Human Jukebox

The idea of a "song request" reminds me of the Top 10, or Top 216, or whatever it was that Casey Casum used to have on the radio when I was in high school. As far as I could tell, fans of the show would write letters (on paper, with stamps and all, I imagine!) to Casey, ask him to play a certain song and explain why the song was special. These requests were nearly always unbearably cheesey, but they must have had some appeal because people (real or fictitious? Maybe Casey's staff was in charge of writing these "letters"?!) kept requesting week after week.
Now I'm back in "song request" land, but the context is a bit different: it's Koji, who loves music, asking me to sing certain songs. Here are his current favorites, listed by the names he calls for them by (unfortunately not ranked in Top 6 countdown order):

• Happy (birthday...to whom, you may ask? nearly anyone whose name is known to Koji is game. "Mama, Papa, Koji" are the most common requests, but little, and big friends like "Calli, Jenny, Ashleigh, Riley, Chloe, Meg" etc. get lots of play too)
• Jesus (loves me, this I know...)
• A C (someday he'll get the missing "B" in there)
• Cho Cho (Japanese song about a butterfly)
• Pach (Japanese song that teaches kids "eyes," "mouth," "ears," and "head". "Nose" is left out, being an unimportant part of the face?!)
• Veggie (the theme song to "Veggie Tales". If you have ever tried to sing this song, you know my pain!)

If I tried to pretend that I hate being a human jukebox, that's what I would be: pretending. To say that I love it would also be an exaggeration, but I do enjoy karaoke more than most people. And since getting out to an actual karaoke establishment is sadly not a common accomplishment for me these days, you'll find me behind Koji's stroller on some Tokyo corner, belting out, "BROCCOLI/CELERY/GOTTA BE/VEGGIE TALES".