Musical Mystery

In the last few years, Mike has noticed that I know the melody and lyrics of old songs he’s never even heard of. It comes about when some ancient song begins on something we’re watching on tv. I’ll burst into song and sing along for its entirety. “How do you do that?” he asks.

Today I decided to test myself. I hit google for popular songs in the 1930s. I wasn’t too surprised to learn that I knew many of them. To name a few:

Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen

It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie

Goody, Goody

In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town

The Very Thought of You

Flat Foot Floogee

Little Brown Jug

The Object Of My Affection

Let's Fall In Love

Lullabye Of Broadway

You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby

So, the question arises: How could I possibly know these songs and others of the big band era when I had not yet been born? We developed three possibilities.

1. Did my mother sing them to me? Mother sang some of the silly songs from the ‘40s to me like “down in the meadow in the iddy bitty pool” and “cement mixer, putty, putty.” But she didn’t sing big band songs.

2. Did my father, a former singer, sing these songs to me? That’s possible, but I only remember his singing a few songs to me. Maybe a couple would fit this category, but not the quantity that I know.

3. Which leaves this solution. I am the reincarnation of a girl big band singer who tragically died young.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.