On hearing of the sad news of the death of Little Richard I had to bash out this classic. Refined and precise, it is not. But hopefully it’s got some of the spirit of the original and is closer to Little Richard than it is to Pat Boone.
It’s just three chords all the way through (G, C and D) with some picking of the melody. If you want to add a Little Richard “Woooooo!” in at any point you just add a A-string, 5th fret to the top of the G chord.
Tracklist
Clem Snide & Scott Avett – Roger Ebert
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Limehouse Blues
Bad Mouse Orchestra – Let’s Misbehave
Izumi Pahepuaokalani – Aloha No Au I Ko Maka
Herman Vandecauter – Quarantine Polka On machete
Ryo Natoyama – Tears In Heaven
Dust Sweepers – Home in Pasadena
Bob Guz – Don’t Know Why
mxmtoon – no faker
The Chalkeaters – DOOM CROSSING: Eternal Horizons
Ukulele legend and ragtime revivalist, Ian Whitcomb has died at 78. He made a huge contribution to keeping alive the ukulele and the music of the Jazz Age. If you want to know a lot more about him, his friend and collaborator Janet Klein reminisced with her band about him in this video.
Whitcomb had an incredible career. He broke through in the the 60s with the hit You Turn Me On which led to tours with The Kinks and The Stones. He followed that up with a recording of the 1916 song Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go?. This set off a decades-long career of playing music from the 1910s and 20s and releasing books (most notably Ukulele Heroes). His career encompassed playing on Carson and talking to Google about the ukulele. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the era led to him making an album of songs recreating the music played on the Titanic, Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage, which earning him a Grammy nomination.
Whitcomb recalled a discussion with The Turtles who said, “‘Ian, those songs that you sing are really funny, why don’t you record them?’ So I did… and I’ve been recording that kind of song ever since, and so my career has gone backwards.”
Watch
– Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel are running a free online uke fest on Saturday including performances from James Hill, Kalei Gamiao, Gracie Terzian and many more. You can find out more about it on their website.
– A music teacher sings about online teaching.
Learn
– If you’re as old and decrepit as I am, you might remember player and tabber UkuleleDav. He has a new site Uke Can Play the Melody.
– Today (Friday) Choan Galvez is offering his albums and tabs on a “pay what you like” basis.
– In case you missed it, yesterday I launched five free tab collections to keep you busy during lockdown.
If you’ve noticed more tabs being uploaded here than usual this month, that’s down to the support of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers. We’ve just tipped over 100 patrons which is fantastic support and I’m very grateful for it. So a big thanks to all the Patrons. And double thanks go to April’s Tenor backers:
– Douglas.
– Fiona Keane.
– Joseph Freeman.
– Nancy.
– Pauline Leblanc.
– Potatoemagic.
– Trevor Mccravy.
Patreon posts in the last month include:
– Amazing Grace.
– The Money Heist/La Casa de Papel theme.
– Vagrant Song from the game Pyre.
– And April’s exclusive for Concert level and up backers: Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine.
If the number of “I bought your ebook 10 years ago and I lost it” emails I’ve got is anything to go by, a whole lot of people are using the lockdown to brush up on their ukulele skills. So I thought I’d gather together some of the tabs I’ve done over the years into collections.
They’re a bit cobbled together. So if something is messed up, send me a message or a tweet. And if you’d like more of these, let me know.
Links to the individual posts are below. Or you can download all of them in one zip file here:
Beeb Themes
1. Dr Who (I Am The Doctor)
2. Match of the Day
3. Neighbours
4. Only Connect
5. Sherlock
6. Snooker
7. Trumpton
Jazz Ukulele
1. Don’t Know Why – Norah Jones
2. I Remember You – Ella Fitzgerald/Bjork
3. Ja-da – Ukulele Ike
4. La Vie en Rose – Edith Piaf
5. Midnight, the Stars and You – Al Bowlly
6. Summertime – George Gershwin
7. Take Five – Dave Brubeck Quartet
Queens of Pop
1. Ariana Grande – thank u next
2. Billie Eilish – when the party’s over
3. Blackpink – Kill This Love
4. Camila Cabello – Havana
5. Charli XCX – Boys
6. Lizzo – Truth Hurts
7. Taylor Swift – Safe and Sound
UK Comedy Themes Tab Collection
1. Father Ted
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Last of the Summer Wine
4. Men Behaving Badly
5. Red Dwarf
6. Steptoe and Son
7. Toast of London
US Comedy Themes
1. Arrested Development
2. Bob’s Burgers
3. BoJack Horseman
4. Frasier
5. King of the Hill
6. The Simpsons – Baby on Board
7. The Office: An American Workplace
Samer uke started a challenge to play this song and spread some aloha and a bunch of people have jumped on). So here’s a very simple arrangement if you want to do likewise.
The song is all played with the thumb on the picking hand and the chords are just C, Am, F and G. And I have added fingering suggestions in a couple of places that make for smoother transitions. There’s plenty of room in the arrangement for you to add your own flair to it.
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More Beatles tabs and chords
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