♫ Mama Said ♫

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Today I’m taking you on a long journey back in time … to April 1961!  I can’t give you much backstory on this song.  According to most every source I looked at, the song was written by Luther Dixon and Willie Denson, but SongFacts isn’t so sure …

“Mama Said” was a product of the Brill Building/1650 Broadway “girl group” era, when songs were cranked out at music factories in New York City. Various sources conflict, so we’ll just say that The Shirelles’ had a Shrodinger’s chance of actually being produced by Phil Spector, may have one time been in the orbit of Atlantic Records, and the song “Mama Said” was probably written by either Willie Denson, Luther Dixon, Burt Bacharach, or Hal David, or any combination thereof.

To give you an idea of how scattered music research can be, The Shirelles started out signed to Tiara Records by Florence Greenberg, who sold Tiara, Shirelles and all, to Decca Records. They then jumped to Scepter Records, also founded by Florence Greenberg, who rode Shirelles ’til her retirement when she sold Scepter to Springboard International, and then later Springboard International’s catalog was bought by Gusto Records. So that’s some five different companies you can license this song from. That’s not counting the covers by the likes of Dionne Bromfield and Amy Winehouse. We give up on trying to peg authorship on a song at this point and declare that it grew on a tree.

Other sources, however, seem certain that it was Dixon & Denson who penned and produced the song.  This reached #4 in the U.S., but as best I can tell, never charted anywhere else in the world.  Granted, it isn’t up there with some of the greatest songs, doesn’t have any deep hidden message, but it’s just a fun, to-tapping sort of song.

Mama Said

The Shirelles

Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said
(Mama said, mama said)

I went walking the other day and
Everything was going fine
Met a little boy named Billy Joe
And then I almost lost my mind

Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said

And then she said someone would look at me
Like I’m looking at you someday
Then I might find
I don’t want you any old way but I don’t worry ‘causre

Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said

My eyes are wide open
But all that I can see is
Chapel bells a-tollin’
For everyone but-a me but I don’t worry ’cause

Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
Mama said there’ll be days like this
There’ll be days like this, my mama said

(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) don’t you worry
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) don’t you worry, now
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey)
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) mama said there’ll be days like this
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) there’ll be days like this, my mama said
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) mama said there’ll be days like this
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) there’ll be days like this, my mama said
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey) don’t you worry

Writer/s: Luther Dixon, Willie Denson
Publisher: Abkco Music Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

20 thoughts on “♫ Mama Said ♫”

  3. Mama Said was a hit in Winnipeg; I remember it well. But while I wS playing it today, Gailed joined right in, singing along. She wasn’t even alive when this came out, and she certainly did not get it from her parents. So where did it come from.
    But you want a forgotten record? How many people have ever heatd of this one?
    I first searched it when you said earlier today you were down a rabbit hole, but could not remembrr the name so gave up. Then hearing Mama Said I remembered the name, and there it was way way way down the page on YouTube. From the early days of Garage Rock, I give you “Peter Rabbit.”

    Liked by 3 people

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