Song Lyric Sunday

This week for Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams is asking us to pick a song, or in my case songs, from artists who celebrate their birthday’s this month. Let’s start with a centennial birthday, as Chuck Berry would turn 100 this month.

Chuck Berry – October 18, 1926

Chuck had many hits to choose from, but I chose one that is actually considered to be more country than rock and roll – Maybelline.

It evolved out of “Ida Red,” a hillbilly song by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys from the early ’50s. Berry heard that song on the Country radio station KMOX in St. Louis, but didn’t know who recorded it. Reworking the song into a tune he called “Ida Mae,” Berry performed the song around St. Louis with his group, the Johnnie Johnson Trio.

Berry had never recorded, but when he went to Chicago to see Muddy Waters perform, he stayed in town to pitch himself to Leonard Chess of Chess Records, who asked him to come back the next week with some original songs. Berry returned with his bandmates Johnnie Johnson (piano) and Eddie Hardy (drums), and a demo reel with four songs, including “Ida Mae.” That’s the one Leonard Chess liked best, but he asked Berry to change so there wouldn’t be any confusion with “Ida Red” and to fend off any copyright claims. Berry changed the lyrics, turning it into a song about fast cars – one of his favorite topics. It was the first song the band recorded, and it proved a challenge: they recorded 36 takes.

Chess Records gave the disc jockey Alan Freed a cowriting credit on this song (and also some cash) in exchange for playing it on the radio. Deals like this led to the Payola scandals, which led to rules prohibiting record companies from paying DJs to play their songs. Marshall Chess, the son of Chess founder Leonard Chess, recalled to The Independent newspaper May 27, 2008: “He [Freed] played the hell out of Chuck’s first record, ‘Maybellene’, because of that. My father says he made the deal, and by the time he got to Pittsburgh, which was half a day’s drive away, my uncle back at home was screaming, ‘What’s happening? We’re getting all these calls for thousands of records!'”

Berry was 29 years old when he recorded this song, but he knew that his audience was teenagers, so he wrote the song to appeal to that crowd – the ones fascinated with cars and experiencing young love. Berry also took care to sing it as clearly as possible so it would have more crossover appeal with a white audience. His strategy worked: the song went to #1 on the R&B chart and also made #5 on the Pop chart.

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You done started doing the things you used to do

As I was motivatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coupé de Ville
A Cadillac a-rollin on the open road
Nothin’ will outrun my V-8 Ford
The Cadillac doin’ ’bout 95
She bumper to bumper, rollin’ side by side

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You done started back doin’ the things you used to do

The Cadillac pulled up at 104
The Ford got hot and wouldn’t do no more
It done got cloudy and started to rain
I tooted my horn for the passin’ lane
The rain water blowin’ all under my hood
I knew that wasn’t doin’ my motor good

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You done started back doin’ the things you used to do

Oh, Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You done started back doin’ the things you used to do

The motor cooled down, the heat went down
And that’s when I heard that highway sound
Cadillac sittin’ like toad on a lake
A 110, a half mile ahead
The Cadillac lookin’ like it’s sittin’ still
And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You done started back doin’ the things you used to do

Songwriters: Chuck Berry

Maybellene lyrics © Isalee Music Publishing Compan, Arc Music Corp, Jewel Music Publishing Co Ltd

Robert Parker – October 14, 1930

“Barefootin’” was written and performed in 1966 and was arranged and produced by Wardell Quezergue. Parker’s record label, Nola Records claimed that the record sold over one million copies.

The song reached No.2 on the U.S. Hot R&B Singles chart and No.7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was primarily a one hit wonder for him, but is still a great song.

Everybody, get on your feet
You make me nervous when you’re in your seat
Take off your shoes and pat your feet
We’re doin’ a dance that can’t be beat

We barefootin’, we barefootin’
We barefootin’, we barefootin’

Went to a party the other night
Long tall Sally was out of sight
Threw way her wig, and her high sneakers too
She was doin’ a dance without any shoes

She was barefootin’, she was barefootin’
She was barefootin’, she was barefootin’

Hey, little gal with the red dress on
I bet you can barefoot all night long
Take off your shoes and throw them away
Come back and get them another day

We barefootin’, we barefootin’
We barefootin’, we barefootin’

Everybody get barefooted
Take off your shoes

Lil’ John Henry, he said to Sue
“If I was barefootin’, would you barefoot too?”
Sue told John, “I’m 32
I was barefootin’ ever since I was two”

They was barefootin’, they was barefootin’
They was barefootin’, we barefootin’
We barefootin’, we barefootin’, ah-ah
We barefootin’, we barefootin’
We barefootin’

We don’t have no shoes on
We barefootin’
We barefootin’

Songwriters: Robert Parker

Barefootin’ lyrics © Kassner Associated Publishers Ltd., Bonatemp Music, Bonatemp, Bonatemp Music Publishing Co Inc

Tanya Tucker – October 10, 1958

Tanya is one country star I have never met, but would love to. She has had one heck of a career. The song I picked from her is one that we played in Jazz Band in high school. I loved it because the saxophone section had the melody and the harmonies were amazing!

“Delta Dawn” was written by Larry Collins and Alex Harvey as something of an apology letter to Alex’s mother. The songwriter opened up about it in great detail in a 2011 Chicken Soup book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music.

“When I was 15 years old, I was in a band. We had just won a contest, and we were going to be on a TV show in Jackson, Tennessee,” Alex recalled in his passage, per American Songwriter. “My mother said she wanted to go. I told her that I thought she would embarrass me. She drank and sometimes would do things that would make me feel ashamed, so I asked her not to go that night.”

His mother crashed her car into a tree that night and died. Alex believed it to be suicide; a result of his rejection over the television taping. He carried heavy guilt for years, until it finally came pouring out about a decade later.

“For me, it was a form of therapy,” he said, explaining why he turned to music during his grief. “That was the only way I could work it out.”

Late one night, after a hangout with a few other musicians, including Larry Collins, he had a vision. It was his mother.

“I looked up, and I felt as if my mother was in the room. I saw her very clearly. She was in a rocking chair, and she was laughing,” he recalled in the book, explaining that he was urged to wake Larry up to help get his feelings onto paper and into a song. That song was “Delta Dawn.”

Tanya Tucker, who was only 13 years old when she recorded her throaty rendition, proved she could handle mature subject matter at a young age. Her producer, Billy Sherrill, heard Bette Midler sing it on The Tonight Show and thought it would be ideal for Epic’s latest acquisition.

In a 2016 interview, Tucker recalled when Sherrill brought her the song. “He played me the demo of Alex Harvey, who wrote the song, playing guitar and singing ‘Delta Dawn.’ He started singing, ‘she’s 41’…, he didn’t start out with the chorus. I said, ‘That’s my song, that’s it.’ So Billy said, ‘Let’s get a key’ So we went to the piano. Billy said, ‘Let’s start with the chorus.’ ‘Ok, I know what the chorus was.’ Then he said, ‘In fact, lets do it a cappella.’ I said, ‘A cappella, what’s a cappella?'” she laughed. “Well the session was supposed to start at 10 o’clock but I didn’t wake up till around noon. He finally got me up. We had The Nashville Edition and the Jordanaires sing backup. We did it ‘live,’ with the musicians and everything.”

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

She’s forty-one and her daddy still calls her, ‘baby’
All the folks around Brownsville say she’s crazy
‘Cause she walks down town with a suitcase in her hand
Looking for a mysterious dark-haired man

In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn
Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on
Then a man of low degree stood by her side
And promised her he’d take her for his bride

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Chubby Checker – October 3, 1941

Chubby Checker will forever be known for The Twist (which was written by Hank Ballard). He was also known for many other dances including the Pony and the Limbo. However, My pick for him is a song that my buddies and I always listened too, “The Hucklebuck”

It is a jazz and R&B dance tune first popularized by Paul Williams and His Hucklebuckers in 1949. The composition of the tune was credited to Andy Gibson, and lyrics were later added by Roy Alford. The song became a cross over hit and a dance craze. In many ways foreshadowing the popular success of rock and roll a few years later. It was featured in an episode of The Honeymooners called “Young at Heart.’

The 1960 recording by Chubby Checker reached #14 on the US pop chart and co-charted with the B-side at #2 in Canada.

Ah, here’s a dance you should know
Oh, baby, when the lights are down low
I say, grab, your baby, then go

A-do the Hucklebuck (yeah) a-do the Hucklebuck (yeah)
If you don’t know how to do it, man, you’re outta luck
A-push your baby out (yeah), and then you hunch your back (yeah)

Start a little movement in your sacroiliac
A-wiggle like a snake, a-wobble like a duck
That’s what you do when you do the Hucklebuck, go!

Here’s a dance you should know
Oh, baby, when the lights are down low
Ah, won’t you grab, your baby, then go?

A little bit of Twist (yeah) a little bit of this (yeah)
And if you don’t know how to do it ask my little sis
Push your partner out (yeah) and then you hunch your back (yeah)

Start a little movement in your sacroiliac
A-wiggle like a snake, a-wobble like a duck
That’s what you do when you do the Hucklebuck, oh, baby, ho

A little bit of Twist (yeah), a little bit of this (yeah)
And if you don’t know how to do it ask my little sis
Push your partner out (yeah), and then you hunch your back (yeah)

Start a little movement in your sacroiliac
A-wiggle like a snake, a-wobble like a duck
That’s what you do when you do the Hucklebuck, I said

Here’s a dance you should know, yeah-yeah-yeah
When, when the lights are down low-low, baby, so low

Songwriters: Roy Alfred / Andy Gibson

The Huckelbuck lyrics © Music Sales Corporation, Range Road Music Inc., United Music Corp., Quartet Music Inc, Boca Music Inc

Al Martino – October 7, 1927

My final choice is a classic from another Italian crooner – Al Martino. Spanish Eyes.

According to Al, Bert Kaempfert was interested for him to record the song, and sent him a copy of the instrumental version of “Moon over Naples”, which Martino thought had the potential to be a hit. However, Martino did not like the lyrics of a vocal version he later heard, and told Kaempfert’s publisher so. Singleton and Snyder, the original lyricists, were employed to rewrite the lyrics. Martino, satisfied with the new lyrics, contacted Kaempfert to request that he come and help with the recording in New York because he liked the sound of Kaempfert’s recording. Martino recorded the song as “Spanish Eyes”, with Kaempfert also playing on the record.

“Spanish Eyes” was released in the late 1965 in the United States, and it reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent four weeks atop the Billboard Easy Listening chart in early 1966. This vocal version was also a hit in Europe, where it sold an estimated 800,000 copies in Germany.

It appeared on the UK Singles Chart twice, first peaking at number 49 in 1970. Later in 1973, a deejay decided to play the song, and it received a strong response from the audience, and the song was re-released. It reached number five in August 1973.

Blue Spanish eyes
Teardrops are falling from your Spanish eyes
Please, please don’t cry
This is just adios and not goodbye

Soon I’ll return
Bringing you all the love your heart can hold
Please say “Si, si”
Say you and your Spanish eyes will wait for me

Blue Spanish eyes
Prettiest eyes in all of Mexico
True Spanish eyes
Please smile at me once more before I go

Soon I’ll return
Bringing you all the love your heart can hold
Please say “Si, si”
Say you and your Spanish eyes will wait for me
You and your Spanish eyes will wait for me

Songwriters: Carlos Villalobos / Garry Applebaum

Spanish Eyes lyrics © Bluewater Music Corp.

Song info gathered from songfacts.com and Wikipedia