Another Chain and Bar

Thursday afternoons I play piano for singalongs at a local assisted living/memory care unit. We do songs the residents know well: mostly jazz standards and show tunes from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Friday mornings I volunteer on a lovely grand piano in the front lobby of a big hospital. I use many of the same songs at both venues. I don’t sing as I play at the hospital, but in my head I hear the voices of Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and Dean Martin. There are a few songs, though, I’m thinking of cutting from the repertoire: “Standing on the Corner” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Frank Loesser, and “Wives and Lovers” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. I’m sure no one would have batted an eye at these lyrics when they were new, by they seem so misogynistic now. I guess times really have changed. Thank goodness.