Tonic Jukebox History
WEEK 76 - Holiday Tunes
For this week and next, Tonic Jukeboxers have submitted memories of past holidays with associated music. Quite a geographic spread including Canada, Italy, France, Majorca, Isle of Wight, Switzerland, South Africa, and even Alderney. There is a theme within a theme of 'first holidays without parents', though details of what transpired are rather sketchy.
Monday August 23
Take Me Home, Country Roads
From Katharine Finn
I’d like to nominate Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. We went to Alderney in the Channel Islands every year on holiday as my Mum had family living there. It always felt such an idyllic place to go for two weeks. Beaches as stunning as you’d find in the Caribbean although with much colder water. Long before we got to a point where hiring a car was an option, relatives used to come and collect the luggage and most of us would traipse the lanes to get to our holiday home, usually a tent. From the mid 70s onwards we would sing this as we walked. I don’t think as kids we ever knew more than the chorus but we enjoyed singing it over and over and I cannot hear it without being transported back there and feeling excited by the two weeks of beach fun that lay ahead. Of course in my memory it was always sunny but there is plenty of photographic evidence of us with windswept hair and clad in waterproofs to dispel that myth.
Recording
Tuesday August 24
Parent-less holiday 1
Travelin' Man
From Michael Fox
What it was to be 16 & 1/2 that Summer of ‘61. Myself and three friends embarked on our first holiday without something called 'Parents'! And we had all recently been 'released' from a 5 year prison term in a boys only boarding school. One of our number, had for a whole year regaled us with stories of some magical mystical and exotic place called Rimini on the Italian Adriatic coast where he had holidayed with his parents a year earlier. There was sand, sun, cheap booze and lots of bikini clad girls. You danced every night on the beach to cafe juke boxes into the early hours. It sounded just like a Hollywood film. He had the address of a very cheap hostel (not at all Hollywood!!). We all scraped up the train fare, and we sung Ricky Nelson’s hit of that Summer, all the way down and it featured on those juke boxes throughout our never ever to be forgotten holiday. It was truly our Summer freedom song. I think it is a good fun song from a very talented pop idol of that time. (Tragically killed in a light aircraft crash some years later—-Yes, yet another one - light aircraft really owe something to the music industry!).
OK, I accept you don’t hear this song very often, (of course I have it on CD), but whenever I hear it I am truly mesmerised with (according to my Sandra), a silly grin on my face.
Recording
Wednesday August 25
The Piano (The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise)
From Gerry Barton
I previously used this track when you asked us to illustrate a piece of music. I drew a picture of our car driving towards our holiday destination at Argelès in the southwest of France in 1994. We had listened to the film soundtrack over and over again on our drive down and this track was playing as we were nearing our destination and could see the sea and the mountains. It perfectly expressed our excitement, particularly that of the children, bubbling over. When I hear it now I find it very emotional but a lovely memory.
Recording
Thursday August 26
Scotland The Brave
From Judy Barnett
When I was 13 my Mum took me to Woolacombe in Devon to a posh but family-friendly hotel. During the day we walked along the glorious beach, went horse riding, relaxed in the sun and turned golden brown. We laughed non-stop. In the evenings there was always dancing in the ballroom and the youngsters were allowed to stay up quite late. We all joined in and everyone had great fun. My favourite dance was The Gay Gordons. Never to be forgotten, this was a truly happy holiday. My music choice? Philip pointed out that The Gay Gordons is a dance which can use many tunes, Scotland The Brave being one of the most popular.
Recording
Friday August 27
Parent-less holiday 2
Tristesse (Chopin)
From Philip Barnett
The year was 1970. I was 18 and this was my first time away on holiday without parents. Friend Richard and I went to Majorca, Magaluf to be precise. (Photographs of us (below) have been redacted.) One highlight was a trip to Valldemossa to see where Chopin lived and worked. Majorca is (well, certainly was then) very proud of its connection to Chopin. Every shop we visited was full of music boxes and they all played the same tune, Chopin's Etude No. 3 (Tristesse). When I hear it now I think of all the adventures in Magaluf, not the least of which was almost being arrested by the police on a beach at midnight. Ah, the follies of youth.
Recording
Take Me Home, Country Roads
From Katharine Finn
I’d like to nominate Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. We went to Alderney in the Channel Islands every year on holiday as my Mum had family living there. It always felt such an idyllic place to go for two weeks. Beaches as stunning as you’d find in the Caribbean although with much colder water. Long before we got to a point where hiring a car was an option, relatives used to come and collect the luggage and most of us would traipse the lanes to get to our holiday home, usually a tent. From the mid 70s onwards we would sing this as we walked. I don’t think as kids we ever knew more than the chorus but we enjoyed singing it over and over and I cannot hear it without being transported back there and feeling excited by the two weeks of beach fun that lay ahead. Of course in my memory it was always sunny but there is plenty of photographic evidence of us with windswept hair and clad in waterproofs to dispel that myth.
Recording
Tuesday August 24
Parent-less holiday 1
Travelin' Man
From Michael Fox
What it was to be 16 & 1/2 that Summer of ‘61. Myself and three friends embarked on our first holiday without something called 'Parents'! And we had all recently been 'released' from a 5 year prison term in a boys only boarding school. One of our number, had for a whole year regaled us with stories of some magical mystical and exotic place called Rimini on the Italian Adriatic coast where he had holidayed with his parents a year earlier. There was sand, sun, cheap booze and lots of bikini clad girls. You danced every night on the beach to cafe juke boxes into the early hours. It sounded just like a Hollywood film. He had the address of a very cheap hostel (not at all Hollywood!!). We all scraped up the train fare, and we sung Ricky Nelson’s hit of that Summer, all the way down and it featured on those juke boxes throughout our never ever to be forgotten holiday. It was truly our Summer freedom song. I think it is a good fun song from a very talented pop idol of that time. (Tragically killed in a light aircraft crash some years later—-Yes, yet another one - light aircraft really owe something to the music industry!).
OK, I accept you don’t hear this song very often, (of course I have it on CD), but whenever I hear it I am truly mesmerised with (according to my Sandra), a silly grin on my face.
Recording
Wednesday August 25
The Piano (The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise)
From Gerry Barton
I previously used this track when you asked us to illustrate a piece of music. I drew a picture of our car driving towards our holiday destination at Argelès in the southwest of France in 1994. We had listened to the film soundtrack over and over again on our drive down and this track was playing as we were nearing our destination and could see the sea and the mountains. It perfectly expressed our excitement, particularly that of the children, bubbling over. When I hear it now I find it very emotional but a lovely memory.
Recording
Thursday August 26
Scotland The Brave
From Judy Barnett
When I was 13 my Mum took me to Woolacombe in Devon to a posh but family-friendly hotel. During the day we walked along the glorious beach, went horse riding, relaxed in the sun and turned golden brown. We laughed non-stop. In the evenings there was always dancing in the ballroom and the youngsters were allowed to stay up quite late. We all joined in and everyone had great fun. My favourite dance was The Gay Gordons. Never to be forgotten, this was a truly happy holiday. My music choice? Philip pointed out that The Gay Gordons is a dance which can use many tunes, Scotland The Brave being one of the most popular.
Recording
Friday August 27
Parent-less holiday 2
Tristesse (Chopin)
From Philip Barnett
The year was 1970. I was 18 and this was my first time away on holiday without parents. Friend Richard and I went to Majorca, Magaluf to be precise. (Photographs of us (below) have been redacted.) One highlight was a trip to Valldemossa to see where Chopin lived and worked. Majorca is (well, certainly was then) very proud of its connection to Chopin. Every shop we visited was full of music boxes and they all played the same tune, Chopin's Etude No. 3 (Tristesse). When I hear it now I think of all the adventures in Magaluf, not the least of which was almost being arrested by the police on a beach at midnight. Ah, the follies of youth.
Recording
Weekend August 28/29
Singing in the Rain
From Anne Leach
My musical holiday memory is of "Singing in the Rain" with cousins from Toronto outside the (now closed) Harley Davidson Cafe in New York, where we had gone to celebrate a mutual cousin's wedding. It was pouring with rain as we exited the cafe and our children were as usual mortified to see/hear us singing in the street, which we often did and continue to do! Happy days.
Recording
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Don't know about you but I am so enjoying being on holiday I think we should stay for another week.
**********
Singing in the Rain
From Anne Leach
My musical holiday memory is of "Singing in the Rain" with cousins from Toronto outside the (now closed) Harley Davidson Cafe in New York, where we had gone to celebrate a mutual cousin's wedding. It was pouring with rain as we exited the cafe and our children were as usual mortified to see/hear us singing in the street, which we often did and continue to do! Happy days.
Recording
**********
Don't know about you but I am so enjoying being on holiday I think we should stay for another week.
**********