There has been good  responses, from my requests for musical suggestions, for this years Birthday painting.  This artwork begins and completes all in one day, today, Tuesday  July 31st.

The wining song for this 2012 edition of The Birthday Painting, is  Forever Young by Rod Stewart.

Here is the winning email with this years Birthday Painting:

“Hi Scott,
Finally, here are a few more to consider if you haven’t already decided – though I don’t have any baseline works of art to recommend w/them:
Simon and Garfunkel – I am a rock or The boxer.
Beatles – let it be
Rod Stewart – Forever young
The White Stripes – Jolene (Dolly’s rendition was familiar to me growing up; but I like the edge in the White Stripes version)
Have a GREAT birthday!!!!  Send me the link to the live blog so I can check in on the progress!

Thanks,”

But it was  this email which best described the feelings behind  their musical choice for the Birthday painting, and became the obvious first choice.

“Scott,

Not sure if this song will work for your birthday painting but I suggest “What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.  It has a mellow, easy going flow to it which helps me relax in my crazy fast paced life.  It also makes me appreciate the small things I take for granted everyday – my family, beautiful back yard & home, clean air & water, safe surroundings and most of all my life (being around to enjoy it)!

Happy early birthday!”

What A Wonderful World could have been easily chosen, because there has always been a feeling that this great music,  sung by the magnificent Louie Armstrong, would someday be revisited.

Unfortunately the mood of this song did not fit the theme for the 64th Birthday celebration.  But many thanks go out to Sara V for her most wonderful email and surely a future work.

Going over the list once again, I  suddenly,  grasped the words and realized what I had missed, which was Forever Young by Rod Stewart.  This song has a similar depth of  words, feelings and thoughtfulness as What A Wonderful World, but is more perky, making it a better fit.

So, I found this video:

MY GOD  take a look at those  girls and the passing car, and see how dated they look, and how dated they make this video look.

This awful video (what is the deal with that guy’s curly hair piece  near the end of the video) thankfully resulted in finding this updated Rod Stewart version:

This then lead to more searching which resulted in finding this video with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen:

Bob Dylan actually wrote the original music for Forever Young,  which then Rod Stewart borrowed from for his song  also called Forever Young.

From the television show Glee, comes this acoustic version that is nice:

The search ends with another version of this musical theme of Forever Young,  called Young Forever by Jay-Z.  In the words, the mood and feeling,  this song relates well with both the Rod Stewart, and the Bob Dylan versions:

Check back ALL DAY LONG for Painting Updates.  The first should arrive by 9am Central Standard Time.

And congratulations go out to Maggie H this years winner of the 2012 Birthday Painting. She will soon receive  a signed and numbered image of the painting on glossy photo paper 13×19 inch.

There will be blog updates all day, so check back on the paintings progress.

Scott Von Holzen