Play Me Back Home

We had a memorial service for my uncle yesterday. He was a great guy and was my first male role model, seeing as how my parents had split up before I was born. Ed Kania was a family man who left behind 3 kids, 7 grandkids and 4 great grandchildren. After he left the service where he served in the Korean "conflict" he worked as a Foreman at Cadillac. He retired in 1988 and spent most of the rest of his life enjoying himself, going to the casinos. Pretty much doing what he damn pleased!

I loved my uncle.

I am always interested in the music chosen by family members to be played at wakes and services. Usually the funeral home plays generic, sad, churchy music. In my uncles service, two songs were played. I don't think he selected them. He was fairly non-communicative at the end. I don't remember him really expressing much interest in music in his lifetime. I figure the family chose for him as all of his kids loved music. The songs chosen were Michael Buble's "Home" and Frank Sinatra's "My Way."

Everyone knows "My Way!" Some people know that Paul Anka rewrote the lyrics of French tune and recorded it also. But he rewrote it with Sinatra in mind and it was Sinatra who recorded the new lyric first.  It has, of course, become associated with Sinatra and to a lesser degree, Elvis Presley. It reached number 27 on Billboard Hot 100, number 2 on the "Easy Listening" chart in 1969.

"Home" similarly was a big hit on the "Easy Listening" chart, now retitled "Adult Contemporary" or A/C topping that chart while hitting only 77 on the Hot 100. That was back in March 2005.