When I was a kid we used to have this Gary Lewis & the Playboys album (my big sis was a big fan - she had a crush on Gary) called This Diamond Ring. It had "Dream Lover" by Bobby Darin, and "Forget Him" by Bobby Rydell, and "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes" by Bobby Vee. I never knew the original of those until so many years later.
We also had a Herman's Hermits album that my parents bought for us when my youngest sister was born. I think I still have that. It had "I'll Never Dance Again." That's also by Bobby Rydell.
I used to sing those songs to my kids. All my kids were cranky babies and they never slept. Sometimes I would hold them and we would listen to music and they would fall asleep on my shoulders. I remember one time listening to the Doors (YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!!!!!) and I remember one time listening to Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic playing Brahms' 4th Symphony.
Often I would hold them and walk around and sing. I would also sing "Rock and Roll Lullaby" and "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" and "Count Me In."
Those are all songs I think that are transcendently sappy. They never make it into the books of great recordings (except "Dream Lover" which was in Dave Marsh's book The Heart Of Rock And Soul). But check out YouTube and you can see where the truth lies…
"Because" by The Dave Clark Five is another one. It's not to be confused with "Because" by the Beatles, which was on Abbey Road and which was pretty, but not nearly as innocent. I remember playing the DC5 version to my wife, who wasn't my wife yet, back when I was wooing her. A lot has changed between then and now, but that song still belongs on that long-gone couch, in that far-away-and-never-seen-again living room, in that $130 / month apartment.
That sappiness doesn't exist anymore. Oh there is sappy alright, but it's plastic sappy, not from-the-heart sappy, not like the Phil Spector brand of human-spritual-salvation-through-teenage-romance sappy. Do people sing the Backstreet Boys to their babies? I feel sorry for them if they do. I feel sorrier for the babies.
This all comes to mind because I grabbed a Bobby Rydell album from the library this week. All those Cameo Parkway recordings were unavailable for so long, and now here it is. I have most of it on tape anyway, and how I got it, well that's a story that deserves a post of its own. But I got this CD, and the truth is that most of it is, I hate to admit, pretty lame, but then towards the end of about 70 minutes worth of music comes on "Forget Him" and all the lameness is forgiven.
(Forget him)
(Forget him)
Forget him, if he doesn't love you
Forget him, if he doesn't ca-a-a-a-are
Don't let him tell you that he wants you
'Cause he can't give you love which isn't there
Oh, little girl, he's never dreaming of you
He'll break your heart, ya wait and see-e-e
So don't you cry now, just tell him goodbye now
Forget him and please come home to me
(Forget him, if he doesn't love you)
(Forget him, if he doesn't care)
Don't let him tell ya that he wants you
'Cause he can't give you love which isn't there
Oh, little girl, he's never dreaming of you
He'll break your heart, ya wait and see-e-e So don't you cry now, just tell him goodbye now
Forget him and please come home to me
No, don't you cry now
Better tell him, goodbye now
Forget him, and please come home to meeeee
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