Party pieces

Growing up, every Christmas my Gran made a tape recording of the family which she sent to my aunt in Australia, my party piece was I’m nobody’s child.

henetha, DH says it was a DVD he bought from Amazon.

Going My Way is is the film, where the old mammy comes from Ireland. I was greetin' a that one too!
She looked exactly like my old Irish granny, who always wore black!

I've just found a clip on YouTube of Bing Crosby singing it, surrounded by nuns, of one whom was Ingrid Bergman.
I'd forgotten what a lovely voice Bing had.
Thanks, if you can find any info of how to see the film.

Marydoll

DH found it for me last Christmas. I will ask and get back to Henetha, you.

As soon as those boys start singing, I start crying. By the end, I am in floods of tears. Old fool that I am. 😊

What is the one where Bing Crosby is the priest and they bring in his ould mammy to ‘ Toora loora loora’? I remember greetin’ at that.

Sorry, I digress, back to party pieces!

DH found it for me last Christmas. I will ask and get back to Henetha, you.

As soon as those boys start singing, I start crying. By the end, I am in floods of tears. Old fool that I am. 😊

Wow, Marydoll. Id love to see it again.
Is it available somewhere?
I seem remember it was lovely.

henetha

I used to have to sing at parties, even though I was terrified.
My party piece was The Bells of St.Mary's. There was a film starring Bing Crosby at the time.

That is one of my favourite films. No matter how many times I watch it, I start filling up. 😢

Yes, we did, mine was Disobedience by AA Milne. My brother who is the youngest, used to recite with great joy and actions ‘Quick, quick the cat’s been sick!’

Every Christmas, my brother, sister and I would dress up and perform a nativity. There were usually a few cousins involved as well. One year it was just me and my siblings so I wrote a play with two Wise Men and Herod. I think I was around 12. ‘Where is the other Wise Man’, asked Herod. ‘Tending the camels’, was the reply. I think my grandfather recorded the whole thing on his new-fangled tape recorder!

Correction - stood up and recited a poem not ‘recorded’.
😣

When I was asked to stand up and recite a poem at school I usually stuck to the classics but on one occasion stood up and recorded a poem my old dad would recite often -

‘Owd Johnny Walker were cleaning t’spout,
Ladder broke and he kicked up a shout,
Owd Annie came out said ‘art hurt,
Nay but I fell on mi bottom and ripped mi shirt’

Let’s just say that my recitation was not well received and the teacher made me stand with my face to the wall until home time.
😳

Aveline

I don't suppose today's youngsters would do such a thing. Sad really.

My granddaughter does a scarily accurate Brittany Spears 😂

My father sometimes sang and not that well .
He could also play the piano having never studied it and he couldn't read music .
I think that he played ragtime .
My mother had had piano lessons , but couldn't play anything .

I hadn't had many ballet lessons , but as soon as I had a tutu for a show - I had to put it on with ballet shoes and dance .
It was very much the thing .
I don't remember watching TV if we went out or had visitors .
We used to play games a great deal , but never cards on a Sunday .
My mother used to entertain frequently .
The very idea of not cooperating or refusing to participate never crossed my mind !

MissAdventure

I'd never have done it.
I'd probably have cried and spoiled it for everyone.

I'd be the same. At primary school, we all had to stand up in the assembly hall and sing a line of a song - I froze and got sent packing and made to write lines. It was humiliating.

We all had poems too, as did our father. It was our mother who was the great success, she’d been a teenager during the 1920s and to the accompaniment of an old 78 record would Charleston her way round the room to great applause (and the great embarrassment of her children)

We recited poetry, my party piece was The Daffodils’ by Wordsworth. And singing Northern folk songs like ‘I’m a rambler from Manchester Way’ and ‘Poverty, poverty knock’. We didn’t have a piano or other musical instruments but my old dad and uncle had fantastic voices.
Then the old 78s would go on and the adults would dance to Glen Miller’s ‘In the Mood’ and ‘String of Pearls.’
It all stopped once my uncle died aged 44 and then my dad in his early fifties.
But happy memories 🥹

Loving this thread.
I come from a musical family. Both parents and my dad’s family especially. His grandmother played the piano in the silent movies at the cinema. Dad had a voice to die for and I was lucky enough to have inherited it. Now my daughter, and grandchildren have been blessed with the gift of music and two play piano and guitar. It’s wonderful when we all get together. Family voices blend so well and the harmonies are perfect. My voice isn’t what it was though. I have to work hard now to make a decent sound, but I’ll keep going. 😃

My gs 9 loves this. He sings and recites. He introduced the anniversary party for his other GPS.

I'd never have done it.
I'd probably have cried and spoiled it for everyone.

Yes! Mine was poetry, and my grandmother as well, my mum sang folk songs, my dad, his father and uncles used to sing The Miners' Dream of Home. My grandchildren will do something if pushed - they enjoy I'm Still Standing!

We all sung in the house ,round the piano on a Sunday evening so we all had songs we could sing at house parties.My sisters used to sing “Sisters” as a duet and then had their own solo songs which changed with the charts .Things like Cry me a River or I left my heart in San Fransisco ,mum liked Nat King Cole numbers and Dad who sung at gigs for charities had a long list of show tunes and opera.Granny loved her Irish songs like The Rose of Tralee.I had a nice line of songs sung in French ,taught by our teacher in school and I could still perform them now word perfect in my early teens I remember singing Those Were THe Days and a couple of CatStevens songs .We have a friend who still has these houseparties with singing but she has a live band in her Back garden to accompany them .I don’t sing at them nowadays ,only sing in the house

When we were courting my DH worked behind the bar at the local pub. One New Year’s night he was working and I sat in the bar. After the punters had gone we had a drink with the landlords and a couple of their friends. After a while someone suggested we all do a party piece! I was terminally shy then, not much better now. Every body did something, a song or a poem. Then I was the only one left. Panic stricken I croaked my way through “ Daisy,Daisy “ and then they all complained that I had short changed them. I have never sung in public ever again.

I've never had a 'party piece' but I don't think I've ever been to a party in someone's house.

One of mine was Jock O’ Hazeldean, and there was also Second Hand Rose, Miss Otis Regrets, Summertime, I could Have Danced All Night, and many more!
My mother sang O Mio Babbino Caro, The Holy City, Bach Gounod Ave Maria, or Tonight, while my father favoured When I Leave the World Behind or Don’t Laugh at Me, ‘Cos I’m a Fool. Together they sang My Heart and I and I Wonder Why. Aunties and uncles also had their favourites, and as long as the whisky lasted, so did the singing!
Some friends of mine who were also singers have died over the last few years, and I’m so grateful to have recorded their party pieces.