Category Archives: music

♫ Paperback Writer ♫

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Yesterday, Roger sent me a link to a Beatles’ song, Rain, that I only vaguely recalled.  When I told him that I barely remembered that one and that perhaps it didn’t play well over here, he told me that it was the “B” side to this one, Paperback Writer, which I definitely recall!  Roger ended his comment with, “One of my favourite Beatles’ songs”, but I wasn’t sure if he meant Paperback Writer or Rain!  For tonight, since Roger is a published author, I am going to assume he meant this one, but if by chance I’m wrong, I’ll play Rain one day soon!

Paperback Writer was largely written by Paul McCartney (though the song is credited to McCartney-Lennon), who based the lyrics on a challenge made to him by his Aunt Lil. McCartney recalled …

“The idea’s a bit different. Years ago, my Auntie Lil said to me, ‘Why do you always write songs about love all the time? Can’t you ever write about a horse or the summit conference or something interesting?’ So, I thought, ‘All right, Auntie Lil.’ And recently, we’ve not been writing all our songs about love.”

According to SongFacts …

Paul McCartney wrote this after helping some friends, including John Dunbar, set up the Indica Bookshop (in the basement was the Indica Gallery, where John Lennon eventually met Yoko Ono), in January of 1966. Paul was the first customer of the shop.

This song was a sort of an homage to lots of authors, including John Lennon, who had already written two books: In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works. He also was thinking of the author Martin Amis, whom he had just developed a passion for. 

The song is sung from the perspective of an author soliciting a publisher. A “paperback” is cheaper than a traditional hardcover book, and at the time was considered of lower quality and written for mass consumption. The implication is that the writer isn’t all that good.

The first #1 hit for The Beatles that was not about love.

John Lennon and George Harrison sang the French nursery rhyme “Frére Jacques” in the background. The Frére Jacques part has nothing to do with John Lennon – Paul just thought it was clever – but it does translate to “Brother John.”

Check out the charts …

I don’t think I’ve seen a song with so many #1 slots!  Okay, enough babbling … this one’s for you, Sir Roger!

Paperback Writer
The Beatles

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It’s based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job
So I wanna be a paperback writer
Paperback writer

It’s a dirty story of a dirty man
And his clinging wife doesn’t understand
His son is working for the Daily Mail
It’s a steady job
But he wants to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer

Paperback writer (paperback writer)

It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few
I’ll be writing more in a week or two
I could make it longer if you like the style
I can change it ’round
And I wanna be a paperback writer
Paperback writer

If you really like it you can have the rights
It could make a million for you overnight
If you must return it you can send it here
But I need a break
And I wanna be a paperback writer
Paperback writer

Paperback writer (paperback writer)
Paperback writer (paperback writer)
Paperback writer (paperback writer)
Paperback writer (paperback writer)
Paperback writer (paperback writer)

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney
Paperback Writer lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

The Beatles – Paperback Writer Lyrics | Genius Lyricshttps://genius.com › The-beatles-paperback-writer-lyrics
Paperback Writer Lyrics: Paperback writer (writer, writer) / Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? / It took me years to write, will you take a look?

♫ Woman In Love ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under music

Tonight, I was in the mood for some of Barbra Streisand’s wonderful voice … plus I had another motivation.  Barbra is an all-time favourite of our friend Ellen, who has been notably absent of late, and … well, frankly I miss the heck out of her and am hoping to lure her back!!!  I have played this one before, back in 2019, but that’s long enough, and it is, I think, a beautiful song, sung by a beautiful voice inside a beautiful woman … what more can you ask?

Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees wrote this song. After their wildly successful contributions to the 1978 movie Saturday Night Fever, they were asked to work on an album for Streisand, which became Guilty. It was Streisand’s best-selling album.  Two other songs from the album hit US Top 10, and both were duets with Barry Gibb: Guilty and What Kind of Fool. Guilty won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group. It is her fourth of four Platinum records, and is considered her greatest international hit.

In the UK this was Streisand’s first #1. Having made her British chart debut in 1966 with Second Hand Rose, the 14-year-279-day interval between her first chart appearance and her first number one was then the fourth-longest wait in UK chart history.

Streisand has openly stated that she does not like Woman in Love because she doesn’t believe in the meaning of the lyrics. She has rarely performed the song live.

Woman in Love
Barbra Streisand

Life is a moment in space
When the dream is gone
It’s a lonelier place
I kiss the morning goodbye
But down inside you know
We never know why
The road is narrow and long
When eyes meet eyes
And the feeling is strong
I turn away from the wall
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?

With you eternally mine
In love there is
No measure of time
We planned it all at the start
That you and I
Live in each other’s hearts
We may be oceans away
You feel my love
I hear what you say
No truth is ever a lie
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?

I am a woman in love
And I’m talking to you
You know, I know, how it feels?
What a woman can do
It’s a right
I defend over and over again

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again

Songwriters: Barry Alan Gibb / Robin Hugh Gibb
Woman in Love lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management

♫ Dedicated To The One I Love ♫

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I was rather in the mood for some Mamas and Papas music tonight, and I found two that I like and haven’t yet played!  No, you don’t get both … I’m saving one for later.

This song, written by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass, was first recorded by the “5” Royales in 1957 (#81 in the U.S.), then by The Shirelles in 1959, that reached only #83 on the U.S. charts.  And then came the Mamas & the Papas version in 1967 that soared to #2 in both the UK and the U.S.  Lowman Pauling was the guitarist for the “5” Royales and Ralph Bass was their producer.

This was the first time that Michelle Phillips was given the lead over Cass Elliot.

I was curious, so I checked out both the “5” Royales and The Shirelles versions.  I found that I rather liked the “5” Royales version, although the Mamas & the Papas will always be my favourite.  I did not care much for The Shirelles version, however.  But, since we all have different tastes when it comes to music, I am offering all three tonight, but the Mamas & the Papas get top billing!

Dedicated To The One I Love
The Mamas & the Papas/”5″ Royales/The Shirelles

While I’m far away from you, my baby
I know it’s hard for you, my baby
Because it’s hard for me, my baby
And the darkest hour is just before dawn

Each night before you go to bed, my baby
Whisper a little prayer for me, my baby, yeah
And tell all the stars above
This is dedicated to the one I love

Life can never be
Exactly like we want it to be
I could be satisfied
Knowing you love me
If there’s one thing I want you to do
Especially for me
And it’s something that everybody needs

While I’m far away from you, my baby
Whisper a little prayer for me, my baby, yeah
Because it’s hard for me, my baby
And the darkest hour is just before dawn

If there’s one thing I want you to do
Especially for me
And it’s something that everybody needs

Each night before you go to bed, my baby
Whisper a little prayer for me, my baby, yeah
And tell all the stars above
This is dedicated to the one I love

This is dedicated to the one I love
This is dedicated to the one I love
This is dedicated to the one I love
This is dedicated
This is dedicated

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Lowman Pauling / Ralph Bass
Dedicated To The One I Love lyrics © Microhits Music Corp., Fort Knox Music Co., Songs Of Universal Inc., Microhits Music Corp, Carlin Music Corp

♫ Swayin’ to the Music (Slow Dancing) ♫

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I really thought that tonight’s song dated back much further than it does, but it is not such an old song after all, having only been released in 1977, the year my youngest son was born … not long ago at all!  I have a treat for you tonight, for I have a video of an interview with the songwriter who explains what inspired him to write the song.

Initially titled Slow Dancing, this a song written by Jack Tempchin for the band Funky Kings (of which Tempchin was a member).  Tempchin also wrote Peaceful Easy Feeling for The Eagles, and co-wrote a number of other songs, and was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.  The Funky Kings version reached only #61 on the U.S. charts, but it was Johnny Rivers’ recording of this song that sent it soaring up the charts to ultimately land at #3 in Canada and #10 in the U.S.  As best I can tell, it didn’t chart in the UK, but perhaps they don’t like slow dancing?

Here is the promised interview with Jack Tempchin, followed by the song …

Swayin’ to the Music
Johnny Rivers

It’s late at night and we’re all alone
Just the music on the radio
No one’s comin’, no one’s gonna telephone
Just me and you and the lights down low

And we’re slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
Slow dancin’, just me and my girl
Slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
No one else in the whole wide world just you, girl

And we just flow together when the lights are low
Shadows dancin’ all across the wall
Music’s playin’ so soft and slow
Rest of the world so far away and small

When we’re slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
Slow dancin’, just me and my girl
Slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
No one else in the whole wide world

Hold me, oh, oh, oh, hold me
No never let me go

As we dance together in the dark
So much love in this heart of mine
You whisper to me, hold you tight
You’re the one I thought I’d never find

Now we’re slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
Slow dancin’, just me and my girl
Slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
No one else in the whole wide world

Slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
Slow dancin’, just me and my girl
Slow dancin’, swayin’ to the music
No one else in the whole wide world
Whole wide world

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Jack Tempchin
Swayin’ to the Music lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Walking to New Orleans ♫ (Redux)

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I really am trying not to rely on replaying music that I’ve already played, but tonight I am simply too exhausted to go in search of first off, a song, and secondly the associated trivia.  Tomorrow, I promise!  Meanwhile, the only time I played this was in December 2018 and it played well, so I’m hoping you’ll like it again today!

I’m taking you back a bit further than usual, to the year 1960. For some of you, this dates back before you were even born, and I suppose it says something that I remember the song quite well.  The song has a rather unique birth.  Written by Bobby Charles specifically for Fats Domino (Antoine Domino, Jr.) it came about thusly …

Domino was a hero of Charles. Domino had previously recorded the Charles tune Before I Grow Too Old. When Domino stopped on tour in Lafayette, Louisiana, he invited Charles into his dressing room, and regretted he did not have a copy of his new record to give to Charles, but invited Charles to come visit him in Domino’s home of New Orleans. Charles replied, “I don’t have a car. If I’d go, I’d have to walk.” Afterwards, the thought remained on Charles’s mind, and he said he wrote the song for Domino in some 15 minutes.

After he got to New Orleans to accept Domino’s invitation, Charles sang Walking to New Orleans for Domino. Domino was enthusiastic about the number and made a few modifications to it, including adding a quote from his earlier hit, Ain’t That A Shame.

This is the song that launched the music career of Ricky Nelson, who had 34 Top 40 hits in the US between 1957-1964. Nelson was starred with his real-life parents on the popular TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which ran 1952-1966 on ABC. According to Nelson’s biographer Philip Bashe, Ricky got the urge to record when he was 16 years old and on a date with a girl who told him how much she loved Elvis, prompting Ricky to tell her Elvis wasn’t that special and that he was going to make his own record. After a few years pestering his dad, Ricky convinced Ozzie – who was a popular band leader in the ’30s – to let him record this Fats Domino song, which contained the only two chords he knew how to play. It became a surprise hit, equaling Domino’s #4 chart placing after he performed it on the family TV series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.Ozzie-Harriet

Walking to New Orleans
Fats Domino

This time I’m walkin’ to New Orleans
I’m walkin’ to New Orleans
I’m gonna need two pair of shoes
When I get through walkin’ these blues
When I get back to New Orleans
I’ve got my suitcase in my hand
Now ain’t that a shame?
I’m leavin’ here today
Yes, I’m goin’ back home to stay
Yes, I’m walkin to New Orleans
You used to be my honey
Till you spent all my money
No use for you to cry
I’ll see you by and by
‘Cause I’m walkin’ to New Orleans
I’ve got no time for talkin’
I’ve go to keep a-walkin’
New Orleans is my home
That’s the reason why I’m goin’
Yes, I’m walkin’ to New Orleans
I’m walkin’ to New Orleans
I’m walkin’ to New Orleans

Songwriters: Antoine Domino / Dave Bartholomew / Robert Charles Guidry
Walking to New Orleans lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

♫ Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)♫

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, music, Social commentary

I can’t believe I haven’t already played this one, but I’m thankful that I haven’t.  It came to me this morning while performing morning chores like brushing teeth, taking meds, making the bed … and before it could scramble away as my ideas for music posts often do, I made a note in my phone so I could remember it 12 hours later when sitting down to find just that right song!

Many years before global warming became a hot topic, Marvin Gaye wrote this song about the environment and how we have an obligation to care for the Earth. For his What’s Going On album (1971), Gaye got away from love ballads and explored deeper social themes, which at first didn’t sit well with Motown boss Berry Gordy (to whose daughter Gaye was married at the time!), who thought these songs wouldn’t be marketable. The success of the title track proved otherwise, and Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) became a #1 R&B hit and soared to #4 on the Hot 100.

Gaye elaborated on this song and his spiritual quest in a 1976 interview …

“I am a student of Don Juan and Carlos Castaneda. I’ve read many books by many authors. My idea of living is, I would love to become an impeccable warrior, one who has no need for earthly things such as the wine, the women, the clothes and the diamonds, and the fine things to wear. I’d love to develop a distaste for those things and become only interested in knowledge and power that this earth will give us, if we’re only willing to put in the time and effort.

I would love to quit show-business and go after that knowledge and that power that the truly gifted sorcerer has. The power’s here, it’s in the rocks, it’s in the air, it’s in the animals. There are men of knowledge who could take these forces and elements and cause mysterious things to happen to the body, transform themselves and do many, many marvelous things. I would like to become a man of power, and I would like to use it in a good fashion.

The knowledge that we have is enough to catapult ourselves over the hurdle into super-knowledge, where we become super-beings. But at that point we always destroy ourselves. That will always happen because super-knowledge is only for the chosen few. But the few can be of a greater number, that’s why I talk about it. If only we would adhere to certain laws that Mother Nature… THAT’S THE KEY!

We appear to have reached the bottom line. And, just like Bunny says (here he’s referring to the Jamaican musician Bunny Wailer), it’s in obeying the laws of nature that this wisdom and freedom lies. Those songs aren’t written for nothing. A lot of the time, they don’t even know it as writers, but they’re just forced to put Mother Nature into the picture, like in ‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.'”

Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his own father while trying to break up an argument between his parents in 1984, at the age of only 44, one day short of his 45th birthday.

This song, written solely by Gaye, became regarded as one of popular music’s most poignant anthems of sorrow regarding the environment.  The song rose to #4 in the U.S. but I cannot find whether it charted in Canada or the UK.

Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Marvin Gaye

Here we have something for you folks, we hope
You enjoy it as we enter our social section, thank you

Woah, ah, mercy, mercy me
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east

Woah mercy, mercy me, yeah
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas
Fish full of mercury

Oh Jesus, yeah, mercy, mercy me, ah
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying

Hey, mercy, mercy me, oh
Hey, things ain’t what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Oh, na, na, na
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Hey, ooh, woo

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Gaye Marvin P

♫ I’ll Never Love This Way Again ♫

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I planned to post Glenn Yarbrough’s 1965 Baby the Rain Must Fall, after being told yesterday that “Into every life a little rain must fall, unless you happen to live in the Atacama Desert.”  But, once I listened to the song for the first time in probably 50 years, I decided that I really didn’t like it all that much, so … back to square one. Next I tried to find a song about the Atacama Desert, but to no avail.  And so, I just fiddled around with some of my favourite artists and struck paydirt when I got to Dionne Warwick!

According to SongFacts …

Will Jennings wrote this with Richard Kerr, who first recorded the song on his album Welcome To The Club. Jennings is a lyricist who has worked with Steve Winwood, Roy Orbison, Eric Clapton and many others. Kerr is a pianist who wrote the music for Barry Manilow’s first hit “Mandy” and teamed up with Jennings to write Manilow’s songs “Looks Like We Made It” and “Somewhere In The Night.” Jennings told us: “Sometime, sooner or later, you reach a height that you never reached and you never will reach again – and this is the story.”

Explaining what fuels his songwriting, Jennings says, “You have to sit down and write sometime, but it all comes out of life and experience, like any other kind of writing. I travel, look into things. Go out and listen to music. Go to plays. Go to places I haven’t been and places I like to re-visit. Have a good time, drink wine, eat good food, stay up late, dance.”

This won the 1979 Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.  The song hit #6 in Canada, #5 in the U.S., and only #62 in the UK.

I’ll Never Love This Way Again
Dionne Warwick

You looked inside my fantasies and made each one come true
Something no one else, had ever found, a way to do
I’ve kept the memories one by one, since you took me in
I know I’ll never love this way again

I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on, before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on

A fool will lose tomorrow reaching back for yesterday
I won’t turn my head in sorrow if you should go away
I’ll stand here and remember just how good it’s been
And I know I’ll never love this way again

I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on

I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on

I know I’ll never, love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Will Jennings / Richard Kerr
I’ll Never Love This Way Again lyrics © Irving Music, Inc.

♫ To Know Him Is To Love Him ♫

Posted on by under music

Determined to play something I hadn’t already played here before, I had to dig all the way back to 1958, the year of my 7th birthday.  Still, I well remember this one and most of my readers likely will too … except you young whipper snappers!

This is the song that launched Phil Spector’s career. He was a 17-year-old senior in high school when he recorded this, and he quickly became a top producer after working with prominent songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. By the time he was 23, he had produced hits like Be My Baby and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ and was already a millionaire.  Wow!!!  He became famous for obsessive attention to detail and a heavily layered sound, but he also had mental health issues. After producing the Beatles album Let It Be and working on solo albums for George Harrison and John Lennon in the 1970s, he went into seclusion and worked only sporadically.

Phil Spector was inspired to write this in early 1958 by a photograph of his father Ben’s tombstone that said “To have known him was to have loved him.” Phil changed the tense of the epitaph on the tombstone and matched it to the music of When the Red, Red Robin Goes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along.  Phil’s father, Benjamin Spector, was a steelworker who had killed himself 9 years earlier.

According to SongFacts …

Along with some high school friends, Phil put together The Teddy Bears (named after the Elvis Presley song), and wrote this so their new vocalist, Annette Kleinbard, would have something new to sing at a recording session. They had an audition with Era Records head Lew Bidell, who thought they were “okay” but needed better material. Kleinbard didn’t like the song, but agreed to sing it anyway. The group consisted of high school seniors Spector and Marshall Lieb, sophomore Kleinbard, and alumnus Sandy Nelson (who later had #4 hit “Teen Beat” and #7 “Let There Be Drums”) on the drum kit. Although Lieb played piano at the recording session, Spector had asked another friend to do it: future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston. Johnston turned Spector down because he had a date.

This was released on Dore Records as the B-side of “Don’t You Worry My Little Pet” and released in August 1958. After a month, very little happened with the record on the local level. Dore tried again with the record – this time pushing “To Know Him Is To Love Him” as the A-side. Still nothing – it looked like doom for the single. Meanwhile, a radio station in Fargo, North Dakota, began playing “To Know Him Is To Love Him” regularly, and orders began coming in for the record. Then the record started getting airplay in Minneapolis. The record had sold nearly 20,000 copies when it entered Billboard at #88 on September 22. Lew Bedell called Dick Clark in Philadelphia to help him promote the record, which was only a Midwest hit, and Clark played it on American Bandstand on October 3, 1958. The following week, it entered the Top 40, and on October 29, The Teddy Bears appeared live on Bandstand. By December 1, “To Know Him Is To Love Him” was #1 in the nation. It ended up selling nearly one-and-a-half million copies. Spector finished the Dore contract by providing them with a second single, “Wonderful Loveable You” backed with “Till You’re Mine.”

The Teddy Bears left Dore for Imperial Records and released the album The Teddy Bears Sing. It went nowhere and the group soon disbanded, with Spector joining Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood’s Gregmark Publishing and forming a new group called The Spectors Three. Annette Kleinbard had a serious car accident requiring months of recovery time. She did recover and issued a single, “Alibi”/”What Difference Does It Make,” on Imperial under the name Annette Bard. After that single failed, Kleinbard changed her name to Carol Connors (she hated her name because of Annette Funicello’s presence in The Mickey Mouse Club) and later gained fame as a songwriter (“Hey Little Cobra” and “Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)”).

Spector claimed that he learned a great deal from writing, recording and promoting this song. He learned that he didn’t want to be a singer, and he also got a lesson in the brutal nature of the record business when he received only $3,000 out of the $20,000 he thought he had earned from the record. “I learnt about payola and distributors and manufacturing,” Spector said. “I learnt about the Mafia.”

On February 3, 2003, Spector shot actress Lana Clarkson in the mouth while in his mansion (the Pyrenees Castle) in Alhambra, California. Her body was found slumped in a chair with a single gunshot wound to her mouth.  On May 29, 2009, Spector was sentenced to 19-years-to-life in the California state prison system where he remained until he died earlier this year at age 81.  Whoa … how did I manage to turn a fun music post into such a depressing one.  Okay, never mind me and just listen to the song, okay?  Oh, by the way, this song peaked at #1 in the U.S. and #2 in the UK.

To Know Him Is to Love Him
The Teddy Bears

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
Just to see him smile
Makes my life worthwhile

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do

I’ll be good to him, I’ll bring love to him
Everyone says there’ll come a day
When I’ll walk alongside of him

Yes, just to know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do

Why can’t he see?
How blind can he be?
Someday he’ll see
That he was meant for me

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
Just to see him smile
Makes my life worthwhile

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do

Why can’t he see?
How blind can he be?
Someday he’ll see
That he was meant for me

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
Just to see him smile
Makes my life worthwhile

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
Just to see him smile
Makes my life worthwhile

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Phil Spector

♫ Hold On, I’m Comin’ ♫

Posted on by under music, Social commentary

I was chatting with our friend David, the same friend who gave me the idea for last night’s music post, and he mentioned Sam & Dave … WOW!  I haven’t thought of them in ages … probably some 40 years!  But immediately tonight’s song came into my head and, as often happens, it decided to make itself at home and stay for a while.  And so, my friends, I am sharing my earworm with you!

The song was written by the songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, who came up with the title of the song spontaneously when Hayes was trying to get Porter to hurry out of the Stax Studios restroom and get back to songwriting.  The original title was Hold On, I’m Comin’, but some radio stations objected to its “suggestive nature”, and labels on most copies of the single gave the title as “Hold On! I’m A Comin'”. 🙄

Released in 1966, this song was deemed too prurient to air by many radio stations, and it stalled at #21 in the US. The lyrics are actually quite innocent, with the duo offering emotional support to help a lady through some tough times, but back in those days, people had not yet been exposed to the likes of Madonna I guess.

Sam & Dave recorded for Stax Records, which was a popular soul music label in the ’60s and early ’70s. Isaac Hayes was also on the label, which created a very loose and comfortable atmosphere for their artists – at least until they had a financial meltdown in the mid-’70s. While Motown worked hard on the visual styles and choreography of their artists, Stax left most of that up to the singers, which meant that most of them just came out and sang. Sam & Dave were the exception, doing lots of crazy dancing and improvisation in their stage shows, which was always on display when they performed this song.

When I played Sam Cooke’s You Send Me last night, I noted that I was surprised to see that Aretha Franklin had also covered it, for I had no idea.  What a coincidence that tonight’s song was also covered by Aretha in 1981 for her album, Love All the Hurt Away!  Again, as with last night’s song, I prefer the original by Sam & Dave, but will include both so you can choose your favourite!

This song was featured in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. It plays from a cassette in Jake and Elwood’s car during the first police car chase. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd modeled their act on Sam & Dave.

An interesting bit of trivia … Booker T. Jones of Booker T. & the MGs played the tambourine on this song!

One thing confuses me, and when Clive gets out of the hospital, perhaps he can answer this question for me.  While this song did not chart in the United Kingdom, it was certified ‘Silver’ with sales of over 200,000.

Hold On, I’m Comin’
Sam & Dave

Don’t you ever feel sad
Lean on me when times are bad
When the day comes and you’re down
In a river of trouble and about to drown

Just hold on, I’m comin’
Hold on, I’m comin’

I’m goin’ my way, your lover
If you get cold, yeah, I will be your cover
Don’t have to worry (worry) ’cause I’m here (I’m here)
No need to suffer baby (protect you)
‘Cause I’m here (yeah, yeah)

Just hold on, I’m comin’
Hold on, I’m comin’
Hold on, I’m comin’
Hold on, I’m comin’

Looky here
Reach out to me for satisfaction, yeah
Looky here Dave, that’s all she got to do
Call my name, yeah, for quick reaction
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Now don’t you ever feel sad
Lean on me when the times are bad
When the day comes and you’re down, baby
In a river of trouble and about to drown

Just hold on, I’m comin’
Hold on, I’m comin’

Just hold on (don’t you worry)
I’m comin’ (here we come)
Hold on (we’re about to save you)
I’m comin’ (yeah)

Hold on (don’t you worry)
I’m comin’ (here I come)
Hold on

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: David Porter / Isaac Hayes
Hold On, I’m Comin’ lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ You Send Me ♫

Posted on by under music

Every song I’ve considered playing for the past hour, I have already played too recently for a redux.  And anyway, I’ve been re-duxing entirely too much of late.  I was chatting with a friend the other evening and the subject of Sam Cooke came up, so I went in search of a Sam Cooke favourite that I haven’t already worn out here.  And I found one!  I literally did a happy dance … well, okay, it was more a sigh of relief, since it’s late and I am too exhausted to dance at the moment.

Sam Cooke wrote this song, but gave the writing credit to his younger brother L.C. because he did not want his own publisher to profit from the song.

According to Songfacts …

“Cooke was signed to Specialty Records, which was a gospel label. Cooke’s producer, Bumps Blackwell, brought this to Art Rupe, who owned the label. Rupe objected to the use of the choir on this track and was afraid it was too secular and would alienate the label’s gospel fans. He offered Cooke a release from his contract in exchange for outstanding royalties. The song was passed to the Keen label where it sold over 2 million copies.”

I did not know that Aretha Franklin released her own version of this as a B-side in 1968, but naturally I had to listen.  As much as I love Aretha Franklin, I preferred Sam Cooke’s version, but since mine is not the only opinion that counts, I am offering both tonight.

Tragically, at only 33 years of age, Cooke was shot in the chest by Bertha Franklin, the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 1964. Franklin claimed that she acted in self-defense after he broke into her office residence and attacked her. Her account was immediately disputed by Cooke’s acquaintances. It’s a long and strange story, still an unsolved mystery

You Send Me was named as one of the 500 most important rock and roll recordings by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In April 2010, the song ranked No. 115 in Rolling Stone magazine’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  The song reached #1 in the U.S. and #29 in the UK.

You Send Me
Sam Cooke

Darling, you send me
I know you send me
Darling, you send me
Honest, you do, honest, you do
Honest, you do, whoa

You thrill me
I know you, you, you thrill me
Darling, you, you, you, you thrill me
Honest, you do

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home, woah-woah

You, you, you, you send me
I know you send me
I know you send me
Honest you do

Whoa, oh, oh, whenever I’m with you
I know, I know, I know when I’m near you
Mm hmm, mmm hmm, honest, you do, honest, you do
Woah, oh, oh, I know oh, oh, oh

I know, I know, I know, when you hold me
Woah, whenever you kiss me
Mm, hmm, mm, hmm, honest you do

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home

I know, I know, I know you send me
I know you send me
Woah, oh, you, you, you, you send me
Honest you do.

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Sam Cooke
You Send Me lyrics © Burlington Music Co., Ltd