The James Allenspach Songbook: Recent Episodes
James Allenspach
The ongoing catalog of the random songs produced by James Allenspach, a citizen of Chicago, Illinois.
Hey, happy Podapalooza! This episode comes out in the middle of the Coronavirus epidemic, in celebration of the virtual podcast festival Podapalooza. This my version of a charity single, and is a response to the odd fact that, after Band-Aid sang "Feed the world" in their single, USA for Africa sang "We are the world". Makes you think!
I sincerely apologize for whatever you are about to hear. In my defense I can only say that I have to get this nonsense out of my head so that my wife doesn't hear it every day for the rest of our lives.
I did a couple of new James Bond songs in the previous season, so here's another one! I can't imagine why I haven't been called by the James Bond people yet to sing a new theme for the next movie...
One of those melodies that I got from a dream. There have been a couple of these, which I will post in later seasons.
Recorded live on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois! Another use of the versatile "Spiderman" melody, this song is my tribute to the beautiful men and women of the great South. I think.
I think I dreamt this song, or it just came to me pretty quickly. I soon realized that it's a rewrite of the song "I've Been Everywhere" but by then it was far too late.
Inspired by a Lifehacker article with the title "How to wean your baby off the Rock 'n' Play". Some songs just write themselves, you know?
Welcome to the 5th season! This song was, I guess, inspired by the song "Act Naturally" but who knows for sure.
Yes, this is the year of the Hamilton! To commemorate Mr Miranda's triumphant new movie, here's a remix of the Hamilton song with another "classic" Broadway song.
Hey, a second James Bond theme! Yes, I might just be working my way through the entire film catalog. Or maybe not. Who's to say?
Well, now this is just singing nonsense. Sometimes you just enjoy the sound of certain syllables and you have to celebrate them in a singing fashion.
Yes, the melody is from the classic Dokken song "Dream Warriors". Who doesn't love a good Dokken reference?
Much love to the late great Amy Winehouse for the original concept. Can you imagine what the future would be like if she had actually gone to rehab?
Why has no one ever written a song about the new trend of the staycation? Let me be the first to do so, and thereby dominate the field.
This of course is inspired by the famous Taylor Swift song of a few years ago. The lines about bowling pins are the product of a common literary device that I use, which is to think of something completely random that doesn't relate to the song at all, as long as it provides a decent rhyme. Wordplay!
Yaay, our first remix! This song originally premiered in season two and let me tell you it never really left my mind. So I hope you enjoy this re-imagining of the song.
One time my wife got on a bus, and a woman exclaimed, "Where'd you get that hat!" Of course my wife thought it was a legitimate question, and she told the woman where she got it. The woman replied, "No, it's just a saying, like 'Where'd you get that hat'."
Welcome to the 4th season! To kick things off, here's the new theme song for the next James Bond film, due in 2027.
This song goes way back to my early years, when an aunt made us laugh by singing the first verse with Frosty having bowling pins instead of eyes. And there the joke ended, until I thought of adding more lyrics when I was in my teens. And that's my Christmas story!
Hello! While I'm still taking some time off, here's a song for Thanksgiving that came to mind when I was thinking about spelling the word "Thanksgiving" for some reason. Enjoy this, and keep your podcast apps open for a possible Christmas song next month!
Is this the last song with this title? One can only hope. With that, that's a wrap on season 3. I'm taking the rest of the year off, because I've given you so much content already. Look for some holiday specials, and season 4 in January, if I can be bothered to record it!
Sure, I've heard the song before. This is totally how it goes. I heard it once in the 1990s...
It's amazing what you can do with a lunch hour, isn't it? This was of course inspired by the MC Hammer song, and is one of the longest songs I've come up with yet.
I think this was inspired by an old Bob and Ray sketch, "Grub: The Story of Food". Who knows?
What would it sound like if you replaced the word "telephone" in the New Edition song "Mr. Telephone Man" with the word "tambourine"? What indeed.
Or "Bankelone", I can't decide. This song follows the pattern "my first name's ___ and my last name's ___" and is one of the few songs of this type that can be considered a complete song.
It's right there in the title. "Pokerface". Combining "poke" and "face ". This title has inspired a lot of random singing, as we will see throughout this season.
Welcome to season 3! This song was recorded live at the Glenwood Sunday Market in Rogers Park, Chicago.
Remember the MTV Unplugged performance that LL Cool J did? And there was that one guy in the front of the audience who was obviously waiting for that song so he could stand up, take his shirt off, and start boxing? This song is dedicated to that guy.
The first major entry in a long list of songs written by just knowing the title and not the song.
I was just struck by the two lines from Aerosmith's song, and wrote some more rhymes to go further.
Another song recorded almost immediately after it was written. The inspiration for this song: I went to the local market, and when I was leaving said market I checked my pockets to confirm that I had the credit card that I used for the transaction. I had, in fact, put it away.
Welcome to the second season! This song was written about a minute before the recording, and was recorded in an actual elevator for verisimilitude.
More of a joke than a song that I created, but I'm all about the old standards, as we will see.
This song was inspired by a line that Stephen Merchant spoke on an old Ricky Gervais podcast episode.
Welcome to the podcast! I'll be recording the random songs produced by my brain every so often. This will be nothing but the songs, so episodes are going to be very short.