ronstadt             E.) Mario Lanza

6.) Ella Fitzgerald              F.) The Staples Singers

7.) Christina Aguilera       G.) Bessie Smith

8.) Billie Holiday               H.) Harry Nilsson

9.) Mary Lou Williams      I.) Stevie Wonder

10.) John Lennon             J.) Etta James

11.) Elvis                          K.) Lovie Austin

Now, on a not-quite-unrelated note, if you swivel your eyes to the right of this column and take a peek at Where in the World Are the Redheads?, you’ll note that Miss Laurel has a few gigs coming up. This weekend she’s got a solo concert with Tex Arnold at the Tusten Theatre in upstate NY. Come June, she’ll be reuniting with Lauren Kinhan and Janis Siegel aka JaLaLa, for gigs at Albany’s Egg and NYC’s Birdland (in case you’re wondering, their musical influences are the Boswell Sisters, and the Ronettes). We’ve decided to give away a free ticket to the Birdland date. All you have to do to enter the fray is post a comment here about who your influences have been, musical or otherwise. Tell us who you admire and why, and the entry that inspires us the most will get the tic. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Monday Mondegreen

It’s been a while since we’ve delved into our pile of fabulously misheard lyrics, and on this damp and squishy January Monday we could all use a good laugh. The year was 1995, and that’s all we’re going to tell you. We want you to tell us the title of the song, the artist, and the correct lyric. Post it in our comments section by February 5th and you will be entered into a random drawing for our fabulous prize of the month. We’re giving away a copy of JaLaLa’s new release That Old Mercer Magic. JaLaLa is Miss Laurel’s trio with Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer and Lauren Kinhan of New York Voices, and they’ve got a gigs or two coming up in February. Check out the calendar to the right of this post for more info.

And now…our lyric…

Is that you, baby, or just a pig in this pie?

We can’t wait to see your answers!

Every Redhead Wants to Rule the World

Photo By Alfred Palmer

Frequently your redheads find themselves ending an intense conversation about important issues of the day by sighing Ahhhh…when we rule the world… Realizing that we will never achieve global domination by quietly murmuring to ourselves we’ve decided to periodically share these thoughts with you. Given that the weather’s turning to fall, and the forecast is calling for a chilly drizzle, our most recent conversations have revolved around comfort food, so today…when we rule the world…

Free chocolate for everyone!

And we're not talking about any chocolate that lists sugar as its first ingredient. We are talking about exquisite chocolate like Valrhona and Caillebaut, and Chocolove, and Terra Nostra, and Green and Black's.

What would you do if you ruled the world? Post a comment by October 31st in our comment section and our favorite idea will receive (what else?) free chocolate!

Alright, Okay, You Win

Congratulations Justin Ritchie, from Washington, DC you are the big winner of our mondegreen challenge!

Justin correctly identified "When the world gets naked, hun" as being a misheard lyric from Girls Just Want to Have Fun. He also knew that the correct lyric was “When the working day is done”, and that it was originally sung by Cyndi Lauper. In the process we learned that there are more than a few other recordings out there including one by Greg Laswell (who knew it was really a ballad?), Miley Cyrus and a band with an unprintable name but an oddly catchy version. Being ladies, we can only tell you that the band’s name starts with Star.

Justin, your copy of Hit Me With Your Pet Shark: Misheard Lyrics of the 1980’s is on its way. By the way, Cyndi will be in DC at the 9:30 club on August 12th, maybe you can get her to sign it! The photo comes from Cyndi's website, doesn't she look AMAZING?

Tuesday’s Mondegreen Moment

It’s dreary, it’s dark, it’s damp, and so to amuse ourselves on this sodden Tuesday morning we picked up our trusty mondegreen book, closed our eyes, opened to a page, pointed and this is the wisdom we received from the great mondegreen spirit…

When the world gets naked, hun...

Recognize it? Perhaps you’ve even sung it? If you can identify the source of this misheard lyric, including the original artist, the title of the song and the correct lyric email us by Tuesday June 22nd. We will put all the correct answers into the hat and choose, at random, a lucky winner who will receive a pristine copy of Charles Grosvenor Jr.’s Hit Me With Your Pet Shark Misheard Lyrics of the 1980’s. And, yes, the prize is a hint to the answer.

Mondegreen Moment

On this cloudy Thursday afternoon let’s take a break and ponder the following misheard gem from the Beatles' Ticket to Ride…

She’s got a chicken to ride

We can’t help but wonder where one finds a chicken saddle?

Your Redheads are collecting mondegreens for a weekly feature here on Two Well Read, and we need your input. Please share your stories of misheard lyrics with us by sending them to  wendylaneandlaurel@verizon.net. If we use them we’ll give you full credit, and a nifty surprise gift. There’s no expiration date on this one and no limit on the number of entries you can send.

Keeping Up

We’re so flustered from all our recent activity that we just realized we neglected to announce the winner from last month’s Inspiration Challenge. The Redhead award (a $20 I-Tunes gift card) goes to our friend Karen Merstik from the Vegas girl group Dangerous Curves. We were delighted to hear her thoughts on getting back into the inspirational groove, and even more thrilled to find that she is also a redhead. Karen, drop us a note at parkroadmanagement@verizon.net with your contact info, and we’ll get your card right out to you. As for the rest of you…we’ll be posting this month’s giveaway question in the next week so keep your browser tuned in.

Instead She Wrote…

Here at Two Well Read we try very very hard to come up with new and scintillating discussions on the state of music, life and all the rest of it, but some days things just don’t flow like they should. So today instead of a fascinating discourse on a subject artistic you’re gonna get…

Things Wendy Lane Does When She Should be Writing Her Blog Post

• Visit favorite websites; ponder why I can’t get my eye makeup to look like the “girls” on RuPaul’s Drag Race…
• Spin round and round in my desk chair until I’m dizzy…perhaps this will shake loose the brilliance within
• Check E-mail
• Stare out the window and wonder why the neighbor across the street never invites me over to use her pool (maybe because I am constantly staring out the window)
• Play computer word game in the hopes that resplendent verbiage will result
• Call friends to discuss latest medical, legal, amorous crises
• Type title onto page,become overwhelmed with sense of accomplishment, take a nap
• Check E-mail
• Remove cats from keyboard…on second thought, maybe I could make something out of djklwepatepjoiat
• Shake fist at ceiling and curse my lot in life
• Check E-mail Look under desk to see if dazzling first sentence may be found there.
• Make list of things I’m doing rather than writing blog post
• Check E-mail

So what I really want to know from all this spinning and listing is what inspires YOU, and what do YOU do when your muse deserts you and you find yourself stuck? Do you have a ritual? A favorite place you go to get your mojo back? Inspire us with your answer by April 22nd and you could be the lucky recipient of a $20 I-tunes gift card.

Another Winner

Congratulations and a big Redhead smooch to Charles Martin the winner of this month’s RedHead award for devising the perfect addition to our Ad Libitum questionnaire. His cleverness gains him a permanent place on our questionnaire and a copy of Ann Hampton Callaway’s latest release At Last. The winning query, Where do you see yourself musically and artistically in the next ten years? has been added and answered by March’s special guest celebrity. Tune in tomorrow for the big reveal. In the meantime, Mr. Martin, drop us a line at parkroadmanagement@verizon.net with your contact information and we’ll get your prize right out to you.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation… PLUS… October's Reader Challenge…..

It would seem a bit odd that only now when most normal people are deciding which presidential candidate to impersonate for Halloween am I getting around to this post. However, with all of our running here and there over the past few weeks I kept getting delayed and here we are. So without any further delay on my part… my summer story….

After six years of administrating a summer conference for singers I announced my intention of taking the summer off. This was met with varied reactions from skepticism to confusion and in the case of my friend Michelle, a plot to kill me. Michelle is my “sporty” friend, gorgeous, all of five feet tall, and one hundred pounds soaking wet, but I’d never be fool enough to bet against her in a fight. She’s fierce, and burns near as many calories as Michael Phelps on a typical day. I’ve seen her eat her six foot six former pro football playing husband under the table when dessert was involved and still fit perfectly into a size four. Life is not fair. Upon hearing that I would be taking time off she announced that idle hands were the devil’s (or maybe Jenny Craig’s) workshop and that she was going to take charge of ensuring that I spend the summer attempting to do all the things I’ve never done before. Namely, golf, tennis, mountain biking, and horse back riding, with a bit of yoga thrown in for good measure. A few trips to the local ER and one near death experience quickly convinced me that I was not cut out for the sporting life and that the better part of valor would be for me to return to the world where I belonged. In this case the recording studio where all I would have to hit would be the correct notes and chances of accidental dismemberment were far less likely. So I ensconced myself in the small recording studio at Rick Jensen’s and worked on putting some of my favorite tunes and arrangements on the record. With Rick acting as arranger, and producer, Miss. Laurel advising, doing some of the co-producing and a back up vocal here and there, and my friend Lisa Poulos providing a few additional harmonies we had a grand old time. I have worked on other people’s recordings and that has always been great, but it’s nothing like doing your own thing.With Rick and Laurel I couldn't ask for better creative partners and that makes it all the more fun. I love being in the studio, and I am looking to do some more recording over the next year. In the meantime, we have been working on getting things mixed and up onto my website( http://www.wendylanebailey.com/) a tune at a time. I’ll keep you posted as things develop, and I hope you enjoy what we’ve done so far. Remember it keeps me safe and off the golf course. Alas, Michelle has not yet given up on her plan. She keeps trying to lure me back to sports with the promise that this gives me the perfect excuse to get a whole new shoe wardrobe. Any shoe that involves a rubber sole is not worth dying for. There are pictures of my sporting odyssey but I fear the world is not ready for snaps of me wielding a gold club.

All of this brings me to our October giveaway…..

First the prize: This month we’re giving away a CD devised especially for our winner with two tracks by yours truly and two by Miss. Laurel. To win you won’t even have to perform any feats of athletic prowess you just have to participate in something we Redheads are calling The 0-10 Challenge. We’re looking for cultural stuff to do that costs less than $10. All you have to do is write in with your suggestions for great entertainment that fall within that price range. Over the course of the month we’ll check them out and write about some of our favorites. The very best one (or maybe even two) will be declared our winner and gets a CD with us warbling away. Not in the NYC area? Not a problem, share some of the fun things going on in your neck of the woods that meet our criteria and you’ll be eligible too. You have till Halloween to get your entries in, so get out there and find some cheap thrills!