Mystery Mix Solution
In my last post I described what is now an annual Lott family tradition in which I create and distribute a mix CD with a dozen or so songs that share a mystery commonality. As I stated, for a few years now I’ve also been sharing the playlists with a few music-minded friends, and now with my blog site as a platform, I presented my first My Back Pages mystery mix to a wider audience. And with the deadline I set for entries having expired, I’m ready to announce the winner and reveal the solution. However, before I do, let me thank those who participated. Even if you didn’t crack it, I do hope you had fun with it. (If you’re inclined to give the game a go, stop here and go back to that previous post. You can read or revisit it here.)
. . . [Drum Roll] . . . The winner is . . . My friend and fellow Hattiesburg resident, Bethany Rigney!
Congratulations to Bethany; hers was the first of only two correct entries I received. And, she lives close enough so that I could get her this cool winner’s mug in time for a photo op for this post. Congrats also to Mike R., from Tuscaloosa, for his 2nd-place effort. His correct submission was received almost a week after Bethany’s.
Both of these participants astutely perceived that each of these songs has a title that’s just a little odd. As it’s so commonplace, we take it for granted that a word or phrase is lifted from the song’s lyrics and used as it’s title. So consider the 1970 hit, “Little Green Bag.” Why does George Baker sing about a greenback, even rhyming it with “track,” without ever mentioning a bag, green or otherwise? Or in “What is Life,” why does George Harrison repeatedly sing “What is my life” without ever singing the exact title phrase? These are just two examples of what I’m talking about. Before you say, “But Russell, there are plenty of songs whose titles are not in the lyrics.” Well, that’s true, but titles like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Unchained Melody” describe the song and you wouldn’t necessarily expect those titles to be in the lyrics. However, look at Buffalo Springfield’s iconic hit, “For What It’s Worth.” Wouldn’t you just assume this phrase would appear somewhere in the lyrics? Sheesh! Why doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but that bothers me. Read on.
Songs Whose Exact Titles
Are Not in the Lyrics
(But Should Be)
In this song, the first single released by The Traveling Wilburys supergroup, George Harrison is singing “Handle me with care,” instead of the title phrase. What’s up with that? Why not just called it “Handle With Care”? In an interview, George said the title came to him when he saw the warning label on the side of a packing box in the studio.
In this classic song from 1971, Rod never says the titular “Maggie May;” it’s always just “Maggie.” He borrowed the title from "Maggie Mae," a traditional Liverpool folk song about a Lime Street prostitute.
In this one, a youthful Jackie DeShannon repetitively sings “Every time that you walk in the room” instead of “When you walk in the room.” (BTW, I love that guitar riff; it’s one of the most recognizable riffs of ’60s pop music.)
It’s George Harrison again, making a profound statement with the title phrase, “What Is Life,” but in every instance he sings “What is my life without your love?” instead. It’s still a profound question, but why didn’t he just call it that?
This song was supposed to be called "Little Greenback" (like the back of U.S. currency) but this group’s debut single was misprinted by the record company and released as “Little Green Bag.” Once it started rising to the top of the charts with this wrong name, they had to change the name of their album to match it. However, anybody listening carefully to the words will understand that the song is about money, not marijuana.
This is the song that precipitated this mystery mix. When I found it on my vinyl copy of The Beatles’ first album, 1963’s Please Please Me, I was confused by the subtitle (Go to Him). Why was John Lennon singing “Go with him” instead? Was that a Beatles mistake? I didn’t discover the answer until recently: This is a cover version of a 1962 song written and recorded by Arthur Alexander, and yes, Alexander also sings "Go with him." Go figure. [Other interesting trivia: Arthur Alexander is the only person to write songs that were recorded by The Beatles and by The Rolling Stones ("You Better Move On") and Bob Dylan ("Sally Sue Brown").]
I almost overlooked this popular Righteous Brothers’ hit, but when it occurred to me that the lyric phrase “You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration” doesn’t match the title, I had to include it.
This song was written by Seth Avett, the duo’s lead vocalist, about his upcoming marriage in January of 2008. In it, Seth sings “In January we’re getting married,” but oddly the word Wedding is not to be found in the lyrics. Not so odd, the band doesn’t perform this song much anymore, not since Seth’s 2013 divorce.
Like I mentioned at the top, there are a lot of songs with titles that are not in the lyrics, understandably so, and you might think this is one of them, but I’ve always thought either the title or the lyrics was wrong. The word ‘weight’ isn’t used in the lyrics at all. Instead, The Band sings repeatedly in the chorus “Take a load off Fanny / Take a load for free / Take a load off Fanny / And you put the load right on me.” Is it just me? Shouldn’t this song just be called “The Load”?
This is another one where I can’t understand why an actual lyric line wasn’t chosen for the title. “Ain't got nobody that I can depend on / Ain't got no one (no tengo a nadie) / That I know of (no tengo a nadie) / That I can depend on (no tengo a nadie).” The lyric does come close though when the Spanish phrase is omitted: “… no one … that I know of … that I can depend on.” But not close enough. Maybe the record company didn’t like the word ‘Ain’t’ in the title? Nobody had a problem with Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” or with the dozens of other examples out there. Wait! What about the Spanish phrase? Google translates it as “I have no one.” I contend this song should have been titled “No Tengo a Nadie.” That would be a wonderful companion to “Oye Como Va,” “Para Los Rumberos” and all those other wonderful Santana songs with Spanish titles.
Bonus Track:
I added this iconic ’60s protest song a few days ago as a bonus track and hint to the solution, as it might be—among those of us of a certain age and musical tastes—the best known example of my theme for this mystery mix. Although a surprising number of people think the title is “Stop, Children, What's That Sound," it’s widely known that the title phrase, “For what it’s worth,” doesn’t appear anywhere in the lyrics. For that reason alone, I chose not to add it to the original playlist. FWIW, this is one of my all-time favorites. I was age 13 when it was released and just developing a social conscience. Amid the civil unrest of those times, I was totally awash in all the emotions accompanying the disturbances of the civil rights riots, the Vietnam War, and those awful political assassinations. Even today, I’m still flooded with emotions every time I hear the crystal clear opening licks of Stephen Stills’ guitar.
A WORD TO PONDER
green·back (noun):
A greenback is a slang term for a U.S. legal-tender note, printed in green on the back since the Civil War. They were legal tender by law, but were not backed by gold or silver, only the credibility of the U.S. government.
investopedia.com
SONG OF THE DAY
“Unchained Melody” performed by Todd Duncan in the 1955 movie Unchained
When this song is mentioned just about everybody will think of the Righteous Brothers, as their 1965 hit record has eclipsed all other versions of this oft-recorded classic. Maybe your first thought will be the popular movie Ghost from 1990, when this Righteous Brothers classic again achieved a new round of popularity and a new generation of fans. However, only the most ardent of trivia buffs will know that this song first appeared in, and derived its title from, a now-forgotten prison film: 1955’s Unchained. Three versions of the song hit the airways that year and hundreds more have since been recorded. It stands at #27 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 top songs in American cinema. (P.S. I present this song with apologies to my friend Charley.)