Thursday: The Importance of The Arts—Oldies

April 2nd, 2009 in Thursday: The Importance of the Arts

It always makes me chuckle when my girls pick up on a classic “oldies” song. They love to sing and dance along to it for weeks and then move on to a different song.

I love it as the Mom because I feel that is opens their perspectives, allows them to appreciate a wide array of musicians and is a lot more enjoyable to listen to than “Barbie” music. 🙂

Their current love is Ottis Redding, which I totally get, he is just smooth! They love twirling around to Sittin At the Dock of The Bay and also love My Girl.

Otis Redding really did have a knack of making rhythm and blues funky. As a child he enjoyed listening to Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Redding made his first real mark in the music business during a Johnny Jenkins session when, during studio time left over, he recorded “These Arms of Mine”, a ballad that he had written. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was recorded only three days before Redding’s death. Ottis Redding passed away on December 10, 1967 when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin on the way back from a show.

In November 2008, Rolling Stone Magazine placed Redding at number 8 in their list of “100 Greatest Singers of All-Time”. And in our home with completely agree, 🙂 Enjoy the video with your kids!