Jewish Stereo Types

Here's the thing: I couldn't find any good Mothers' Day songs at all. So I tried to find a song about or addressed to the singer's mother that would be appropriate for Mothers' Day and which would also fit my theme, and it turned out to be a little bit of a search. (We'll just leave out the jokes about Jewish mothers, okay? After all, it IS Mothers' Day.) Along the way, I found songs sung by a mama, such as "When You're Good to Mama" from Kander and Ebb's Chicago , and most of the songs from Styne and Sondheim's Gypsy , but much as I'd like to get to Sondheim and Kander and Ebb, these do not seem like quite the right kind of mother songs for Mothers' Day. I also found songs about mama's advice, such as Arlen and Mercer's "Blues in the Night" which were better, but, much as I'd like to get to Arlen, didn't seem to strike quite the right note for Mothers' Day either. Then there's this lu...

Me either. "It's Just Another New Year's Eve" by Barry Manilow and Marty Panzer, sung by Barry Manilow: Video posted by BarryManilowOfficial Okay, okay, Murphy Brown joke, whatever. But did you listen to the song? Because it's really good. Try listening to the same song sung by Lea Salonga: Video posted by LeaSalonga--Topic (Provided to YouTube by Sony Music Entertainment) It's really lovely. I've often heard it said that all Manilow's songs sound the same, but my theory is that he sings in a very stylized way and it's a strong enough style that the songs he sings sound more alike than different. Not that he doesn't have a distinctive music writing style--he does--but the songs on his albums that he didn't write sound as much like Barry Manilow as the ones he did. (This one is based on a Bach melody , even.) That's a neat trick. Besides, right about now, I find it really nice to hear someone sing "We've come throu...