What better way to get ready for Thanksgiving Day than to check out some of the many ways singers have said, “Thanks!” over the years?

Most of them even mean it!

We’ll start with a simple recitation of just some of our blessings with Petula Clark’s “Thank You.” 

Memories
And then some nostalgia:

• A real “golden oldie” — pre-World War II — Bob Hope’s theme song, “Thanks for the Memory,” with Shirley Ross,  from the film “The Big Broadcast of 1938”

• And a bit-more-modern sentimental favorite: The Angels’ “Thank You and Good Night,” the slow song that often ended our mid-’60s high school sock hops in a much simpler time.

• And who could forget Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen”? (Actually, I did till a colleague reminded me of it.)

Top 40 faves
And then a bunch of “thank you” hit songs:

• Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” which topped the Billboard charts for two weeks in 1970 with one of the stranger titles in pop music

• And the other No. 1 song, John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” which hit the top for one week in 1975

• Andrew Gold’s “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the “Golden Girls” theme song of syndication fame.

• And some early Neil Diamond,  “I Thank the Lord for the Night Time”

• Soul men Sam and Dave’s “I Thank You”

And a few more …
• Abba’s “Thank You for the Music”

• Big Star’s “Thank You Friends”

• Dido’s “Thank You”

• Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You”  

Insincere thanks
And two folks who don’t mean it at all: Brenda Lee, with “Thanks a Lot,” and Ernest Tubb, with his pure country version. 

And, of course, Monsieur Chevalier
I’ve got to end the list with the latest in my three-week-long mention of Maurice Chevalier — and with one of his signature songs from Vincente Minnelli’s highly acclaimed (nine Oscars) 1958 film “Gigi,” “Thank Heaven for Little Girls.”