Song Selections

I’m playing around with the idea of using songs to introduce each new reading selection in the first unit of lessons this year. But I’m limited by my own meager music exposure and what key word title/singer/album searches turn up on itunes. I wish there was a way to get lyrics for anything I find, but I’m betting that’s also not the case.

Below is the list of what I’m considering compiling so far. One caveat is going to be that I’m picking songs based on the 30 second sample on itunes, and have to chance that there’s not profanity or inappropriate material that I can’t present to 6th graders once I pay for them.

Eleven, by Sandra Cisneros (A girl gets into it with her teacher on her birthday, dissolving into tears in front of classmates)

Title	Singer	Genre
Birthday	28 Days	Rock
Happy Birthday Rag	Vicky Down and his Gag Band	Jazz
Happy Birthday	Orquesta Tabaco y Ron	Latin
Happy Birthday	The Click Five	Pop
Don’t Cry Baby	Etta James	Blues

President Cleveland, Where Are You? by Robert Cormier (During the Depression, poor family, kid has to decide between buying the trading cards he really wants or chipping in with his money to help the family, doing the right thing doesn’t leave him feeling much like a hero)

Regret	New Order	Pop
Nickel Dime (maybe be inapp.)	Clutch	Alternative
A Nickel and a Nail	O V Wright, Roy Buchanan	R&B/Soul, Blues
Cleveland Rocks	The Presidents of the USA	Punk

Ghost of the Lagoon by Armstrong Sperry (boy on Bora Bora battles his nemesis, a shark) 

Bora Bora (Tahitian Drums)	The Polynesians	Jazz
Tahiti Nui	Amy Hanaialii Gilliom	World
Lovely Tiare Tahiti	Na Palapalai	World
Ai ‘A O Tahiti	Mahealani Uchiyama	World
Lovely Tahiti	The Hawaiians	Jazz
Pu Tahiti	Joel & Maeva Tahiti	World

 

Chinatown by Laurence Yep (memoir about growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1960s) 

I Left My Heart in San Francisco	Tony Bennett	Pop
Driving in San Francisco	Bill Cosby	Comedy
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers)	Scott McKenzie	Pop

 

I think it would be misleading, even stereotyping, to play any Chinese music selections, whether traditional or modern pop, since so much of Yep’s writing is about being Asian American. Maybe I need to find some of the big hits of the 1960s…that’s sock hop era, right? or was that the ’50s?

 

Just wonder if there’s other titles I should consider….