Happy Winnie the Pooh Day

I had something else planned for today, but waking up I heard on the radio that it was National Winnie the Pooh Day -- though really it's a day for A.A. Milne, in honor of his birth today in 1882.  So, I figured we might as well have two Happy Birthday Days in a row.  And so, Happy 136th Birthday it is.

Rather than video from some Disney cartoon of Winnie the Pooh, I thought I'd go a different direction.  Instead, here are a couple of songs.

The first is the wonderful "House at Pooh Corner," written by Kenny Loggins, and performed by him and his partner Jim Messina.

And the second song is the utterly charming "Alexander Beetle," sung and co-written by Melanie, a very popular performer whose career began in the late-60s -- though she's still touring and performing.  The reason I include this and why I say "co-written" is because the words to the song here are from a poem by A.A. Milne.

(Side Note:  in 1989, Melanie won an Emmy for writing the lyrics to the theme song to the TV series, Beauty and the Beast, "The First Time I Loved Forever.")

I was going to include the album cut of the song, but found video of her singing it not only on The Ed Sullivan Show, but it was the very last Ed Sullivan Show in 1971.  Surprisingly it begins with her singing a bit of her big hit, "Look What They've Done to My Song," but then we do get around to the wonderful, "Alexander Beetle."