Consider this a footnote to my series: How I Married Karen.
First the song, then the story:
A few days ago I was watching a movie when suddenly, in the middle of a scene, Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want To Be With You” kicked in over the soundtrack. So riveted was I by the tune and the memories it evoked that the dialogue simply vanished.
I was thrown back to 1964, freshman year in high school, my schoolboy crush on Karen still a burning coal in my gut. I heard this song on the radio and it perfectly expressed the helpless and hopeless love I felt for a girl who didn’t even know I was alive. Now, married to that very girl, hearing it again, so many years later and so unexpectedly evokes feelings that I thought were lost.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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Happy birthday Karen (sorry 2 days late) from KT in NJ
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For me it was the same year, 1964, but the song was The Girl From Ipanema. How do I put this in words? I was a young teenager and dreaming. Ok, “less is more”.
We really enjoyed “Gun Crazy”, loved that long bank robbery scene filmed in one shot, and still recovering from “Day of Wrath”. Thank you for your suggestions.
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Great pop songs are like postcards from your past that can bring a tear to your eye and an iridescent image to your mind.
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One of the hardest things to write is a tight three minute pop song that naturally makes people sing along and freeze a moment in time the way this song did for Robert (and undoubtedly many others). Thousands in Nashville and Hollywood wish it were easy so they could quit their food service jobs.
As a pre-adolescent male, Dusty and Petula Clark were two singers I always tried to catch when they were on tv. Much better for an impressionable boy than the less talented tattooed wrecks that came along later like Courtney Love.
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*Sigh* Every woman should be loved the way you love Karen. In my foolish youth, I was more likely to go for the “Leader of the Pack”. “Look out, look out, look out!”……Indeed!
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Franny – with 20-30 year high school reunions it is usually a “leader of the pack” – or the cheerleader - that surprises so many while the plodders just keep moving – up.
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Dusty was so talented ..that was apparently her first hit.
it is something about the power of music that the hearing of a song can evoke such a flood of memories.
When I hear Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone by the Temptations (1972) , my memory is brought back to Fort Ord, doing KP (most likely cleaning the grease trap!)
That song, it seemed, was always echoing through the mess hall.
Not as beautiful a memory as yours but I can’t get rid of mine
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