RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Saturday, November 17, 2007

Music, music, music

Put another nickle in, in the Nickelodeon, all I want is lovin' you and music, music, music.

The lyrics of the songs I heard as a child are, well, just plain silly. I was on my way to the hospital to visit Alan today and we have satellite music in the car (for about one more month and then it automatically turns off because we don't want to pay for it). Anyway, I have it tuned to 50s music, since I remember the 50s fondly.

Well, as I'm turning out of the driveway today, the first song that comes up is "Abba dabba honeymoon." Talk about silly songs. It was very popular in 1951. The words go something like this:

Abba, dabba, dabba, dabba, dabba, dabba, dabba, said the monkey to the chimp. Abba, dabba, dabba, dabba, dabba, dabba, dabba said the chimpy to the monk. All day long they chattered away. All day long they were happy and gay. Singing and swinging in a honkey-tonkey way. Abba, dabba, dabba, in monkey talk means chimp I love but you. Abba, dabba, dabba in chimpy talk, means dear I love you too. So the big baboon one night in June, he married her and very soon, they went upon their abba dabba honeymoon.

It has a catchy tune, too. But see how silly those words are. Then as I'm coming home from the hospital, the first song up is "Only You" which started me crying. I cried all the way home because all I could think about was Alan being my "one and only." Dumb song -- here I go again, just thinking of the stupid song, tears well up.

Then I started thinking about some of the other stupid, silly, very popular songs in the 50s. One was Goodnight, Irene. Well, one night there were some kids over on the school ground and they were singing that song over and over (were they drunk? maybe) and my father was fit to be tied (that's one of those sayings I should have put in the "sayings" BLOG) because they wouldn't shut up and kept singing that over and over and over. The words are very edifying, too.

Irene, goodnight. Irene, goodnight. Goodnight, Irene. Goodnight, Irene. I'll see you in my dreams.' That's it. Over and over and over and over and over. Hour after hour. No wonder daddy was going nuts.

Lest we forget the best of the best: Mr. Sandman, or, Lipstick on your collar. or my personal favorite: 16 tons.

I'll leave you with these tidbits for now. I guess you could Google "songs of the 50s" and find many, many more great, edifying songs (Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?).

Goodnight!

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