NEEDS 'o' checked) Uke-Song: "NESSUN DORMA", operatic aria, as might be sung by James Taylor

PASTICHE with PARODY-LYRICS, inspired by the author attending a James Taylor concert at the North Charleston Coliseum, May 15, 2018.

ORIGINAL SONG#1(music): "Mexico", James Taylor 1975.

ORIGINAL SONG#2(lyrics): "Nessun Dorma", aria from the 3rd act of "Turandot" composed by Giacomo Puccini, first performed after his death in 1926. Translation of the libretto can be found on the Wikipedia link.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2015, updated 2018. 

To return to the corresponding post on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (and to see the lyrics without the chord-chart indications) click HERE. 

Singing along with the famous arias brings the crowd out to the opera. You don’t have to know much Italian to understand the libretto here however; ‘ciao’, pronounced like ‘chow’, means ‘so long’. As the mythical princess-character was reinvented by a French author, her name is usually pronounced French-style with the final ‘t’ silent.   

JAMES TAYLOR SINGS ‘NESSUN DORMA'

(to the tune of "Mexico")

SONGLINK:  Click here to view a parody based on Another James Taylor favorite

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT (and guitar, too!)

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

Specifics for C-tuned ukulele:

 Bb = 3321;  Eb = 0331;  Bb6 = 0221;

F* = 5558; C* = 9787; these *chords are used for colour in the brief moment where the theme from the aria asserts itself. (I wish I could sing like Pavarotti!)

WORDPLAY LINK: 

For wordplay (palindromes, anagrams, eggcorns, creative cartography, etc.) and silly poetry (polished limericks), see our sister blog "EDIFYING NONSENSE" here. 

Related Palindromes

A reposition? No, it is opera.

Renoted ami made tenor.

Lost sopranos; sonar post, Sol.

Air an aria.

Semi-mimes. 

ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
(click on any verse-slide to enlarge)

Uke-Song: "THUNDER BAY (not CONSTANTINOPLE)", as might be sung by The Four Lads

 PARODY LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Istanbul (not Constantinople" a jazz-band style concoction recorded by The Four Lads in 1953. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, May 2023.

To see additional photos, and the song-lyrics alone (without chord indications) on the blog "Edifying Nonsense", click HERE.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In 1930, "Istanbul" was designated as the official name of the largest city in Türkiye (Turkey), known in earlier periods as Byzantion, Byzantium, Constantinople, and primarily as Istanbul since the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453.

In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's tenth and newest province; in 2001, the Canadian Constitution was amended to revise the province's name to "Newfoundland and Labrador" (the mainland area of Labrador included less than 5% of the province's population but the majority of its landmass). The island of Newfoundland (NEW-found-land) is known by its inhabitants as "the Rock". 

In 1953 (the 500th anniversary of the "fall of Constantinople"), the Four Lads, a Canadian singing quartet who had moved from Toronto to the United States, acquired their first gold record with the release of the jazz-band styled "Istanbul (not Constantinople)". Other hit recordings by this group include "Standing on the Corner" and "Moments to Remember". BTW, the original members of the Four Lads attended the St. Michael's Choir School in downtown Toronto, on a small street well known to the authors.  

In 1970, the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario (current population about 110,000), at the western end of Lake Superior was formed by the merger of the two smaller communities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  

THUNDER BAY (not CONSTANTINOPLE)

(to the tune of "Istanbul, not Constantinople")

Intro theme, mid-Eastern, on kazoo

"The [Am]Lakehead" was Fort William and Port Arthur
Now it's Thunder Bay, not Willi-am and Arthur
It's a [E7]wondrous town with name that's far superior --
Like [Am]Turkish delight, [Dm]on a [E7]stormy [Am]night.

Every [Am]dame today, 'round Lakehead way,
Stays in Thunder Bay, not with William or with Arthur
You've a [E7]rainy date in Fort William or Port Arthur?
She'll be [Am]waiting in [E7]Thunder [Am]Bay.

Even [Am]old Newfoundland hooked up with Labrador.

[Bm7+5]Ask a Newfie, he might say,

"They [E7]thought, on the Rock, we'd like that more, eh?"

"So, [Am]take me back: Fort William and Port Arthur."
No, you can't go back in time, it's so much farther;
Been a [E7]long while past, since Willi-am and Arthur.

Why the [Am]name-change? Here's the crux:
[E7]  It's no one's business but Ca-[Am]nucks.

Thunder Bay. 

(kazoo)

Thunder Bay.