Music & My Dad

With Father's Day being as early as it could possibly be this year and this week being so busy for me I wanted to make sure I wrote at least one post about some memories of my Dad.

This is the 15th Father's Day without him. But there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him at least once. A lot of those thoughts and memories surround the world of music. 

In December 1999, I wrote and recorded a special Rewind program that remembered and paid tribute to my dad with 5 1/2 hours of music and stories about his life. 

The songs, groups, and albums he listened to while I was growing up has had a lot of influence in regard to what I listen to even today. 

I'm not going to start naming all the singers and groups he liked and listened to throughout his life. But I will list some of them later in this post. I've recently mentioned that The Couriers was his favorite gospel group. 

But I do want to write about the group that's currently in the public spotlight due to the pending release of a movie about them: The Four Seasons. 

Other than the Everly Brothers, lead singer,Frankie Valli; Keyboard player,Bob Gaudio; lead guitarist, Tommy Divito; and bass player,Nick Massi made up the group heard coming from the speakers of my dad's stereo most often. 

They were really the last group that my dad ever liked prior to the British Invasion. The arrival of the Beatles in the US sort of ended my dad's interest in 
pop music. He did like a few pop singers, groups, and songs throughout the rest of the 60's and 70's but not many. 

So my appreciation and the enjoyment of the Four Seasons I owe to my dad. The other thing that reminds me of him is the pop music from the early 1950's. 

From the start of that decade until Bill Haley and the Comets convinced everyone to "Rock Around The Clock" my dad bought records of his favorite songs that were played on the radio.  

His 45 RPM record collection included songs from many of the harmonizing groups of that era: The Four Lads, Four Aces, Four Freshmen, The Duprees, The Platters, the McGuire Sisters, and more. 

He also had many hits by the solo artists of those days before Rock & Roll: Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Guy Mitchell, Joni James, Doris Day, and Patti Page, just to name a few.   

I have many of those artists in my digital music collection and I still listen to them today. They remind me of my dad. 

In this day and age the music scene is all about what's trending on You Tube, social media, or what's being downloaded on I-Tunes or other digital music services. Everyone wants to know what's next. 

So listening to music that was popular before I was born may seem a bit old fashion. But it makes me think of my dad and helps me remember what it was like when he was around. Listening to some of his favorite music is a comfort to me, especially around Father's Day. 

One final thing I have to let you know. The combination of memories of my dad and the publicity for the "Jersey Boys" movie got me thinking a lot about the Four Seasons songs we used to listen to when I was a kid. 

I went back and looked at those I have in my collection. I discovered that there were some I thought of that weren't on my list. Since today is I-Tunes Tuesday it was time to go looking in the I-Tunes store for some new Four Seasons music. 

In my search for the songs I had remembered but didn't have I found some I had forgotten but really like. So now my Four Seasons collection has six more songs.

So just in case I don't get the chance to mention him again before Sunday I wanted to pay tribute to my dad and his legacy of music that lives on with me.