For several years on Hive I've been doing my sporadic Evening Groove series of posts where I look at a specific song, tell why I like it, give some info about it. Well, except the last of those I did which featured three songs instead of one. I really should go through my posting history and make an index of all those posts.

I just recently became aware of Three Tune Tuesday which I think was started by @ablaze. I was going to do this as an Evening Groove post today, but I think instead I'll join this series, or maybe I'll merge them.

But I have a twist. I will be focusing on three tunes, but I will also list a few more. You see, I usually make a playlist for my kids every week or so. I'll put this playlist on when we are in the car or when they want to listen to music at night before bed. My goal here is in addition to giving them some of the music they like, I also introduce some of my favorite songs (an overwhelming number of which are 80s songs), as well as classics from both English and Japanese music. Personally I love almost all genres (well... country is difficult...) and I want to encourage the same in my kids, so I try to select a pretty wide range every few weeks when I make these.

I have some rules I follow for these playlists. First, I try to limit myself to only one song from any given genre. So that is to say, for instance, I only allow one 80s pop song. I try to always work in at least one jazz or one classical piece (or both). I try to do both Japanese & English songs since they are both American and Japanese. And to keep them interested in between the songs I'm trying to introduce them to, I make half of the playlist count in their favorite music: that may be, for example, an Ultraman theme song or some video game music (they both love playing 3DS and Switch) or something like that. It almost goes without mention that since my kids are young I try to avoid songs that contain bad language. That means no Rage Against the Machine, unfortunately. Maybe when they are older.

Oh yeah, I have one more rule. When I use a song in one of these playlists, I can't use it again for at least two more playlists. Gotta keep things fresh.

Anyway, that out of the way, let's look at this most recent collection for them and then I'll pull out three to focus on for this Three Tune Tuesday.

The Song List

1. Yukiguni - Ikuzo Yoshi
2. Be-Bop - Milt Jackson & John Coltrane
3. A Little Less Conversation - Elvis
4. In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
5. Gotta Knock a Little Harder - The Seatbelts
6. Mr Bojangles - Sammy Davis Jr
7. Brave Love, Tiga (Ultraman Tiga Ending Theme) - Earth Protection Force
8. Gera Gera Po (Yokai Watch Opening Theme) - King Cream Soda
9. Kimi o Nosete (from Castle in the Sky) - Azumi Inoue
10. Super Metroid "Heat Vision" - DarkeSword
11. Dance of Pales (Symphony of the Night) - Laurence Manning
12. Watashi no Basu - Yumi Muruta

Back in the day when I made mixtapes I would pay attention to the song order. My own personal rules weren't all that different from those John Cusack laid out for us in High Fidelity (an amazing movie if you've never seen it). But in this case, the order isn't important because I just randomize it on every play to keep things interesting for the kids, so what you see above is just the order I selected the songs when I made the playlist.

Three Picks

And from the above let's look at track 2, 6, and 12

1. Be-Bop - Milt Jackson & John Coltrane

   This is a great play, recorded for their 1959 album "Bags & Trane". Fast paced, complex cord progressions, a driving rhythm section, and Coltrane's sublime tenor sax. This is one of the top bebop albums you will find, and this a great tune on the record. Listen to the whole thing.

2. Mr Bojangles - Sammy Davis Jr

   This is a shortened version of the full song that moves things along a little faster than the full version. I thought I might keep my kids' interest better with this version. It was written by Jerry Jeff Walker, but Sammy Davis Jr made it his own and it became his signature song. It really highlights his amazing voice as well as his performing. If you want to see the full version of the song and watch him performing it, look here

3. Watashi no Basu - Yumi Muruta

   This was from her 1981 album Himiko, a nice jazz/pop fusion record. I imagine few of you know Japanese, but don't worry about the meaning, just enjoy the groove. (But if you are interested, here are the lyrics. Sorry, I can only find them in Japanese, but you can copy and paste into deepl if you are curious.) If you enjoyed that, here's the full album.

There you go—a pretty diverse selection. Hope you can enjoy some of them!

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.