Catchy Tunes

Caroline Kennedy, Peggy Chernow Blog
Sometimes you hear a song and it crawls into your brain and you can't stop humming or singing it. At first, it's enjoyable, but after a while, you want it to stop and it's very difficult...usually replaced by another tune and the cycle continues.

One such song (for me) is "It's a small world after all”. The song was written by Richard Sherman for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Sherman said, “I need a song that can easily be translated into many languages and be played as a round. When I took our kids to Disney, that song tortured me because I could not get it out of my head...and to make it worse, the kids sang it constantly. It is the theme song for the water-based ride in Fantasyland at Disney Parks world wide. The ride features 300 auto-animated dolls dressed in traditional costumes from cultures around the world. The song was used in The Lion King in 1994 when Zazu the bird, sang to Star.

Another catchy song is "We will Rock You." It was written by Brian May and recorded by the British rock band Queen for their album in 1977. When the song came out as a single, it was too short and since the next song on the album "We are the Champions" was also a peppy song, the radio stations decided to play them together, back to back, making one 5-minute song. Now they are pretty inseparable.

My all-time favorite catchy song is “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond. For years the rumor had been that Neil Diamond's 1969 song was an ode to the daughter of the late president John. F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline. In 2007 Neil Diamond finally revealed that Caroline Kennedy was in fact the inspiration for the song. He'd seen a picture of her with a pony and knew there was a song inside him about her. He wrote the amazing lyrics in thirty minutes. To this day the song is played at every Boston Red Sox home game.

When I play the song at home, I jump up and start dancing and singing along, thrusting my fists joyously into the air to “so good, so good”. The song always makes me smile, and I have been known to lose my lady-like demeanor in restaurants and bars when I hear the lyrics and wave my arms frantically to "reaching out, touching me, touching you." Now wouldn't you know? Because of writing this blog, I can't stop singing that song. “It's a Small World” has thankfully faded from my mind and "Sweet Caroline” is front and center. If you're not too embarrassed, get up and sing it along with me.

"Where it began, I can't begin to know
But then I know it's growing strong
Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who'd of believed you'd come along
Hands, touching hands
Reaching out, touching me, touching you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good, so good, so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
Look at the night and it don't seem so lonely
We filled it up with only two
And when I hurt
Hurting runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when holding you?
Warm touching warm,
Reaching out, touching me, touching you
Sweet Caroline
good times never seemed so good." etc.


Until my next inspiration...ciao.

Fenway Park, Peggy Chernow Blog

Fenway Park Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

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