In the mid-nineties I was taking a shower and I was thinking about my mom.  A melody came to me and the words: “Oh Mama” fit the groove perfectly.  I got out of the shower and began to write down the lyrics.  The finished product was, “Oh Mama, Oh!”  I wrote it for her to tell about what a great mom, grandma and great grandma (which was about to happen) that she was.  I sang it live in a performance at a later time and had the entire audience singing the refrain while my daughter and I sang the verses over the top of the notes they were singing.  They really participated well and It was a tribute to her, (which could be sung to other great moms too).

Growing up, my mom would sing harmony to the songs we sang around the house.  That’s how I learned to do it myself.  We sang a lot of old songs.  Some of them were from the late 30’s and 40’s.  And then we got to songs in the 50’s and after.  We sang show tunes, big band music and standards.  She taught me well and we sounded pretty darn good. 

Since then I have written other “Mama Songs,” so I figured this was the perfect time to write about them since I will be posting this on Mother’s Day.  When my first grandchild had an earache as a small child, I started singing, “My Ear Hurts Mommy” as I was rocking her and trying to soothe her.  Later I wrote: “The Mama Is the Glue”  which has an acapella part moving through the verses like an accompaniment.  It’s a “mother power” type of song about how moms keep it all together no matter what happens in our lives.

Once, when I was baby-sitting my youngest granddaughter, I made up a song entitled: “My Mama Loves Me.”  It is a song in which you can replace the word “mama” with other people your child loves, such as papa, brother, sister and friends.  We sang this song at bedtime and the list of people she loved would go on and on until I had to say, “only one more person!”  And this was after singing several other bedtime songs.  It could have gone on for an hour.  As it was, it usually ended up being 20-30 minutes of singing.  But we both enjoyed this bonding experience very much.

I may have other “Mama” songs that I can’t recall at the moment.  It is the love attachment I have for my mom that has caused me to think so often about writing mama songs.  And since I still have her here with me, I will always be wanting to write another song just for her.  She’s the one who started singing to me all the while I was growing up and it turned out to be the profession I wanted for my livelihood.  She and I still sing together, me at 68 years and she at 93.  But now we do it while sitting in the living room.  And we can still do a little harmony together.  Isn’t that wonderful?