Egypt music

[chas]

My daughter's eighth birthday party is next weekend (the 13th). She's having an ancient Egypt party -- a pyramid made from brownies for a cake, sandstone pyramids for party favors, etc. I'd like to put together a CD of music with Egyptian references -- I haven't thought about it much, so at this point all I have is "Walk like an Egyptian" by the Bangles and "The Golden Scarab" by Ray Manzarek.

So, any suggestions?

[herbivore12]

Steve Martin! King Tut!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP7AJiQM2RI

[MTGuru]

Midnight at the Oasis by Maria Muldaur?

Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs?

Ahab the Arab by Ray Stevens?

Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn?

I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus? (OK, I'm running out of ideas here ...)

The Triumphal March from Aïda? (8 year-olds love it!)

[Wombat]

Would they be too young to enjoy real modern Egyptian music? Mohammed Fadl and Oum Khoulsom are always worth hearing as are the Musicians of the Nile and Hamza El-Din. Perhaps if you mixed them with earlier suggestions it would work.

[mukade]

Iron Maiden -Powerslave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2H_ygk5hJI

Wilson, Keppel & Betty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvuJmwQq ... re=related

Mukade

[Innocent Bystander]

I have a couple of tapes of Farouz at home. That probably rates as "ancient Egyptian" by now.

Wilson Keppel and Betty is a great suggestion.

The BBC had a drama series a few years back on Ancient Egypt. Don't forget to have the dancing girls' nipples painted green...

[s1m0n]

Richard Thompson's We're all working for the Pharaoh comes to mind. My fave version was recorded by The House Band for a Thompson tribute album ("The World is a Wonderful Place", I think) a while back. If you want and can't find it, PM me.

Transglobal Underground's Nile Delta Disco is a ton of fun, too although I don't know if the version I know is the same as this remix.

~~

I also have a great deal of actual Arabic, Egyptian, and Turkish music; this is my current obsession. These days it tends to get sold to white folks as 'bellydance' music, and anything you find under that label will be right for the day. It's been my experience that the hard nasal singing style (as popularized by the great 78 era egyptian diva Oum Khalsoum) and quarter-tone scales combine to make instrumentals more accessible for western ears than songs. Fairuz is actually Lebanese, I believe, but if there's a musical distinction between the two, I don't know what it might be.

[chas]

Thanks, Folks!

I'd thought about mixing in some real Egyptian music. I like the idea of including just enough that the little ones don't become too weirded out.

[tin-titan]

Throw in some good Oud music. For some reason, when I listen to it I feel like I am in a hooka den.