Without a doubt for me, it's BE MY BABY. My first real love was a boy called Pooh. Pooh wrestled with a number of things--one of them was that being with me meant he could not steal cars and drink with his male friends. They had a lot more to offer him than the tame girl that I was at fifteen.
No, this is not a story but real life. Every time I started to slip away, he would give me a gift or make some promise he usually didn't keep. Pooh was very smart but got himself kicked out of several schools. I saw him once a few years later, when I was already engaged, and he apologized for a lot of things. I wonder where Pooh is now.
What song takes you back in time. I feel a bit like Casey Kasum even asking this.
36 comments:
There are a lot of 'sixties songs that evoke that period of time for me but none associated with girls particularly.
Chapel of Love, Groovin' (a few years later).
Oh wait, there is one I can associate with my first girlfriend at summer camp - won't give a name or year - it was dancing slow at the final camp dance to "Sealed With a Kiss" by Brian Hyland.
That was a long time ago.
Jeff M.
Why is it that the lyrics and music to all those songs are still in my head?
Highway to Hell by AC/DC
"Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton--a cautionary tale from the early disco days. Perhaps that's one of the reasons the man in question was my first, not my final, love.
Atomic Dog. Don't ask.
The Flamingos, "I Only Have Eyes For You."
Let's see. "Cold as Ice" takes me back in thinking about one girlfriend. "Love Hurts" takes me back to another. Hum, I'm seeing a trend here.
Wow. First loves are not usually a fun time, are they?
Well...
"Image of a Girl" by the Safaris
"Dedicated To The One I Love" by the Sherelles
"There's A Moon Out Tonight" by the Capris
and especially, from 1963,
"Hello, Stranger" by Barbara Lewis
One of my first albums was from the Shirelles. I listened to it until I had to buy a new one.
Johnny Rivers' "Summer Rain":
Summer rain taps at my window
West wind soft as a sweet dream
My love warm as the sunshine
Sittin' here by me, she's here by me-ee-ee
She stepped out of the rainbow
Golden hair shinin' like moon glow
Warm lips soft as a soul
Sittin' here by me, she's here by me-ee-ee
All summer long we spent dancin' in the sand
And the jukebox kept on playin'
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
We sailed into the sunset
Drifted home caught by a gulf stream
Never gave a thought for tomorrow
Just let tomorrow be, now, let tomorrow be-ee-ee
instrumental interlude
She wants to live in the Rockies
She says that's where we'll find peace
Settle down, raise up a fam'ly
To call our own, yeah, we’ll have a home
All summer long we spent groovin' in the sand
Everybody kept on playin'
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The snow drifts by my window
North wind blowin' like thunder
Our love's burnin' like fire
And she's here by me, yeah, she's here with me-ee-ee
Let tomorrow be-ee-ee-ee
instrumental to end
I could hear him singing it, George.
We usually think of those early romances as happening in summer, but I think of walking in the winter with him. It used to snow in Philly. Summer was better for stealing cars, I guess.
It still snows in Philly, even if sleet and hail are at least as common (hailstorm in my first April in the city...when I had walked to Whole Wallet, four blocks away, and was trying to walk the groceries home).
First coulda'bin, shoulda'bin...but I held back for specious reasons (you were probably better off, Karen): she loved "One Tin Soldier" (which I didn't care for--she aspired to teach on a res, at the time, and that probably made the song more attractive)...The Kinks' "Come Dancing," among some of their older work, however, was our jam.
With Donna...well, among her particularly favorites were the Dead Kennedys, increasingly the Dropkick Murphys, Husker Du and "Up in the Air"...and the one she loved best that I played for her was the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra playing George Russell's first major composition, "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop" (she loved the density of the sound...Russell, who could do that, was probably her favorite jazz composer/performer).
Is there a single piece of music you associate with Phil?
Funny, I thought of "Summer Rain" too, George. It was later but very evocative.
The first summer I worked in Manhattan (1966) turned out one of the hottest ever, and one of the few "summer" themed songs that was actually a hit in summer is the song I associate with that time: "Summer in the City" by the Loving Spoonful.
Jeff M.
My Man by Barbra Streisand and You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Dusty Springfield.
Barbra was considered pretty great by everyone in those days. The songs from My Name is Barbra played on every radio, jukebox and record player that year.
I think music crossed generations more then. Loved Loving Spoonful.
First love, Nat King Cole, They tried to tell us we're too young...
First marriage, honeymoon year, Moon River
Great songs, Richard. Moon River was too good for the movie it accompanied.
Oh, dear, here I lay my heart bare. My first great love was a girl named Shelly, a classmate in my grade six homeroom. The school year of my infatuation - 1973-74 - a band called Lisle released "Shelly Made Me Smile". Until today, I thought the song was a massive hit - and yet an internet search reveals that it reached no higher than #37 in Canada.
Patti,
Alright look, no snickers now....
Roberta Flack - The First Ever I Saw Your Face. (a good memory)
OR
Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me. (the inevitable bad memory.)
I don't remember that song at all. I wonder if it played at all in the states. Although I was busy with two babies around then and might have missed itl.
I was just listening to one of our many "oldies" collections and "Moon River" was on it along with one of my all-time favorite instrumentals, "Sleep Walk" (1959) by Santo & Johnny (Farina), Brooklyn brothers.
In the early 1960's there was a lot more crossover - country hits topping the pop charts, for instance, and a lot of huge instrumental hits.
Face it, we're geezers.
Jeff M.
I face it every day-in the mirror.
Love Roberta Flack's rendition of that!
Rick mentioned "Hello Stranger" by Barbara Lewis, who did another song I liked two years later - "Baby I'm Yours." I believe the former was used in a memorable episode of HOMICIDE - the one with Lily Tomlin. (I'm not swearing to it but that's how I remember it.)
She is scheduled to perform at the annual Doo Wop concert we are seeing in June and I'm looking forward to it, especially as she had to cancel a previous appearance due to illness.
Jeff M.
In 1951, I was sometimes lucky enough to get my dad's car on a school night, and I'd pick up my first sweetheart, Betty, and we would go to Gilles's drive-in for a frozen custard, and listen to Nat King Cole, and talk with our friends in adjacent cars, and then I'd take her home and kiss her good night at her door. This is what we heard on our car radios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaFtsqU2V6U
My Lady's a Wild, Flying Dove by Tom Paxton.
We were married to Pleasures of the Harbor, Pack up Your Sorrowa, and As Time Goes By. Time has gone by, my sorrows were all packed up, and it's been a pleasure for 42 years.
Bobby Darin, "Beyond the Sea."
Huge crush on Bobby Darin. He could sing anything and make it sound great. What a loss-was he even 40?
Nat King Cole had a velvet voice. Completely seductive.
Gosh, Tom Paxton. A friend of mine ran away to follow him across the country.
I wish the bio pic of Darin had been better. Wrong choice of actor to play him.
Boston's MORE THAN A FEELING. Oh, my. How young I was.
"being with me meant he could not steal cars and drink with his male friends."
If this isn't a story yet, it should be!
Also, that would be a great opening line!
I rarely write about my own life. Just Phil's.
Cannot think of a one.
I am afraid my husband might say that. I'll find out at dinner. Of course, I wasn't his first love so maybe not.
"Tell Laura I Love Her." Yeah, her name was Laura.
Last I heard, Pooh was in the Hundred Acre Woods.
Maybe that's big enough for all the stolen cars.
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