Julia Nunes, a 21-year-old player from upstate New York, has a huge following on YouTube, where her inventive version of the Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup” has had nearly two million plays. George Harrison was a devoted ukulelist: he periodically turned up, uke in hand, at meetings of the George Formby Society, and he is seen strumming the instrument in “The Beatles Anthology.” Younger musicians have taken to it as well. But the instrument has a dedicated constituency. Perhaps because the ukulele has long been treated as a four-string mini-guitar for amateurs, only a handful of ukulelists have achieved much renown, most notably George Formby in Britain and Tiny Tim in the United States. Its musicians play ukuleles of different sizes and pitches, from soprano to bass, though Jonty Bankes’s electric bass ukulele looks a lot like a conventional bass guitar with a vaguely ukulelelike shape. Now in its 25th year, Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is really only an octet, and on Tuesday it was smaller still: with one player ill, the group performed as a septet. Instead of playing the introduction, or any instrumental accompaniment, ensemble members put down their ukuleles and sang a richly harmonized a cappella backing to George Hinchliffe’s vaudevillian lead vocal. Or maybe it was during the group’s gracefully sung, delicately plucked account of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars,” an idiosyncratic reading of an offbeat selection, even before it morphed into a handful of songs from entirely different universes: among them Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life,” the theme song from “Born Free” and the Who’s “Substitute.”Ĭome to think of it, another Who song, “Pinball Wizard” a natural for a ukulele ensemble, you might think, given the rapidly strummed introduction on the Who’s recording yielded a greater surprise. ) * Greatest Love of All (Whitney Houston) * Grenade (Bruno Mars) * I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash) * I Saw Her Standing There (The Beatles) * If You Leave Me Now (Chicago) * It Don't Mean a Thing (Standard) * Jumpin' Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones) * Just the Way You Are (Amazing) (Bruno Mars) * Leaving on a Jet Plane (Peter, Paul and Mary) * Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett) * Marry Me (Train) * Theme from New York, New York (Frank Sinatra) * Over the Rainbow (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) * Paint It, Black (The Rolling Stones) * Pinball Wizard (The Who) * (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley and His Comets) * Rocky Mountain High (John Denver) * (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones) * She Loves You (The Beatles) * Shower the People (James Taylor) * Singin' in the Rain (Standard) * Son of a Son of a Sailor (Jimmy Buffett) * Squeeze Box (The Who) * Stand by Your Man (Tammy Wynette) * Superstar (Carpenters) * Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver) * Tell Her No (The Zombies) * When You're Smiling (Standard) * Woodstock (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) * You Send Me (Sam Cooke).The most revelatory moment in the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s concert at Zankel Hall on Tuesday evening probably came during its performance of “Psycho Killer,” the Talking Heads song, when you realized that David Byrne had missed the boat by not recording the tune with an ensemble of singing ukulele players. This Rock and Pop edition features songs spanning seven decades from such artists as Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole, Cee Lo Green, Bruno Mars, and many more! Titles: Ain't Misbehavin' (Standard) * Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood and the Destroyers) * Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell) * Blue Moon (The Marcels) * Both Sides Now (Judy Collins) * Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones) * Bye Bye Blackbird (Standard) * Chain Gang (Sam Cooke) * Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes (Jimmy Buffett) * Colour My World (Chicago) * Cool Kids (Echosmith) * Dancing Queen (ABBA) * Do You Want to Know a Secret (The Beatles) * Don't Stop Believin' (Journey) * Easy to Be Hard (Three Dog Night) * Everything Is Awesome (Awesome Remixxx!!!) (from The LEGO® Movie) * Falling Slowly (from Once) (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) * Fernando (ABBA) * Forget You (Cee Lo Green) * Ghostbusters (Ray Parker, Jr. The Easy Hits Ukulele format provides melody, chords, and lyrics for easy "strum and sing" performance-plus suggested strum patterns and TAB for any integral "hook" parts. For beginning musicians, Alfred's Easy series is the fast track to developing a repertoire of well-known and fun-to-play songs, while more experienced players will find an excellent resource of favorite songs.
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