Welcome to my music blog - The Soundtrack of My Life!

Many of you have asked me “What’s with all the music, Dr. Weiss?” Well, as I’ve told some of you:

I personally call every surgery patient on the evening of surgery just to make sure they are doing well and have no questions that need answering. Occasionally, I would be at the piano and play a song that we had listened to that day. I gradually realized that I wanted to go through all the music that I had played during my life and at least start making a list of the songs that I had recently played.

Well, there are now about 600 songs on the list and I realized that it in a way it represented the ‘soundtrack of my life’! And that’s how I got the idea to record these songs and share them with my patients, friends and family. After I record them they will reside here, for easy access.

Music is truth. It’s honest. It’s really the first social media, where in a way, people could share their souls directly. And isn’t that what the purpose of social media is and why it’s so popular - trying to share who you really are, as completely and directly as possible?

Finally, it has been (and will continue to be) a genuine pleasure sharing these different songs with you and I really appreciate all of your positive feedback!!

Categories


Since it cost a lot with play button

Deal – Grateful Dead

February 15, 2025

Deal (3:39) Deal is a rowdy and rollicking song from the Grateful Dead, written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Always a crowd pleaser! The story behind the AI generated video (WARNING: READ NO FURTHER UNLESS YOU WANT THE DETAILS). Note: The terms AI and chatgpt are used interchangeably below. Back in December, when I read that the Grateful Dead would be honored at the Kennedy Center, I decided to experiment with some AI text or image to video software that had just come out to go along with some music that I had just recorded. So… First I asked Dall-E (ChatGPT text to image service) to create 18 cartoon images (enough for about 18 10-second videos in a 3 minute song) to accompany the song’s lyrics: Since it cost a lot to win and even more to lose You and me bound to spend some time wondering what to choose Goes to show you don’t ever know Watch each card you play and play it slow Wait until your deal come round Don’t you let that deal go down I been gambling here abouts for ten good solid years If I told you all that went down it would burn off […]

Mothers day 2021

Mother’s Day Singalong Medley

May 9, 2021

  Mother’s Day Singalong Medley! (click here)  Many of you read that I was recently in Philadelphia (actually, Jenkintown) for a while taking care of my mom. I’m happy to say that she is now doing well. While I was there, I picked up a random music book of the ‘World’s Greatest Songs’ arranged for easy piano in my mom’s piano bench that I must have left for her years ago. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the songs and especially of the deceptively sophisticated arrangements (edited and arranged by Roger Edison and available on Amazon.) We had so much fun together learning and singing some of these songs, I thought that I would share them with you – to share with your moms on Mother’s Day (for 15 minutes of fun!) Who can’t use a little pandemic stress relief? So, if you are so inclined, click on the above photo, project it up on the big screen if you can,  and join us in Mom’s living room for a lively old fashioned karaoke sing-a-long!  There’s something for everyone!  (For the really dedicated, or for brain exercise, or just for fun –  try singing these songs once a night until you have the lyrics […]

A composite image consisting of the words "Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do combined with an image of a book cover for "This Land is Your Land" with Woody Guthrie holding a guitar.

Two classic songs in thirty seconds to make you smile

January 14, 2020

Today's very brief piece of upbeat music brings together melodies from two classic American songs, almost guaranteed to put a smile on your face: 1- The 1922 blues classic 'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do', written by Grainger and Robbins and popularized by Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Jimmy Witherspoon. Other notable versions: Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams, Jr. 2- 'This Land Is Your Land', written by the great Woody Guthrie in 1940, is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. I don't know how I got the idea to put them together, but here they are! Dedicated to Bob S and Wendy Lee. Enjoy, Dr. Weiss Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
Red River Valley

The Red River Valley

December 18, 2019

The first version of Red River Valley was probably written by someone in 1870 in the Canadian West, the actual location of the Red River Valley. Although by then part of the cowboy music DNA, one of the earliest versions was sung by Gene Autry in 1936 in the film of the same name. Autry (known as ‘The Singing Cowboy’) was one of the most important pioneering figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. Everyone should listen to this song (check out Autry’s version on YouTube) or, in this case, at least see the lyrics of this song once in their life. What a great song of unrequited love. You can just imagine ‘ol Slim out on the trail by the campfire with a million stars above and the valley spread out below, thinking about the girl who he’d probably never see again.  What a classic! This is dedicated to Stacey R. Enjoy! Dr. Weiss Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in [...]
Daisy Bell Bicycle Built for Two

Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)

December 13, 2019

"Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" is a popular song written in 1892 by British songwriter Harry Dacre, with the well-known chorus, "Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer, do. / I'm half crazy / all for the love of you", ending with the words, "a bicycle built for two". It is the earliest song sung using computer speech synthesis by the IBM 7094 in 1961, a feat which was referenced in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke witnessed the IBM 704 demonstration and referred to it in the film, in which the HAL 9000 computer sings "Daisy Bell" during its gradual deactivation. Again, we hear the same three or four chords used in one of the first ‘standards’. Enjoy, Dr. Weiss Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
Home on the Range

Home on the Range

August 22, 2019

OK, here’s an oldie but goody. Who doesn’t know and love this song!   In 1872, Home on the Range was composed by Daniel E. Kelley with the lyrics by Brewster M. Higley. It was originally distributed as a poem, "My Western Home",  but is now regarded as the unofficial anthem of the American West. Home on the Range was adopted by ranchers, cowboys, and other western settlers throughout the past few generations. Of interest, Home on the Range originally didn’t have even include the words “on the range”, but over as time went on, the phrase was adopted into the song title. Notable versions include ones by Bing Crosby, Ken Maynard, Frank Sinatra, Pete Seeger, Gene Autry, and Burl Ives, among others.  So sit back, relax, and enjoy this western original. Dr. Weiss Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
tennessee waltz pic 1

Tennessee Waltz

June 28, 2019

Here’s a one-minute cover of the Tennessee Waltz, one of my favorite songs, written by Redd Steward and Pee Wee King. Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
Teddy bears..perhaps getting ready for a picnic

The Teddy Bears’ Picnic

February 7, 2019

John Walter Bratton, died on this day (February 7) in 1947. Bratton was a Tin Pan Alley composer and wrote “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” in 1907.  I guess that makes the song 102 years old! He wrote it without lyrics, and during the silent film era it was used as background music for a number of popular movies and later, even as background music in some of the Looney Tunes cartoons. He wrote over 250 songs, but this song is his only lasting hit.  Twenty-five years later, Jimmy Kennedy wrote the lyrics in 1932!  Interestingly, Kennedy, in a career spanning more than fifty years, wrote some 2000 songs, of which over 200 became worldwide hits, and about 50 are all-time popular music classics. Until Lennon and McCartney, Kennedy had more hits in the United States than any other Irish or British songwriter!!!  [Incidentally, Stephen, Kennedy also wrote “South of the Border”, a popular song describing a trip to Mexico, inspired by a holiday picture postcard he received from Mexico. Frank Sinatra recorded “South of the Border” when I was 2 weeks old! But I digress. “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” was one of the earliest sound recordings, released by Edison Records [...]