My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2025 the theme is a random assemblage of things that are on my mind--or that just pop into my mind. Whatever! Let's just say I'll be "Tossing It Out" for your entertainment or however it is you perceive these things.
It's kind of handy when the letter "F" lands on a Friday and my April A to Z theme is Time. Friday's are definitely cool for most of us. Back when I was working it often didn't make that much of a difference to me because I often worked on weekends, so Friday was like just another day. I can understand why a lot of folks want to thank God or thank goodness it's Friday.
As promised on my Battle of the Bands post last Saturday, here are the results in the battle between Jim Nabors and the Match singing versions of "The Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet"...
Battle of the Bands Results
GomerPyle--er, I mean Jim Nabors's version of "A Time for Us" really grew on me as I kept listening to it. Such sweet melodiousness to the music and singing. However, my preference of psychedelic leaning music makes me hone in on The Match. I like those vocal harmony groups and the classical sounds of the instrumentation rounded the entire effect for me very nicely. My vote goes to the version by The Match.
This past battle was a wild one! Great turn out voting, but it was also opening day of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This round of Battle stayed close right up to near the end when The Match took a lead and kept it.
Final Vote Tally:
Jim Nabors 22 votes The Match 29 votes
Next Battle of the Bands Post on Saturday April 15th
Smack dab in the middle of the month, between the days of the ongoing A to Z Challenge, comes another music Battle. This Battle might be just the cure some of you will need from blog post fatigue. There's still a lot of A to Z post ahead! By the way, this paragraph contains clues as to the next song hit from the eighties. Do you see what song I'll be using? What is your favorite day of the week? Do you like to celebrate Fridays? Do you mind working on weekends?
April 1st is a time for us bloggers and for all who enjoy reading blogs. This date begins what has become the greatest blog challenge of them all: The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge! Let the 2017 Challenge begin!
Welcome Blogging Friends and Friends of Blogging!
Here we are again at the start of another Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This will be the 8th year of the Challenge and still going strong. For the month of April Tossing It Out will be joining hundreds of other blogs from around the world as we deliver 26 daily posts (except on Sundays aside from the last Sunday of this month) using the letters of the alphabet as our inspiration. As many others will do, I have decided to blog with a theme in mind. My posts for this Challenge month will explore time and the various aspects related to time.
In my first April post I will be dealing with a song about time...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away Seriesand now hosted byStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens twice each month on the 1st and 15th. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
"A Time for Us"
This is the theme song from the popular 1968 film interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the film was one of the hits of 1968. The instrumental score for the love theme from the film was composed by Nino Rota who also penned much of the music behind the films of Fellini--it is a hauntingly beautiful melody. Either instrumentally or with vocals, there are numerous cover versions of this song. I settled for two that I found particularly interesting in one way or another. They certainly are a contrast.
Gomer Pyle of Mayberry shocked the hometown folks and the U.S. Marine Corps as well as the television audiences when he unleashed the dulcet tones of his baritone voice. Go-o-lly, who'd have ever thunk it? Gomer (actually actor/singer Jim Nabors from Sylacauga, Alabama) endeared himself to America with his portrayal of the goofy Mayberry gas station attendent on The Andy Griffith Show and later on his own show Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. During his lengthy career, Nabors recorded a number of albums as well as appearing in many movies and television shows. For our first Battle performance, Nabors presents a straight-forward rendering of "A Time for Us".
The Match "A Time for Us" (1969)
If The Lettermen had dropped some acid before recording "A Time for Us", the result might have sounded like this next Battle contestant. Bordering on psychedelia, this is one of those many strange vocal groups that appeared on the scene in the late sixties. This arrangement of "A Time for Us" contains lush strings and some nice harmonies. Who are the singers? That I could not find. And that is about is much as I did find about this group other than they recorded this song.
A Time To Vote! I hope you have time to vote! And hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. Which version do you like the best? Did Gomer meet his Match? You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste. Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours.
Excepting tomorrow (Sunday the 2nd) there will be posts every day this week. Voting will be open until Thursday the 6th and the winner of this match will be announced on Friday the 7th. I hope you can stop in to visit as many of my "Time" posts as you are able, but be sure to be back on Friday to see which song version was voted as the favorite. Shazam!
