I’ve gotten a few days behind on this month’s 30 Day Song Challenge, so today’s entry is going to be semi-brief, partly because I’m trying to catch up but in larger part because there’s really no reason for any of us to spend too much time thinking about what I do in the shower.
For those of us who sing, the bathroom is a very special place, an acoustic heaven. I guess it’s something about the tiles and the confined space and the way sound bounces and echoes just right that makes for a perfect little home studio. It’s even better in the even-tighter confines of the shower, because in addition to all the normal sonic excellence of the bathroom, you also have the added benefit of privacy in the shower. There are many good reasons, I suppose, not to sing in public: maybe you’re one of those people who can’t carry a tune in a bucket, maybe you’re scared of performing in front of other people, maybe you don’t want to disturb the peace. But there’s really no reason not to sing in the shower, as far as I’m concerned. Then again, I live alone, so there’s no one to protest anyway.
I regularly sing in the shower. (To be honest, I regularly sing everywhere else in my apartment, too.) So, it’s a little difficult to pick a single song that I sing in the shower, since I’m fairly sure that almost every song I know has been sung in my little porcelain songbooth at one point or another. Today I’m picking a song that I frequently sing in the shower, a gospel tune originaly based on a mid-18thC hymn by English clergymen Philip Doddridge, which was itself originally based on a Biblical passage (Acts 8:35) in which Philip the Apostle catches the Holy Spirit and is moved to say so. The contemporary gospel tune “Oh Happy Day” was recorded in 1969 by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, and has been a staple of church music ever since. Here it is:
If you don’t sing in the shower, you should. If you’re looking for something to sing, I’ll just say that there are many worse ways to start off your morning than with “Oh Happy Day.”
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Here’s your quick-access link to the entire 30 Day Song Challenge 2014 prompt-list and my picks for each day.