Song of the Day - Chiquitita - ABBA

Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong

You're enchained by your own sorrow

In your eyes there is no hope for tomorrow

How I hate to see you like this

There is no way you can deny it

I can see that you're oh so sad, so quiet

On my way home from work yesterday, I put on my ABBA playlist, just because I can never go too long without listening to them, and suddenly this song came on.  I heard it like I've never heard it before.  You see, yesterday was two months since we lost my sister Chrissy and she'd been on my mind all day.  Without even really paying attention or knowing why, I began to cry, and I cried all the way through the song, my sobs ebbing and flowing all the way until the end.  The release was something I needed.

Chiquitita, tell me the truth

I'm a shoulder you can cry on

Your best friend, I'm the one you must rely on

You were always sure of yourself

Now I see you've broken a feather

I hope we can patch it up together

As I moved on through ABBA Gold, a sense of relief came over me.  My heart's been mending and the tears in the car were the first I'd shed for her in a few weeks.  I guess I was afraid the sorrow had dissapated and I admittedly have been feeling somewhat guilty about it.  But it's still there...I'd just put it on the back burner, as I'm supposed to.

Moving on is a conscious decision that needs to be made, because halting one's life entirely is no way to heal.  It's important to keep living, and still equally important to never forget.   My sister lives on in my heart and in my mind, and even though I've been feeling a lot better than I was even a month ago, I know there will be days and moments, like yesterday, that will bring her spirit rushing back and the sorrow will visit me again.  That's how it's supposed to be!  No guilt because there is no reason to feel guilt.  The way I've been dealing with her loss is normal and healthy.

Chiquitita, you and I know

How the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving

You'll be dancing once again and the pain will end

You will have no time for grieving

Chiquitita, you and I cry

But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you

Let me hear you sing once more like you did before

Sing a new song, Chiquitita

Try once more like you did before

Sing a new song, Chiquitita

After listening to a few more songs, I found myself returning to Chiquitita.  As I read through the lyrics this morning, I realized why the tears had come so out of the blue.  Yeah, the sad anniversary brought Chrissy into my consciousness, but it was the lyrics that brought me to the release of my tears.  In many ways, she was Chiquitita, and I know that in many ways she was so sad and so quiet, with little hope for her own tomorrow, but she is dancing once again and her pain is gone.  In a way, that makes me happy.

I love you Chrissy and I miss you! 

  So the walls came tumbling down

And your love's a blown out candle

All is gone and it seems too hard to handle

Chiquitita, tell me the truth

There is no way you can deny it

I see that you're oh so sad, so quiet

Song of the Day - Mamma Mia - ABBA

That's my mom!

Happy Mother's Day!

Song of the Day - Waterloo - ABBA

It all started last April when I was on the school Europe trip in Stockholm, Sweden and noticed a blip on the map that said 'ABBA Museum.'  I insisted on spending some of my free time checking it out and convinced my fellow chaperones to join me.  It was a corny, but fun blast and we had a lot of laughs.  It was one of my fondest memories of the trip.  

Flash forward to July...I noticed that the musical, Mamma Mia was playing at the Patchogue Theater in my hometown, and I suggested that we chaperones get tickets and relive a fun time.  I had seen the play on Broadway twice, but that was a long time ago.  Of course I loved it then and last night I fell in love with the musical all over again.  

If you lived during the 70's, and even a little beyond, you couldn't help but know and love at least a few ABBA tunes.  Beyond the Dancing Queens and the Waterloos, their catalog of cleverly written songs runs deep and the words and music endure in the minds of fans everywhere.  It was hard to decide which song to post today, but I chose the one song that wasn't in the play, but did appear as the finale for a fun mini-concert at the end of the show.  Here's ABBA's first, and one of their best, Waterloo...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - S.O.S. - ABBA

Some of my chaperone buddies and I are still in an ABBA state of mind after visiting their museum in Stockholm on Monday.  I know I've been singing them in my head all week and I just got a text that my pal Audrey's alarm went off this morning to Take a Chance On Me.  Here's one of my favorite ABBA songs, the sweet and uplifting S.O.S...

Song of the Day - Waterloo - ABBA

I am back!  Well, after a great 12 days in Europe, we all returned late last night and it is straight back to business.  One of the funnest things i got to do over there was a visit to the ABBA Museum in Stockholm just this past Monday. Never in a million years did I think I would ever go there, and so while I was there I was in 7th Heaven.  More about that on John's World soon enough, but for now I think I'll be posting some of their tunes over the next week or so because I just can't get them out of my head, lol.  Here's the one that started it all for them, the song for which they won the Eurovision Song contest back in 1974. Check out Waterloo... 

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - I Know There's Something Going On - Frida

Ooh, this song!  ABBA! Anni-Frid...Frida!  1982.  All of the ingredients to this rare, solo song by one fourth of the superstar quartet mixed in together make for one stellar tune that I can never seem to change when it comes on the radio or my iPod or whatever.  Love, love, love...

A Birthday Song of the Day - Mamma Mia - ABBA

Today is a very special day...my mom's 73rd birthday.  Though I don't get to see her too often these days, she lives on in my heart each and every day, and I appreciate her always.  She is one special lady, never having had an easy life, yet always with plenty of love to give to all of those around her. This is the most recent picture of us together, taken on Thanksgiving.  I'm lucky, aren't I?  I got the good fortune of having inherited her good, youthful looking genes.  She looks like she could be in her fifties, right? So anyway, Happy Birthday Mamma Mia, and have an awesome day!  Love you!  

Summer Jams Song of the Day - Hung Up - Madonna

Time goes by, so slowly...

August is Madonna's birthday month and this will be the first of several Madonna Summer Jams to be featured in the coming weeks.  In fact, it is the first Madge song I've put up this summer, surprisingly. It's hard to believe that come this October, Hung Up will be celebrating its 10th anniversary, first being released in October of 2005.  It is clearly one of her greatest, cleverly employing the music track to ABBA's Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight), and turning it into her own.  It was the era of the Madonna Disco...Confessions on a Dance Floor...and it was hot!  Enjoy your Sunday...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Gimme Gimme Gimme - ABBA

A few months ago in my class, I decided to start a weekly lesson called Music Fridays, where I would employ the use of songs to help teach my students English.  I've used music in my classroom often during my years of teaching and it almost always worked well, though in the past I've usually done it as a thematic unit.  I never just did random weekly songs on a regular basis.  

Well, over the past few weeks, between Christmas break and other things, we haven't had the chance to do Music Fridays, which I thought was no big deal, but guess what?  My students actually missed it!  They've been asking for me for days to return to it, and today I begin again.  Sometimes, though, the biggest problem I have with Music Fridays is deciding which song to do.  I always try to choose a song that they'll like and that they'll remember, and will work to help hone their English all at the same time.  Then, the other day a student uttered a word that brought me to an epiphany...

Chiquitita

Yeah, when I heard my student say that word, my ears automatically pricked up.  How does she know that song?, was the first thing that popped in my head.  I figured it must be a newer song that some Spanish artist did, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.  But at the same time it hit me....ABBA!  I know that my students have no idea who ABBA is, and so wow...so much stuff here.

At this point in the day, I really haven't decided what ABBA song to start with (I'm going to teach them a few!), but I wanted to mark Flashback Friday with one of my favorites.  For those of you out there who are too young to know ABBA, but are old enough to have been around in 2005, you may recognize the music from Madonna's Hung Up, in which she very cleverly added her own hook to an already catchy and dancey track.  Anyway, I'm sure I won't be teaching this one to my students, but I'll share it with you.  Happy Friday!