Things you do to me, played on a Maccaferri Islander guitar

This month I got the little plastic guitar out again, and played a song I wrote for Claude Pate. It's a petite little pop song, and I thought it would pair nicely with the diminutive nature of the Maccaferri. I think it turned out to be a good match, but you can be the judge.

About the song

This is a very simple love song, which is about all I write. I've always liked the melody, and even back when we would play it in Claude Pate I would throw in the "Kiss me once, Kiss me twice" reference. I've never understood why I know so many very old pop songs. I think it is a combination of too much time spent watching old cartoons when I was very young, and the fact that my grandfather had a polka band and a definite love of songs from the 20's through the 40's. Anyway, rather than simply play the familiar figure as an obscure reference in a guitar solo, I go ahead and sing the words with my own variation here.

I just checked Wikipedia and the title of the song I'm referencing is, It's been a long, long time, and it was a hit in 1945 at the end of the war for Harry James. I think Harry was my trumpet playing grandfather's favorite trumpet player, so I'm guessing that's part of my connection to this little melody. I link the Harry James version above.

My song employs one of my stock musical tricks. If you listen to what passes for a chorus, you will notice that I sing the words "...walk with me awhile..." over a Dm chord. Mere moments later, as the melody cycles back, I sing the words "...show me with a smile.." over a D chord. Same song, same progression, but the first pass is with a minor chord, the succeeding time with a major. I use this device fairly often in my song writing. I just like the way it sounds.

About the guitar

I waxed rhapsodic about Mario Maccaferri in a previous post (May, 2015, almost exactly one year ago!), so I 'll simply say here that he made some pretty cool guitars, and that I am happy to own a little piece of his legacy, even if it is a sort of silly little plastic guitar. I'm always surprised how well this thing stays in tune. I can leave it for months and pick it up and it will be pretty close to where I left it.