Lucy Music and "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing"

I have a bunch of silly songs that I sing to Lucy. I call many of them "original compositions" - although they really are too silly and repetitive to really be called compositions. Maybe they should be called jingles. One day I need to write a post on all of these silly songs that I have made up. I keep joking with J that I also need to transcribe them into musical notation. I sang several of these songs to Sam when he was a baby, and it's fun to sing them again to Lucy.

Some of the songs I sing to Lucy are actual songs, although occasionally I change the words or sing the song in a silly way. Probably the one I sing the most is "Lucy dee Loo," which is sung to the chorus of the original "Winnie the Pooh" theme song (at about 1:07 in this clip). Sometimes, for Lucy's entertainment and my own amusement, I sing "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" from Les Miserables with the inflections of Julie Andrews. I'm still working on perfecting that impersonation, but Lucy seems to enjoy it. Perhaps she just recognizes the tune, because I used to sing that song in the shower when I was pregnant.

Other songs are not made up or silly, though. I like to sing "Moon River" and "Edelweiss" to Lucy (though not in a Julie-Andrews-style voice, but my own). And today, since Lucy has become a fan of trying to keep her head up, we danced cheek-to-cheek around the house while I sang "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" from White Christmas. We probably danced like that for fifteen minutes - Lucy really enjoyed it. Perhaps she was just relieved that I was singing a song legitimately instead of my usual jest! And I kept singing and dancing because I liked having her chubby cheek against my cheek. I took a picture of us with my phone, while we waltzed through the bathroom.

I pulled up a video clip of this song on my computer afterward, so Lucy could listen to the actual song with musical accompaniment. When looking up the video clip, I came across this really interesting post about the filming of this song. Irving Berlin wrote "The Best Things..." with Donald O'Connor in mind. When Danny Kaye assumed the role, some modifications needed to be made since Kaye lacked some of the technical dancing skills that O'Connor had. Interestingly, both Kaye and Vera-Ellen got injured at different times when rehearsing this number. (On a side note, this whole blog, "The Danny Kaye Show," looks like a really fun read.)

Maybe if I sing enough songs from my favorite musicals to Lucy, she will grow up to become a fan herself. I suppose I'll have to make sure that she knows that I'm singing most songs from musicals due to my own enjoyment of the music, not because I'm being silly!