Paul | Guitar Lessons and Performance - Paul Elwood

Straighten Up and fly Right

“Straighten Up and Fly Right” is a 1943 song written by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills and one of the first vocal hits for the King Cole Trio. It was the trio’s most popular single, reaching number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for ten nonconsecutive weeks. The single also peaked at number nine on the pop charts. “Straighten Up and Fly Right” also reached number one for six nonconsecutive weeks on the Most Played Jukebox Hillbilly Records.

The song was based on a Black folk tale that Cole’s father had used as a theme for one of his sermons. In the tale, a buzzard takes different animals for a joy ride. When he gets hungry, he throws them off on a dive and eats them for dinner. A monkey who had observed this trick goes for a ride; he wraps his tail around the buzzard’s neck and gives the buzzard a big surprise by nearly choking him to death.

The song’s harmonic structure is based on that of the George and Ira Gershwin’s song, “I Got Rhythm”.

The King Cole Trio recorded the song, along with “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You”, “If You Can’t Smile and Say Yes” and “Jumpin’ at Capitol”, for Capitol Records during a three-hour recording […]

Paul2026-04-19T18:52:59-04:00

Misty

Misty_ jazzy-Electric_Guitar

“Misty” is a jazz standard written and originally recorded in 1954 by pianist Erroll Garner. He composed it as an instrumental in the traditional 32-bar format, and recorded it on July 27, 1954 for the album Contrasts. Lyrics were added later by Johnny Burke. It appeared on Johnny Mathis’ 1959 album Heavenly, and this recording reached number 12 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart later that year. It has since become one of Mathis’ signature songs.

The song has been recorded by many other artists, including versions by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Ray Stevens who released a hit country version in 1975. Recordings by both Johnny Mathis and Erroll Garner have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was ranked number 174 in the list of the Songs of the Century compiled by Recording Industry Association of America and National Endowment for the Arts.

“Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly, two.” – Frederic Chopin

Paul2026-04-19T17:34:39-04:00

Unchain My Heart

Chords and lyrics: Unchain My Heart

“Unchain My Heart” is a song written by Bobby Sharp and recorded first in 1961 by Ray Charles and in 1963 by Trini Lopez and later by many others. Sharp sold the song to Teddy Powell for $50. Powell demanded half the songwriting credit. Sharp later successfully fought for the rights to his song. In 1987, he was also able to renew the copyright for his publishing company, B. Sharp Music.

The song was a hit for Charles when released as a single in late 1961. Accompanied by his backup singers the Raelettes, Charles sang about wanting to be free from a woman who won’t let him go, with his band’s longtime saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman soloing on the instrumental interlude. The song reached number nine on the pop singles chart, number one on the R&B singles chart and was the working title of Charles’ 2004 biopic Ray.

“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” – Lao Tzu

Paul2026-04-08T18:22:31-04:00

It’s a Jungle Out There

chords, notation, tabs and lyrics: It’s A Jungle Out There

“It’s a Jungle Out There” is a song written by Randy Newman and used as the theme song of the TV series Monk starting with its second season. In 2004, it won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. As the first season’s theme song “Monk Theme” had won the same award the previous year, Monk became the first series to have two different theme songs win an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music in consecutive years. The song is not to be confused with the Harry Nilsson song of the same name from his 1975 album Duit on Mon Dei.

The lyrics allude to Adrian Monk’s plethora of fears and warn that some degree of caution and attention is necessary to stay alive, given everyday life’s many dangers.

“Which of the two powers, Love or Music, can elevate man to the sublimest heights?… It is a problem, and yet it seems to me that this is the answer: ‘Love can give no idea of music; music can give an idea of love.’… Why separate them? They are two wings of the soul.” – Hector Berlioz

Paul2026-04-30T18:21:26-04:00

Bohemian Rhapsody

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, A Night at the Opera (1975). Written by Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part, and a reflective coda. It is one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s to have proved accessible to a mainstream audience.

Mercury referred to “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a “mock opera” that resulted from the combination of three songs he had written. It was recorded by Queen and co-producer Roy Thomas Baker at five studios between August and September 1975. Due to recording logistics of the era, the band had to bounce the tracks across eight generations of 24-track tape, meaning that they required nearly 200 tracks for overdubs. The song parodies elements of opera with bombastic choruses, sarcastic recitative, and distorted Italian operatic phrases. Lyrical references include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo Galilei, Figaro, and Beelzebub, with cries of “Bismillah!”.

Although critical reaction was initially mixed, retrospective reviews have acclaimed “Bohemian Rhapsody” as one of the greatest songs of all time, and it is often regarded as the band’s signature song. The promotional video is credited with furthering […]

Paul2026-06-27T12:38:21-04:00

Feelings

“Feelings” is a song by the Brazilian singer Morris Albert, who also wrote the lyrics. It was released in June 1974 on Albert’s debut album After We’ve Left Each Other. The song’s lyrics, recognizable by the “whoa whoa whoa” chorus, concern the singer’s inability to “forget [his] feelings of love”. Albert’s song was hugely successful, performing very well internationally.

The lyrics, which discuss the end of a romantic relationship, were inspired by a public figure from Rio de Janeiro with whom the musician had a platonically romantic relationship. In the original version, the instrumental track was recorded by the studio group Os Carbonos, who also provided the backing vocals.

Its success in Brazil came after the song was included on the soundtrack of the telenovela Corrida do Ouro (“Gold Rush“) in 1974. In the country, the single sold approximately 300,000 copies and reached number one on the Grande Parada Brasil chart, published by Amiga magazine.

Between 1974 and 1976, the song was a top ten hit on the music charts of several countries, including in the United States, where it reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 4 in Record World magazine, and number 10 in Cash Box, as well as the United Kingdom, where it reached No. 4.

In the United States, it sold three million copies, earning Albert a gold record certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It also hit number 2 on the Adult […]

Paul2026-03-16T19:05:45-04:00

In The Pines

“In the Pines” (Roud 3421), also known as “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”, “My Girl”, “Hey Girl”, or “Black Girl”, is a traditional American folk song originating from two songs, “In the Pines” and “The Longest Train”, both of whose authorship is unknown and date back to at least the 1870s. The songs originated in the Southern Appalachian area of the United States in the contiguous areas of East Tennessee and Kentucky, Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia.

Versions of the song have been recorded by many artists in numerous genres, but it was most often associated with American bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and American blues musician Lead Belly, both of whom recorded a version of the song in the 1940s, before achieving wide fame with the grunge band Nirvana.

Paul2026-04-08T18:24:20-04:00

Come As You Are

Download the come as you are PDF lesson

Download the chord and lyric sheet here:
Come as you are chords and lyrics

“Come as You Are” is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by frontman and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the third track and the second single from the band’s second studio album Nevermind (1991), the single released in March 1992. It was the band’s second and final American Top 40 hit, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also their second UK Top 10 hit, reaching number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. The single reached the Top 10 in eight countries and the Top 40 in eleven further countries.

The unexpected success of the album’s lead single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” drew Nirvana to mainstream success, with Nevermind being released two weeks after the single’s release. Following the album’s release, the band and its management company debated whether to release “Come as You Are” or “In Bloom” as the next single from the album due to Cobain’s concerns over similarity of the former with Killing Joke song “Eighties” (1984). After some persuasion by the management company, Cobain agreed to release “Come as You Are” as the second single because of […]

Paul2026-04-20T10:00:26-04:00

Silver Wings

Download the PDF chords and lyrics for Silver Wings

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” – Aldous Huxley

Paul2026-04-08T18:26:13-04:00

Momma Tried

“Mama Tried” is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in July 1968 as the first single and title track from the album Mama Tried. The song became one of the cornerstone songs of his career. It won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance” on March 23, 2016, just 14 days before Haggard’s death. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 376 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

Background

In “Mama Tried”, Haggard focuses on the pain and suffering he caused his own mother by being incarcerated in 1957 in San Quentin. Haggard ultimately served three years on a robbery conviction.

However, the song is not literally autobiographical, as many country music historians point out. While writer Bill Malone’s assessment of the song is in agreement with Ace Collins’ (referring to his own experiences that saw him sentenced to prison), Malone points out that Haggard never was sentenced to “life without parole,” as the protagonist in the song was. Still, the song’s lyrics, and the protagonist’s experiences, are heavily influenced by Haggard’s early life.

Paul2026-03-16T19:07:59-04:00

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