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A Cornucopia of Thanks Songs
In keeping with the approaching season, I offer an early post, a playlist of songs about thanks. Turn that frown upside down and let your toes start tapping through the madness of the moment. Feel free to add to the list in the comment section.
We start with a 1942 song from Holiday Inn. Bing Crosby sings “I’ve Got Plenty To Be Thankful For.”
If that calls to mind a tune from Porgy and Bess, “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothing (and nothings plenty for me)” then you do you. We’re jumping forward to the 1970s and a tune that is stuck in most of our heads. In 1978, Andrew Gold wrote and recorded “Thank You For Being A Friend.”
A little too sweet? Step back earlier in the decade and bring the funk. Earth, Wind and Fire were enjoying great success and expressed their “Gratitude.”
Take it back to 1969, when Sly & The Family Stone recorded “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”
That same year, Led Zeppelin recorded a power ballad, “Thank You.”
Now jump forward to 2008 and the beauty of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s quiet meditation on Thanksgiving gatherings, “Thanksgiving Song.”
As we go deeper into the meaning of thanks, we go back to Walter Hawkins’ 1990 “Thank You.” I chose a more recent recording by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir for clarity and because it includes the lyrics in subtitles. This song could have been written today, as the troubles in our land from that day have not changed. And yet the songwriter says he has much for which to be thankful.
Where Walter Hawkins expressed thanks for protection, Marvin Sapp, in this trying year, expressing thanks for all the trials and tribulations, as well as the good times.
Natalie Cole sums it up nicely in a toe-tapping tune: “(we should) Be Thankful (for what we got).”
Published in Group Writing
It’s kinda like “Thanks”:
Yes, and written in another troubled time, 1967.
Ray from the Kinks:
No disco here. Yet.
This conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under the November 2020 Group Writing Theme: “Cornucopia of Thanks.” Ricochet will thank you for signing up, thus avoiding disco and bears.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and this is my favorite Thanksgiving hymn:
I almost included this. Excellent addition.
A new one for me, thanks!
Today I gave thanks for my country, the United States of America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw_MbY7rfww
Thanks for the beautiful music everyone. Think I’ll pull out some Mary Chapin Carpenter soon…forgot how good a singer she is.
Chills — what an amazing voice — and a great reminder that we live in the best country on this big, beautiful, blue marble.
Wowza! Adding all of these to a new Spotify playlist. Thanks @cliffordbrown.
You are welcome. I enjoy creating these playlists because of all the other songs that members add in the comments.
Addition is a choice *wink*