Fortunately, it's a great one. For some reason I started humming Ketty Lester's "Love Letters" last night - for no particular reason, ya' buncha' snoops - and I can't seem to shake it. Maybe my brain's keeping it front and center because it is such a great song. If you're like me, your brain usually latches on to "Candy Man" from Willie Wonka (the old one) or the Barney Theme Song. But "Love Letters," I can definitely live with for a while.When it popped into my head, I was surprised to find that I remembered all the words. Now, this tune hit #5 on the pop charts and #2 on R&B in 1962. 1962. Yes, I was hardly outta the womb. OK, I was 11 years outta the womb. Still. Great lyrics and a fine, fine melody stick with you.
As Ketty tells it, the song was recorded in a garage studio in Los Angeles, and her vocals were recorded in a bathroom. If this is the sound you get from a garage bathroom, I say ditch those fancy-schmancy studios and head for the, um, head.
Lots of singers have covered "Love Letters," which was nominated for a Best Song Oscar in 1945 for the film (surprise!) Love Letters, but no one - not Elvis, Diana Krall, no one - can hold a candle to Ketty and that wonderful tink-a-tink-tink piano accompaniment.
And don't you love the way she sang: "I mem-o-o-ri-i-ize every line"?
So, off you go now to sort through your 45s and pull out the great Ketty Lester's "Love Letters." Or find a download online. "Love letters straight from your heart . . . " Must've been great to crank that one up on the car radio on date-night in 1962.
8 comments:
I got in the car to come to work this morning and what was playing on the radio? Love Letters by Ketty Lester!
When we go in to help with the prison services we often sing 'Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning'. Now that sticks like nothing on earth!
Wow, Liz, that's kind of a cosmic-R&B-gods thing! (I haven't heard Love Letters on the radio here since 1962, I guess.)
I'm going to try to not fall into your your "Give me oil in my lamps, keep me burning" trap, otherwise I'll be off and running on that.
Friend Garth swears that humming "Girl from Ipanema" (not singing the words) erases any song stuck in your head. Try it sometime. (At any rate, Ipanema is a probably better than whatever's in your head.)
Not familiar with "Love Letters," but I got to thinking about being 11. For us kids, THE song that year was "Little Willy." Sad, but true, and now I can't get it out of my head. Ugh!
I love NY, but it really must be the concrete jungle today. Keep cool. Hey, maybe you'll even enjoy some of those A/C drips!
I latch on to something about once a month and it takes days to get rid of it. Usually something really offbeat like Kermit singing "Rainbow Connection". Drives me insane before I finally get it all swept away. What makes our brains do that?
I wonder what it is, winston, that makes my memory remember every word of the hymns I sung in school but forget what I went upstairs for.
By the way, what did I go upstairs for?
Now ABBA's Waterloo is stuck in my head . . . Argh!
A song was playing somewhere the other day that I hadn't heard since I was about eleven (and believe me, that was MUCH earlier than 1962!)to which I sung along and remembered every word precisely. It stuck around with me for a couple of days but now, guess what? Yup, I now can't remember what it was. Now what DID I come upstairs for?????
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