Happy New Year

Top: Daniel Cartier; Bottom: ABBA, Barry Manilow, and Dan Fogelberg.

Every year, I try to bring in the New Year with great music. Daniel Cartier's cover of Auld Lang Syne is haunting and beautiful. The song, a traditional greeting of the new year, is based on a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. That poem was set to a traditional Scottish melody, and the song was born. Daniel Cartier recorded it, and I just love it.

It seems like I would not be able to bypass the 1980 song from super-group Abba, Happy New Year. It was written by the "B's", Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. They, along with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, make up all the letters in ABBA.



And how about the 1977 song from Pop Maestro Barry Manilow? It's Just Another New Year's Eve was a poignant song released in between the uplifting songs Can't Smile Without You and Daybreak. It was based on a melody from Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations.



In 1980, singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg released Same Old Lang Syne. It was later put on the album The Innocent Age. Like the best of Fogelberg's work, it told a story we could all relate to. It went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains a favorite holdiay song for many, 30-some years later.



Here's wishing us all prosperity and lots of love in 2012!