The Sunday Memory Drawer - More Summer Sounds

Let's remember some more sounds of the sands.  Songs that bring you back to instant memories of summers past.

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah by Allan Sherman:  Another one of those novelty songs that kids would run around singing.  We all knew the lyrics about this infamous Camp Granada.  The only trouble is that I don't think any of my friends "up the block" really knew what sleepaway camp was.  None of us rarely left the three block radius for entire summers.  I know I was always bemused by the pronounciation in this song.  Muddah?  Faddah?  Why do people talk like this?  My mom's answer was more confusing.

"The singer is Jewish." 

So Jewish people all talk funny?

"You ask too many questions."

Again.

I Get Around by the Beach Boys:  I have a very distinct memory of this tune about that faraway planet called California.  It was playing in the car when we were going to a barbecue at the Pelham home of Mrs. Ian, one of my school teachers.  I remember we all heard horror stories about what she was like as a teacher.  Mean, demanding, borderline psychotic.  Truth be told, she was terrific and even threw us this party when the school year ended.  I recall everybody running around her huge yard while I sat in a corner with my ear glued to the All-Star Game on the radio.

The Girl from Ipanema by Astrud Gilberto:  Tall and tan and young and lovely.  Both my parents loved this tune which was heard always on WNEW-AM and the car radio.  Naturally, my mother went out and bought the 45 rpm.  She would play this while she vacuumed the living room, swaying to the beat and the drone of the Hoover. 

Mom, just where is Ipanema?

"We're not going there."



Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra:  A huge hit one summer and this played on the radio virtually once an hour.  Doobie, doobie, doo.  This was a great career renaissance for Sinatra, much to the disdain of my grandmother who hated him.

"Skinny greaseball."

Oh.

I'm Henry VIII, I Am by Herman's Hermits:  Another kiddie favorite that we all sung in between punchball games.  With goofy lyrics.

I'm Henery the Eighth, I am,
Henery the Eighth I am, I am!
I got married to the widow next door,
She'd been married seven times before.
And every one was an Henery
She wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam
I'm her eighth old man named Henery
Henery the Eighth, I am!

This was a perfect tune for the denizens of South 15th Avenue.  It allowed us to be silly and we still got a history lesson from it.  Although none of us knew who the hell Henry VIII really was.

The Work Song by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass:  The emergence of Herb Alpert and company was the single impetus that moved my parents to go out and buy a stereo record player.  We had all his LPs and it was simply a breakthrough for my mother not to have to put those cookies in the holes of those 45 rpm records.  As for me, one of his albums particularly intrigued me.  Well, not exactly for the music.

Hmmm.  What was this album cover all about?  I wonder.

Meanwhile, "The Work Song" was hot one summer and I remember that, whenever I heard it, I immediately started to get hyper.  If this tune was playing, I ran faster and faster.


This Guy's In Love with You by Herb Alpert:  Another big summer hit by Herb, but this time, he's singing.  Badly.  I could sing along and actually sound better than the original.

MacArthur Park by Richard Harris:  A hot hit the very same summer as Herb's aforementioned croaking.  This was obviously the year for horrible crooning.  I recall sitting next to the kitchen fan with a book and listening to this on my transistor radio earpiece.  What was with those funky lyrics?  MacArthur Park is melting in the dark?  A cake left out in the rain?  Huh?

Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel:  It took me weeks before I figured out this wasn't a baseball song about Joe DiMaggio.  When I realized that this was from a movie, I was dying to see "The Graduate."  Good luck getting parental approval for this.

"It looks dirty."

I finally got to see it in college and I have watched this gem probably two dozen times since.

In The Year 2525 by Zager and Evans:  No single summer song reminds me more of my amazing 1969 New York Mets than this one which was blazing hot on the radio the very same week my team got blazing hot against the Chicago Cubs.  A big comeback win on a Tuesday afternoon and Tom Seaver's almost perfect game the very next night.  My favorite baseball team was actually getting good.  And, here I thought I would have to wait till the year 2525 for that to happen.

Up, Up and Away by the Fifth Dimension:  You knew it would happen sooner or later.  A summer song memory tied to a girl.  Yep, this is the one.  It was playing on the bus when my church confirmation class was going to Rye Playland for the day.  I've written about this before.  The young lady I was really stuck on.  I'd spend the day figuring out how the amusement park lines worked so she and I would wind up in the same car or bucket ride.  Of course, I had forgotten my sandwich.  And she offered me half of hers.  I was sky high.  Like one of the balloons in this song.  To this day when I hear this song, I think of the Dragon Coaster, a bologna sandwich, and a girl named Elise.


Happy Fourth of July weekend, everybody.  Go out and make some summer musical memories of your own.

Dinner last night:  Chicken breast sandwich at the Hollywood Bowl.