On and On by Stephen Bishop
Yes, I know, I said I was moving into the new decade and this is a throwback to the 1970s. But this song just hung around for years and years. And besides it's a holiday and besides it is a personal favourite. It was never that big a hit but the smooth, clean girls kept playing it for years after it first came out. Often they'd apologize as if they were ashamed of liking it or try and hide their love of it behind irony. Eventually, they admitted it was just great.
The problem, I think, was the mention of Sinatra. Nowadays, everyone knows that Sinatra was the greatest singer of the American songbook ever but it was the height of uncool to like him back in the early 1980s (believe me, I know, I cleared rooms over and over again when I tried to get people to listen to Sinatra. I had a Sinatra pin I used to wear and everyone assumed I meant it as a joke. They wouldn't believe me when I tried to tell them that I really thought Sinatra was the greatest.
Anyway, that Stephen Bishop clearly saw something special about Sinatra made the song less credible back then. Nowadays, it has the opposite effect.
There was something prophetic about it too. Smooth would mean something different from now on.
I think I'll "Toss up my heart and see where it lands".
Yes, I know, I said I was moving into the new decade and this is a throwback to the 1970s. But this song just hung around for years and years. And besides it's a holiday and besides it is a personal favourite. It was never that big a hit but the smooth, clean girls kept playing it for years after it first came out. Often they'd apologize as if they were ashamed of liking it or try and hide their love of it behind irony. Eventually, they admitted it was just great.
The problem, I think, was the mention of Sinatra. Nowadays, everyone knows that Sinatra was the greatest singer of the American songbook ever but it was the height of uncool to like him back in the early 1980s (believe me, I know, I cleared rooms over and over again when I tried to get people to listen to Sinatra. I had a Sinatra pin I used to wear and everyone assumed I meant it as a joke. They wouldn't believe me when I tried to tell them that I really thought Sinatra was the greatest.
Anyway, that Stephen Bishop clearly saw something special about Sinatra made the song less credible back then. Nowadays, it has the opposite effect.
There was something prophetic about it too. Smooth would mean something different from now on.
I think I'll "Toss up my heart and see where it lands".
The series starts here.
The next song is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment