Good evening, Kibitzers!
Easter is early this year, although March 31 is not the absolute earliest it can be — that would be March 22, if the official full moon date happened to fall on the official equinox date of March 21. (Note that the Church has “official” dates for these celestial events that may or may not coincide with their actual astronomical dates. See more info here. And also, about Passover, which is later than usual this year.)
Anyway! Easter for me is a cultural holiday rather than a religious one, a good excuse to roast a nice leg of lamb and eat some chocolate. It’s pleasant if flowers are out when we do that, but I’m a lot sadder when there’s no snow at my other cultural holiday, Christmas, than when trees and plants don’t bloom in March. (Plus, then there’s pollen, as all of you in warmer places are well aware!) And this whole week is supposed to be chilly and rainy here, so the odds of any flowers progressing so far as to pop out by Sunday appear low.
I started out hunting for egg songs, but there were only so many I liked, so I branched out. Your Easter-adjacent favorites are of course welcome in the thread.
Hot Lips Page and his Orchestra: The Egg Or The Hen? (1949) [2:29]
Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, 1967) [2:28]
The McGuire Sisters: Sugartime (unidentified TV Show, 1958). I think “Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at suppertime” is an excellent description of my childhood Easter experience. [2:02]
Abe Lyman and his California Orchestra, featuring vocalist Louis Rapp: March Winds and April Showers (1935). Louis Rapp later became a lead male vocalist on the show Your Hit Parade, under the name Barry Wood. [2:34]
The Seahorses: Happiness Is Egg-Shaped (1997) [3:45]
Ella Fitzgerald: A-Tisket-A-Tasket (scene from Ride 'Em Cowboy, 1942). Audio enhanced with Digitally Extracted Stereo — see YT description for more details on this process. [2:31]
Tom Waits: Chocolate Jesus (The Late Show With David Letterman, 1999). Since Waits expressly identifies this as an Easter song, I felt we had to have it. (Lyrics here, because it’s a little hard to make them out what with the megaphone.) [4:51]
Mel Tormé: April Showers (A Snader Telescription, 1950). Tormé sings and plays drums. Everyone looks about 14 to me nowadays, but here he is actually 25. [2:48]
Benny Goodman and his Orchestra: Egg Head (October 1949). Benny Goodman (clarinet); John Wilson, Ziggy Schatz, Doug Mettome, Al Stewart (trumpet); Mario Dione, Bill Byers, George Monte (trombone); Mitch Goldberg, Angelo Cicalese (alto sax); Wardell Gray (tenor sax solo); Eddie Wasserman (tenor sax); Joe Casalaro (baritone sax); Buddy Greco (piano); Francis Beecher (guitar); Bob Carter (bass); Sonny Igoe (drums). [2:59]
Gene Autry: Peter Cottontail (The Hills of Utah, 1951). I have no idea what the context is for this scene in the movie, and reading the IMDb plot summary does not help very much. [1:54]
Eddie Cochran: Jelly Bean (1959). Apparently there is no known video of Eddie Cochran singing this song, but a fan has dubbed the audio recording onto some unrelated footage of Cochran, just to give the feeling of his performance. [2:16]
Judy Garland and Fred Astaire: Easter Parade (eponymous movie, 1948) [2:34]
Moving on from the Easter-ish theme, parodist Patrick Fitzgerald has a new song, Mar-a-Lago, from fictitious musical Trumper on the Roof. (He’s used the video of the Anatevka scene from the 1971 Fiddler on the Roof movie, along with the tune from the song.) The celebration might be a bit premature, but the parody is well done. [2:12]