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A melodic, jumpy, upbeat song is always good for --among other things-- whistling. For a person whom God cooked as an introvert (thus I mostly walk alone) and impatient (thus I mostly walk fast), nothing beats whistling while walking fast (if I walk slowly, then I must be reading). For the past few days I’ve been whistling the same mysterious song which I occasionally pick for the past sixteen years. I know nothing about this song, except the sound of its first bar. That limitation changed today.
In 1990, when I was fourteen, I saw one of Tom Hanks early movies, Big. It tells a story of a boy, Josh Baskin, who couldn’t stand another minute being a 10-year-old. One day in a town carnival, he saw a mystical machine which would make one’s wish comes true for the cost of only a nickel. Just for fun, Josh put a coin in, and wished to be a grown-up. And a grown-up he became on the next morning (Hanks played the grown-up Josh). In the story, Josh eventually found what a lucky thing it is to be a kid, and wished things would go back to normal. Like every happy ending story, Josh re-kid-ed himself.
There was a scene --my favorite one-- when Josh came into a toy store to browse around (he was, after all, still a 10-year-old at heart). He found a floor piano and played a song. He stepped onto the floors from key to key. Its floors shone lights and sounds came out. The store owner, seeing the adult Josh having a bit of childlike fun, joined him on a duet. The song they played is my mysterious whistle-song.
I fell in love with the song instantly, though it was played unfinished --just one bar. I played that part of the videotape (dear God) repeatedly just to listen to the song. Until finally it got to the point where the tape was damaged of overuse. Before the tape was broken, I was lucky --and wise-- enough to trick a friend of mine, a piano literate, to see it and make the musical notations for me. I knew it would come handy one day, that after my tape was nothing but a history, I used to make him play as repetitious as my tape was (He didn’t mind).
Except the rumor that the song was called Heart and Soul, I know nothing else. I don’t know both who wrote nor sang it. I don’t know if it has any lyrics (but if it does, I know I’ll love it). I only know that one bar. There is a scientific notion --facial feedback hypothesis-- that said: if you are in negative mood, move you face muscles to make a smile and keep it for several minutes, and you’ll feel better. One of my personal bad-mood counter strategy was a bit different: when I’m in a negative mood, whistle Heart and Soul, and I’ll feel better. Though my whistling face muscles don’t nearly resemble my smiling face muscles (you can indeed tell the difference between people smiling and whistling), they yield the same result nonetheless. Thus I call it my “one magic bar.”
When I said it’s a mysterious song, I meant it. No one seems to know the song. I never heard it played on any radio stations. I found a ‘Heart and Soul’ once, but it sounded so lame and sissy in a Celine Dion way (and, boy, do I hate Celine Dion). There was a Robert Downey, Jr. movie with the same title, but my mystery-song wasn’t there (Though, I think it’s a fabulous movie and had no regret watching it. I even found a similarly good song in it --called Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Man. And yes, sometimes I whistle that one, too). In 1997, Heart and Soul came up in Now And Again [1], a TV series, also in featuring one of the character playing it on a piano without lyrics, and also just that one bar. I flipped out, freaked out, screamed out --all three in an extremely good way. But it was a short flip-freak-and-scream for it was television thus I couldn’t repeat it. What pained me, the title didn’t come on the closing credits --no information on Heart and Soul. Come to think of it, I don’t even know whether Heart and Soul is the correct title. In fact, I can’t even remember how I know that title in the first place. However, so long as that tune brightens my day, clear or gloomy, it stays to be my “one magic bar.”
About nine hours before this sentence is written, I posted a question to Yahoo! Answers [2]
The title was Heart and Soul, indeed. One answer provided me with lyrics (it has lyrics, indeed). One funny fact is that the lyrics was written by someone by the name of Frank Loesser. That’s funny, because I thought the lyric was a Wienner. Just read it: it’ll undoubtedly wien your heart. My favorite answer is one that copied-pasted me a web page which, again to my surprise, played a midi file of my mystery-song! about that song. At first I thought it was a long shot, but after having searching for sixteen years in vain, I figured nothing would disappoint me anymore so it wouldn’t hurt to try. Surprise. Exactly seven seconds after I hit the submit button, I got 4 answers.
In 1990, when I was fourteen, I saw one of Tom Hanks early movies, Big. It tells a story of a boy, Josh Baskin, who couldn’t stand another minute being a 10-year-old. One day in a town carnival, he saw a mystical machine which would make one’s wish comes true for the cost of only a nickel. Just for fun, Josh put a coin in, and wished to be a grown-up. And a grown-up he became on the next morning (Hanks played the grown-up Josh). In the story, Josh eventually found what a lucky thing it is to be a kid, and wished things would go back to normal. Like every happy ending story, Josh re-kid-ed himself.
There was a scene --my favorite one-- when Josh came into a toy store to browse around (he was, after all, still a 10-year-old at heart). He found a floor piano and played a song. He stepped onto the floors from key to key. Its floors shone lights and sounds came out. The store owner, seeing the adult Josh having a bit of childlike fun, joined him on a duet. The song they played is my mysterious whistle-song.
I fell in love with the song instantly, though it was played unfinished --just one bar. I played that part of the videotape (dear God) repeatedly just to listen to the song. Until finally it got to the point where the tape was damaged of overuse. Before the tape was broken, I was lucky --and wise-- enough to trick a friend of mine, a piano literate, to see it and make the musical notations for me. I knew it would come handy one day, that after my tape was nothing but a history, I used to make him play as repetitious as my tape was (He didn’t mind).
Except the rumor that the song was called Heart and Soul, I know nothing else. I don’t know both who wrote nor sang it. I don’t know if it has any lyrics (but if it does, I know I’ll love it). I only know that one bar. There is a scientific notion --facial feedback hypothesis-- that said: if you are in negative mood, move you face muscles to make a smile and keep it for several minutes, and you’ll feel better. One of my personal bad-mood counter strategy was a bit different: when I’m in a negative mood, whistle Heart and Soul, and I’ll feel better. Though my whistling face muscles don’t nearly resemble my smiling face muscles (you can indeed tell the difference between people smiling and whistling), they yield the same result nonetheless. Thus I call it my “one magic bar.”
When I said it’s a mysterious song, I meant it. No one seems to know the song. I never heard it played on any radio stations. I found a ‘Heart and Soul’ once, but it sounded so lame and sissy in a Celine Dion way (and, boy, do I hate Celine Dion). There was a Robert Downey, Jr. movie with the same title, but my mystery-song wasn’t there (Though, I think it’s a fabulous movie and had no regret watching it. I even found a similarly good song in it --called Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Man. And yes, sometimes I whistle that one, too). In 1997, Heart and Soul came up in Now And Again [1], a TV series, also in featuring one of the character playing it on a piano without lyrics, and also just that one bar. I flipped out, freaked out, screamed out --all three in an extremely good way. But it was a short flip-freak-and-scream for it was television thus I couldn’t repeat it. What pained me, the title didn’t come on the closing credits --no information on Heart and Soul. Come to think of it, I don’t even know whether Heart and Soul is the correct title. In fact, I can’t even remember how I know that title in the first place. However, so long as that tune brightens my day, clear or gloomy, it stays to be my “one magic bar.”
About nine hours before this sentence is written, I posted a question to Yahoo! Answers [2]
The title was Heart and Soul, indeed. One answer provided me with lyrics (it has lyrics, indeed). One funny fact is that the lyrics was written by someone by the name of Frank Loesser. That’s funny, because I thought the lyric was a Wienner. Just read it: it’ll undoubtedly wien your heart. My favorite answer is one that copied-pasted me a web page which, again to my surprise, played a midi file of my mystery-song! about that song. At first I thought it was a long shot, but after having searching for sixteen years in vain, I figured nothing would disappoint me anymore so it wouldn’t hurt to try. Surprise. Exactly seven seconds after I hit the submit button, I got 4 answers.
(it's http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/heartsoul.htm, by the way)
And so there I was, in my office, listening to the tune looping endlessly for old time sake, hour after hour, only this time without guilt --knowing no tape nor any of my friend’s fingers would get broken. Had I forget that the glasses in my office was see-though, I would have had jiggy-ed my ass all over the room (And me jiggy-ing happens as rarely as Halley Comet passes over Earth).
About three hours after my revelation, I got in touch with a friend of mine. I texted her, asking how many songs entitled Heart and Soul she has in her mp3 folders. Again, I thought it was a long shot, but after my previous revelation and three hours of listening to that one bar continuously, I thought why not? She didn’t have any (no surprise there), but she said she could try a peer-to-peer search. I gave her the midi link so she’d know which Heart and Soul I meant (It turned out that she knew the song, not the title, though. It was her piano lesson song). I think liking the song is contagious for she looked for it enthusiastically. Less than an hour, she, in rejoice, texted me back to tell me she had that song successfully downloaded --and played it repeatedly, too (I think it’s the only way it should be played). This Thursday, it’ll finally be, after sixteen years of searching, in any playing device I have.
It sounds weird that a machine helped me find Heart and Soul.
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About three hours after my revelation, I got in touch with a friend of mine. I texted her, asking how many songs entitled Heart and Soul she has in her mp3 folders. Again, I thought it was a long shot, but after my previous revelation and three hours of listening to that one bar continuously, I thought why not? She didn’t have any (no surprise there), but she said she could try a peer-to-peer search. I gave her the midi link so she’d know which Heart and Soul I meant (It turned out that she knew the song, not the title, though. It was her piano lesson song). I think liking the song is contagious for she looked for it enthusiastically. Less than an hour, she, in rejoice, texted me back to tell me she had that song successfully downloaded --and played it repeatedly, too (I think it’s the only way it should be played). This Thursday, it’ll finally be, after sixteen years of searching, in any playing device I have.
It sounds weird that a machine helped me find Heart and Soul.
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PS: Thank you for the answers (isabow27, bloggerdude2005, WickedWordCraft, ljtimoney, lover24, risky_1986, tfram36). Thank you for downloading (Mekhta)
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[1] Now And Again was also a TV Series I was (and still am) crazy about (That seem to happen often: both favoritizing films and being crazy). The story began with the main character, Michael Wiseman, regular 30ish man, died in an accident. Afterward, a secret government agency, stole his body, took out his surviving brain, put it inside a brainless manufactured human body with super strength. Though it sounded like a cheap action in a Six-Million-Dollar-Man kind of way, it was actually a well-crafted drama in a Gilmore-Girls kind of way. The story revolves around a series of coincidental encounters between him and his wife and daughter (both wife and daughter didn’t know he’s alive).
[2] Yahoo! Answer is another version of online community. In it, after having an ID account, you can post and answer as many questions as you like. Afterward you can vote for and rate the best answers. Questions posted ranging from How exactly cloning works? to What do you suggest is the best wedding proposal surprise for my girlfriend?)
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