Yesterday Once More

27 Jun 2017

No Title In Lyrics

Hi Listeners,

Titles of songs are chosen for many reasons. Often they reflect the chorus or hook of a song or encapsulate the theme. In these songs the title will be reflected in the lyrics. But, there are some songs where the tile and the lyrics seemingly have no obvious connection. In these songs the title of the song appears nowhere in the lyrics. To discover the point of each title in the songs this week would require much more room than I have here. The program starts with the Mamas And Papas jaunty ‘Creeque Alley’ , followed by the sweet sound of ‘Annie’s Song’ by John Denver.

The old standard ‘Unchained Melody’ is performed superbly by Dionne Warwick. ‘El Condo Pasa’ (The Condor Passes) is riven with mystery. From an old Peruvian tune, Paul Simon wrote new lyrics but retained the original title adding more complexity. The result was a beautiful haunting song which was a huge hit for the duo. Petula Clark chimes in with yet another beautiful ballad ‘The Wedding Song’ (There Is Love) and Cat Stevens performs his father – son conversation in ‘Father And Son’.

Some songs sum up an incident such as the Bee Gees’ ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941’ or Johnny Horton’s popular song of the American War Of Independence ‘The Battle Of New Orleans’. Apparently, the title ‘Opus 17’ by the Four Seasons was chosen because they couldn’t come up with a title at all. Interestingly, this week we have a song by Led Zeppelin (Immigrant Song) and a solo offering from Robert Plant from his wonderful album ‘The Principle Of Moments’, with his haunting, great guitar work in ‘Big Log’.

Playlist