I like to sing. Unfortunately, I was heavily influenced by parody songs thanks to listening to Dr. Demento when I was young as well as listening to and watching "Weird Al" Yankovic videos. As a result, I tend to make up words to songs, even though I know the lyrics.
When I sing with the choir, I've usually had the song drilled into me that I automatically sing the correct words, although I keep the music in front of me in case I'm tempted to goof up. Choir practice has many times been disrupted by my giggling fits due to me substituting words for what we should be singing. They haven't kicked me out, although I guess practices would be shorter if I behaved myself.
A few weeks ago I read, on the Internet where everything is true, that BC Clark, an Oklahoma City jewelry store, was going to be filming people singing their famous (at least to those who grow up in parts of Oklahoma that receives TV and radio broadcasts from OKC) jingle at Penn Square Mall the day after Thanksgiving this year. Since I was going to be visiting my dad in Edmond, I decided to take the kids to the mall and sing on Friday.
We got to the mall without mishap, but trying to find a place to park was horrible. I'm not a Black Friday shopper and I thought that if the parking lot was crowded people would go somewhere else and come back when the parking thinned out. Nope. There were people parking at the ends of rows, making up their own parking places and making it almost impossible for anything bigger than a Mini-Cooper to get by. And there were people who decided to jump the curbs and park on the hilly, grassy areas between the parking lot and the street. And, of course, there were people who lurked about, stalking shoppers walking out to their cars, then planting themselves in the middle of the lane while impatiently waiting for the shoppers to load up and leave.
I got lucky, as I usually do, by remaining patient. We found a spot that opened up just as we turned down the aisle, and we weren't too far from an entrance into the mall. It probably took us twenty minutes to find the spot, but we were good to go.
Once inside the mall, it took about fifteen minutes to find where we needed to be. Ten minutes of wandering and five minutes more after my kids said, "Hey, Dad, why don't we look at a map of the mall?"
We got to our destination, signed the release, and waited for our turn to sing. We knew the song by heart, so we didn't even ask for a run-through.
The cameras were pointed at us, we were given the signal, and we began to sing a capella.
As I mentioned at the start of this, part of my misspent youth included listening to song parodies, and I've developed a case of what I've explained to the kids as "Musical Tourette Syndrome." I know the right words, and I often mean to sing the right words, but I just start singing the wrong words.
Anyway, we were making it through the song all right until we hit the last line and instead of singing "...BC Clark's Anniversary Sale!" I sang "...GC Clark's Anniversary Sale!"
The kids started laughing.
The director said, "Let's do another take."
I said, "Oh dear, did I say 'GC Clark?"
The director nodded while my kids were trying to supress giggles.
So we began Take Two. The song is not intended to be sung as rounds, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," but the three of us began at three different times, with me singing something completely different.
"Oops!"
More giggles.
"Okay, I'll count you in," said the director.
And the third time was a charm.
I don't know if they'll use our correct version for the TV spot this year, but we sure had fun doing it.
...I wonder if they've ever considered putting together blooper reels?
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