Category: Song Lyric Sunday

Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Sunshine Pop

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This week’s musical genre for Song Lyric Sunday, hosted by Jim Adams, is Sunshine Pop. According to Wiki, “Sunshine pop (originally known as soft pop) is a subgenre of pop music that originated in Southern California in the mid-1960s. Rooted in easy listening and advertising jingles, sunshine pop acts combined nostalgic or anxious moods with “an appreciation for the beauty of the world”. There were certainly plenty of songs from that time that fit the Sunshine Pop category but there is one that stands out from the rest and has stood the test of time. I’m referring to “Happy Together” by The Turtles. It is as popular today as it was then being used in multiple movies and commercials over the years. I featured this about three years ago for another SLS prompt ‘Couples’.

The Song

Despite what the title implies, this is not a song about a couple in love. According to Gary Bonner, who wrote the song with Alan Gordon, the song is about unrequited love. Our desperate singer wants the girl to “imagine how the world could be so very fine,” proposing what would happen “if I should call you up.” The line in the fadeout, “How is the weather?” is when he realizes they will never be more than passing acquaintances, as he resorts to small talk to keep from bursting into tears. >>
The song’s composers Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon were the bass player and drummer of the Boston area group The Magicians. Bonner became a regular member of Kenny Vance and the Planotones. Gordon, who died in 2008 at the age of 64, had songs recorded by Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa and The Lovin’ Spoonful.

Talking about how the song came together, Alan Gordon said: “I had nearly half a song already written, mostly lyric ideas, but couldn’t find the right melodic concept. The Magicians were in the middle of a week-long engagement at the Unicorn Club in Boston, and one early morning I was visiting my divorced father in nearby Ayer, Massachusetts after being up all night. I had stopped to have breakfast at the Park Street Diner in the town and was miserable with no sleep, the endless dumb gigs we were playing and having a songwriter’s block. About the only melody that was throbbing in my tired, fried brain at that hour was the time-immemorial repeated open string pattern that Allen (Jake) Jacobs, the Magician’s lead guitarist, would use as he incessantly tuned and retuned after, before, and frequently during each piece we played. Suddenly, some words began to fit and literally minutes later music and lyrics started to take shape. I excitedly and in fairness asked Jake to complete the song with me as co-writer, but he refused, saying it was all ‘too simple’ for him to be involved, so my regular partner Gary then helped me with the finishing touches. When Gary Klein at the Koppleman/Rubin office heard the result, he immediately knew the song would be perfect for the new and upbeat image being created for The Turtles, and it was his continued enthusiasm that convinced the group to record it.”

After the song was turned down by a number of groups, Bonner and Gordon recorded a demo at Regent Sound Studio with some session musicians, including guitarist Ralph Casale and bassist Dick Romoff. It was Casale who came up with the main figure which set the groove for the song. He told us: “A chord sheet was placed in front of the musicians and we immediately proceeded to put this song together. I came up with what I considered and called a Lovin’ Spoonful feel. I created the figure and all the other musicians including Bonner and Gordon immediately understood the direction. The vocal arrangements fell into place very nicely. Regent Sound was an excellent studio so the demo sounded like a finished product. I later told everybody, ‘I just heard a hit record.’ As Aunt Flo put it, the original demo was phenomenal. In fact the Turtles’ recording sounds as though they used the basic demo track and overdubbed horns. The Bonner/Gordon vocal arrangement sounded a lot like the hit record also.”

The Turtles were formed by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. They were saxophone players who did whatever was trendy in order to make a living as musicians. They played surf-rock, acoustic folk, whatever was big at the time, and in addition to their own bands, played backup for The Coasters, Sonny And Cher and The Righteous Brothers. After a while, they gave up sax and became singers, signing a deal with White Whale Records as The Crosswind Singers. When British groups like The Beatles took over America, they tried to pass themselves off as British singers and renamed themselves The Tyrtles. The record company made them change the name to The Turtles, and tried to make them sound like The Byrds, who were leaders of the folk-rock trend. Like The Byrds had done before, The Turtles recorded a Bob Dylan song for their first single – “It Ain’t Me Babe.” They had a few more minor hits, and recorded the original version of “Eve Of Destruction,” which became a #1 hit for Barry McGuire. They recorded some gloomy songs that completely flopped, so they decided to try some happier songs. After many other artists passed on “Happy Together,” The Turtles decided to record it in an effort to change their image once again.

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it's only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together

If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me, and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby, the skies'll be blue
For all my life

Me and you, and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby, the skies'll be blue
For all my life

Me and you, and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

Me and you, and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

So happy together
And how is the weather?
So happy together
We're happy together
So happy together
Happy together
So happy together
So happy together

Writer/s: Alan Gordon, Garry Bonner 
Publisher: BMG Rights Management
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Yacht Rock

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Welcome to another Song Lyric Sunday. Our prompt for this week is Yacht Rock, suggested by John Holton from the blog The Sound of One Hand Typing. I suppose Yacht Rock is a ritzier name for Soft Rock and it’s a genre with plenty of easy listening to choose from. I have picked a Boz Skaggs song that i like called Lowdown. I hear it frequently on the playlists,

The Song

Scaggs wrote this song with the keyboard player David Paich, who would later form the band Toto and write many of their hits. “Lowdown” was the first song that Scaggs and Paich wrote together; it was Silk Degrees producer Joe Wissert who put them together.In a Songfacts interview with Boz Scaggs, he explained: “We took off for a weekend to this getaway outside of LA where there was a piano and stayed up all night banging around ideas. We hit on ‘Lowdown,’ and then we brought it back to the band and recorded it. We were just thrilled with that one. That was the first song that we attempted, and it had a magic to it.”

This was the second single released from Silk Degrees. The first was “It’s Over,” which charted at a modest #38 in May 1976. Scaggs had little name recognition at the time, and sales were stagnant for the album until an R&B radio station in Cleveland started playing “Lowdown.” Other stations followed suit, and it quickly became clear that the song had crossover appeal and hit potential. Scaggs’ label, CBS, released it as a single and it climbed to #3 on the Hot 100 in October, spurring sales of the album along the way.

The song is about a girl who doesn’t appreciate what her man gives her. The “dirty lowdown” is the honest truth – what Scaggs is encouraging this poor sap to face.The word “Lowdown” was popular slang meaning a summary of what’s going on for real. The first Hot 100 entry with the term in the title came in 1969 with the instrumental “Lowdown Popcorn” by James Brown (#41, 1969). Next came Chicago’s song “Lowdown” (#35, 1971).

Along with keyboard player David Paich, two other future Toto members also played on this track: drummer Jeff Porcaro and bass player David Hungate. The Silk Degrees marked the first time that Scaggs used these studio pros, and it was also his first album produced by Joe Wissert, who was a staff producer at Columbia Records who had previously worked with Earth, Wind & Fire.The crew for the album found just the right sound, a disco-blend that could play in dance clubs and pool halls. Scaggs credits Wissert for giving him and the other musicians plenty of freedom in the studio, resulting in one of the most successful albums of the ’70s – Silk Degrees went on to sell over five million copies.

This won the Grammy for Best R&B Song of 1976, making Scaggs the first white artist to win the award (Leo Sayer was the second, taking the trophy the next year for “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”)

The producers of Saturday Night Fever asked to use this in their movie, but Scaggs’ manager turned them down and instead used it in the movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Not a good move – Saturday Night Fever became one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.

When the actor Rob Lowe started a podcast in 2020, he wanted to call it Lowe Down and use this song as the theme, but getting the rights proved too expensive. He went with Literally! for the title, a reference to something his Parks And Recreation character, Chris Traeger, often said.

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Baby's into running around
Hanging with the crowd
Putting your business in the street 
Talking out loud
Saying you bought her this and that
And how much you done spent
I swear she must believe it's all heaven sent

Hey boy you better bring the chick around
To the sad, sad truth the dirty lowdown

(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) 
Taught her how to talk like that
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) 
Gave her that big idea

Nothin' you can't handle
Nothin' you ain't got
Put your money on the table 
And drive it off the lot
Turn on that old love light 
And turn a "maybe" to a "yes"
Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess

Hey son, better get back on to town
Face the sad old truth, the dirty lowdown

(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) 
Put those ideas in your head
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)

Yeah

Come on back down, little son
Dig the low, low, low, low, lowdown!

You ain't got to be so bad, got to be so cold
This dog eat dog existence sure is getting old
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This runnin' with the Joneses, boy, just ain't where it's at, no, no

You gonna come back around
To the sad, sad truth, the dirty lowdown

(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Got you thinking like that, boy
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) 

I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Said I wonder, wonder, wonder, I wonder who
Oh, look out for that lowdown (ohh, I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
That dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty lowdown

Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who

Got you thinkin' like that
Got you thinkin' just like that
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) 
Lookin' that girl in the face is so sad
I'm ashamed of you

I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Writer/s: Boz Scaggs, David Paich 
Publisher: CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Spirit Music Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – New Wave Music

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The genre for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is New Wave. Thank you to our host, Jim Adams, for the prompt. New Wave Music really came into its own in the early 80s with a rush of new bands. It was cool and chic and the bands had a definite new look and sound. The use of synthesizers became more prominent. One of my favorite bands at that time was Tears For Fears. Their biggest and most recognizable song is “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. It has been covered many times over the 30 plus years since its release, by different artists and featured in TV shows and movies, Most recently it was featured in the Budweiser video for The FIFA World Cup theme “The World is Yours To Take” by Lil Baby and Tears For Fears (See end of post for video)

The Song

This song is about the quest for power, and how it can have unfortunate consequences. In an interview with Mix magazine, the band’s producer Chris Hughes explained that they spent months working on “Shout,” and near the end of the sessions, Roland Orzabal came into the studio and played two simple chords on his acoustic guitar, which became the basis for the song. Said Hughes: “‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ was so simple and went down so quickly, it was effortless, really. In fact, as a piece of recording history, it’s bland as hell.”

This was the first US #1 hit for Tears for Fears. “Shout” went to #1 two months later.

“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” is a line from the 1980 Clash song “Charlie Don’t Surf.” Did Tears for Fears lift it? Joe Strummer of The Clash thought so. He recounted a story to Musician magazine about confronting Roland Orzabal in a restaurant, informing Orzabal that “you owe me a fiver.” Strummer said that Roland reached in his pocket and produced a five pound note, ostensibly as compensation for poaching the line for his hit title.

Although musically this is quite a jangly and catchy song, its lyrical theme is actually pretty dark. “The concept is quite serious – it’s about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes,” Curt Smith of Tears For Fears explained on the band’s website.

Dennis Miller used this over the closing credits of his HBO TV show, which ran from 1994-2002.

Curt Smith did a solo, acoustic version of this for the soundtrack to The Private Public, a 2001 movie where he made his acting debut.

The song was covered by Lorde for the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack, which was released by Republic. She reworked Tears for Fears’ tune into a haunting dirge, bringing out its inherent darkness. The label’s executive VP Tom Mackay explained to Billboard magazine that the New Zealand singer-songwriter was wrapping her Pure Heroine album at the time tracks were being solicited for the soundtrack. “There was not time for her to write a demo, submit it and come back after changes [are requested],” Mackay said. “Like a lot of songs on this album, it’s an artistic leap. When we heard it, we were amazed how she reshaped it-it’s hard not to think about President Snow and the Capitol in the film and in the book.”

In a season 2 episode of the TV series Mr. Robot, the character Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) sings a plaintive karaoke version of this song as she struggles through a moral crisis. “You really have a desire to rule the world?” a guy asks her when she comes to the bar. “Oh, my desires go way beyond that,” she replies.

The band had trouble getting into the original incarnation of the song, which featured the lyric “everybody wants to go to war.” When it was changed to the title phrase, everything clicked. “Once we got those lyrics, it was a joyful song,” Orzabal explained.

Tears For Fears spent most of 1985 touring in support of the Songs From The Big Chair album. It took so much out of them physically and emotionally, they didn’t go back to work until a few years later, finally emerging in 1989 with their album The Seeds Of Love. Curt Smith explained in Outlook magazine: “We soon realized that touring isn’t much fun with a bunch of drum machines and sequencers. We didn’t get into the music business to be computer programmers. I did it to be a musician! On that tour, I just went out and did the album for nine months. If people wanted to hear the album, they could’ve stayed home and listened to it.”

This was used in the 1985 movie Real Genius, about a group of teen geniuses, led by Val Kilmer, who try to foil their professor’s plot to sell their high-powered laser to the military. It was also featured in the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino, the 2015 NWA biopic  Straight Outta Compton and the ’80s-themed Steven Spielberg film Ready Player One (2018).

This was featured in several TV shows, including ER (“Sharp Relief,” 1998), Cold Case (“Greed,” 2004), Malcolm in the Middle (“Lois Battles Jamie,” 2005), Numb3rs (“Hot Shot,” 2006), Brothers & Sisters (“States of the Union,” 2007), The Wire (“React Quotes,” 2008), Medium (“But for the Grace of God,” 2008), Psych (“A Nightmare on State Street,” 2014), and Riverdale (“Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Midnight Club,” 2018).

Because “Shout” was the group’s first single in the rest of the world, Tears For Fears thought it should also be their first release in the US, but the record label insisted “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” was better suited for their American debut. “Which is interesting in retrospect,” Smith told Consequence of Sound, “because it was one of those times when the record company was right and we were wrong, because for America, yes, it was a better first single.”

The 30th anniversary re-release of the album contains a few different versions of the song, including a live performance from Canada’s Massey Hall, an alternate single, and an instrumental rendition. Smith said of the instrumental: “When you strip a vocal off a track, you get to then appreciate how that track was built because you’re just listening to the elements of the music behind it.”

Gloria Gaynor and the Glee Cast are among the artists to cover this song. Weezer included it on their 2019 covers collection known as The Teal Album.

In 2016, the musician Ted Yoder played this in his backyard on a hammered dulcimer. Streamed to Facebook Live, it got over 100 million views, earning Yoder the title, “Dulcimer Dad.”

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you

Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world

It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the most

Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world

There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you

So glad we've almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world

I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
Say that you'll never, never, never, never need it
One headline why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world

All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
Writer/s: Christopher Merrick Hughes, Ian Stanley, Roland Orzabal 
Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Songtrust Ave, Tratore, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – I’m a Little Bit Country

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Jim Adams, our host for Song Lyric Sunday, has given us Country Music this week. Being a big city girl I was never really into country music growing up. I was not familiar with it at all. However after living in Texas for a number of years, I opened my senses to it and was pleasantly surprised. In recent years country has a lot of crossover into other genres and has an immense appeal to most audiences. I am sharing a song by an artist I really like. Her style combines elements of Bluegrass, Appalachian, Folk and Country. I think this particular choice fits the bill for today. It is Gillian Welch singing ‘The Way It Goes’

The Song

I was unable to find any background for the writing of The Way It Goes but being a country song it tells its own story.

The song is from the album The Harrow & the Harvest. The fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Gillian Welch. It was Welch’s first album in eight years and was released on June 28, 2011. The album was nominated for Best Folk Album for the 54th Grammy Awards.

The eight years since the release of 2003’s Soul Journey marked the longest period of time between album releases for Welch. In explaining the relatively long recording absence, Welch said, “The sad truth is we never liked anything enough to put it out, which is not a pleasant place to be.” She added, “over the course of that time that we were quiet we probably had enough songs to put out two or three records. Actually we made a few tentative steps at trying to record, but inevitably the heart would go out of it when we realized that we simply didn’t like the material enough to go on with it.” Welch frequently performed the song “The Way It Will Be” in years prior to the release of the album. Welch explains that this tense time period inspired the album title: “Our songcraft slipped and I really don’t know why. It’s not uncommon. It’s something that happens to writers. It’s the deepest frustration we have come through, hence the album title.”[3] The writing process involved “this endless back and forth between the two of us,” Welch said, stating that “It’s our most intertwined, co-authored, jointly-composed album.” John Dyer Baizley provided artwork for the album.

Courtesy of Wiki

The Lyrics

Becky Johnson bought the farm
Put a needle in her arm
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

And her brother laid her down
In the cold Kentucky ground
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

That's the way that it goes
Everybody's buying little baby clothes
That's the way that it ends
Though there was a time when she and I were friends

Well, Miranda ran away
Took her cat and left LA
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

She was busted, broke and flat
Had to sell that pussy cat
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

That's the way that it goes
Everybody's buying little baby clothes
That's the way that it ends
Though there was a time when he and I were friends

See the brightest ones of all
Early in October fall
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

While the dark ones go to bed
With good whiskey in their head
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

Now Billy Joe's back in the tank
You tell Russo, I'll tell Frank
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

Did he throw her down a well?
Did she leave him for that swell?
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

That's the way that it goes
Everybody's buying little baby clothes
That's the way that it ends
Though there was a time when all of us were friends

When you lay me down to rest
Leave a pistol in my vest
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

Do you miss my gentle touch?
Did I hurt you very much?
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

That's the way that it goes
Everybody's buying little baby clothes
That's the way that it ends
Though there was a time when you and I were friends

The Way It Goes Lyrics as written by Gillian Welch David Rawlings
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Mersey Sound

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A blast from the past is the prompt from Jim Adams, the host of Song Lyric Sunday. He has asked us to find a song from the Mersey Beat era of the 60s. There are so many that came out of Liverpool at that time, including the Beatles, but for me one that song that describes the feeling of the time is ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey” by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Gerry Marsden wrote the song.

The first video below was remastered in stereo and the second is the original song. Hope you enjoy them.

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Season!

The Song

The Mersey Ferry runs along the Mersey river from Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula in England. It still runs, but these days is mostly a tourist attraction. Written by lead singer Gerry Marsden, the song is a nostalgic look at the area where he is from.

The music played by bands from the Liverpool area around this time became known as the “Mersey Sound.” This song came to symbolize the style, which was made famous by The Beatles and The Kinks.
In 1965, Gerry & the Pacemakers starred in a film called Ferry Cross The Mersey, which was based on this song. The song and the film took off together. The song reached the top ten in the UK in 1964 and in the USA in 1965. Many years later, the life of frontman Gerry Marsden was re-created in a stage musical, also called Ferry Cross the Mersey. The musical opened in Liverpool and was staged elsewhere, including Australia and the USA.

“Ferry Cross The Mersey” was remade in May 1989 as a charity version to help those affected by the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool football fans. Featuring Gerry Marsden and other Liverpool stars such as Paul McCartney, The Christians, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Holly Johnson, it reached #1 in the UK and raised millions of pounds.

Fun Facts

The Mersey is a famous river in Liverpool, England, a city in which the Beatles began their musical career. But this song was begun by another group of Merseyside musicians called Gerry and the Pacemakers. “Ferry Cross the Mersey” was produced by George [now Sir George] Martin, who was responsible for almost all of the records recorded by The Beatles.

You can still catch the Mersey ferry and cross the river Mersey today. It sails from Birkenhead into Liverpool. And as sometimes happens with song lyrics, there is a dispute as to whether the word is “cross” or “across.” Some people write “Ferry, ‘Cross the Mersey,” meaning “across” the river, but the correct version is “cross.” It’s a command or request to the ferry captain meaning, “Please cross the Mersey.”

The Lyrics

Life goes on day after day
Hearts torn in every way

So ferry 'cross the Mersey
'Cause this land's the place I love
And here I'll stay

People, they rush everywhere
Each with their own secret care
So ferry 'cross the Mersey
And always take me there
The place I love

People around every corner
Seem to smile and say
We don't care what your name is, boy
We'll never turn you away

So I'll continue to say
Here I always will stay

So ferry 'cross the Mersey
'Cause this land's the place I love
And here I'll stay
And here I'll stay
Here I'll stay

Writer/s: Gerrard Marsden 
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind


Courtesy of Songfacts
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Motown – Ooo Baby Baby

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It’s Motown Week at Song Lyric Sunday! I have chosen an old favorite by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Ooo Baby Baby. It’s such a sexy break up/make up smoochy song. I love it.

Have a great Sunday.

The Song

The song is about cheating, with the singer apologizing for stepping out on his girl and letting her know that he’s all torn up about it. Robinson insists it isn’t autobiographical.

When Smokey Robinson appeared on American Idol in 2009, he said that this song came about by accident. The Miracles used to sing a medley of love songs on stage, and at the end of the medley (a song called “Please Say You Want Me” by the Schoolboys) he broke off into singing “ooh, baby baby.” The Miracles were so in tune that the other members started harmonizing with him, and the crowd went crazy. They incorporated this bit into their live act, then used it as the basis for the song when they decided to record it.

Smokey Robinson wrote this with fellow Miracle Pete “Warren” Moore. It is now considered the Miracles’ signature song.

According to the Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs, “Robinson called this ballad his ‘National anthem,’ noting, ‘Wherever we go, it’s the one song that everybody asks for.'”

This is one of the most confusingly credited songs of all time; the title sometimes appears as “Ooo Baby Baby” instead of “Ooh Baby Baby,” and the group alternately listed as The Miracles or Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. We’ve even seen a demo 45 where the song is listed as “Oo Baby Baby.”

On most compilation albums, the song is listed as “Ooo Baby Baby.”

It is officially published as “Ooh Baby Baby,” with the alternate titles covering all the permutations:

“Baby Baby”
“Oh Baby Baby”
“Ooo Baby Baby”
“Oo Baby Baby”

Linda Ronstadt, who also covered the Miracles song “The Tracks Of My Tears,” released a version of this song that went to #7 US in 1979. The Five Stairsteps also charted with the song, taking it to #63 US in 1967. Other popular versions are by Shalamar, Sylvester and Ella Fitzgerald.
John Lennon, a huge fan of American soul music, copped the “I’m Crying” line in “I Am The Walrus” from the refrain in this song.

Lenny Kravitz covered the song for his 2014 Strut album. Kravitz told The Daily Telegraph that he rarely does covers, but an unexpected blast of this tune left him wanting to record it. “One morning early I was having my make up done for Hunger Games and the make-up artist was listening to a Motown station and it came on,” he said. “I hadn’t heard it for a long time (and) it sounded so beautiful.”

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Ooo la la la la
I did you wrong my heart went out to play
But in the game I lost you
What a price to pay, hey I'm crying

Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby

Mistakes I know I've made a few
But I'm only human
You've made mistakes too, I'm crying

Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby

I'm just about at the end of my rope
But I can't stop trying I can't give up hope
'Cause I feel that one day I'll hold you near
Whisper I still love you
Until that day is here I'm crying

Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby ooo

Writer/s: CLIFFORD N. BRANCH JR., PHYLLIS ROBINSON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Reflections

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Our friend Clive, from Take it Easy, has offered up this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt and it is “Songs with a recognizable intro”. I have chosen Reflections by the Supremes. The intro to this song is memorable, well at least to me. The album Reflections was released in 1967. The song was also used as the theme for a TV drama here in the States called China Beach about the Vietnam War. It ran from late 80s to early 90s and was the springboard for some now recognizable.actors.

The Song

“Reflections” was written by the Motown songwriting team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. In a Songfacts interview with Dozier, he explained: “It’s about when the love has gone bad, or when things have changed in life. One thing in life that’s ever changing is tomorrow is always different from today. Things change for many reasons, and you have to be aware of why, and what is happening around you. You have to adapt to the changes in life. That’s what that was about: your reflection on how things used to be, can be and will be, hopefully.

It’s all about hope, too. The main theme of that song is hope: although things have come to pass, you have to start changing, remembering the old to get involved with a new approach in life.”
This song tells the story of a woman who looks back in anguish at her lost love, wondering what could have been had things worked out. But the song was directed in some ways at Motown head Barry Gordy, with the same sentiment.

Starting with “Where Did Our Love Go” in 1964, the Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote nine #1 hits for The Supremes as well as many big songs for The Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, and several other acts on the label. After a few years of runaway success, the three writers demanded publishing rights to their songs, but were rebuffed by Gordy. This was when they wrote “Reflections,” which pleased Gordy by providing yet another hit for The Supremes, but portended the departure of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who left a short time later, breaking their contract in the process. The legal tussle between Gordy and his former star writers stretched on for many years.

Sonically, this was a departure for The Supremes, with no saxophone or prominent electric guitar backbeat. It retained the sturdy bassline of James Jamerson, but featured a Wurlitzer electric piano by Earl Van Dyke and tambourine by Jack Ashford. Pistol Allen was the drummer and Joe Messina added guitar. The oscillator-generated sound effects also appear throughout the track.

This was the first foray for The Supremes into psychedelic pop, a sound fully realized by The Beatles a month earlier when they released their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

“Reflections” has some mind-bending lyrics:

Trapped in a world
that’s a distorted reality

It also opens with some trippy sound effects that were created with a custom oscillator designed by one of The Funk Brothers, who were session musicians for most Motown songs of the period.

This was released during The Summer of Love (1967) when the Vietnam War was raging. This made it an appropriate choice for the theme song of the TV series China Beach, which was set in Vietnam during the war. The series ran on ABC from 1988-1991

The Lyrics

Through the mirror of my mind
Time after time
I see reflections of you and me

Reflections of
The way life used to be
Reflections of
The love you took from me

Oh, I'm all alone now
No love to shield me
Trapped in a world
That's a distorted reality

Happiness you took from me
And left me all alone
With only memories

Through the mirror of my mind
Through all these tears that I'm crying
Reflects a hurt I can't control
Although you're gone
I keep holding on
To those happy times
Oh, girl when you were mine

As I peer through the windows
Of lost time
Keeping looking over my yesterdays
And all the love I gave all in vain
(All the love) All the love
That I've wasted
(All the tears) All the tears
That I've tasted
All in vain

Through the hollow of my tears
I see a dream that's lost
From the hurt baby
That you have caused

Everywhere I turn
Seems like everything I see
Reflects a hurt I can't control

In you I put
All my hope and trust
Right before my eyes
My whole world has turned to dust

Reflections of
The love you took from
Reflections of
The way life used to be

In you I put
All my hope and trust
Right before my eyes
My whole world has turned to dust

Now baby, why did you do it?
Reflections

Writer/s: DAVID BRYAN BENOIT 
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind


Courtesy of Songfacts
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Van Morrison – Cover of Rolling Stone

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Artists who have appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine is our prompt for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. What a fantastic subject suggested by our host Jim Adams! It was fun just scrolling through the list going back to the 1960s. My choice is probably my most favorite artist of all time, Van Morrison. He appeared on issue #62 July 9, 1970. The song I picked is ‘Someone Like You’, a favorite of mine. It was written and recorded much later than the magazine issue.

The Song

“Someone Like You” is a song written by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison and recorded on his seventeenth studio album, Poetic Champions Compose (1987). It has become a wedding and movie classic and the song subsequently furnished the framework for one of Morrison’s most popular classics and love ballads, “Have I Told You Lately”, released in 1989.

In 1987, the single charted at number 28 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary in the U.S.In 2019, it peaked at #1 on the Ireland radio airplay chart.

“Someone Like You” was recorded in the summer of 1987 at Wool Hall Studios in Beckington, Somerset with Mick Glossop as engineer.

This song was released again on two of Morrison’s compilation albums in 2007. A remastered version has been included in the album, Still on Top – The Greatest Hits and it is one of the songs on Van Morrison’s 2007 compilation album, Van Morrison at the Movies – Soundtrack Hits.

The song was featured in the following movies:

Only the Lonely (1991)
Prelude to a Kiss (1992)
French Kiss (1995)
One Fine Day (1996)
Someone Like You (2001)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
American Sniper (2014)

Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett was a huge fan of Van Morrison. When the actress was dying of cancer and too sick to attend one of his concerts, the Irish singer taped it especially for her. It was one of the last things she ever watched.

Courtesy of Wiki and Songfacts

The Song Lyrics

I've been searching a long time
Someone exactly like you
I've been traveling all around the world
Waiting for you to come through

Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you

I've been travelin' a hard road
Baby, lookin' for someone exactly like you
I've been carryin' my heavy load
Waiting for the light to come shining through

Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you

I've been doin' some soul searching
To find out where you're at
I've been up and down the highway
In all kinds of foreign lands

Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you

I've been all around the world
Marching to the beat of a different drum
But just lately I have realized
Maybe the best is yet to come

Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you
Someone exactly like you
Someone exactly like you

Writer/s: Van Morrison
Publisher: BMG Rights Management
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Famous Parents

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Our friend Paula from Light Motifs II has suggested the prompt for today’s Song Lyric Sunday. It is “Singers with Famous Musician Parents”. My immediate go to is Norah Jones who came onto the scene in 2002 with her smash album ‘Come Away With Me’. Her style and beautiful voice drew in a huge fan base curious about her music and background. It turned out she was the daughter of the famous sitar player Ravi Shanker. Yes, remember him? He taught Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison how to play the sitar!

The Song

This love song is the title track to Norah Jones’ debut album, released in 2002 when she was just 22. A patient, peaceful song, it finds Jones singing about a romantic escape where the only thing that matters is that they’re together. At the time, Jones was dating her bass player, Lee Alexander.

“Come Away With Me” is one of three songs Jones wrote on the album, which was produced by the legendary Arif Mardin (Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan) and released on the jazz label Blue Note Records. Jones had final say on the tracklist and left off a number of songs she wrote herself, going with songs written by her collaborators instead. Her guitarist, Jesse Harris, has five songs on the album, including the lead single, “Don’t Know Why.”

The Come Away With Me album is a rare massive seller with no big hits. The only song to land in the Hot 100 was “Don’t Know Why,” which made #30. “Come Away with Me” was the third single, released in December 2002 after the album had been out for nine months. By this time, it has already sold millions of copies, but many were just discovering it. In February 2003, it took Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards, one of five wins for Jones that night. The album ended up selling 10 million in America to go Diamond, a certification more familiar to acts like the Bee Gees and Backstreet Boys.

The music video was directed by James Frost, whose work includes Radiohead’s “House of Cards” and Coldplay’s “Yellow.” It shows Jones driving what appears to be the 1971 Cadillac DeVille that played a very important role in her life (we’re not sure if it’s the real one or a replica, but it has Texas plates). Jones’ mother bought her the oversized vehicle when they were living in Texas and Norah needed to commute for work. The car was pretty much indestructible, so it was a safe choice.When Jones was a student at the University of North Texas, she let a friend borrow the car to transport a band that was in town from New York City. This band and their crew ended up hanging out with Jones, and one of them, Jesse Harris, stayed in touch. When Jones moved to New York to pursue music, she started collaborating with Harris and one of the other guys from that trip to Texas bought the car. For Jones, the vehicle is a symbol of her Texas roots and of her life journey.


Courtesy of Songfacts

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