Cats and Rabbits

This song has been running through my head for months. I even find myself silently singing it when I get up in the middle of the night to pee. I don't know why it suddenly appeared.

While it sounds as if it's from Disney's Alice in Wonderland (and it is), I haven't seen that movie in many years and I didn't remember that song at all. Not like "Painting the Roses Red" or "I'm Late, I'm Late".

The oddest thing is that when the song first appeared in my head, I could only remember the melody and bits and pieces of the lyric. As I worked on it (or it worked on me), I remembered more and more of the words. When I finally did my Google search, I had remembered the words almost perfectly. How did that happen? Especially since I didn't even remember the song!

I suspect that one evening as I was reading in bed listening to Jazz à la Mode, Tom Reney played the song and it seeped into my brain before I even realized it. While I'm getting a little tired of "Cats and Rabbits" there are far worse songs I could be stuck with.  

Alice in Wonderland is my very favorite of all the Disney movies. It's about a little girl who has big dreams. She takes a chance, has an incredible adventure, and meets lots of very interesting people. Yes, she's sometimes in danger, but she's able to cope without the aid of a prince - handsome or otherwise. What a wonderful story.

Songs Running Through My Head

A few weeks ago, a specific song began running through my head. If I wake up in the middle of the night, there it is. It's a song I haven't heard since I was a kid; it was one of the songs my mother used to sing to us when I was little. I don't know how many other people know about this song. Turns out, it was a big hit by country singer Kenny Roberts in 1949. The song? I Never See Maggie Alone.

My mother went into a nursing home in early October of last year. She had been getting more and more frail for the last several months and her dementia was increasing. My father couldn't care for her any longer, but was at the nursing home every day. My parents celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary on December 1, 2014. The day before, a Sunday, my siblings held a small celebration for them. While we were sitting around the table in the dining room of the nursing home eating cupcakes, my brother began singing. It was a good way to keep my mother, who tired easily, engaged. One of the songs was I Never See Maggie Alone, which I'm sure (not being a country music fan) I haven't heard since I left home to go to college at age 18. I definitely remembered the song and I remembered a lot of the words. My mother died the following Sunday. My last memory of her is having a good time singing with her kids.

Suddenly, last week, that song began running through my head.

The other song that has been competing with Maggie is Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. I know where that one came from: Tom Reney has been playing it a lot on Jazz à la Mode - being that it's spring and all. I've been spending some time on YouTube listening to the various artists sing this song. Ella Fitzgerald's version is definitely my favorite, but there are some good instrumental versions, also.

When a song that I don't like gets stuck in my head, I have a remedy. I have a favorite Cole Porter song, You Do Something To Me, that I sing. What a great song. It sometime even pops up on its own.