When a male penguin falls in love with a female penguin he will search the entire beach to find a pebble to present to her and when he finally finds it he places it in front of her feet like a proposal. The female considers the pebble’s ability to add to her nest.
My process for identifying the ‘next song’ in my music library project is to scroll down my ‘Sorted Alphabetical Music’ folder until I pass the previous track – in this case Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly which was the topic of yesterday’s post. It’s not rocket science, but what is interesting is I never find myself looking beyond for the next track. I had no idea yesterday that today’s Penguin by Christina Perri would appear and I’m oblivious what the next song is. It’s a part of the day I cherish; when I scroll down to find the next song.
When Penguin arose I was elated to say the least. I adore this song as I do almost everything thing I’ve heard from Perri. Her vocals here are coolly soulful. It remains a mystery to me why Penguin casts my mind back to certain imagery and scenes in the movie The Notebook. It also sounds something akin to a Joni Mitchell track.
Can you find the time to let your lover love you?
He only wants to show you the things he wants to learn too
The hardest parts you’ll get through
And in the end, you’ll have your best friend
Love like this may come once, baby it’s fate
Like a soul mate, he’s your penguin
Baby it’s fate, baby it’s fate, not luck
Can you find the time to let your lover hold you?
He needs somebody to hold too
His love is strong and so true, his arrow is aiming for you
And he’s the one that you were born to love
Allow me to digress. 2023’s Christmas was a very Merry Perri one. On the 20th of December I received a notification of Christina’s Christmas Special launch and soon after I found a recent full length interview with her published just 13 days to go. Go search full length interviews with Perri – there aren’t any except for this recent ‘one on one’ with her great friend Elmo Lovano. My opinion of her and her art is so high that I thought this extended interview could only chop at my lofty estimation. No, on the contrary. Just like her music she continues to impress and raise the bar. Christina is introspective, self effacing and lighthearted; and her outlook on her art, career and family is fascinating and sharp.
At 56:00 minutes, Elmo talked about hearing Christina’s music in exotic and distant lands and texting Christina about it. Well, I can attest to this (perhaps not the texting Christina part), but I went to a small local restaurant here in Bogota, Colombia called Rucula and I sat down to eat in the patio. Christina’s A Thousand Years came on the radio. A teenage Latin girl sitting at the table beside me started to sing it. It’s a small world indeed and I was in seventh heaven.
The song Penguin appeared on Perri’s debut studio album, Lovestrong (2011). It was the second promotional single released on April 12, 2011, along with its lyric-video on Perri’s YouTube account.
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Sweet song 🎵
It sounds so Joni Mitchell this song. A fantastic song.
I’m really liking her music. She is cool in a wonderful way…
Splendid Tom! Man, did I get onboard the Perri train last night. Choo Choo! It’s hard to get off. I found myself revisiting many of her songs on here and sending them out again to all and sundry haha
She is very interesting and full of life….
Such a delicate, lovely song with endearing lyrics.
There’s Christina and then there’s umm..noone else lol