Labor of love

Not only is today Labor Day, it's also the birthdays of two of my neighbors: Lychelle "Jamma" Whiteley (above left) and Christine "Spice" Weiss (right). Their other roommates also have nicknames, and although my roomies and I do not share the same affinity for pseudonyms, our two apartments have become good friends.

My roommate Petey had pondered producing an Old Spice parody video for Christine, and that morphed into me coming up with the following parody medley for the two birthday girls. Petey provided brainstorming/consulting assistance and, most importantly, joined me in performing the finished song.

(I recognize that many of my readers don't know Jamma or Spice, but as I've stated before, my blog will be the home of basically anything I write. I've added a couple of footnotes to clarify potentially confusing lines.)

Here's the finished product, with lyrics parodied from this song, this song and this one (the portions used are from the beginning of each song, in case you want to compare how closely I stuck to the original rhymes, which is important to me in my parodies):

Everybody get up, it's time to slam now
We got a real jam goin' down
Welcome to the Spice Jam
It's your chance, do your dance at the Spice Jam, alright



All right
Hey Jamma
We wanna party with you
We're jammin', with Jamma
And we know you like Jamma too

She's so cool, I mean wow, if you're rating girls with cows
Lychelle would be worth 22*
Shares her birthday with Christine Weiss and they both are super nice
Jammin' here with Jamma's crew

It's Jamma
When you're with Jamma every day is a blast
It's Jamma
And now 23 is in her past

You're one year older now, but I think you will allow
That you're still not very old
Three cheers for Lychelle Whiteley, Yah it's the special night
For a shepherd of this sheepfold

We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin')
In the Winder YSA 2nd Ward
With Jamma (Jamma, Jamma, Jamma)
Secretary of Omega**



Yo EQP***, let's kick it!

Spice spice baby
Spice spice baby
All right stop--collaborate and listen
It's Spice's birthday and we're on a mission
To help her celebrate rightly
She shares a birthday with Lychelle Whiteley
What'll she wish for? Yo, I don't know
Bring out the cake, and she'll blow
Good work Christine****, you snuffed the lights on those candles
Just like the flames, this party's too hot to handle
Glance--at everyone in this room
We've come to the time where we sing a birthday tune
Ready? You should all know the melody
Anyone don't know the words, that's a felony
You had a birthday--shout hooray
And we want to sing to you today*****
If it's someone's birthday, yo I'll call it:
Sing 'em a song, don't just Facebook wall it

Spice spice baby
Spice spice baby
Spice spice baby
Spice spice baby

Happy birthday Lychelle and Christine!

*--The concept of stating a woman's worth in cows is taken from the Mormon cult classic Johnny Lingo.
**--The Winder Young Single Adult 2nd Ward is the Mormon congregation attended by Petey and Lychelle (and formerly by Christine and me, until we got too old). The ward's Relief Society (organization for women) was recently split into two, called Alpha and Omega, and Lychelle was called to be the secretary of Omega.
***--Petey is the Elders Quorum President (basically the second ranking officer) in the aforementioned YSA Ward.
****--Replacing "extreme" (from the original) with "Christine" is probably my favorite part of the whole song.
*****--This is a reference to a birthday song sung by Mormon children.