Tag: New Year’s Eve

Bringing in a Brand New Year

One of the great uplifting New Year’s songs is blues singer Charles Brown’s “Bringing in a Brand New Year.”

Wishing all of our readers a great new year with one of the most uplifting songs about the holiday, “Bringing in a Brand New Year.” Many songs about the new year are slow introspective songs, as the change in year is often a good time to reflect on our lives. But, of course, it can also be a time to celebrate, and Brown’s song is in a celebratory mood. Here is to the hope that your year is as fun as Charles Brown’s “Bringing in a Brand New Year.”

Charles Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999) is probably best known for the Christmas classic “Merry Christmas Baby.” But his recording of “Bringing in a Brand New Year” should be essential listening every New Year holiday.

Gonna be a great big parade,
I got my resolution made,
Gonna ride above the stars,
We might even take a trip to Mars.

B.B. King also has a great version of “Bringing in a Brand New Year.”

Wishing you all the best.

What is your favorite New Year song? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via Creative Commons.

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    Here’s a Little New Year’s Song

    Over the Rhine New Year

    The Ohio-based band Over the Rhine and lead singer Karin Bergquist capture the happiness and sadness in the beginning of a new year with their “New Year’s Song.” In the lyrics, Bergquist reminds us, “Our future’s bright, the past is checkered.” The song appeared as the closing track on the band’s 2014 holiday album Blood Oranges in the Snow.

    Over the Rhine was formed by Bergquist and her husband, pianist/guitarist/bassist Linford Detweiler. Check out their “New Year’s Song,” and have a happy and safe new year.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    John Oliver: “New Year’s Eve is the Worst”

    In this web exclusive from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, host John Oliver explains why New Year’s Eve is “the worst.” And he provides some excuses you can use for getting out of participating in the holiday. Check it out.

    Have a happy New Year.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    It’s New Year’s Day Just Like the Day Before

    Slaid Cleaves One Good Year New Year's Day Singer-songwriter Slaid Cleaves has so many great lines in his song set on New Year’s Day called “One Good Year,” which is from his excellent 2000 album Broke Down. In “One Good Year,” the singer facing hard times makes a simple request asking just for one good year to get his feet back on the ground, noting “I’ve been chasing grace / But grace ain’t so easily found.”

    The song is both sad and hopeful at the same time. In the bridge, he notes “It’s a bitter wind / In your face every day;/ It’s the little sins / That wear your soul away.” But even with some sad stories in the news lately, all we can really hope for is that the next year is one good year.

    What are your hopes for the new year? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Best New Year’s Eve Scene in a Film

    New Year's Eve Movies

    Is there a better New Year’s Eve movie scene than this one in When Harry Met Sally? The movie makes perfect use of the holiday, including Harry Burns’s (Billy Crystal’s) questions about “Auld Lang Syne.”

    Below is the climactic scene from the movie. {Spoiler alert: This clip is the film’s ending.}

    After When Harry Met Sally shows Harry’s loneliness magnified by the special night, Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) wonders about the role the holiday played in Harry’s surprise appearance. She wonders if he is just lonely because he is by himself on New Year’s Eve. Harry directly confronts that possible explanation for why he ran to Sally: “And it’s not because it is New Year’s Eve. . . When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” Where are my tissues?

    When Harry Met SallyFor romance, one might compare Meg Ryan’s New Year’s Eve meeting with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. That movie does a good job of not overplaying when the two finally meet.

    But the movie New Year’s Eve kiss that one might compare to When Harry Met Sally for dramatic impact is when Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) kisses Fredo (John Cazale) with the kiss of death at a New Year’s Eve party in The Godfather: Part II. Michael tells Fredo, “You broke my heart. You broke my heart.”

    More tissues, please.

    Happy New Year. In the new year, may your kisses be of the When Harry Met Sally type instead of of the Godfather: Part II type.

    What is your favorite portrayal of New Year’s Eve? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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