Växeln hallå

I would assume it would be easier to confuse the connections between Ipswich and Norwich, rather than Northwich, but I guess Naarich just doesn’t sound nice to sing. When I saw the title, I first assumed it was about someone travelling on train, but the song is instead about the modern social media of its day. Note also the very careful enunciation of the singer, which makes every word of the lyrics come across clearly in spite of distortion high enough to make grown men cry.

Clean lyrics

As noted earlier , well-known songs often have a far older original, so here is a famous Monty Python piece in its 1930s guise:

List of songs about Stockholm

Liza Minelli, in one of her shows, told of how she’d investigated what city had had the most songs written about it and, of course, found it was New York, giving her cause to sing “New York, New York”. Number two was apparently London, so she did a London-themed song as well. I was a bit patriotically incensed that she didn’t even mention the number of songs written about Stockholm. Fortunately others have addressed that issue.

Forgotten lyrics

All too often, and especially with lyrics in foreign languages, I don’t catch the exact lyrics and so I’ve long been humming on this rhythmic piece that goes something something breakfast in London. But, of course Wikipedia has a List of songs about London and halfway through that I found it: “Last train to London”.

Swashbuckling

Another song that’s stuck in my head: “Song of the Musketeers” from the 1935 version of The Three Musketeers.

The Only-Begotten Children

I’m not the only one to have Only-Begotten Children, but so does Prince Philip, as witnessed by the Reverend Hubert Rumtumtibumbum (starts at 5:00):

Version originale

The Flash animation “Shii’s song” with an up-pitched version of Jennifer Stigile’s recording of “Wind’s Nocturne” was an Internet phenomenon long before the term “viral video” was invented, but here is the original Japanese version.

More 1970s ballads

I’m sure the YouTube comments claim that they just don’t make music like this anymore. Well, why would they? It’s already been made.

Web-adapted

Now is the time for the JavaScript version of the Hailstone program:

<script>
  function hailstone(seed) {
    var output = "";
    for ( ; 
   output += seed, seed > 1 ; 
   seed = seed % 2 ? seed * 3 + 1 : seed / 2) { output += ", "; }
    return(output);
  }

  function submit(seed) {
    document.getElementById("output").textContent =
      hailstone(seed);
  }
</script>

<p>
  Seed: <input type="text" 
            id="seed" 
            onchange="submit(this.value)">
</p>
<p id="output"></p>

Put that into an HTML page and it generates the following box: (Try it, it actually works!)

Seed: