Song Lyric Sunday

It’s another Song Lyric Sunday, hosted by Jim Adams. This week’s topic is one that could go many different ways. Jim has asked us to write about a song that reflects different types of behavior that people exhibit. Almost immediately I had a list of 20+ behaviors in my head.

Procrastination, confidence, generosity, laziness, reliability, patience, courage, dedication, and reliability all populated my list quickly. As I began to look for songs that fit those behaviors, I wasn’t really happy with the songs I was coming up with. It was then that I heard a coworker sharing some gossip with another coworker and that led me to my choices for this week.

While it may not be the quintessential gossip song, it sure is close. Songfacts.com tells of the rough road to hitsville for I Heard It Through the Grapevine:

It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Strong came up with the idea and asked Motown writers Holland-Dozier-Holland to work on it with him. They refused to credit another writer, so Strong took it to Whitfield, who helped put it together. The song eventually became a Motown classic, but it had a rough start, as executives at the company thought it was too bluesy and lacked hit potential.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were the first to record the song, but their version wasn’t released until years later on an album called Special Occasion. The Isley Brothers then took a crack at it, but their version wasn’t released. Whitfield and Strong then had Marvin Gaye record the song but still no luck: Motown head Berry Gordy chose Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “Your Unchanging Love” over “Grapevine” as his next single. Finally, a new Motown act Gladys Knight and the Pips recorded the song as a gospel rocker. Their version was a hit, entering the Top 40 in November 1967 and going to #2 in America.

Marvin Gaye’s version was included on his 1968 album In The Groove (later re-titled I Heard It Through The Grapevine). After E. Rodney Jones, the Chicago disc jockey at WVON, started playing it on the air, Berry Gordy reconsidered and released Gaye’s version as a single, which became even more popular and known as the definitive version of the song. Gaye’s “Grapevine” pounded the charts about a year after Knight’s, going to #1 in America on December 14, 1968.

Marvelous Marvin Gaye

Grapevine

Ooh, I bet you’re wonderin’ how I knew
‘Bout your plans to make me blue
With some other guy you knew before
Between the two of us guys
You know I love you more
It took me by surprise, I must say
When I found out yesterday
Don’t you know that I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Oh, I heard it through the grapevine
Oh, I’m just about to lose my mind

Honey, honey, yeah
(Heard it through the grapevine)
(Not much longer would you be mine, baby)

I know a man ain’t supposed to cry
But these tears, I can’t hold inside
Losin’ you would end my life, you see
‘Cause you mean that much to me
You could have told me yourself
That you loved someone else, instead

I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Oh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey, well
(Heard it through the grapevine)
(Not much longer would you be mine, baby)

People say, “Believe half of what you see
Son, and none of what you hear”
But I can’t help but be confused
If it’s true, please, tell me, dear
Do you plan to let me go
For the other guy you loved before?

Don’t you know I heard it through the grapevine?
Not much longer would you be mine
Baby, I heard it through the grapevine
Ooh, I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey, yeah
(Heard it through the grapevine)
(Not much longer would you be mine, baby, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Honey, honey, I know (heard it through the grapevine)
(Not much longer would you be mine, baby)
That you’re letting me go (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Said, I heard it through the grapevine (heard it through the grapevine)
(Not much longer would you be mine, baby)
Ooh, heard it through the grapevine (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Gladys Knight & The Pips

The next juicy gossip song comes from Adele’s second album, 21. Romour Has It was written by Adele and One Republic’s Ryan Tedder. Songfacts.com says:

Ryan Tedder was in the middle of touring his band OneRepublic’s second album Waking Up when the opportunity came up to write with the British songstress. He recalled to Billboard magazine: “I blocked off a week and said, ‘I have to work with Adele.’ Our management was like, ‘She’s good, but what’s the big deal?’ I thought she was the best singer in the world, so I wanted to halt everything to make sure there was time to work with her.”

Adele revealed: “You can really tell when you hear a Ryan Tedder song, which I liked, but I wanted to come out with something that would surprise everyone when it was us two put together, so we came out with this sort of bluesy-pop stomping song really.”

The song sounds like it could be about the famous folks who show up in the tabloids, but it’s not. Adele says the inspiration was a lot closer to home.

After being away from home for about 18 months, she returned to the UK and reconnected with her old friends, meeting up for lunch and going out at night. She was shocked when her friends asked her about rumors that they had heard about Adele. “My own friends were gossiping about me and believing stuff that they’d hear,” she said. “I was mortified, really. I had to set the record straight with my own girlfriends who know and love me.”

Rumour Has It

She, she ain’t real
She ain’t gon’ be able to love you like I will
She is a stranger
You and I have history
Or don’t you remember
Sure, she’s got it all
But, baby, is that really what you want

Bless your soul, you got your head in the clouds
She made a fool out of you
And, boy, she’s bringing you down
She made your heart melt
But you’re cold to the core
Now rumor has it she ain’t got your love anymore

Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)

She is half your age
But I’m guessing that’s the reason that you stayed
I heard you’ve been missing me
You’ve been telling people things you shouldn’t be
Like when we creep out and she ain’t around
Haven’t you heard the rumors

Bless your soul, you got your head in the clouds
You made a fool out of me
And, boy, you’re bringing me down
You made my heart melt, yet I’m cold to the core
But rumor has it I’m the one you’re leaving her for

Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)

All of these words whispered in my ear
Tell a story that I cannot bear to hear
Just ’cause I said it, it don’t mean that I meant it
People say crazy things
Just ’cause I said it, don’t mean that I meant it
Just ’cause you heard it

Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor-rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it (rumor)
Rumor has it

But rumor has it he’s the one I’m leaving you for

____

Next we have one of the greatest opening lines in music. It is also the perfect example of how the “gossip chain” works: “Heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it from another you’ve been messing around.” Take It On The Run from REO Speedwagon was inspired by real relationships and soap operas. Songfacts.com says:

This song was written by band member Gary Richrath. It was his answer to fellow band co-leader Kevin Cronin’s “Keep On Loving You. Gary and Kevin were going through difficulties in their relationships, Cronin with his wife Denise and Richrath with his girlfriend Debbie. Said Richrath: “When I wrote that, I woke up one night, half asleep, and sat down in front of the TV. There was a soap opera on it. I was just sitting there, strumming a guitar, thinking, ‘God, these guys’ relationships are worse than mine.’ I just sat there and sang vocals about the effects of gossip and relationships breaking up, which was what was on the tube and all that was similar to what was going on in my life.”

Cronin said that their label (Epic Records) was not convinced that “Take It on the Run” was good enough to be released as a single. The band was insistent that the label release it as a follow up to “Keep On Loving You.”

Take It On the Run

Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from another you’ve been messin’ around
They say you got a boyfriend
You’re out late every weekend
They’re talkin’ about you and it’s bringin’ me down

But I know the neighborhood
And talk is cheaper when the story is good
And the tales grow taller on down the line
But I’m telling you, babe
That I don’t think it’s true, babe
And even if it is, keep this in mind

You take it on the run, baby
If that’s the way you want it, baby
Then I don’t want you around
I don’t believe it, not for a minute
You’re under the gun, so you take it on the run

You’re thinking up your white lies
You’re putting on your bedroom eyes
You say you’re coming home, but you won’t say when
But I can feel it coming
If you leave tonight, keep running
And you need never look back again

You take it on the run, baby
If that’s the way you want it, baby
Then I don’t want you around
I don’t believe it, not for a minute
You’re under the gun, so you take it on the run

Take it on the run, baby
If that’s the way you want it, baby
Then I don’t want you around
I don’t believe it, not for a minute
You’re under the gun, so you take it on the run

Take it on the run, baby
If that’s the way you want it, baby
Then I don’t want you around
I don’t believe it, not for a minute
You’re under the gun, so you take it on the run

Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from another you’ve been messin’ around

_____

I love the songfacts.com description of my final gossip song choice:

The song is about small-town gossip and the effect it has on the singer and the guy she’s secretly in love with. It turns out that they’re rumored to be having an affair, and since the rumor-spreaders already think that the two people are involved, the song asks, why not have an affair anyway, thus giving them “something to talk about.”

The song was written by Canadian singer Shirley Eikhard. She has also recorded jazz and country albums. While her recordings didn’t do much, the songs that she has written have done very well. She has written for Cher, Rita Coolidge, Anne Murray, Chet Atkins, and Bonnie Raitt.

Something to Talk About was a song that Anne Murray wanted to release as a single. Her record company did not think that the song would be a hit, so it was never released.

The song won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, beating out Oleta Adams, Mariah Carey, Amy Grant and Whitney Houston! The song was also nominated for Record of the Year, but lost to “Unforgettable.”

For Raitt, this was by far her biggest chart hit in the United States, rising to #5 in the US. She was never a singles act, but after her four Grammy wins for her 1989 album Nick Of Time, her songs started getting radio play and showing up on the chart. “Something to Talk About” was the lead single to her next album, Luck Of The Draw, so it was highly anticipated and radio jumped on it.

People are talking, talking ’bout people
I hear them whisper, you won’t believe it
They think we’re lovers kept under cover
I’ll just ignore it, but they keep saying
We laugh just a little too loud
Stand just a little too close
We stare just a little too long
Maybe they’re seeing something we don’t, darlin’

Let’s give ’em something to talk about
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
How about love?

I feel so foolish, I never noticed
You’d act so nervous
Could you be falling for me?
It took a rumor to make me wonder
Now I’m convinced I’m going under
Thinking ’bout you everyday
Dreaming ’bout you every night
I’m hoping that you feel the same way
Now that we know it, let’s really show it, darlin’

Let’s give ’em something to talk about
A little mystery to figure out, babe
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
How about love, love, love?

Let’s give ’em something to talk about, babe
A little mystery to figure out
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
How about love?

Ooh, listen up, baby
A little mystery won’t hurt
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
How about our love, love, love, love?

How about love, love, love?

____

Henry Thomas Buckle has said, “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”

Gossip is not one of the best behaviors that a person exhibits, but it has led to some fantastic hits!

Thanks to Jim Adams for hosting this feature. See you next week … Rumor has it that Jim will have another great topic for us!