MUSICAL MEMORIES

BY DAN MILLER
September 1, 2006

It's a baffling thing.... the mechanism within the human brain for remembering stuff.

Sometimes, I might run to the store to pick up something I desperately need and -- with the slightest distraction -- I can simply forget what it was I wanted.

Or, the name of someone I just met might slip away while I'm standing there talking with that person.

Yet.... the other day, while looking through a list of the top songs of 1952.... I suddenly realized I can recall the lyrics to some songs I haven't heard since I was a kid, half a century ago.

On the list was "Slow Poke" by Pee Wee King.
I can't tell you the last time I heard that song.... yet, the lyrics popped right into my mind:

You keep me waiting
Till it's getting aggravating
You're a slow poke...
Why wait and worry
When you never seem to hurry
You're a slow poke.

Then, I flipped over to the hit songs of 1953.
I saw "Hold My Hand" by Don Cornell.
Who can even recall the last time -- if ever -- that you heard that song?
Yet.... I knew the lyrics.... they had remained, dormant, in my brain for years:

So this is the kingdom of heaven
So this is the sweet promised land
While angels tell of love
Don't break the spell of love
Hold my hand.

Wow!.... where had those lyrics been hiding all these years?
This was getting fascinating.
I flipped back to 1950.... and there was a song called "Rag Mop" by the Ames Brothers.
And, suddenly, into my mind popped the beautiful lyrics:

m
I say m - o
m - o - p
m- o - p - p
mop
mop, mop, mop, mop
r
I say r- a
r - a - g
r - a - g - g
rag
r - a - g - g - m - o - p - p
rag mop
doo doo doo dah dee ah dah
rag mop
doo doo doo dah dee ah dah

You know, they just don't write lyrics like that anymore!
I actually could've recited even more of the lyrics, but I sense many of you are reaching for your mouse to click away.....

Anyhow.... I'm pretty sure there was another point to this essay.... but it's slipped my mind.

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