Last night was an impromptu Karaoke night. Not at some bar, not even at some young-in’s party. It was my mom’s best friend’s 75th birthday party (you know, the friend that you call Aunt because you’ve known her since you were 2) . Here’s some things you may or may not know about me and my extended family.

• We love to sing.
• Because we have known each other our whole lives we feel comfortable enough to sing our hearts out.

OK, that’s kind of misleading, my sister and I have been singing for a long time, so we don’t need to “feel comfortable”. If I had the wear-with-all I would actually link a song we recorded about 15 years ago. It’s pretty funny. Here’s the reason:

Debbie (my kinda cousin) speaking to me and my sister: You guys are so funny. You totally analyze each song.

Us (because we speak in unison so I am shortening it since we each said some of the words): Well, have you listened to the words of this song? I mean come on! He’s such a jerk, and this is so sad, and we might as well slit our wrists and call it a day. I can’t even believe we’re singing this song.  We totally can’t sing songs like these.

Debbie, getting all philosophical and looking at us very seriously: Oh, I get it, because the songs you like to sing are songs that you feel on the inside, deep down in your heart.

Us: No, because these songs are stupid. We only sing happy songs.

Maybe you had to be there.

Meanwhile, after singing for 5 hours, I was pretty darn hoarse this morning. And because we’re losers who didn’t get babysitters, 5yo niece and 8yo boy were up making cameos until 12:30am.

Oh Yeah!!! So, I’m a total music snob. OK not really, well – yes I am. Because, as I mentioned, I only like happy music. Mostly. And the exceptions do not make me a hypocrite they only make me smart. Anyway…. I pretty much pride myself on knowing the ACTUAL lyrics to every song I love, which is very helpful in Karaoke, so imagine my surprise when I discovered I had been singing this Mondegreen all along! (mondegreen is defined as a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung <“very close veins” is a mondegreen for “varicose veins”>)

Hotel California….
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz

Tell me you did not think all along it was: Her mind is definitely twisted? I’ll give you 100 pennies if you REALLY (and I can read minds, so don’t lie) knew that line.

 

This week’s Twisted MixTape Tuesday theme is beautiful songs. I have given you permission to interpret that anyway you want. I bet you know how I interpreted it.

 

Top 5 songs that I will sing Karaoke with you Any-time as long as the background music doesn’t sound like a cheezy Casio VL tone (really, call me)

 

Right Down the Line – Gerry Rafferty (p.s. I’ll even sing the guitar solo)

 

On and On – Stephen Bishop (p.s. I don’t think I’d notice if this had the Casio on the background) (p.p.s. don’t get me too late in the night or I won’t be able to hit that last high note)

 

The Things We Do For Love – 10 CC  (p.s. back in the olden days, I was hanging with my boyfriend and a bunch (maybe 12) friends, this was WAY before Flash Mobs, we all just broke out singing this song having brunch at some posh place. It was classic.) (p.p.s. extra points for the woooo wooo wooo wooo wooo wooo wooos)

 

Just The Two of Us – Grover Washington, Jr (once again, bonus points for doing the background ladies singing ‘just the two of us”)

 

Best of My Love – Eagles (we sang a ton of Eagles last night, total crowd pleaser)

 

And now for the fun! Because this really is the fun. Just incase you are wondering… I listen to EVERY SINGLE mix that links up! I may be picky about what I like, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love finding out what makes your musical souls tic.

The rules of Twisted MixTape are as such: Try and create a 5 song mix based on this week’s theme. This week our theme is Beautiful Songs (interpret how you will) make a 5 song playlist of songs you think are beautiful. I don’t care if your interpretation is they all have the word beautiful in them, or all of the singers are beautiful. Play what you will fellow mixers.

Take it easy, make it flow, remember in your mind you are creating your mixtape for a friend, what would he want to hear?

Create your own post and link it up, or put your mix in the comments. If you are going to link-up there must be a song – relating to the theme – in your post. And really, if you’re not ready to link up with us, no worries! We love songs in the comments! So bring it!

Please visit your fellow mix-makers, and if you can, comeback every so often to see if anyone new has arrived. Share this all over the place, the more the merrier! And go visit my lovely cohort, without whom I would have never had the guts to make this happen – Kristi at Finding Ninee. She’s always got a song, a funny story and some silly Drawrings. Mostly, just have fun, there’ s no pressure here.

http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=209679

IF you need to own any of this awesome music, click these links to go straight to iTunes:

Right Down the Line – City to City
On and On – Careless
The Things We Do for Love – The Very Best of 10cc
Just the Two of Us (feat. Bill Withers) – Anthology
The Best of My Love – On the Border

 

And…….

The List Of All Lists:

September 17 –  Free for all! New feature! Every 6 weeks I’m gonna post a free for all. Make a mix, any mix! Whatever speaks to you is AOK with me. Maybe you have a theme in your head, an idea to showcase. WHATEVER YOU WANT!
September 24 – Relaxing slow jams. You wanna chill, you want your friends to chill. Any genre from rock to jazz to hip-hop, but it’s gotta be slow-jams
October 1 – Our own Troy from As Long As I’m Singing contributed this week’s theme: the (5) seminal songs who made you the person you are today. The shutter-openers, the wakers, the “I can see clearly now the rain is goners.” The tunes that forced you to look in the mirror and say, “Hey good-looking, you seem familiar, yet new.”
October 8 – I wouldn’t love these songs so much if they weren’t part of a Soundtrack. Your favorite songs from soundtracks, could be anywhere from pop music you love to original scores, you decide. Try and use the point of view that it was the Soundtrack that made you love the song.
October 15 – Make a mix of songs that are totally from a genre or style of music that you don’t usually listen to. You know… 5 songs that you love anyway… kinda like Clark pulling the Classical Music card for Best of
October 22 – Songs that are spiritual. In anyway. To you, about something spiritual, you decide.
October 29 – Songs that are scary. FOR ANY REASON. Halloween is a few days away. Are they scary because of the words, what the band looks like, because it’s just so darn bad??
November 5- Free for all!
November 12 – Song’s that tell a story. These can be epics or not. Just a story. Kind of clearly.

 

Just a reminder, last week I unveiled my new blog Raised on the Radio – Looking for contributors to write anything involving the way we used to listen to music before the digital age. It can be about a specific album, band, concert or just an experience. Let me know if you’re interested!