In 2016, Ted McDermott became perhaps the world’s most unlikely internet sensation, as videos of the 80-year-old British man belting out tunes while riding in the car with his son, Simon, went viral.
What made the videos so remarkable was that Ted — a former crooner known as The Songaminute Man for his encyclopedic repertoire — suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The videos, which included a donation link, spawned a CD and a book while raising more than $150,000 for Alzheimer’s charities. The Songaminute Man Facebook page, meanwhile, attracted hundreds of thousands of followers who shared their own stories of caring for loved ones with dementia.
“It really was amazing,” Simon McDermott told The Ponte Vedra Recorder. “It was a dark time (in my father’s illness) and suddenly came this moment of light.”
Now some six years later, The Songaminute Man is back with what will likely be his final CD, and once again a portion of the proceeds will benefit Alzheimer’s Research UK as well as several dementia support groups. Titled “Swing on Jupiter and Mars,” the CD is what son Simon jokingly calls his 86-year-old father’s “concept album” built around the idea of outer space. Among the dozen classic songs on the album are “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Volare.”
The original Italian lyrics to “Volare,” Simon said, hold particular significance for him.
“They kind of describe what I’m imagining when we’re able to get away from the dementia,” he said. “‘I began to fly in the infinite sky … Let us leave all the confusion and all disillusion behind …’
“This is how I want Dad to be remembered. I like to picture him up there in space, traveling around from planet to planet, back to his normal self, happily doing his show and away from the confusion of dementia.”
Pandemic project
The new CD came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Simon said.
“I got furloughed from work, we were all at home, and I started going through some recordings I had made of Dad singing,” he said. “I sent some off to one of the musicians who had played on the first CD, and he said he thought we could do something with them.”
The result was a compilation of songs recorded and produced remotely, with noted Big Band musicians recorded in various locations and then assembled in the recording studio. In addition to “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Volare,” the album includes popular standards such as “Beyond the Sea,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “It Had to Be You” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
“When we had family parties, we always ended with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ — when the family would all gather round in a big circle,” Simon said. “I guess the whole album is about hope: that one day, when the dementia is all over, we'll be back to normal, and everything will be okay.”
Simon noted that while Ted’s condition has deteriorated significantly, he is happy and comfortable being cared for at home by his wife Linda with assistance from his son and caregivers.
“Some people have asked me why we don’t put him in a care home, but he’s happy here,” he said. “I feel like it’s a privilege to care for him.”
“Swing on Jupiter and Mars” is available at songaminuteman.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each CD benefits Alzheimer’s research and dementia support groups.
