ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 19, 1996 TAG: 9604190042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: below
Who hasn't sung ``I've Been Workin' on the Railroad'' or tapped a foot to ``Oh! Susanna''? But what about ``Simple Gifts'' or ``Music Alone Shall Live''?
They're all on a list of 42 tunes that a music educators group says Americans must continue singing, humming and strumming to preserve an important part of the national culture.
The list, compiled by the Music Educators National Conference, includes patriotic songs such as ``The Star-Spangled Banner,'' ``America the Beautiful'' and ``This Land Is Your Land.''
There are American folk songs, Negro spirituals, a Jewish celebration song, a Japanese folk melody and such favorites as ``She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain,'' ``My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,'' ``If I Had a Hammer'' and ``Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.''
Imagine actress Julie Andrews singing ``Do-Re-Mi'' in ``The Sound of Music,'' or an Irish tenor belting out ``Danny Boy.'' Both are on the list.
``We have a whole generation that has grown up without signing songs like these - songs that are part of our culture, part of who we are,'' said Will Schmid, president of the 90-year-old group representing 65,000 music educators nationwide.
People need to start singing again in neighborhoods, homes, churches, schools, ballparks, Scout troops and summer camps, Schmid said in launching a nationwide ``Get America Singing ... Again'' campaign.
Children at Stevens Elementary School in Washington recognized the titles of a dozen or so songs on the list, yet most had trouble singing more than a verse. Some couldn't get through the first line.
``Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-aye,'' sixth-grader Shika Duncan sang as she sat on the school playground. ``Oh - something, something - what a wonderful day.''
Shika and their friends didn't know ``Blue Skies'' ``Danny Boy'' or ``Down by the Riverside.'' But they quickly broke into a recess rendition of ``Doe, a deer, a female deer.''
They said they didn't know ``Frere Jacques.''
``You know it,'' their music teacher, Sharon Strange, told them. ``But you know it as `Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping, brother John, brother John?'''
Erica Quinlan, a fifth-grader, led her friends in singing several verses of ``Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,'' yet she conceded that she only knew half of the ``Star-Spangled Banner.'' Ten-year-old Lauren Jackson knew the whole anthem after someone prompted her with the first words: ``Oh! say, can you see ...''
``I think `We Shall Overcome' should be on there,'' classmate Richelle Chapman chimed in.
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, a rock 'n' roll fan, refrained from offering his suggested favorites.
``The list looks like a core curriculum of American music,'' Bennett said. ``I would like to hear America singing. We have a lot of honking, cursing and in-your-face behavior, but not enough singing.''
However, Jim DeRogatis, senior editor of Rolling Stone magazine, had a few suggestions: ``Fight the Power,'' a rap song by a group called Public Enemy, and ``Smells Like Teen Spirit'' by Nirvana - songs that he says young people enjoy and respect. Forty-two songs every American should know< compiled by the Music Educators National Conference ``Amazing Grace''
``America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)''
``America the Beautiful''
``Battle Hymn of the Republic''
``Blue Skies''
``Danny Boy''
``De Colores''
``Dona Nobis Pacem''
``Do-Re-Mi''
``Down by the Riverside''
``Frere Jacques''
``Give My Regards to Broadway''
``God Bless America''
``God Bless the U.S.A.''
``Green, Green Grass of Home''
``Havah Nagilah''
``He's Got the Whole World in His Hands''
``Home on the Range''
``I've Been Working on the Railroad''
``If I Had a Hammer''
``Let There Be Peace on Earth''
``Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing''
``Michael (Row the Boat Ashore)''
``Music Alone Shall Live''
``My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean''
``Oh! Susanna''
``Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'''
``Over My Head''
``Puff the Magic Dragon''
``Rock-A-My Soul''
``Sakura''
``Shalom Chaverim''
``She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain''
``Shenandoah''
``Simple Gifts''
``Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child''
``The Star-Spangled Banner''
``Swing Low, Sweet Chariot''
``This Land Is Your Land''
``This Little Light of Mine''
``Yesterday''
``Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah'' STAFF chart
LENGTH: Long : 111 linesby CNB