Songs and arrangements
83 posts
Grease – Summer Nights
Tamás GállOne of my favourite musical films when I was young was Grease (released in Hungary under the title Pomádé). Unfortunately I have not seen it for a long time, but I still know the songs by heart, and I suspect many people who love 1950s rock and roll are the same. The story of the film is extremely s…
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Five Foot Two – chords and picking technique
Tamás GállThis song may not be as widely known in 2018 as it was in the 1920s. I would like to introduce it to you now, but above all I want to encourage you to learn its chord progression, which I think is extremely effective and very well constructed. There have been countless versions of the song, and it i…
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Elvis – Heartbreak Hotel
Tamás GállI usually begin blog posts about song arrangements by briefly introducing the performer and the song. I hope nobody minds if I skip the introduction to Elvis. And if anyone happens not to know this song, which is already 62 years old this year, they should urgently correct that omission! You can fin…
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Lambada
Tamás GállWho could forget Lambada from the early 1990s? Everybody and their neighbour was shaking to this great little song. It differs from today's supposed “era-defining hits” in one important respect: this was actually music, unlike some of the modern creations that are difficult even to call music – Gang…
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Watch Out, We're Mad! – Dune Buggy
Tamás GállOver the past two or three years I have arranged several songs – not all of which have yet become blog posts – from the films of the outstanding Italian duo, films whose atmosphere is fundamentally shaped by their music. Whether they are handing out punches in the Wild West or in modern times, the a…
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The Beatles – In My Life
Tamás GállLong-time readers of the blog may know that I am a Beatles fan, and quite a few posts have dealt with their songs – more precisely, ukulele “arrangements” that were often really chord accompaniments. Those are excellent exercises for anyone getting acquainted with chords. My Beatles posts are fairly…
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Caro Emerald – Back It Up
Tamás GállEarlier this year I already sang Caro Emerald's praises, and her work is difficult to praise highly enough. In this new “play-the-chords-along-with-me” video, I would like to show you the accompaniment to one of Caro Emerald's first hits, Back It Up: Believe it or not, this song consists of only TWO…
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Caro Emerald – Tangled Up
Tamás GállThis woman makes such good music that I could not resist making another play-along chord video. Just as a reminder: click here to read my report from the Caro Emerald concert, while the previous play-along video, made for Back It Up, is available here. This time I would like to show you the accompan…
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Proud Mary
Tamás GállSeven years ago I already wrote a post about this excellent song, and now the blog has apparently caught the Hollywood trend of rewriting and remaking its biggest hits. That is not really true, of course, because we try to publish articles and videos that remain useful over time, but Proud Mary dese…
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The Beatles – Let It Be, reloaded
Tamás GállI do not think there is a person on Earth who has never heard this song at least once. Perhaps the indigenous people who shot arrows at a helicopter have not, but anyone who has ever had anything to do with twentieth-century Western popular music certainly knows The Beatles' Let It Be. It was no acc…
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The Beatles – Michelle
Tamás GállMichelle appeared on The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. I conducted a very unscientific little opinion poll among people I know and got an interesting result: relatively few recognised the song from its title. Several thought first of Pfeiffer, while others had even wilder ideas. But when I played…
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When the Saints Go Marching In
Tamás GállI would like to teach you another popular song that practically everyone knows. The origins of When the Saints Go Marching In are lost in the distant mists of time and will probably remain an eternal mystery, which is why official sources also describe it simply as "traditional". The earliest known…
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